Crashing: Let's Have Discussions About The Repercussions

[THISALIASHASNOSPACES]

Mission statement

 

This will be a discussion about the issue of game crashes. In particular, the ramifications of a crash in terms of gameplay. It is not a direct performance bug oriented thread, however...

 

For this issue to gain any traction, it's going to need to remain here in the Performance Bugs forum. Here it will grace the eyes of every victim of a crash, and allow them to have their say. Move this topic to another forum and it will quickly sink beneath the interests of those who are not being affected by frequent and game-ruining crashes.

 

I sincerely hope you fair and just Warframe forum moderators recognise the merits of this plea.

 

 

Body

 

Games crash. Especially new ones. I don't need to state the normality of games in which a percentage of users experience crashes. It's a fact of gaming and game development.

 

We're lucky here, in Warframe land, to have such a responsive and dedicated bunch of devs running the show. Believe me, we're lucky.

 

I could pretend to give an analysis of the crash and fix track record for Warframe, but I'd look silly. I don't know the track record. The dev team (or at least a part of it) probably does have some grasp of the magnitude of the amount of players experiencing crashes, as well as the rate that new crash-causing-bugs are created against the rate that crashes are resolved. I also realise that performance issues, particularly crashing, isn't as black and white as I have just summarised. Regardless, this thread is here to discuss what happens when a player crashes.

 

 

To my knowledge, limited may it be, when a player crashes during a mission they:

 

Lose any mods earned during that mission.

 

(Possibly) Lose any experience gained during that mission. (Happened to me on several occasions)

 

(Possibly) Fail/Quit the mission, having the fail/quit recorded. (Unsure)

 

 

As I understand it, the loss of earned mods is a consequence of quitting/failing a mission (with exceptions). This consequence is more or less accepted as fair.

 

This consequence, when caused by a crash however, is largely accepted as unfair as it is in no way the fault of the player in most cases.

 

I recognise how much of this thread is spelling out the obvious.

 

This consequence is what makes a Warframe that crashes frequently a largely time-wasting experience. Players roll the dice whenever they embark on a mission, particularly long missions, as to whether or not they will get to rightfully keep any spoils they may earn. In a game that installs its progression longevity mechanic in RNGeneration, it is a woefully brutal blow to be served the rare mod you've been after for 100 hours of gameplay only to have it revoked by a crash. What are the odds of seeing that mod again? Roll the 400 sided die. 

 

This consequence makes a Warframe crash worth potentially tens of hours of gameplay, while a crash during the latest            Diablo clone multiplayer session bears the repercussions of nought but restarting the game. A crash during the latest MMO bears the repercussions of, at most, the mild inconvenience of dying.

 

Are the devs convinced that the percentage of affected players and crash resolution rate of Warframe is good enough to let this consequence continue? That is a question that only they can provide an answer to.

 

If that answer is no, all that we can do is help them to design functionality that circumvents this very real and very dire consequence of crashing.

 

TL;DR: Crashing takes all of your mods away and is not your fault. Crashing is bad. Please try to making crashing less likely to make a player put the game down, rather than fix the crashes.

 

Please discuss, support and/or argue to the contrary.

[Mickey1779]

We are also fortunate to have a popup upon crashing which asks what you were doing at the time the game crashed.

People need to fill this out as best they can to help the Devs diagnose, locate and fix potential bugs.

Simply hitting next, next, close to relaunch the game as quickly as possible without any attempt to state what you were doing at the time the game crashed simply because you lost nothing does not help matters.

Please take the 30 seconds it takes to type what you were doing in game at the time of the crash.

Who knows, maybe it will save you losing mods or other valuable items in the future.

[THISALIASHASNOSPACES]

I couldn't agree more. Allow me to stress the importance of the post above and its advice. Do not be intimidated by the big text box. If you cannot recognise a reliable pattern that causes your crash, type in whatever you remember doing at the time.

 

Not only is it simple, but it's probably the best thing you can do to get your crash bug fixed.