Testing Incentives Program Suspension

I'll have to double check that. You make a good point. It should, as it is a different command.

 

Actually, the command on QA server is /devbug... not /debug. I'm sure that was just a typo on @Lexie 's part.

/debug is a command that works on QA or Live server that opens another tool, showing error messages, warnings, FPS statistics, etc. But that will not copy information to the clipboard and open the forums for you to post the bug.

 

Ah, /devbug makes total sense! And would have avoided me posting in the wrong forum more than once. And probably saved at least an hour of my life, just changing forums! Thanks!

 

Biggest problem with 'rare' bugs is people will sometimes say 'this happened' but I have no idea of the frequency, which helps us with priority and testing. (Another reason why I push for everyone to use the QA bug template through /bug.)
If a bug is rare but consistently happens, I'd like for people to show us any patterns they may have observed. Otherwise it leads into a lot of back and forth. It might seem completely random, so that is good to know as well. But if other people are seeing the same rare issue I hope they do a quick search and post their related information in an existing thread. Now I know forum searches are not perfect, but a quick search doesn't hurt.

If a rare bug keeps 'bugging' everyone (haha?) I'm not against putting up a sticky post dedicated to the subject, like with the 'flooded scene' issue. Especially if it is something that impacts gameplay.

But 'one offs' are problematic. Not with you, but in general. Especially when they are not updated to say the issue is now resolved. Sometimes it just takes a PC reboot and bam the problem is gone forever. It's so quick to restart a PC vs going through a lot of back and forth just to see if it is something we still need to worry about.

 

Gahhhh. Thanks. I keep doing that! I keep wanting to type debug out of habit It's DEVBUG DEVBUG DEVBUG.

 

I don't think less eyes on the game is a good thing. That is not what I'm saying at all and I'm not sure what in my post gave you that idea.

I am asking the Devs what exactly they hope to accomplish by suspending the program? Do THEY want less bug reporting so there are less duplicate reports to sift through? Do THEY think suspending the program solves the underlying problem of people not searching for an already reported bug? I am suggesting suspending the program does *not* address whatever problem they are seeing, unless they actually want fewer bug reports.

And I am suggesting that the program continue for Dev+ backers.

 

Hey @Lexie
If someone at Port would make a very quick movie of the 2 ways to submit a bug "properly", i.e. with /bug or by clicking on the "Bug envelope" at the upper right of the game window - that could help a lot.
Include pertinent info i.e. how to do good search of all the bug sub-forums at the same time, stuff like that....
Put a link to it at the top of the Bug Forum.
When you find a bug where the user has not followed the proper procedure (format) for bugs, just tag them with a link to the movie and mark the bug as "Waiting proper format" or something so you can move on to the next bug.

Actually, anyone reading this could make the movie (since I know the dev's have full plates every day), and submit it to Port for review.
At least if everyone knows the "proper" way to submit a bug - that alone would make your workload lighter.

One last thing.... Having the QA client actually GO to the QA Bug Forum and not the "current" Bug Forum would be a great start - on your part. That alone is quite annoying for something so easy to fix each QA release...

 

This is something that I always felt was broke. The client should know if it is QA and just do the right thing. I posted in the wrong area a few times just because of this. /Devbug should not exist.

 

It's /devbug and yes it does. Double check though as there have been times when it launched the release bug forum.

 

Looks like it already exists, you and I just didn't know about it yet! /devbug instead of /bug.

 

Honestly, I'm not really a fan of the opening the forum behavior. I still have to navigate to the right section, which I've already done to look existing reports (really, I do try!), so it's faster for me to work from my already open tab and close the popped-up one.

It would be different with a more dedicated system for reporting, as it could go strait to the "report" page, and fill in all the fields it can, then I could just select from a dropdown where I think it should be catagorised.

 

Thx Vlad, actually I was referring to the "Bug Envelope" that always has taken us to the "current" Bug Forum.

 

It technically always was Dev+ in a way... I stopped posting after the main rewards were only offered to the Dev+ players.. that is the Ant Farm and Chair and other things... but I got my Ant Farm through the market.. so whatevs.

 

Excuse me Sir, I have a question.

Why are the rewards given out last release the final round?

From various Dev posts, my understanding is there is a gap of about a month between when bugs are reported and when the rewards are issued. I'm using that knowledge with explaining the situation:

A few months ago, I bought a bundle with Dev+ with the full intention of getting all of these rewards. At the time there was no indication that these rewards would be given out any other way except having a Dev+ account.
In the last two months, I've worked hard to submit over 200 bug reports from testing on the Test Server. I think over 125 last month alone before the release went live.
In the first month reached "Expert Pest Controller" which was granted about a week after the last revision came out, and was patiently waiting for my rewards for the second month which as I understand are still to be distributed. With the work done so far, I was hoping to reach the Corpion Chair and Royal Pest Controller title.

I can understand why you'd suspend this for the upcoming release, but you have now apparently (see assumption above) retroactively and without advance warning nullified my efforts toward getting those rewards. THAT WAS A LOT OF WORK. And now, apparently, they might never be attainable.

Please consider that fair is fair, and that this was supposed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement (hence, rewards system), and that if there are rewards to be distributed, they should be. There were many people working along with me trying to achieve the same.

 

Just want to chime in with rare bugs... if I encounter something in one release cannot reeproduce it and it happens in the next release am I supposed to create new bug report or update the old one?

Another issue is that even if I know I posted bug report some releases ago, it is really hard to search for the thread. That is my issue in general because easy way to overview my past bug reports and see if they were responded to would be incredibly handy for me.

 

You do know we have no different access to you guys right?

 

Yes. Which, actually, supports what he said.

 

thats not how it read to me considering the rest of the sentance was " but not something for average person" which to me says we can do something others dont.

 

Yes. Point beeing is: we all had to work with unsufficent tools.
That's all i wanted to say.

 

well this is disappointed as i was still working on my title etc >.< that and the fact that reporting bugs tended to be confusing in the extreme. a form etc for such reports would be helpful but whatever.