Utilise the PGCC for testing changes and announce changelog in advance.

[Orian_666]

I hate to pester the team further concerning the many large recent changes, i'm sure they're burned out over it all already, but I just wanted to make this suggestion and hope it gets seriously considered.

So my suggestion is simple. Use the PGCC to test changes and updates (mainly mechanical ones) before sending them live to the main servers.

There are several benefits to this and no drawbacks I can think of.
- First of all any bugs or errors with the update can be found out before it goes live to our main server characters, having them fixed in advance is just a good thing, something i'm sure everyone would welcome.
- Second, allowing for changes to be tested in advance could really hash out any balance matters and give the players a solid medium to give genuine and numerical feedback on those changes. It will grant the team insight they may have missed, and the players to really consider whether the changes are balanced or not "in action" before just jumping to an untested conclusion.
- Third, it should help, somewhat, to soften any potential outbursts or aggressive feedback that we've seen happen in the past by giving the players the means to become a real part of the process in changes to the server, this benefits everyone in the long run.

There are very good reasons that the largest games in the world announce their patch notes in advance and even have test servers that their players can get on to test out the changes, prepare themselves for what's to come, and also to report bugs and give feedback on those changes. Ultimately it streamlines the process of the changes going live and makes the whole transition that much better.

This was done with the very first initial HaK addition and it allowed that addition to be an extremely clean one. Bugs were found and dealt with in advance, and I know I felt as a player that I could contribute and help with the change, and i'm sure others did too. The whole process was frankly just great. I'd love to see that happen with all big changes like that, and the most recent ones for example.

EDIT: I just want it to be clear this isn't some whine about recent changes being unbalanced or anything, ultimately i'm mostly in favor of them all, it's mostly in response to the huge backlash that's been happening with recent changes and trying to present a method to help deal with that in the future, hopefully.

[Irongron]

This will not be done routinely, though in certain cases may still be. As I explained in a previous suggestion that asked much the same, not because it is a bad idea, but rather because we do not have the manpower to do this. Arelith will alway use the live server as a test environment for such changes.

Rejected.