Beta testers
From wiki.soldat.nl
Beta testers are select individuals from the Soldat community who test beta versions behind the public's back before official releases and try to generally enhance Soldat by pinpointing glitches, deciding new maps to be included into the default map pool, revising weapon statistics in everlasting efforts of balancing the game's arsenal, etc.
[edit] History
The beta testers, a small community created by in-breeding, have always has been criticized in the past for their lack of communication and their lack of well thought-out, often purely opportunistic, suggestions. Knowledge about Soldat, eloquence (ability to speak coherent English) and determined behaviour are completely insignificant to become a beta tester. Joining popular clans and using an excessive amount of smileys, together with a complete lack of any opinion on any subject (except, perhaps, the ability to access the roof of ctf_Voland from either of its bases without using the M79), on the other hand, are absolutely fundamental conditions to become a beta tester.
[edit] Alternative History
All of the above is unfortunately complete bollocks, fallacies, and false ideals created by whiney little souls who ironically complain about numerous problems, only to then bicker among themselves about whether they're right or wrong on any particular Soldat-related subject (e.g.: balance, in no organized or constructive manner.)
Bugs are thoroughly discovered at every beta by numerous members, whether purely by accident or by purposely looking for faults. Michal's coding skills continue grow to a wider and more respectable ability every version, having first begun creating Soldat at the humble age of 16 while only just learning this skill, prompting at one point an honest confession that he "is putting good code on top of bad." There still remain some glitches he cannot fix, or does not yet know how to.
Balance is also something that is thoroughly tested and discussed with fierce belief, and with suprisingly little bias. As the beta testers became more experienced towards what was needed to test balance, alongside the numerous additional options made available towards balance over time (e.g. bink) and the eventual release of the weapons editor, so the testing also became more of a challenge. In v1.3, for an average of 6 weeks, beta testers would get together daily in groups of 6 and play all default CTF maps to test and consider the benefits of any new changes that were made every few days, battling one another using groups of weapons (semis, autos, sometimes all one weapon vs. another), and then mix players after each round to account for random factors and their varying skill.
It's been generally concurred this passing year that there were not enough clan members involved in the balance to compensate for the smaller details required only in clan wars. Despite most clan players neglecting past pleas and invites to be involved in public balance discussion, the beta testers have taken the oppurtunity to invite a handful of respectful mature clan players to discuss and test balance for them.
False presumptions of the beta team are grown from presumably ignorant and somewhat arrogant-minded children, lacking the patience to adapt to different balances in each version and then proceed to complain about their sudden inability to 'own', or requiring a source of blame for the numerous bugs in Soldat. Such questionable characters question why they are not in the beta team, making things right, perhaps priding themselves on having discovered an obvious bug or believing that they alone could resolve all balance problems, often also believing that because they do not participate in the official Soldat Forums clique or aren't 'friends of friends' of current beta testers—little understanding that the testers in actuality scout out numerous forums, IRC channels, and respectable clans for members, then discuss the merits of their character afterwards pre-beta that they are being ignored. The truth however, is far more practical.
