Error reporting... Have you reported a bug today?

[eno 1049]

While many of us are busy enjoying the game for our own separate reasons I think many of us also sometimes forget what we're doing here in Alpha- or at least what we're "supposed to be doing." Me included. 

 

I'll go in game for hours at a time and experience half a dozen bugs- maybe more- and bitch about it a bit then move on with my game routine. But for the HOURS I spend in world with my fingers on shift W running from place to place, how much time do I spend in the bug reporting page actually contributing to making it better? 

 

Not a ton... but one of my new year game resolutions is that for every session I spend in game for, say, an hour or more that I spend 10-15 minutes going through the bug tracker and either up-voting issues that have affected me, or adding some that I don't see in the first few pages. If it's a dupe, then it'll be merged by the team managing the page... what do you have to lose that you weren't already willing to give up by playing the alpha in the first place?  

 

I think I often just take it for granted that some of the more enthusiastic bug chasers in the game will end up reporting any bug that impacts my play experience and that by some magic that bug will end up getting fixed. 

 

In some cases, perhaps this is true- In many other cases it won't. A little additional weight in votes can help to differ attention from a smaller issue to a more critical one... These guys can't do it alone.

 

In exchange for this added vigilance on our part I'm hoping the dev team can go ahead and freshen up the reporting page slightly to account for the emergence of Windows 10... and merge the product / game version entries to reflect current stable and exp game versions. 

 

One last quick note of gratitude to the guys that are really committed to finding, testing / taxing and reporting issues and the hours upon hours of inevitable monotony this can cause. As we enter the new year, the work you're putting in (and that which I hope to contribute to) will be helping to make all of our experiences in game that much "moar beta!" 

 

Anyone else, like me, feeling like they could do a bit more? Is a few extra minutes a reasonable and practicable commitment to make?

 

[Red_Ensign 990]

I actually don't run into bugs that aren't already reported.  I wish there was a place to report design decisions I fucking despise *coughcoughfuckinghotbarcough*.

[eno 1049]

I actually don't run into bugs that aren't already reported.  I wish there was a place to report design decisions I fucking despise *coughcoughfuckinghotbarcough*.

 

Reports are one part of it- upvotes are the second. 

 

As for the hotbar- there's a category called "feature request." Post your idea and nothing will happen. Ever. 

 

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut if the entire community goes in there, sees your idea and upvotes it- well, you see where I'm going with that. If we get anywhere even near the middle with the whole concept of reporting and upvoting then we'd be doing pretty well.

 

Upvotes are important too!  

Edited December 31, 2015 by ENO75

[pilgrim* 3514]

I agree ENO75

 

For a start: It would be a good thing if error reporting was was greatly simplified

I KNOW many folk on the forum want to report a bug, and don't understand why their account doesn't work, then can't find if the error is already reported, then can't figure out how to add to that report, or start a new one, or which of those they SHOULD do, or how -  or they can see it listed in importance, but cant find the text, or where to write, & etc..

 

The explanations on navigation are amazingly totally unhelpful - they are deliberately written by depraved media-experts and evil behavioral-psychologists to completely stop and prevent players from reporting bugs unless the reporter is so desperate, and thinks the bug incident is so life-and-death vital, that he WILL spend 2 hours hour doing it (or ask other people for help)... Mainly they abandon it. Sometimes they persist with determination and manage to make a partial record of what they intended.

 

I have seen that forum members have even followed a link to a bug report simply to up-vote it, and then just can't do it..

 

A SIMPLE 1-2-3 explanation of how to do that, would be a MAJOR ADVANCE

IMO around 80%+  from the forum who go to report a bug, or to up-vote, finally just give up. Most players don't do it.

 

xx

Edited December 31, 2015 by pilgrim

[eno 1049]

Yeah, you just described my introduction to the whole system. I eventually persevered but many don't for all the reasons you've described and more. 

[emuthreat 2839]

I agree ENO75

 

For a start: It would be a good thing if error reporting was was greatly simplified

I KNOW many folk on the forum want to report a bug, and don't understand why their account doesn't work, then can't find if the error is already reported, then can't figure out how to add to that report, or start a new one, or which of those they SHOULD do, or how -  or they can see it listed in importance, but cant find the text, or where to write, & etc..

 

The explanations on navigation are amazingly totally unhelpful - they are deliberately written by depraved media-experts and evil behavioral-psychologists to completely stop and prevent players from reporting bugs unless the reporter is so desperate, and thinks the bug incident is so life-and-death vital, that he WILL spend 2 hours hour doing it (or ask other people for help)... Mainly they abandon it. Sometimes they persist with determination and manage to make a partial record of what they intended.

 

I have seen that forum members have even followed a link to a bug report simply to up-vote it, and then just can't do it..

 

A SIMPLE 1-2-3 explanation of how to do that, would be a MAJOR ADVANCE

IMO around 80%+  from the forum who go to report a bug, or to up-vote, finally just give up. Most players don't do it.

 

xx

It took a while for me to be able to report bugs.  I remember when I first started playing, I did not know that a separate account on the feedback tracker had to be created.  I just kept on trying to log in with my forum account, and it never worked; so I gave up.  It was by sheer chance that I thought to register a new account on the feedback tracker; about six hundred hours into my play experience.

 

Just as with all things DayZ, the learning curve for submitting bug reports is very steep, initially.  Once I figured out how to navigate the tracker, it became much more simple to submit text reports.  Sadly, the upload limit is dismally low, and there is no facilitation to embed videos and images--such as we can do on  these forums.  I'm actually planning to update some of my earlier reports with better documentation, and I will be including links to forum posts, wherein I have already embedded video documentation of the problem.  I can't help but notice the ironic inefficiency of this process.

[S3V3N 1402]

I report my bugs on the forum. So other players can avoid them. Fixing them is for the devs. I assume they play their own game, too. 

[eno 1049]

  I can't help but notice the ironic inefficiency of this process.

 

So much this ^. 

 

 

I assume they play their own game, too. 

 

Funny thing about that- I do remember Hicks talking in an interview awhile ago that he plays a couple hours in the morning if not every day then frequently. Sets up his cup of coffee and goes in- if he's not playing, maybe he's watching streamers- don't recall exactly but most of you in this thread so far probably remember the reference. He's not the whole dev team, of course... but a person would HAVE to assume that the folks working on bug mashing are using streamers and video recorders as a window into various reported bugs and glitches. 

 

One of the things that surprised me was his genuine surprise as he watches streamers and some of the glitches and bugs he notices that he either wasn't aware of or wasn't aware so severely affected gameplay. (This isn't to put words in his mouth- I just remember being surprised at the general comment). 

 

I think that's what makes the upvotes so important- yet I look at them now and it's the same issues from last year... back when it was new and fresh. People aren't in there upvoting anymore... as a result that list never really refreshes (unfortunately a lot of the things upvoted the most are still issues lol but that's another issue). 

[S3V3N 1402]

I used a feedback tracker last time on a game I was actually working on myself. I was getting paid and it was in my best interest to see the game release to good publicity. I forgot which tracker it was, but it was similar to the one from Dayz. It's fine to have that same system available publicly, but Dayz made enough money with pre-sales and will make lots of money again, so I'm a little bit annoyed about how cheapskate the devs are on that part of the development. I expect that during beta phase there will be some professional testers involved in the progress. Even though that isn't the solution for everything, it should help making a better game (EA uses teams of gametesters, too - mostly in low-loan environments/low cost countries - doesn't help their rushed developments, but imagine AC without testers...it would not work in the timeframe). I bought Dayz to play it, not to playtest it. It's voluntary. I appreciate your goals and effort with this thread, but I'm of sound believe that they can't resolve the issues with Dayz through a feedback tracker. A lot of it comes down to bad synchronisation between the different teams/members (which got a lot better in this past year) and to some extend the devs not knowing their own game well enough.

 

We can't expect them to do all the work, but it is my belief that game developers should play their own games over and over again and test their new functionality thoroughly. A screenwriter reads his book over and over too and makes corrections all the time, until he knows his script by heart. You can't iterate without knowing what is wrong in the first place. What the feedback tracker should really be used for are exceptions from the rule and truly unique bugs. Instead it is a highground for common bugs and known issues; an alrounder, instead of a specialized tool. That waters down its usefulness even more, instead of amplifying it. The devs need to develop rules for testing each item they introduce based on always the same parameters. Once these are in place, they can apply to every new item and only odd exceptions need to be reported through the tracker. I know this is difficult to accept, but they are still treating parts of the development as though it was a mod. It's not helping their work become more accurate and is unnecessary work on our part.  

Edited December 31, 2015 by S3V3N

[eno 1049]

-snip

 

While I don't necessarily agree with what you're saying at certain levels- I can appreciate why you said it and acknowledge that your outlook does describe a great number of things that are wrong with the way they've implemented the bug reporting system. It's completely inadequate to the task but it's "what we have" so I'll use it as best I can.

 

I'm going to continue to recommend that folks at least go in there, create their new "bug report" login and make it the same information as their forum account- get your browser to remember it and you can seamlessly enter it in the future. Find familiar bugs... upvote them. Leave comments. A guy is reporting that the sun is too big and that's not something you think is a big deal? Ignore it. Downvote it... whatever. You see someone reports a glitch that gets you killed at random times while you're interacting with vehicles and this JUST happened to you? Upvote it. Comment. 

 

Or do nothing. Keep playing. Like you said- it's voluntary. 

 

We've made it this far and while it's not perfect it must have achieved something since BIS has seen no need to improve it- or maybe they are in the background. Maybe they have a new system planned for the beta? Maybe their current reporting system is ALSO an alpha? Mind. Blown. 

 

As Emu mentioned earlier- one thing I continue to have such a hard time with is the fact that BIS provided a very early access title to the public and then never really adjusted its reporting process to accommodate the need for more comprehensive reporting tools and procedures. Hopefully it's something they're working on if they're at all interested in getting more objective and applicable input.

Edited January 1, 2016 by ENO75

[Ahnìon- 0]

My forum account was surprisingly gone and now I have registered the same nickname as before. Was all forum accounts purged or was it only me?