if the title doesn't say it all already, what i am sugesting is that along with the public live server running the MMOG you should build a testbed server where you can test the new features before you release them "in the wild".

access could be offered to a selected breed of former beta testers that have also bought the commercial version after release, and that would be willing to go away from the BIG server when there are things that need to be tested, balanced, debuged, etc.

my guess is that such a server is already active somewhere or, in a better scenario, you are able to test things in a sandbox inside the public server without affecting the rest of the functionality. if that is the case, please acccept my apreciation :)

such a server is already active

They've been doing that since well before I was here. :P

I would love to do stuff on the test server... from what I hear, lots of mayhem goes on on there... and all of it fun.

I speak specifically of the gun designed to kill Incarnate whenever it was fired, wherever he happened to be (as long as he was ingame).

AHAHAHA! I want to be on THAT server :D

There's already an internal development server, but they'll be a little reluctant to give us access, as they test changes in realtime..so say, a1 changes the coding for the bots in a particular sector, and has to restart it, it frells stuff up if we enter it upon re-connecting...etc..