Wasn't experimental card NOT supposed to be used as a PTR?

When the experimental card was introduced it was supposed to be to test DRASTIC changes to the game, such as 1-3-2 comp, or weird features like Roadhog becoming a DPS with a healing cloud. Jeff said the point of the card was to not have it be PTR, because the PTR is used for UI changes and balance changes that almost always go through. The last few experimental cards have all been just small balance changes, ones we would normally see on the PTR, and ALL of them have gone through. You gave brig players hope by saying “these nerfs are only in experimental which isn’t supposed to lead directly into live” when you could have crushed their dreams a little nicer by putting them in the PTR instead. I think once the experimental card stopped being for experiments and started being used for small PTR-like balance changes, only one Moira feature didn’t immediately go into the next live update. What is the point of this experimental card anymore?

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Ptr is for bugs that is all

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The PTR is for stability testing. The only reason it was used like the expiremental card is because they never had an expiremental card to use.

They aren’t using expiremental for stability or bugtesting.

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No, the Moira 40 DPS nerf didn’t go through. Nor did BOB sleep immunity, or the nerf to Brig’s Bash stun.

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watching the dev update vid on it, it sounded to me like a ptr lite. A ptr that doesnt have engine/rework/full asset changes on it, that’s centered around balance/number changes.

I also allows all platforms to use it as well, which in turn allows for even more feedback. They also dont have to worry about constant update pushes to console for it.

Needless to say there are plenty of uses for it, and I for one am glad its around as a console player.

I think they wanted a console ‘ptr’ as console players felt left out. Now we have our version of ptr to feel more included

They said that the PTR has too low of a population to ever get legitimate information from it on balance changes.
They were already trying to look for a way for console players to test changes as well.
The lack of massive Expiremental cards isnt due to the balance tests though

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Umm… No. Quite the opposite.

Explicitly the opposite lol where did you get this idea?

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experimental is the new PTR, but in the client so console users can use it,

Go rewatch the dev update on the experimental card. You’ll see Jeff say, NUMEROUS times, that they would RARELY do stuff as crazy as 1/3/2. It’s a PTR with more people using it. They never claimed it would be anything else.

It was supposed to be the opposite - but it has become exactly that lol

No it was supposed to become the “new” PTR so that console players and a larger sample size could test balance changes in the live client.

And that’s what it is.

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And it was for normal changes. Experimental is good in that it gives more players the ability to interact with it.

I WISH they did way more “DRASTIC changes to the game, such as 1-3-2 comp, or weird features like Roadhog becoming a DPS with a healing cloud.”

But they take a lot of coding time, and with OW2…

No it wasn’t. It was never meant to be the PTR and that was stated by the devs, that experimental and PTR would remain as individual pieces.

But the experimental evolved into the PTR minus things like hero releases

No…it literally was said to have mostly small changes, that would be fairly infrequent and that the 321 experimental was not to happen regularly.

And that PTR would be more free for specific game changes not balance possible

The live experimental is actually used wayyyy more than they originally indicated at all. But it was pretty clear that it was going to be small changes.

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But they didn’t. They EMPHASISED that the experimental card was going to be for “radical changes” that they would otherwise be unsure of bringing into the live version of the game.

They also stated it wouldn’t be for things like bug fixes and etc.

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No, as someone who ACTUALLY pays a lot of attention, it was ALWAYS intended that when Experimental released the PTR would only be used to test stability for big things like new heroes and maps while Experimental would become the “new PTR” in the sense that it’d be for all the balance testing.

It never “Evolved” into that, it was ALWAYS intended to be that. Go watch the Dev update announcement video.

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…no. the literal opposite

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Then I recommend that you watch the two videos that they uploaded regarding Experimental which stated that experimental would be infrequent and include radical changes - and yes, jeff literally said “radical changes”.

Radical changes would be available. Not the norm…per my quoted direct Jeff Kaplan explaination from the literal first day of the experimental card

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