Cover-Credits:
- Riot Games addressed why Valorant's server stability has been less than ideal lately.
- The developers are working on a public test server to improve the game's stability.
- The public test server will be available in 2021 along with updates to how the team tests its updates.
Valorant is one most watched esports games of 2020, but Riot Games received a lot of negative feedback in the past few months because of poor server stability. Developers of the game addressed the issue in a recent video with senior producer Arnar Gylfason talking about why some of the patches have been buggy and how the Valorant team seeks to fix them.
Why Does Valorant Have Development Issues
According to Gylfason, one of the biggest issues is the complexity of Valorant. He talked about how most players feel that bugfixes are simple; there is a lot of work behind the scenes. Hundreds of things may cause a simple bug, and it isn't easy to offer quick fixes every time. The Valorant team has promised fortnightly patches to address issues with the gams.
He explained that multiple teams work on updates simultaneously, and it takes about 2.5 weeks of testing before a feature is rolled out. He explained, “Some may feel that's a really long time. Some would say it's short. We trust our teams with that narrow window since each team delivers quality work. But when all that work comes together, we sometimes get unexpected interactions between seemingly unrelated systems.”
Riot is changing how they test their patches, and they will be adding another 24 hours to their default test-time, which will allow them to run more testing cycles to ensure players get the best experience possible. There have been instances in the past where tournaments have been disrupted due to buggy patches.
Riot Games to Launch Valorant Public Test Server in 2021
The devs confirmed in the video that we would be getting a public test server in the future, but there are no details on the update just yet. All we were told is that it is currently a work-in-progress feature that will be implemented next year. By having a public beta environment, players will be able to test out updates. Riot will receive feedback from real players instead of relying on simulated results for their tests. If there are any potential issues, they will be addressed as quickly as possible. Executive producer Anna "Supercakes" Donlon believes that having a public test server will help with Riot’s development cycles and allow the team to push out stable patches shortly.
