Open Beta for new content

[Psylenz0511]

I find it unconscionable that open beta for a new release just lasts 7 days. There are things to be fixed and the devs have apparently said they will (hex bubble thing). This release could have used more beta testing. It feels like open beta testers are not appreciated.

 

Suggestion:

Go ahead and dictate new content. It's fine. It's a feature since enhancement diversification. There is no need to pretend that one week of open beta will catch bugs before the content goes live.

[Lunar Ronin]

It's a good thing then that open beta for Page 3 was fifteen days.

 

- 

 

[Glacier Peak]

It's even better when anyone can join closed beta and it was tested there even longer!

[tidge]

I can really only speak to the most recent round of MM changes, as that is what I tested.

• There was one proposed change that got rolled back (henchmen HP reductions) that was well-recognized as being a step too far.
• For even-level content, MMs take up to ~20% more time to accomplish what they used to.
• Everything else MM-related (general changes) is pretty much a wash(*1).

The first would have been a brutal nerf to both the survival of MMs, and their damage output... so hopefully that is no longer under consideration.

The second is one that we pretty much have to *shrug*, because of a promise of some future improvements <-- and I am only commenting in this thread because those improvements are supposed to roll out before 2026(!), so I hope we can test them in Open Beta.

 

(*1) I didn't test content (solo +3 or higher) that justified the changes... basically, "address purple patch for henchmen"... stuff I wouldn't MM solo anyway,,, so I'm disappointed in the performance change right now, but I have an atom of hope because it was more-or-less recognized that MMs would have to get something more, it just wasn't announced what.

 

I saw General comments in game (from a player that isn't well-known for play performance) that was ga-ga over the henchmen getting 40% of (most of) the set bonuses. I am not skeptical about their excitement, I skeptical that the 40% (while in Supremacy range) are doing much... MMs tend to have to franken-slot (my main appears to do far less franken-slotting than most) which means fewer bonuses... and most bonuses (that can be inhereted) are rather small even before the 0.40 factor). Of the items "on the table" for a future update: I suspect that henchmen will end up inheriting 100% of the same set bonuses, because the 20% performance reduction is real... and set bonuses won't affect that at all... except possibly those 15% +Accuracy bonuses that are possible from sets.

 

 

[Psylenz0511]

21 hours ago, Lunar Ronin said:

It's a good thing then that open beta for Page 3 was fifteen days.

 

- 

 

I admit my mistake in the timing of open beta. It just seemed as short as a week.

[Psylenz0511]

19 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

It's even better when anyone can join closed beta and it was tested there even longer!

Truth be told, I thought you had to be invited to closed beta, how else is it closed?

[TygerDarkstorm]

6 minutes ago, Psylenz0511 said:

Truth be told, I thought you had to be invited to closed beta, how else is it closed?

You apply to be in it.

[Glacier Peak]

16 minutes ago, Psylenz0511 said:

Truth be told, I thought you had to be invited to closed beta, how else is it closed?

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/closedbeta/

[macskull]

In defense of the OP, the open beta for this one was definitely a rush job and it's not the first time that's happened. There's stuff missing from the patch notes and there are bugs that were present - and brought up repeatedly - the entire closed beta period that still made it through open beta and onto live.

 

OP: Please do apply for closed beta access if you haven't already done that. Closed beta sorely needs more people that aren't just rubber stamping whatever gets put up there to test.

[Wravis]

They only tested Sonic Melee for a week on Closed Beta, and a week on Open Beta (before announcing it was feature locked.)

Most other things were tested for much longer. Some things have been tested for months and still weren't ready in time.

They pick and choose what they actually want input on.

Edited Thursday at 11:55 PM by Wravis
clarification

[golstat2003]

At this point if it’s not game breaking just ship it. Trying to feature creep 1344555 items into a release is part of the problem. I’d rather 4 smaller releases per year that are focused and easy to test. We don’t need a glute of new features. And features do not need to be 100 percent perfect to release.

 

They do patches at other time that are not Page level that they can use to correct things after the fact.

[Psylenz0511]

On 11/26/2025 at 8:19 PM, macskull said:

In defense of the OP, the open beta for this one was definitely a rush job and it's not the first time that's happened. There's stuff missing from the patch notes and there are bugs that were present - and brought up repeatedly - the entire closed beta period that still made it through open beta and onto live.

 

OP: Please do apply for closed beta access if you haven't already done that. Closed beta sorely needs more people that aren't just rubber stamping whatever gets put up there to test.

 

Ain't this the truth?

[Captain Fabulous]

They freely admitted they wanted to get this patch out before the holidays, so yeah, there are a few things that were rushed to meet that deadline that will be fixed later. Y'all act like the live devs never did this. They in fact did it all the time because like every other dev team in existence things are planned on a schedule that needs to be adhered to.

[Ghost]

2 minutes ago, Captain Fabulous said:

They freely admitted they wanted to get this patch out before the holidays, so yeah, there are a few things that were rushed to meet that deadline that will be fixed later. Y'all act like the live devs never did this. They in fact did it all the time because like every other dev team in existence things are planned on a schedule that needs to be adhered to.

Yeah, but this time it’s personal!

 

 

[Captain Fabulous]

1 hour ago, Ghost said:

Yeah, but this time it’s personal!

Clearly it is for some people. 🤷‍♂️

[golstat2003]

3 hours ago, Captain Fabulous said:

Clearly it is for some people. 🤷‍♂️

 

Some people need to take a Xanax and chillax.

 

Stuff is fixed in Tuesday maintenance patches all the time.

[macskull]

19 hours ago, golstat2003 said:

Stuff is fixed in Tuesday maintenance patches all the time.

Like the Defender Therm rez that’s been literally unusable since the last major update? Or Mastermind Possess that’s been broken for a year and a half now?

 

I’m also curious about your definition of “all the time,” since there have been a grand total of seven patches with patch notes in 2025, two of which were major updates.

Edited 22 hours ago by macskull

[Rudra]

12 minutes ago, macskull said:

Like the Defender Therm rez that’s been literally unusable since the last major update? Or Mastermind Possess that’s been broken for a year and a half now?

 

I’m also curious about your definition of “all the time,” since there have been a grand total of seven patches with patch notes in 2025, two of which were major updates.

"Stuff is fixed in Tuesday maintenance patches all the time" does not mean everything gets fixed during said maintenance patches. (Edit: Nor does "all the time" mean every time.) That is a heavily biased statement you made.

 

Edited 22 hours ago by Rudra

[macskull]

1 minute ago, Rudra said:

"Stuff is fixed in Tuesday maintenance patches all the time" does not mean everything gets fixed during said maintenance patches. That is a heavily biased statement you made.

Conveniently skipped over the second part of my post, I see. Also not sure how pointing out examples of long-standing bugs that render key powers literally unusable is “heavily biased” either, especially considering I have zero characters affected by either of those bugs.

[Rudra]

Just now, macskull said:

Conveniently skipped over the second part of my post, I see. Also not sure how pointing out examples of long-standing bugs that render key powers literally unusable is “heavily biased” either, especially considering I have zero characters affected by either of those bugs.

I didn't conveniently skip over the second part of your statement. I addressed it even before you posted your response, though your response was posted before my edit. Neither am I making any sort of argument about the usability of the powers you are citing. What makes your comment heavily biased is that a major fix will show up in a posted patch, maybe even a page or issue update, but that does not mean small things don't get fixed when the devs can as part of the Tuesday maintenance. Something I am very much inclined to believe you are already well aware of.

[macskull]

10 minutes ago, Rudra said:

but that does not mean small things don't get fixed when the devs can as part of the Tuesday maintenance. Something I am very much inclined to believe you are already well aware of.

If bugs (or whatever you’re defining “small things” to mean) were getting fixed as part of Tuesday maintenance there would be patch notes for them. The last example of that happening is almost five months ago. Have there been some under-the-hood changes that didn’t affect gameplay and thus didn’t get patch notes? Yep, but that’s not what we’re talking about.

 

Re: “all the time” (since you made the edit) - there have been 47 Tuesdays so far in 2025 to go along with 7 patches. That’s less than 15% of the time, assuming all those patches were even on a Tuesday. Even if you acknowledge “all the time” to be hyperbolic, no reasonable person would be able to interpret 15% as anything more than “rarely” or “occasionally.” If you exclude the two Page updates which were launched on Tuesdays that number is more like 10%.

 

It’s even a little embarrassing once you add some context: the Therm rez bug was fixed during beta but the branch that had the fix got rolled back until the mid-page update - in other words, they had a fix in and made the intentional decision to push it back a few months.

Edited 22 hours ago by macskull

[Rudra]

1 minute ago, macskull said:

If bugs (or whatever you’re defining “small things” to mean) were getting fixed as part of Tuesday maintenance there would be patch notes for them. The last example of that happening is almost five months ago. Have there been some under-the-hood changes that didn’t affect gameplay and thus didn’t get patch notes? Yep, but that’s not what we’re talking about.

 

Re: “all the time” (since you made the edit) - there have been 47 Tuesdays so far in 2025 to go along with 7 patches. That’s less than 15% of the time, assuming all those patches were even on a Tuesday. Even if you acknowledge “all the time” to be hyperbolic, no reasonable person would be able to interpret 15% as anything more than “rarely” or “occasionally.”

 

It’s even a little embarrassing once you add some context: the Therm rez bug was fixed during beta but the branch that had the fix got rolled back until the mid-page update - in other words, they had a fix in and made the intentional decision to push it back a few months.

We are obviously reading the same post in very different ways. You seem to be reading "all the time" as a statement of frequency/time whereas I am reading it as a statement of application. You are arguing from the apparent standpoint that "all the time" should only apply to frequency whereas I see that statement as a 'it happens with some degree of consistency'.

 

An example of "all the time" for its meaning and usage found in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is "The world is tough, and you're just inundated with sad, negative, cruel things all the time, every day, hourly." That marks the statement as hyperbolic to be sure, but it does still convey the point I feel @golstat2003 is trying to make.

 

The "embarrassing" context you are providing has nothing to do with whether or not Tuesday maintenance includes fixes to the game or not.

[Seed22]

2 hours ago, macskull said:

Like the Defender Therm rez that’s been literally unusable since the last major update? Or Mastermind Possess that’s been broken for a year and a half now?

 

I’m also curious about your definition of “all the time,” since there have been a grand total of seven patches with patch notes in 2025, two of which were major updates.

Shhh dont use facts here Mac, remember, ir's personal!!1 

 

But snark aside this is not a job for HC, they dont get paid and, this one is a big one,

 

THERE IS NO FINANCIAL CONSEQUENCE FOR NOT GETTING THESE PAGES OUT BY ANY DEADLINE SET. THEY ARE COMPLETELY FREE TO CHOOSE TO DELAY A PAGE. THIS HAS ALSO BEEN DONE BY LIVE DEVS.

 

I would greatly appreciate if folks here could understand this instead of pretending the world will end if some arbitrary deadline THEY set is not met. 

[macskull]

2 hours ago, Rudra said:

An example of "all the time" for its meaning and usage found in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is "The world is tough, and you're just inundated with sad, negative, cruel things all the time, every day, hourly."

If you're going to try and use a dictionary to justify your interpretation of a word or phrase it would help if you used the actual definition of that word or phrase, which from that same dictionary is:

: at all times : constantly

Even using your example from that dictionary (which, for those watching at home, comes from a section of that page which comes with the disclaimers "Examples are automatically complied from online sources" and "Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster"), it's clear the author meant the same thing as the actual dictionary definition and not whatever intellectually dishonest interpretation you're deciding on to suit your argument.

 

I'll bite, though. You interpret it to mean "happens with some degree of consistency." What exactly is "some degree of consistency?" If it happened zero times out of 47, that's definitely consistent, so by extension does that also mean none of the time is actually "all the time?" What about one time? Five? Ten?

Edited 19 hours ago by macskull

[Captain Fabulous]

13 minutes ago, Seed22 said:

Shhh dont use facts here Mac, remember, ir's personal!!1 

 

But snark aside this is not a job for HC, they dont get paid and, this one is a big one,

 

THERE IS NO FINANCIAL CONSEQUENCE FOR NOT GETTING THESE PAGES OUT BY ANY DEADLINE SET. THEY ARE COMPLETELY FREE TO CHOOSE TO DELAY A PAGE. THIS HAS ALSO BEEN DONE BY LIVE DEVS.

 

I would greatly appreciate if folks here could understand this instead of pretending the world will end if some arbitrary deadline THEY set is not met. 

Clearly you've never worked in a team scheduled environment, paid or otherwise. Being paid has no bearing. If anything, being a volunteer means the amount of work you're able to do is heavily based upon your work and life schedule. Not to mention that so many things are interconnected. Delaying one update can mean 3 others get delayed as well, with the possibility that one or more devs is now currently unavailable due to their aforementioned work/life schedule, which leads to further delays.

And when things are perpetually delayed you'll be one of the first ones to start screaming "wHy hAvE tHeIr bEeN nO uPdAtEs iN oVeR A yEaR???"

It's incredibly rare for a paid dev team to delay the release of a patch (there needs to be something truly game-breaking). It's incredibly common for paid dev teams to release patches on schedule and adjust later (again, the live dev team did this ALL THE TIME). The reasons for sticking to a schedule for a paid vs volunteer team mays be different, but no less important.