Tribble Public Test Server FAQ

[jaguars]

Greetings! The QA team has put together this guide on Tribble, the Public Test Server. Please read this thoroughly if you intend to utilize the test server, and let us know if you have any questions! This is a work in progress.

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What is Tribble?
Tribble is the Star Trek Online Public Test Server. This is where we’ll be previewing and testing all of our latest content before making it available on Holodeck. Much of the content may be unpolished and potentially buggy—after all, that’s the point of putting it on the Test Server. We greatly appreciate bug reports and feedback on this content so that we can refine and perfect it before putting it live.

How do I access the Tribble Public Test Server?
• Log in to your account on http://startrekonline.com.
• Navigate to the following page, which can be found under the Game header : http://startrekonline.com/test-shard-signup
• Click the button on the bottom of this page to Sign up for Tribble!

Can I copy my character from Holodeck to Tribble, and if so, how?
• Log into your account on http://startrekonline.com
• Navigate to the following page, which can be found under the Game header : http://startrekonline.com/test-shard-signup
• Ensure you have signed up for Tribble.
• Navigate to the following page: http://startrekonline.com/test-shard/character-transfer
• Make sure both Holodeck and Tribble are up.
• Select a character to copy, making sure you are not logged in with that character.

Can I buy items from the C-store on Tribble?
No. If you attempt to do this and a bug occurs that allows your transaction to go through, you will lose both the item and your Cryptic Points on both Tribble and Holodeck.

When will downtime for Tribble be happening?
Downtime for Tribble will happen on-the-fly, unlike Holodeck. This means that if we have a new patch or maintenance that needs to happen, we won’t be waiting until 3am PST as usual. Instead, the maintenance will occur almost immediately, after a notification has been made to anyone playing.

Will there be posted updates for Tribble, and if so, where?
There will be Release Notes for Tribble, just like for Holodeck. These release notes will be posted in the Tribble Public Test forums.


Ah! The Tribble button doesn't work when I try to patch to it on the STO Launcher!! What should I do?
Don't worry - the odds are you signed up for Tribble without giving your launcher a chance to update. Simply restarting the launcher should resolve this issue.

The first time I patch up to Tribble, the launcher tells me I have to download another 10 gigabytes of data! What's going on here? Can't I just copy over my LIVE directory to the Tribble directory?
It's true that you will be adding 10 GBs to your hard-drive to test on the Tribble Test Server. Long story short: When you patch to Tribble, let the launcher do its thing - it's the fastest and least problematic approach.

What if I get stuck or something? Will there be any GM support if I require assistance?
There will not be any significant GM support for Tribble—this is the true new frontier of STO, and as such you will need to be a bit more independent. GMs will not generally be available to offer any assistance on Tribble so they can offer more dedicated assistance to players on Holodeck.

How should I report bugs I find on Tribble?
First, file a bug report in-game when you encounter the bug by typing /bug. This will give us all sorts of useful information as to what was occurring at the time of the bug that might help us track down the problem. Once you’ve submitted the bug report, please make a post regarding the bug here, in the Tribble Public Test Forums, and include the ticket number if you’ve got it. The QA team will be on these forums a lot, so doing this will allow you to bring bugs directly to their attention.

I made a bug report, and I made a new thread to discuss it on the forums – so why isn’t my bug fixed yet?
Our apologies. Some bugs take longer than others to fix, owing to severity and the development schedule. Just know that we are looking into it – we take all bug reports seriously.

If I want to test high-level content, how will I level and gear up for it?
Eventually, we plan to have both level-up contacts as well as gear contacts for this specific purpose. In the mean time, we have some more creative solutions to help gear you up for the first Special Task Force, which will be the first update to be put up on Tribble.

What kind of discussion is allowed on the Tribble Public Test Forums?
The Tribble Forums are meant for discussions of bugs found while playtesting, as well as feedback. As a result, we will be deleting or moving any off-topic posts we find here. We need to keep this area of the forums clean, to facilitate a fast-paced exchange of information.

Who moderates the Tribble forums?
The STO QA Team will be the main moderators on these forums. We are Mullinstron, Farktoid5000, Stevler, ZeroniusRex, DScotty, and Jaguars.

Is there a Special Chat Channel I can join to talk to other testers on Tribble?
YES! Please join the TTS channel to discuss and test with other players on Tribble, as well as communicate with QA!

Who are the GMs on Tribble?
They are the STO QA teamI listed above! We are not GMs, but we use the tag to make sure all of you know who we are.

The Live server of Star Trek Online supports English, French, and German - is this true for Tribble too?
Not at this time at least. Our QA team is made up of English-speakers, and as a result receiving live feedback in anything but English is a daunting task to say the least. We still highly encourage everyone, regardless of language, to submit bug reports however, as we do have a team of translators.

Does the STO QA team have any social media outlets for updates and following?
Yes! Please follow us @CrypticEQAH on Twitter for updates and miscellaneous QA shenanigans!
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And as always, thank you for participating in the growth of Star Trek Online! Your time spend and commitment to improving our game is invaluable to us!

Please feel free to post your feedback of this FAQ here!

[ariosto]

Hi jaguars,

Would it be possible to update the instructions on downloading the Tribble version of the client to include the method that doesn't involve redownloading the entire game (i.e. copying the contents of the Live folder into the PublicTest folder before restarting the patcher.) I don't know if there are technical reasons why that wouldn't be a good idea, but it'd help out a lot of people (like myself) who are charged per GB for usage if it could be confirmed as an "official" method of installing/updating the Tribble client.

[jaguars]

Hey ariosto,

I will get confirmation on this, but I believe you should not be "receiving" 10 GBs in the download - it should be copying what it can from your LIVE directory automatically and then downloading the "new stuff." So even though it "checks" for / 10GB, the "received" below that on the patcher should not reflect that you've downloaded that amount.

[Asdar]

Originally Posted by jaguars

Hey ariosto,

I will get confirmation on this, but I believe you should not be "receiving" 10 GBs in the download - it should be copying what it can from your LIVE directory automatically and then downloading the "new stuff." So even though it "checks" for / 10GB, the "received" below that on the patcher should not reflect that you've downloaded that amount.

Something else I saw while I patched. In the end, it appeared it only downloaded around 980ish meg of stuff but I noticed something else that was weird while I patched. My connection is 12meg down 512k up (stupid roadrunner and their crappy upload speeds), anyways, I also have vonage as my phone so my phone is over the internet also. However, while I was downloading the patch, I was talking to my friend and it appeared it was not taking up all of my download bandwidth so I could hear my friend just fine while we were talking, HOWEVER, the upload bandwidth was pegged out while patching and he couldn't understand a word I was saying. So, the questing is, why was so much UPLOAD bandwidth being used while this was supposed to be copying most of the files locally? it just seemed weird that all my upload bandwidth was being used for nothing more than acknowledgments and makes it appear that more is going on behind the scenes than that. Vonage only needs around 90k to have excellent voice quality, so whats up with the rest of the upload bandwidth?

[TheGladiator]

Originally Posted by jaguars

Hey ariosto,

I will get confirmation on this, but I believe you should not be "receiving" 10 GBs in the download - it should be copying what it can from your LIVE directory automatically and then downloading the "new stuff." So even though it "checks" for / 10GB, the "received" below that on the patcher should not reflect that you've downloaded that amount.

I also patched 11 GB.

edit: It's just about complete now. It looks like I actually only downloaded about 1 GB, and I guess the rest came from my Live files.

[Sirius39]

Just my own personal question.

Some completed updates are still undergoing QA approval before they are migrated into the test server. Can I ask, just out of curiosity exactly what the process of QA approval of finished material is (or beta material for that matter) and how long the process usually takes?

Just the only thing I've mostly been thinking about in regards to the tribble test shard.

Thanks

[Kraevac]

The biggest request is that, here on Tribble, the patch notes be complete. We get patches on Live where the patch notes aren't complete, after we patch we find something changed but wasn't noted, then a Dev confirms its there.

We won't be able to effectively test patches if we don't know 100% what was patched.

[DScotty]

Originally Posted by Lashmore

Just my own personal question.

Some completed updates are still undergoing QA approval before they are migrated into the test server. Can I ask, just out of curiosity exactly what the process of QA approval of finished material is (or beta material for that matter) and how long the process usually takes?

Just the only thing I've mostly been thinking about in regards to the tribble test shard.

Thanks

Hey Lashmore,

QA Operations at Cryptic Studios are confidential, so unfortunately we cannot reveal the specific process in which we test each update before it's moved to Tribble.

However, I can tell you that there are two things the QA team looks for in an update build. One, we confirm most of the major overarching systems are present and functional. Two, that any new additions to the build are working as intended. The major drawback is that we can't emulate the Live environment, which is where you awesome guys and gals come in. So, in truth, you are all part of our QA approval process.

[Kraevac]

Originally Posted by DScotty

Hey Lashmore,

QA Operations at Cryptic Studios are confidential, so unfortunately we cannot reveal the specific process in which we test each update before it's moved to Tribble.

However, I can tell you that there are two things the QA team looks for in an update build. One, we confirm most of the major overarching systems are present and functional. Two, that any new additions to the build are working as intended. The major drawback is that we can't emulate the Live environment, which is where you awesome guys and gals come in. So, in truth, you are all part of our QA approval process.

Well the QA approval process is being held up because we don't have all the features in this build available to us.....

Just messing with you.

[Palaxormi]

should probably add the global tribble channel as discussed in this thread to the FAQ, if its to be of any use:
http://forums.startrekonline.com/sho...d.php?t=134097