14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at DICE and publisher Electronic Arts have officially launched the Community Test Environment for their first-person shooter Battlefield 4, in an effort to make it easier to test new game features and get quick feedback from the community.
The company says that information coming from dedicated players has been used from the day the title was launched in order to improve the experience and that the new initiative can improve the process and make sure that the entire player base plays a better game.
DICE explains in the official announcement that, "Among the first things we will work on is the 'Netcode', which is what the player experiences with the game world including player-to-player interactions like damage registration. This involves tweaking to the 'tickrate' servers and networking in general."
The team says that more concepts and ideas that will be linked to the Community Test Environment for Battlefield 4 will be announced at a later date and that communication with the community will be improved.
They add, "This community program will be available on PC only. However, the goal is for our learnings to benefit all platforms when possible. To access the CTE, you will need to be a Battlefield 4 Premium member. Players will have to download a separate game client, then connect to an infrastructure and Battlelog version solely set up for testing purposes."
The official blog also talks about the steps that those interested need to take in order to become part of the Community Test Environment.
Initially, only a limited number of players will be able to test out the new features for Battlefield 4, but DICE says that it will expand the number after it sees exactly how the new initiative works.
Presumably, all the new tested concepts will be then implemented in the multiplayer of the first-person shooter using patches.
It's unclear what impact the introduction of the Community Test Environment will have on the remaining two downloadable content packs that are set to be launched for Battlefield 4 before the end of summer.
When the DICE shooter was launched, last summer, many gamers complained about quality problems and the multiplayer required a lot of balancing work, but the company has since then remedied all issues.
Electronic Arts has acknowledged that Battlefield 4 had some issues, but the publisher insists that sales were not affected in any significant way.