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Is it time to incentivize people with rewards to bug report properly during testing?
iamannoyingdevil
Member Posts: 336 Arc User
As we all know module six brought a lot of major bugs and exploits into the game and from what I have heard many of these were known about well before the module was launched but were never reported which has lead to the developers having to spend development time fixing problems that could have been dealt with before launch , this also happened in several of the previous modules too to one extent or another , so is it time to give incentives to people who test upcoming content to report bugs? I have no idea what the incentives could be but I'm sure there are lots of things that they could reward good testers with.
Alternatively the developers could close the preview server and choose testers who will be able to log onto it to test content and report bugs and exploits properly , at the moment it seems the majority of people simply go on there during new module testing with no other goal but to find exploits and bugs that they can take advantage of the second the module goes live and the whole thing is getting tiresome now.
Alternatively the developers could close the preview server and choose testers who will be able to log onto it to test content and report bugs and exploits properly , at the moment it seems the majority of people simply go on there during new module testing with no other goal but to find exploits and bugs that they can take advantage of the second the module goes live and the whole thing is getting tiresome now.
Post edited by iamannoyingdevil on
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You are trying to incentivise the wrong people. And as one of the few who does bother to go on Preview and do testing I highly resent your ludicrous suggestion that people only go there to learn new exploits. Again, a simple visit to the Preview forum would quickly cure your ignorance.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
I also didn't say everybody who goes on there only to find exploits , I know many people who do take huge amounts of time and effort to go through act logs and various builds in order to report broken powers and synergy's but pretending that a large number don't go on there specifically to find bugs and exploits pre release is also pretty ludicrous and it is getting to the point where pre release discovered bugs not only ruin the enjoyment of the game for other players but also impact on the developers development time due to the having to fix game breaking bugs that were discovered pre release and should have and in all likelihood would have been fixed pre release if reported.
So two of the three things you are complaining about were/are barely used (not an excuse I know, but you act like everyone is going to spend every waking moment they have on the preview server testing EVERYTHING) and the third one you actually had to get a coordinated team of 70's with semi decent gear together to run the dungeon for a chance to get (and on the preview no less).
To top it off a rather large portion of the bugs that were reported well before the module went live weren't fixed until after the live date, which doesn't exactly incentivize people to go test new content in the first place. My assumption is that if these bugs had been found and reported on the preview server before mod 6 launch we would still be exactly where we are right now and they wouldn't have been resolved before launch much like most of the other bugs mod 6 brought.
People reported problems. It is PWE dev cannot act fast enough.
Giving incentive to people who reports bugs is nice but it does not really eliminate the "bad" people you are talking about.
If these "bad" people exist, it gives them even more incentive to hit 2 birds with one stone. i.e. use the exploits to take advantage and report the exploits to get the "reward". There is always a time gap between report and fix.
Still they're there in the release...
My main point, however, was the vast number of serious - even game-breaking - bugs and exploits that were reported weeks/months ahead of Mod 6 launch and still made it into the game. The devs are not having to fix these bugs on Live because they were not reported - they are having to fix them on Live because they chose to do so.
Get it now?
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
Star Trek Online *used* to at least offer players to play-tested things on the Preview Test Server nice little trinkets like pets and whatnot, but even that is just 'icing on the cake' that should't be expected.
AFAIK Cryptic's licensing agreement with WotC contractually obliges them to stick to the publishing schedule of the PnP expansions. Same basic thing happened with Tiamat earlier, and tbh I wouldn't be surprised if the devs plain threw their hands up in disgust and quit over being forced to try to meet tight deadlines with too little manpower or something similar. But that's behind-the-scenes office drama we can't know about until perhaps one day an embittered former employee publishes a caustic "tell-all" story with due partiality issues.
The point is the whole debacle has the whiff of Management about it. And not in a good way.
plus it isn't like they make it easy testing. the only thing you get is free respecs. that's IT. if you want to test higher rank artifacts or higher tank enchantments you have to MAKE them, the hard way. if you want to test a drop you have to get it, and seeing as how 90% of the stuff wasn't doable on preview (ie tiamat, most t1/t2 dungeons) it simply wasn't possible to test things properly.
Anyone remember Caturday? Yeah, that bug was reported on these very forums. Players even pointed out that it was a bug that had existed in STO previously, caused similar troubles there, and was fixed there, before this game even launched.
I'll never understand it, it's not just that they aren't paying attention to players. That's fine, paying too much attention to players can be more destructive than completely ignoring them. But when painfully obvious, game-breaking bugs are routinely slipping through in-house quality assurance AND players' reports fall on deaf ears there's a serious problem with development. At this point, though, it's to be expected.
Okay, Panic.