This document gives you quick overview about necessary steps you must undertake to join the Testing team. It is enriched with links to other documents with more details in case such text exists. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free ask on #chat-general (accessible for team members only) or #pub-general (open for everybody).
If you are willing to apply to become a member of the Testing team, please contact Tamarea, directly on Ryzom chat or by sending an e-mail to tamarea@ryzom.com. You need to get access to team tools and private chat rooms. After this step use the #t-test chat room for any questions related to testing. More information: Get in touch with Ryzom Forge
As next you need to become familiar with tools used by the Ryzom team. For planning we use Kan Board, for collaboration we have a cloud system and internal (team) chat rooms. More information: External team tools
The most of team work and testing is closely tight to our testing servers. You need to create two separated client installations to have access to Yubo, the developers server, and Gingo, the testing server. More information: Setting up connection to non-public Ryzom servers
Once you have access to testing servers, you need to prepare some characters to perform tests and become familiar with in-game tools for testers. It will make your life much easier. More information: On a testing server
Your work in the Test team is mostly up to you. You are free to join any test and you can use any procedure that fits you. However there are some rules that help cooperation with others, prevents fails. You need to get familiar with some aspects of the testing to make sure your reports and your results will be useful for others.
More information: (to be written)
This document shortly describes external tools that are useful for every team member. These tools are not working in-game or just in a very limited way and you need to use external browser. The goal is not to supply any user manual just give you a basic overview about what do we use, how it could be useful and how to log in. The second part of this document is focused on members of the Testing team.
Here is a basic description of all important external tools that you should keep in mind and use.
You probably know the Ryzom chat already. It is a tool that allows you to read in-game chats without a need to be actually in game. You will have "~" (tilda) prefix in front of your name in case of every message sent from RC to the game. Some additional details about Ryzom chat are described in the RC FAQ article on the Ryzom Wiki. Another important role of the Ryzom chat is also that each team or project members have own chat room available. By default, every team member supposed to be a member of the following rooms: #announcement, #chat-general, and #chat-ark_dev. Team chat rooms have a "t-" prefix and project chat rooms have "pj-" prefix. Internal chat rooms are not public thus you must become a member of a team/project first to see other private rooms then default ones. In all cases, if you think you have lost or didn't get access to a specific channel (including default ones) you should be presented on please contact Tamarea or Tykus.
KanBoard is a collaboration tool, a place where all team tasks supposed to be registered. There exists a lot of boards for various teams, projects and use. The general rule about tasks is that they travel from columns on left to columns on right as they progress. In case you miss access to any board you supposed to see please contact Tamarea.
Ryzom cloud is a powerful tool for (not just) collaboration on documents. There are various folders and the visibility depends on your team or project membership as usually. You can work with various file types on the cloud. However, for team cooperation we use mostly Pads, a special type of document that highlights different contributors. In case you miss access to any part of the cloud please contact Tamarea. Some additional details about file formats used on the Ryzom cloud are described on the Ryzom Wiki. There is a "Ryzom-Team" folder on the cloud that you should be able to access. You can find some useful documents for internal needs, sorted to several sub-folders.
Ryzom wiki is the main place for all documentation. It is not a tool you will probably need to use directly in your team. However, it contains a lot of useful information about the game and its world. The Wiki is maintained by the Ryzom Wiki project. Viewing documents does not require any authentication. However, you must have an account in case you wish to contribute.
This small application is used to quickly check the state of all three servers. There is no need to authenticate yourself and it is a passive too that displays what is running and what is not. Please remember that this tool is unable to cover the wrong functionality of a component, it just tells you if it is running or not. In the best case all icons on this page are green (thus everything is running).
Here are some additional details for members of the Testing team.
You supposed to see #t-test room by default and all discussion about testing supposed to go there, unless you need to interact with members from other teams. Feel free to ask about everything that is not clear, about your work in team, tools, a test details or your questions and issues that appeared during your testing. Feel free to suggest anything that will help run the team or fix any issue you have discovered.
You supposed to see "[Team] Test" board where all current or near-future tests have a place. The board is separated to various columns and tasks travel from left to right. However the most important for you are three of those columns:
You can comment on each task as you wish. However, please remember that most of the tests have a pad with instructions (see later) and your testing reports should go there not to the board. The link to a corresponding pad is usually attached to the task.
As a member of the Testing team, you supposed to see the "Test-Team" folder. It contains various subfolders however for the testing itself you need mostly "1 - DEV_Yubo", "2 - TEST_Gingo" and "3 - LIVE_Atys". All three folders are similar, one for each testing server and one for the Live server. All contain several other subfolders:
Every (testing) pad usually contains instructions about the test itself and is separated into several parts. At the very beginning, you should note your name, client platform and language used during your test. If there is no such section, feel free to create it or remember to mention these details by your report. Test instructions are key for you to what is needed to be tested. However you should not stop there and once you have finished all required testing go for additional testing, whatever that you can imagine related to the matter of the tested change. Try to think about the impact of the change on the game, try to find an unexpected way of use, try to break it. Remember, you are still on a testing server, better break it here than on Atys. During or after your testing, use the pad to make notes and reports. More related information you can provide, more helpful it will be. Every detail might be important and, especially in case of final testing on Gingo, the matter of your testing is not the functionality itself but also missing translations, confusing information given by the game, note every non-standard (debug) message or any other glitches. Also, feel free to make your suggestions about any aspect of the change. And most important thing: remember to add date and time to every new addition you make to the pad. After your tests are done, your work does not end. Please come back later to check if any new changes were done meanwhile and review if your questions were answered and issues fixed. If not, re-test your issue again (to be sure it remains), note the situation in the pad and feel free to ask directly on the testing channel about it. If the issue was solved, do the test again and confirm in the pad that the issue was fixed and no new appeared. Another important subfolder is TT-Library where you can find some useful documents related to the Testing Team.
This document describes how to configure a Ryzom client for connection to other Ryzom servers used by Ryzom Teams. It is expected that you are familiar with either using and configuration of the Ryzom Installer and/or capable to do advanced file system management as copying and editing files. The main concern of this document is to describe all necessary steps you need to set up connection to either Yubo or Gingo server.
Yubo and Gingo are names of two not public servers that are used by various teams to review and test the game. Yubo has status of development server and it is the main target where all new changes arrive for the first review. It can easily happen that some parts or the whole server is unstable or broken. Things are under development there. On the other hand, the server Gingo is a clone of Atys server. It is a place where everything supposed to be working and final testing of changes is being made there. We use this server for final testing, to see how will changes in future patch really impact the Live game server and game clients. This document also operates with the term "Live server" or just "Live" which are just other (internal) names of the Atys server. Beta testing on Atys, alias Atys BETA, is a testing on server Atys with beta updates enabled.
There exist several combinations of your platform and ways of your Ryzom client installation. This document describes as many as possible of them, however the basic is same in all cases. You need to create a copy of your client files for each server and then adjust its configuration a bit for each server.
Steam platform is one of ways how to install the Ryzom client. It is possible to configure such client to access Yubo or Gingo server, however updates are distributed via Steam. That means such client will never get frequent updates directly from testing servers and you will not be able to perform any tests, along with possible other issues. It is possible to add clients for Yubo and Gingo directly to Steam and this feature is planned, however it will require time and resources that the Ryzom team does not have at this moment. Your only current option is to install another non-steam client, static or using Ryzom Installer. Please choose one way and then continue with appropriate configuration details described in this document.
After you complete configuration of your clients, static or installed with Ryzom Installer, you can use the Steam ability to become a launcher of non-steam games. You need to perform following steps for both clients:
A new record was created in your games Library. Right-click it and select Properities to change its details like name or icon.
App Store is one of ways how to install Ryzom client on macOS operating system. It is possible to configure such client to access Yubo or Gingo server, however updates are distributed via App Store. That means such client will never get frequent updates directly from testing servers and you will not be able to perform any tests, along with possible other issues. Your only current option is to install another client in different way, static or using Ryzom Installer. Please choose one way and then continue with appropriate configuration details described in this document.
If you are not using the Ryzom Installer or you are going to configure testing servers manually, you can skip this chapter. To see your Ryzom Installer version, start the application and select Help > About… from the application main menu. Ryzom Installer version older than 3.5.0.9665 do not include settings for testing servers by default. Before you continue you should update your Ryzom Installer to latest version. You can download its current binary from download.ryzom.com or check if there is any newer version along with your Live client, in the default profile sub-folder, usually at <path_to_ryzom_root>/0/, see default installation paths described in chapter about manual installation. Other option is to combine instructions described in Using Ryzom Installer with GUI and Manual installation with Ryzom Installer or simply follow just instructions for manual installation.
Ryzom Installer is a small tool that helps you to install and manage your Ryzom clients. This chapter describes how to setup Yubo and Gingo clients using its user interface. It is expected that you have installed Live client on your system already. Please make sure you are using latest version of the Ryzom installer (>= 3.5.0.9665) that has testing servers configuration included already. Otherwise you need to update your Ryzom Installer version first or define those servers manually in the installer configuration, as described in Manual installation with Ryzom Installer.
It is recommended to have separate clients for each server while mixing patches between more servers might cause troubles. The Ryzom installer will do the most of work automatically for you. Start the Ryzom Installer tool, open Settings from main window menu. There is a list of current profiles on left and selected profile options on right. Click the Add button below the list of profiles to create new and you can start editing its configuration. You will need to create three new profiles, one for Yubo, one for Gingo and one for Atys BETA, along with the normal Atys one you already have there by default. Following list describes each of configuration options.
There is no support for beta updates in the current version of Ryzom Installer. You need to create a separated copy manually. Create Yubo and Gingo profiles first, save changes and quit Ryzom Installer. Then go into <path_to_ryzom_root>
and copy "ryzom_live" to "ryzom_beta". Then Start the Ryzom Installer again and create 4th profile for Atys BETA.
Once you are done with profiles configuration, click Ok button on bottom right to save changes. It might take some time because the Ryzom Installer will create and configure two new profiles. Those will appear in the drop-down menu on main Ryzom installer window after it is completed.
Option to adjust Atys BETA client is not available to manage using the Ryzom Installer and you need to edit the profile config file manually. Start Atys BETA client first using the Ryzom installer, this will actually create profile files. Close the Ryzom Installer. Open client.cfg file in <path_to_ryzom_root>/3/ folder to edit and add following code at the end of the file: Application = { "ryzom_beta", "./client_ryzom_r.exe", "./" }; Now look for RootConfigFilename optionand replace "ryzom_live" with "ryzom_beta" in the path. Save the file. The 4th profile will now accept beta updates for server Atys.
Now you should have three clients set up, one for the Yubo server, one for the Gingo server and one for Atys BETA, along the default Atys profile. Start the Ryzom Installer and use the drop-down selection on bottom of the main window to choose which profile (and client) you wish to use.
Ryzom Installer is a small tool that helps you to install and manage your Ryzom clients. This document describes how to setup Yubo and Gingo clients without user interface. It is expected you have installed Live client on your system already.
First step you need to do is to create a copy of your Live client files. It is recommended to have separate clients for each server while mixing patches between more servers might cause troubles. Close the Ryzom installer and Ryzom client, in case it is running, open the installation folder and copy the sub-folder "ryzom_live" to "ryzom_dev" to use as a client of the Yubo server. Then create another copy called "ryzom_test" to use as a client of the Gingo server. Then create the last copy called "ryzom_beta" to use as a client of the Atys server with beta updates enabled.
Following list contains default installation paths of all three supported platforms as well as paths where Ryzom Installer profiles are stored.
The "~" path prefix is an unix alias for user home directory, for example "/home/user
".
%AppData%
is the variable name for the application data directory under modern Windows systems, for example "C:\Users\%username%\AppData
". More detailed information about system paths is described by the Ryzom location article on the Ryzom Wiki.
System | Default client installation | Ryzom Installer profiles location |
---|---|---|
Windows XP | C:\Documents and Settings\{user}\Local Settings\Application Data\Ryzom\ |
C:\Documents and Settings\{user}\Local Settings\Application Data\Ryzom\
|
Windows Vista/7/8/10 | %AppData%\Local\Ryzom\ |
%AppData%\Roaming\Ryzom\
|
Linux | ~/.local/share/Ryzom/ |
~/.local/share/Ryzom/
|
MacOS | ~/Library/Application Support/Ryzom/ |
~/Library/Application Support/Ryzom/
|
System Default client installation Ryzom Installer profiles location Windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\{user}\Local Settings\Application Data\Ryzom\ C:\Documents and Settings\{user}\Local Settings\Application Data\Ryzom\ Windows Vista/7/8/10 %AppData%\Local\Ryzom\ %AppData%\Roaming\Ryzom\ Linux ~/.local/share/Ryzom/ ~/.local/share/Ryzom/ MacOS ~/Library/Application Support/Ryzom/ ~/Library/Application Support/Ryzom/
This step applies only when you are using older version of the Ryzom installer. With version 3.5.0.9692 or newer, both testing servers are already part of installer configuration, however not for Atys with beta updates. In case you want or must use the older installer, you need to define two new servers in the ryzom_installer.ini
file which is stored along your client installations.
Open the file in a text editor, locate end of section [server_0]
and insert following block right after end of the the section, before the [servers]
section:
[server_1] client_download_filename=ryzom_live_client_$ARCH.7z client_download_url="http://download.ryzom.com/ryzom_live_client_$ARCH.7z?r=&ts=$TIMESTAMP" client_filename_linux=ryzom_client client_filename_old_linux= client_filename_old_windows=client_ryzom_rd.exe client_filename_osx=Ryzom.app/Contents/MacOS/Ryzom client_filename_windows=ryzom_client_r.exe comments=Dev server configuration_filename_linux=ryzom_configuration_qt configuration_filename_osx=Ryzom.app/Contents/MacOS/RyzomConfiguration configuration_filename_windows=ryzom_configuration_qt_r.exe data_compressed_size=1500000000 data_download_filename=ryzom_live_data.7z data_download_url="http://download.ryzom.com/ryzom_live_data.7z?r=&ts=$TIMESTAMP" data_uncompressed_size=7000000000 display_url="http://app.ryzom.com/app_releasenotes/index.php?lang=$LANG" files_list_url="https://sourceforge.net/projects/ryzom/rss?path=/installer" id=ryzom_dev name=Yubo [server_2] client_download_filename=ryzom_live_client_$ARCH.7z client_download_url="http://download.ryzom.com/ryzom_live_client_$ARCH.7z?r=&ts=$TIMESTAMP" client_filename_linux=ryzom_client client_filename_old_linux= client_filename_old_windows=client_ryzom_rd.exe client_filename_osx=Ryzom.app/Contents/MacOS/Ryzom client_filename_windows=ryzom_client_r.exe comments=Test server configuration_filename_linux=ryzom_configuration_qt configuration_filename_osx=Ryzom.app/Contents/MacOS/RyzomConfiguration configuration_filename_windows=ryzom_configuration_qt_r.exe data_compressed_size=1500000000 data_download_filename=ryzom_live_data.7z data_download_url="http://download.ryzom.com/ryzom_live_data.7z?r=&ts=$TIMESTAMP" data_uncompressed_size=7000000000 display_url="http://app.ryzom.com/app_releasenotes/index.php?lang=$LANG" files_list_url="https://sourceforge.net/projects/ryzom/rss?path=/installer" id=ryzom_test name=Gingo
As you see, configuration are almost the same, just one operates with "ryzom_dev" (Yubo) and aother one with "ryzom_test" (Gingo) and the last one with "ryzom_live" (Atys BETA). Also server names differ. Next go to [servers] section and change the value of size to number 3. It will look like this:
[servers] default=0 size=4
You have two exactly same copies of the ryzom client now, one for each server. You also have new servers defined in installer configuration. Now you need to create two new installer profiles. These steps will lead to same results as when using the GUI, however you will create new profiles, one for Yubo and one for Gingo, manually.
Open the folder with Ryzom Installer profiles. You will find a folder called "0
" there. Create a copy with name "1
" for your Yubo client and another with name "2
" for your Gingo client. Then create the last one "3
" for the client of Atys with beta updates. The next step is to create configuration for all three new profiles, "1", "2" and "3", so the installer can find them.
Open ryzom_installer.ini
file for editing, it is located in the same folder, and scroll to locate end of section [profile_0]
. Then insert following block of text right after it, before the section [profiles]
:
[profile_1] arguments= comments=Development server desktop_shortcut=false executable= id=1 menu_shortcut=false name=Ryzom (Yubo) server=ryzom_dev [profile_2] arguments= comments=Testing server desktop_shortcut=false executable= id=2 menu_shortcut=false name=Ryzom (Gingo) server=ryzom_test [profile_3] arguments= comments=Atys with beta updates desktop_shortcut=false executable= id=3 menu_shortcut=false name=Ryzom (Atys BETA) server=ryzom_live
In case your client files are not saved in default path, you need to insert full path to client binary into the executable option. For Yubo client in [profile_1]
section (with client located in ryzom_dev folder), for Gingo client in [profile_2]
(with client located in ryzom_test folder).
As next go to [profiles] section and change the value of size to number 3. This says how many profiles is present. It should look like this now:
[profiles] default=0 size=3
The last thing you need to do is to edit each client configuration file and add special option so the client knows you wish to connect to a specific non-public server. Configuration of clients using the Ryzom installer is pre-configured to have custom configuration file included. Additional client configuration is stored in Ryzom Installer profiles location.
Navigate to the Yubo profile folder "1
" in Ryzom Installer profiles location and open client.cfg
file for editing. Then add following block to the end of the file:
Application = {
"ryzom_dev", "./client_ryzom_r.exe", "./"
};
Navigate to the Gingo profile folder "2
" in Ryzom Installer profiles location and open client.cfg
file for editing. Then add following block to the end of the file:
Application = {
"ryzom_test", "./client_ryzom_r.exe", "./"
};
Navigate to the Atys BETA profile folder "3
" in Ryzom Installer profiles location and open client.cfg
file for editing. Then add following block to the end of the file:
Application = {
"ryzom_beta", "./client_ryzom_r.exe", "./"
};
Now you should have two client set up, one for the Yubo server, one for the Gingo server. Start the Ryzom Installer and use the drop-down selection on bottom of the main window to choose which profile (and client) you wish to use.
It is not required to use the Ryzom Installer to use the Ryzom client. This document describes how to setup both testing servers manually without any use of the Installer. It is expected that you have a static Live client installed on your system already.
The first step you need to do is to create a copy of your Live client files. It is recommended to have separate clients for each server while mixing patches between more servers might cause troubles. There is no default installation path for the static client.
Find the folder where is your Live client installed (for example "C:\Games
" or "/opt
") and copy the whole game folder (for example "C:\Games\Ryzom
" or "/opt/ryzom
") to "ryzom_dev
" in same folder. This installation will be used to connect to the Yubo server. Then create another copy in same folder called "ryzom_test", this one will be used fot the Gingo server.
The next thing you need to do is to edit each client configuration file and add special option so the client knows you wish to connect to a specific non-public server.
Yubo client configuration
Navigate to the root folder of your Yubo client installation, for example "C:\Games\ryzom_dev
" or "/opt/ryzom_dev
" and open the client.cfg
file for editing. Scroll to the end of the file and add following block of text:
Application = {
"ryzom_dev", "./client_ryzom_r.exe", "./"
};
Navigate to the root folder of your Gingo client installation, for example "C:\Games\ryzom_test
" or "/opt/ryzom_test
" and open the client.cfg
file for editing. Scroll to the end of the file and add following block of text:
Application = {
"ryzom_test", "./client_ryzom_r.exe", "./"
};
Navigate to the root folder of your Atys BETA client installation, for example "C:\Games\ryzom_beta
" or "/opt/ryzom_test
" and open the client.cfg
file for editing. Scroll to the end of the file and add following block of text:
Application = {
"ryzom_beta", "./client_ryzom_r.exe", "./"
};
Now you should have two client set up, one for the Yubo server, one for the Gingo server. To start the Yubo client, navigate to your "ryzom_dev" folder and start the client binary, for example "C:\Games\ryzom_dev\ryzom_client_r.exe
" or "/opt/ryzom_dev/ryzom_client
".
To start the Gingo client, navigate to your "ryzom_test
" folder and start the client binary, for example "C:\Games\ryzom_test\ryzom_client_r.exe
" or "/opt/ryzom_test/ryzom_client
".
Another option is to create main menu / desktop shortcuts to start the right binary from the right folder for each client.
It is recommended to use separate clients for each server. It is possible to configure one client to be able to access all three servers, however different updates for each server might break your client or bring other troubles.
Yubo and Gingo are getting non-production client updates and things might go wrong time to time. A good practice is to keep one another separated copy with fresh Ryzom Installation (along Atys, Yubo and Gingo server) that you can use to quickly restore a broken client. Just make sure you back-up your configuration and character-related files before you replace the broken copy. The Ryzom installer makes things easier.
This document attempt to cover your first steps on one of Ryzom testing servers, with focus on testers. It is expected that you already have access to testing servers and you have successfuly configured your clients to be actually able to connect. Following information applies to both testing servers, it is not important if you are on Yubo or Gingo.
When you log to a testing server for the very first time, all your account slots are empty. It is recommended to create just one or two universal characters that will be always ready and leave other slots empty. Most of testing requires you to have none or just some specific skills and in most cases it is faster to simply create new character on your empty slot (or replace previous) for a test then develop a tool to reset your character or even wait for cooldowns.
When you creating your testing characters, avoid using any real Atys character name. Testing and real accounts are separated however it might bring troubles in the future when for example a character debug is be needed. It also prevents you from confusing which server are you on and which character owns what. Same names requires everyone to pay more attention and you won't to delete your character on wrong server by accident. Your character race or gender is not any important.
Once you are done with creating your avatar and standing on Silan face to Chiang the Strong, it is time to give your new character some skills. The world of a testing server is, more or less, same as Atys you know. To grind necessary levels is however not needed thanks to various tools you are able to use.
Server accounts have a system of privileges. You will be able to use most of normal testing tools, however some specific applications or commands might require higher privileges than you have. In this case ask on your team/project channel (or on the chat-general channel) so someone else with higher privileges can help you. Following text will tell you how you can adjust various aspects of your character and some basics of your life on a testing server but is not ment to be a manual for tools that you will use.
First of all we need to make clear which tools will we use. At this moment we have several, more or less, separated aplications. In case you have any troubles using it, you find an issue or you want to suggest an improvement contact the specific tool creator please.
It is a toolbar with various links to other testing and administrative tools. By default it is placed on your screen somewhere, unless you made it disappear. Start: /cmdzone show Creator: Riasan
This is a compact interface that contains some basic functions mostly related to character allegiance. The tool has a shortcut on the Command Toolbar. Start: /appzone 2449 Creator: Inky
This application is used to quick and free teleportation around the planet. It allows you to use one of fix positions pre-set for everyone, use short range landscape teleportation or save and share your own positions. The interface has a shortcut on the Command Toolbar. Start: /appzone 1356 Creator: Riasan
This is a secret area in the forest region. Its position is in the Fix list of the Teleport interface and has a link in the Inky's tool. You can find there several additional objects you can interact with. You can contact Riasan about all GM island related tools.
This object is used to access to various additional tools, items or interfaces and its options change in time by what is needed.
This pumpkin was introduced during the development of the Ranger rite and gives you access to various related options like setting allegiance, rite state, reset and so.
There are also two NPC who can change you civilization and faction allegiance. However we have more advanced tools now accessible from the Command Toolbar or with Inky's tool.
Now it is time to really grow your character. Following list will help you so satisfy all your basic needs:
Sooner or later, depending on how you tester skills develop, you will face the need to use more powerful tools. The power comes from using commands, knowledge of the system and account privileges. Each server has separated user rights
User accounts on each server might have various privileges. The following list contains all server ranks, sorted from lowest (Tester) to highest (DEV).
There are some external documents and 3rd party tool links that may be helpful or help you with understanding and use of advanced abilities.
A list of commands that can be used on running server, including privileges. Created by Ryzom Core project. There is another similar List of required privileges for client commands
A post that explains how are skill keys composed, based on first name's letter.
Wiki server with documentation related to public Ryzom APIs.
A simple introduction into capabillities and use of the in-game browser, created by Ryzom Core project.
A tool to review and export maps of Atys...
A simple external tool to generate color codes for coloring in-game messages (MOTD, crafter's message...)
A tool to generate random names situable for Ryzom. There exists also small Name generator script that returns a random name by given parameters via URL
Besides build-in sheet browser, which is a part of the Spawn tool, you can also use external lists of item sheets and names. Another option is to use search for items in BagApp database or extract files from your client.
A small LangApp API to provide translations with data based on original Osquallo's Blablator.
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