In Game Bug Reporting Tool

[Razorfire]

This would be handy, you know. 

 

If we can report bugs while in mission, all we'd have to do is pause the game via ESC, select a bug report menu item and fill out a little form. The game can report all kinds of data on who and where you are in the mission. This will help the devs a great deal and possibly even check out the exact location of where you reported the bug.

 

Just saying.

 

 

[Catharsis25]

This. So much this.

[RyojinOrion]

This would be handy, you know. 

 

If we can report bugs while in mission, all we'd have to do is pause the game via ESC, select a bug report menu item and fill out a little form. The game can report all kinds of data on who and where you are in the mission. This will help the devs a great deal and possibly even check out the exact location of where you reported the bug.

 

Just saying.

 

Out of curiosity... You a solo player?

 

Most bugs I find happen in the heat of battle, when there's no time to pause... And even if it wasn't in an immediate battle, I'm sure my teammates wouldn't be waiting for me to finish filling out a bug report form with useful details on what the bug was. I'd be left behind. This isn't so much an issue for me, since I use one of the fastest frames and can easily utilize exploits to move much faster, but it is pretty bad for other players who have a hard enough time keeping up as it is.

 

IMO, better to just fill out a detailed bug report here on the forums. Less convenient for you, but better overall.

[Carcharias]

Yea, I agree but. This is a pretty simple straightforward idea that lots of betas have in them. I am guessing that there is someone on the team that threw this idea out there, and for whatever reason it got shot down. I wouldn't care to wager a guess as to why you would not have an in game bug report in a beta as it seems to be a pretty good way to get a bull's eye on problems, especially if your bug report went to the Devs with a time and location stamp and any other relevant information. If this was implemented you'd have to have some way to quickly mark a bug in battle and then go back and fill it in, but I'm sure there's a way to do that if they wanted to. And then the team would have the advantage of getting bugs without having to wade through opinions and trolls. But um yea...

Edited June 11, 2013 by Carcharias

[Razorfire]

Out of curiosity... You a solo player?

 

Most bugs I find happen in the heat of battle, when there's no time to pause... And even if it wasn't in an immediate battle, I'm sure my teammates wouldn't be waiting for me to finish filling out a bug report form with useful details on what the bug was. I'd be left behind. This isn't so much an issue for me, since I use one of the fastest frames and can easily utilize exploits to move much faster, but it is pretty bad for other players who have a hard enough time keeping up as it is.

 

IMO, better to just fill out a detailed bug report here on the forums. Less convenient for you, but better overall.

 

Yes, I'm solo, but that's not the point.

I hear you, but this is a BETA. The devs are asking us to report bugs and problems.

I for one would like to improve the game, and smooth out the rough patches. 

A bug reporting tool would point out real game bugs, and filter out user failures. Real time bug reporting would be a real value to everyone, cut down on bug hunting for the devs and allow them to focus on development and storyline. It might be inconvenient for the team, but over time, pausing to file a bug report would occur less and less as the devs stomp on them with our help. It'll also help with the architectural on the mission maps as well. By standing on the flaw, the devs can correct it quickly, rather than spending several hours trying to hunt it down. There are several corners and ramps I have to 'work around' to get past them, and then there's the storage containers and lockers that are messed up, such as being buried in the floor, or the 'x' tag being positioned poorly to open lockers.

 

In game bug reports can only help improve our gaming experience over time.

[RyojinOrion]

Yes, I'm solo, but that's not the point.

I hear you, but this is a BETA. The devs are asking us to report bugs and problems.

I for one would like to improve the game, and smooth out the rough patches. 

A bug reporting tool would point out real game bugs, and filter out user failures. Real time bug reporting would be a real value to everyone, cut down on bug hunting for the devs and allow them to focus on development and storyline. It might be inconvenient for the team, but over time, pausing to file a bug report would occur less and less as the devs stomp on them with our help. It'll also help with the architectural on the mission maps as well. By standing on the flaw, the devs can correct it quickly, rather than spending several hours trying to hunt it down. There are several corners and ramps I have to 'work around' to get past them, and then there's the storage containers and lockers that are messed up, such as being buried in the floor, or the 'x' tag being positioned poorly to open lockers.

 

In game bug reports can only help improve our gaming experience over time.

 

It wouldn't do anything that the one reporting couldn't do as things are now... Except cause inconvenience to multiple people.

[Razorfire]

It wouldn't do anything that the one reporting couldn't do as things are now... Except cause inconvenience to multiple people.

 

That's not true. It would provide a great deal more data then the way things are done now, and the data would be considerably more precise and it would also be the data that the devs want and need rather than "somewhere on a map there is a bug of some kind." Plowing through forum postings isn't exactly what I'd call efficient. 

 

I'm sorry you'd feel inconvenienced by it, but this is in beta after all. As I've said, that inconvenience will happen less and less over time as the tool helps the devs pinpoint issues and correct them.

[liavalenth]

Good idea, if people do not like it when in the game don't use it. If people do like it, use it. I do not see how adding options is ever a bad thing (unless they unbalance the game).

[RyojinOrion]

That's not true. It would provide a great deal more data then the way things are done now,

 

 

Please tell me what it could possibly provide that can't be provided by a detailed report on the forums.  XYZ Coordinates? Only if you stop the game right when and where the bug is occurring, and that is not likely to happen in the heat of battle. A simple screenshot would be faster and provides the location just as well, which admittedly, is not very well, but it also doesn't inconvenience the player or any of their teammates because you don't have to stop in the middle of the game and write out a report. You just capture the shot to post it in a report after the mission is over. The specific bug? Not likely, people can easily just say "a bug of some kind happened here" without details on what the bug actually is.

 

 

Plowing through forum postings isn't exactly what I'd call efficient. 

 

 

There's hardly a difference between looking in the General Bugs section threads and looking in a report list. They essentially do the same thing, but the forums have the added bonus of users being able to reply to the reports, which helps indicate the more common/important ones.

 

 

 As I've said, that inconvenience will happen less and less over time as the tool helps the devs pinpoint issues and correct them.

 

Like I said before, it wouldn't help any more than the current system. It would, however, make the game much less fun due to the inconvenience of having to completely stop playing the game to report a bug or wait for a teammate to finish reporting a bug.

[Razorfire]

Please tell me what it could possibly provide that can't be provided by a detailed report on the forums.  XYZ Coordinates? Only if you stop the game right when and where the bug is occurring, and that is not likely to happen in the heat of battle. A simple screenshot would be faster and provides the location just as well, which admittedly, is not very well, but it also doesn't inconvenience the player or any of their teammates because you don't have to stop in the middle of the game and write out a report. You just capture the shot to post it in a report after the mission is over. The specific bug? Not likely, people can easily just say "a bug of some kind happened here" without details on what the bug actually is.

 

 

 

 

There's hardly a difference between looking in the General Bugs section threads and looking in a report list. They essentially do the same thing, but the forums have the added bonus of users being able to reply to the reports, which helps indicate the more common/important ones.

 

 

 

Like I said before, it wouldn't help any more than the current system. It would, however, make the game much less fun due to the inconvenience of having to completely stop playing the game to report a bug or wait for a teammate to finish reporting a bug.

 

Well, no one says that YOU have to use it, or that you have to be on a team with some one that may use it. It's optional. Vote with your feet, m'kay?

 

As for the rest of it, you're quite wrong.

 

The way I understand it, the mission maps are modular and randomly generated, for the most part. The dev may want to know what map module the bug occurred. Also, it's possible to have a log of activity bracketing a certain time frame, say +/- a minute? Two minutes?

 

The trick about bug hunting is recreating the bug in the first place. Once that can be done, then it can be more easily found in the code. To do that, a snapshot of the current conditions that might have caused the bug would be useful.

 

Bug tracking and hunting is part art form and part research. And getting as much information on the reported bug as possible is key to finding a bug and fixing it. 

 

I won't go into detail on how to test software, but, I've had experience with it. I'd want as much detailed information I can get, and users shouldn't be my ONLY source. 

 

I don't understand why you're so resistant to the idea and working so hard to shoot it down. My suggestion was such that it can only improve the game and cut down on turn around time on finding and fixing bugs. This is a complex piece of software, and quality control needs all the tools it can get.

[RyojinOrion]

Well, no one says that YOU have to use it, or that you have to be on a team with some one that may use it. It's optional. Vote with your feet, m'kay?

 

You're right, nobody says I have to use it, but if someone on the team I am in decides they will, what then? Just quit the mission? That's just as bad as waiting. Worse, even, since I lose everything in the mission that I've gotten.

 

 

The way I understand it, the mission maps are modular and randomly generated, for the most part. The dev may want to know what map module the bug occurred. Also, it's possible to have a log of activity bracketing a certain time frame, say +/- a minute? Two minutes?

 

A screenshot will show just where it happened. What more is needed location-wise? As for the activity log... Does the game keep a detailed enough track of player actions for that to even be an argument? I don't know, and I doubt you do either.

 

 

The trick about bug hunting is recreating the bug in the first place. Once that can be done, then it can be more easily found in the code. To do that, a snapshot of the current conditions that might have caused the bug would be useful.

 

Bug tracking and hunting is part art form and part research. And getting as much information on the reported bug as possible is key to finding a bug and fixing it. 

 

I won't go into detail on how to test software, but, I've had experience with it. I'd want as much detailed information I can get, and users shouldn't be my ONLY source.

 

I'm no noob to testing. Along with various nonpaid testing experiences, I also had a professional job doing just that. Volt Technical Resources in Redmond, Washington. But all that and what I quoted directly above this paragraph is irrelevant to the idea being discussed.

 

 

 

I don't understand why you're so resistant to the idea and working so hard to shoot it down. My suggestion was such that it can only improve the game and cut down on turn around time on finding and fixing bugs. This is a complex piece of software, and quality control needs all the tools it can get.

 

Well, there's the previous bit I mentioned about it bringing the game to a dead stop and inconveniencing the player and the player's teammates, but there's also the little fact that the one reporting is less likely to give detailed information. Why? Pressure to speed it along to continue the game. Pressure to cut corners, which leaves out information. And for what? To give you a little more convenience in reporting? It isn't worth it just for your convenience. To get more detailed information? You still have yet to name a single thing that an ingame reporting tool could give that a detailed report on the forums can't, and it sure does look like more negatives than positives to me. So until that changes, I'll be against it, simple as that.

[Razorfire]

Only one negative to several positives.

 

I did point out the reasons for such a tool, many positive and certainly low impact.

 

Anyway, that's what I'd like to see, an in game bug reporting tool.

[darktris]

I have tons of friends online but none of them see me in the Online list on the contacts idk if its something with the network or the game but somethings got to happen