What do you think? How useful are the PTS for The Division? How should they change?
The patch notes for update 1.6.1 can be found here.
In The Division , the update 1.6.1 is causing frustration. It was tested for weeks on the PTS.
The agents’ mood is currently really bad. The update 1.6.1, which was supposed to fix many issues and make agents’ lives more enjoyable, did not bring the desired improvements.
Instead, players are complaining in the forums about new issues, glitches, and bugs that were not fixed, even though they are listed in the patch notes. Even the NinjaBike backpack, which was supposed to be removed from the loot pool, is still dropping. We have dealt with all these annoyances and inconsistencies of 1.6.1 here.
Many agents have already come to terms with the fact that year 2 will deliver little new content. But the fact that the developers themselves cannot properly handle smaller quality updates leaves them baffled. Our readers also find this “ridiculous” in the comments. The criticism of Massive is becoming loud again.
With all the bugs – what were the PTS for 1.6.1 good for?
In fact, the update 1.6.1 was tested for weeks on the public test servers, the PTS. Now many users are asking: What was that actually good for?
The purpose of the PTS is to allow a large player base to test upcoming content in advance so that developers can fix any errors before release and make fine adjustments.
And the PTS for 1.6.1 also had successes: Several bugs were fixed early, Massive was able to tweak the balance a little, and the biggest new feature, the loadouts, is now functioning perfectly.
The loadouts are pretty much the only thing that is currently being received positively. Too many bugs are haunting agents after 1.6.1, and too many points from the patch notes were not implemented. A user on reddit scoffs: “Welcome to the real PTS”. Because only now are all the problems of the update coming to light that Massive will soon have to fix.
PTS on PS4 and Xbox One – The solution?
The PTS are generally a good thing. However, the PTS for The Division need to be able to identify problems more effectively. Two suggestions:
- Massive needs to provide concrete guidelines for the PTS: “Test these new features specifically in the coming days and provide your feedback.” The PTS phases should be more structured.
- The player base on the PTS needs to grow: So far, only PC players could access the PTS. However, the consoles have their own versions with their own problems and needs. In order to discover all issues, agents on PS4 and Xbox One need to be integrated into the testing phase.
The developers plan for the PTS for update 1.7: For the first time, there will be a PTS build for PS4 and Xbox One. They are working to make this possible.
So far, the PTS have only been available on PC because developers can react quickly and deploy new updates swiftly. For consoles, patches must first go through a certification process by Sony and Microsoft. How they plan to concretely implement the PTS for PS4 and Xbox One remains to be seen.
What do you think? How useful are the PTS for The Division? How should they change?
The patch notes for update 1.6.1 can be found here.
