I just fought the CJ with 2 devs. One was on my side and the other was on my girlfriends (Crazy Bonnie Dizzynoodle). Some thoughts on the battle:

Just because you are with Devs don't assume that the cogs will be a cakewalk. We had an 18 and it really seemed that the Dev on my side was out to eliminate the baby toon. He pulled out his fog and we proceeded to sound. Baby toon went spinning down the drain. We kept fogging a few times (DEVS can carry more than 3 of the top gags BTW).

Also, the DEVS will ask for a TU but it seemed to me that we had to prove to the DEV that we could win the battle before HE used TU. He also used FOG on lured 11's when the other toon was healing and I was throwing a cake.

After about half way thru the DEV then switched tatics and proceeded to either follow us with gag choices or drop for a kill. I seriously believe he wanted to see if we were able to handle the cogs before helping.

On the other side, they had Crazy Bonnie (105), another DEV and a 40-50 laffer. I really didn't notice the laff as I was only half watching the other screen. Again this battle, the DEV didn't TU until it was proven that toon knew how to play. Also, the final cogs when you have 3 or less the DEVS did not heal.

On my side, at the final cogs the dev didn't wait for Crazy Boonie to join for the final heal and time ran out. Thus she ended up down about 15 laff for the final battle.

The canon game we only have one toon on the jury. Dev's as far as I could tell were shooting toons and helping out.

Throwing at the scales, well the devs stood around talking for a bit before going to get evidence. One then proceeded to hit the cogs and the other was throwing into the COG side. Yes, I said the COG side.

Well, the scale started way high and it was only a few minutes before the cogs won and everyone went sad.

Some interesting DEV facts:

The DEVS were 125 with ALL gags but were wearing Bottom Feeder suits.
The DEVS did go sad but didn't loose gags any gags (not even the ones used in battle)
The DEVS can use more than 3 of the lvl 6 gags. I counted atleast 5 fogs and Crazy Bonnie counted atleast 5 piano's on her side being dropped.

I have pics and will attempt to upload later.

One final thought...I think the were testing the concepts and toughness of the cogs and final round. Winning wasn't what they were looking for...difficulty of the battle was. IMHO.

I saw a DEV (125, all 7) with a Big Wig suit load in the elevator before me today. I guess they can pick their suit, lol.

I was in with a DEV day 2 of law. I was sided with him (also 125 laf) and a baby toon. Sadly that was the day of the many discos so we only had about 2 rounds on the cogs and poof we all went. I was looking forward to playing with him.

Oh boy I will never jump into an elevator with a developer again. I was trying to get into a CJ battle yesterday afternoon to show my kids what it was like and they saw the developer so they wanted me to get into the elevator with her so badly. Against my better judgement(I was pretty sure the rest of the elevator was low laff) I got in. On my side there was 3 me at 105, the developer at 125 and an 18 laffer. The other side was sad within a few minutes so we pressed on for a very long time with three on one side and the 18 finally went sad. Then her and I pressed on for another extremely long time before I went sad.

She looked to me like she was playing with bad strategy all around. She would pull out a TNT when I pulled out a fog. She would pull out fog when we had all picked a lure/hit combination. She was good about TU and that is why the 18 lasted as long as she did. Near the end, I was pretty much out of gags and kept saying "I need more gags" I was out of lure and had one sound a few squirt and throw left and 1 cane. I didn't dare pull out a trap because she would not lure onto it. She dropped piano on a cog I was luring a few times so the piano dropped behind. Just an all round frustrating battle. I was hoping she had some kind of sos or restock for me with gags as I wasn't about to use mine but she sure didn't plan on using it. I finally went sad and did not see her so she did not follow very quickly from what I could see. I also saw at least 5 pianos, 6 fogs, and 3 TNT used by her.

I remember chatting with Anna as I was going through this and telling her what was going on. Things like "she just pulled out a fog on a row of 10's after I picked lure! It was terrible.

I feel like emailing Disney about this because if my 7 year old was playing he would have been heartbroken in a situation like that. I wish she had played with a bit of strategy but there was none or very little in my opinion.

~Audrey

Well my son had a completely different experience with a Dev today. He went in a library with my 55 lp toon and a 17 toon. He was of course 125 lp and a blue cat named Z. Z. Googlemouth. I know this name since he is now a nonsf of my little toon..lol. So they go in and come to the lazer puzzles. On the right was the matching game and on the left was minesweeper. The Dev and the 17 went to the right and tried to do the puzzle but were soon engaged in the cog battle. My son solved the minesweeper puzzle then came over and helped finish the battle. This was after the Dev used a Bessie to get rid of the 11s. The second set of cogs the Dev once again called a Bessie but the throw missed and the 12 hit the 17 and he was gone. But the Dev and my son won the next set and went to the next elevator and on to more puzzles. While my son completed the matching lazer game the Dev just watched, then there was another minesweeper and my son finished that quickly. After that he got a "you are awesome" from the Dev (that made his day). They did a few more maze puzzles (which my son did much quicker than the Dev) and then fought the Boss and of course another Bessie was called. The Dev also tuned my son up (and apparently himself too). It was fun watching the two of them play. One thing though, his doodle named Xpresso is really angry!! He better go spend some time with him.

I am glad your son had a good time and boys, an atta boy from the dev must have made his day!

Its good to know that there are a few good-hearted people that work for Disney.

Just another thought as to why dev's might be 'mean'

Maybe they are following up on a reported bug, like that horrid sad bug, and they need to try some unorthodox tactics to see what will cause the bug to occur. Now while this is no fun for those of us wanting to win, it is a great use of a test environment. Not just us to report bugs, but for devs to pop in and verify the very information we feed them. If they play badly to see our saduality, it may be for a reason we are not privvy to.

Also - dev's dont' have to come in at 125 with super gags. Someone here posted once about the dev with mid-low (30? 40s?) laff and not all gags open. On other multiplayer online games with test servers, sometimes they even open the option to the testers. A friend from work is testing whatever his addiction is and right now he has an extra log in screen which allows him to choose what level 'mage' with what level 'magic' (?) he wants to be. Imagine that. "Think I'll log into test, today I'd like to be a green bear with 119 laff and 7 tracks, but no level 6 gags."

All my friends know I have always wanted to have my own personal dev sighting and it finally happened!

I was with a group of friends standing in a circle outside the CJ when a pale blue cat walks up. He joins our circle and says

"Lets go fight the cogs"

I click on him and OMG its.....125, a dev....and I say to my friends, um I want to go with the dev

And I follow him in

He gets on the elevator and says "Stay" I put a cloud over my said that says " I am NOT jumping with a dev on board"

and of we go!

At first I am too excited to remember to take a screenshot or to try to talk to him without speedchat. A couple times I said things I think he did acknowledge what I said, but when I starting talking directly to him without speedchat he did not answer. He was very responsive to speedchat though.

But the battle, it was an awesome fun cog battle. I had Lady CJ Sourmash on my side and a 15 and a 16. Those two went down fast. She and I valiantly fought the cogs with precision and skill if I do say so myself. And guess what the Dev complimented us! With speedchat, but after he came over, and he was alone all his other side went sad, he was doing the toon equivalent of a high 5 to us!

Then the cannons.... 0 jurors.

The scale battle was just plain strange. I did not really know what to do with only three or how to play it. It became obvious he was doing SOMETHING to save me and Lady CJ Sourmash. I was locking up and everytime I came out the scale was too low for the time elapsed. But the thing was, it was obvious he made some miscalculation and let her go sad. He seemed upset. I dont remember what he said but you could tell he did not mean for her too. I was saying in the dance, YOU ARE AWESOME! and he does the NO......You are awesome!!! OMG....I was so tickled!

I am back in brrgh and there he is. I am just so excited. He makes friends ( I think he made quite a few friends today!) I say, "I need more gags" and "Play again?" he says yes! WHoopee!

Then I go for my gags and there is my valiant fighting buddy Lady CJ Sourmash. We make friends and I go toon her on Walrus. Another friend of mine joins us too.

I tp to my dev and in my excitement I follow him in without Lady CJ. He says to me, even though there are a crowd of toons at elevator "lets find other toons" I am totally sure he knew I made friends with her and forgot her and wanted her to come and win. I went out for her and he waited for me. Then we three went in again with my other sf.

This time I was on his side in cogs battle. He seemed to mostly want to get through it fast. He uses SOSs TU and DROP seeming to try to get to next phase. My theory is he was testing cannon battle. I was always shooting his toon out of my cannon. So we figured out pretty fast that if you have unlimited gags you sound and he drops. But problem was we started with another 17 we tried to keep alive but we didn't.

He was very funny to speedchat with and quick on the uptake.

Second round I stunned cogs and I think he did something again to make it go fast. Again why I think it was the cannon battle he was analyzing.

We went back a third time and another win. It was a blast. Then he needed to go. I was starstruck!

Screenshots to followMy album of Disney fun.....dev shots after speedway shots

I am in the CJ with a developer right now....but he is on the other side. It is hilarious, because the only thing your hear from over there is sound and pianos dropping. I think he has used at least 6 bessie cards so far! LOL

Not all 125 Laff, 7 tracks are "Disney Developers", i.e. programmers or SW development staff from what I understand. Also the 125 Laff, 7 track Maxed toons, are not neccessarily there to "help you get a win", nor are they neccesarily skilled/experienced in game play and strategy. Like other test toons, they are there to debug, test aspects of the game, and sometimes test a very specific "bug" or patch/fixes. I try to stay out of their way and get thru the stuff so they can do their job. I think its' kinda amusing to see a 125 laffer who may be just fumbling thru.. if that is the case.

I think part of the game is somewhat of a social engineering, behavioral psychology exercise. Tweaking the game to require teamwork, adjusting the degree of difficulty and also seeing how people react. I think the LawBot HQ isn't done yet... There are still a few more things to tweak besides the number of slips, gavels and stuff. It's not just the new HQ that is being tested, it's also the testers themselves to guage whether the new HQ has appeal. The hype on open with Lawbot Skele invasions, Lawbot related stuff hasn't gotten to a fever pitch yet.

Last comment, I think it is good that there are some toons "MAX'ing" suits to also test whether the award progression is working correctly and other aspects. I guess the merits/bucks/subpeana thing will have to be tested soon enough.

Test is an interesting social microcosm... Definitely different from random play on Open, but unsurpriseingly the same human elements. Those who play fer fun, those who take testing or building toons seriously, the competitive types who want to go, go go, the curious types who solve the puzzles, the strategists, the best buds/clans, SF'ers, and sadly... the griefers, angry, and not so courteous types too. Ah well gotta test how well we all get along anyway... Unlike life, all I gotta do is logout or change districts. In life, well physically moving or logging out have other implications....

LST

i would luv to be on test! my parents wont let me though. does it cost extra money? cause if it does i fur sur cant do it! grr!

Colett, TEST doesn't cost anything extra. TEST is where you get to try out new things, try to find and report any bugs or glitches so Disney can release a better version on Open. Hope that helps!

Granny Mo Mo- thanx! i'll see if i can do it! thanx for the tip.