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Forums > Home› Star Trek Online General Discussion

Why not realease bug patches little by little?

mrspam404mrspam404 Member Posts: 58 Arc User
edited June 2013 in Star Trek Online General Discussion
So cryptic is now working on patching the bugs in the game which is supposed to come in a big bug patch "sometime" this month. WHY? Why not release patches for the bugs as you know they are ready? Why make us wait till you fix everything you want to fix all at once. You have no problems taking the server down for stability patches, why don't you do the same for some of these game breaking bugs too?

I just think its crazy to make everyone wait till you fix mail,ra's, ce, all the other broken pve missions,etc,etc,etc. Really, I'm seriously hoping for a response by someone at Cryptic as to why you can't release patches as they are ready and not hold on to them for a big bug patch.
Post edited by mrspam404 on

Comments

  • captainrevo1captainrevo1 Member Posts: 3,948 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    I have wondered this as its what they have done in the past. the only thing that i can really think of is lots of little patches run the risk of breaking new stuff every time they release one (which has happened before).

    one big patch they take their time on might be just safer all round.
  • anazondaanazonda Member Posts: 8,399 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    captainrevo1 wrote: »
    one big patch they take their time on might be just safer all round.

    This... From experience, I can tell you that a large, well build patch is always the safer choice, since you can release all the fixes in a package that has be cross tested with each other.

    Smaller, more often patches tend to allow for more bugs.
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  • drogyn1701drogyn1701 Member Posts: 3,606 Media Corps
    edited June 2013
    They are, or rather they will.

    Check out the June 3 and 4 patch notes for Tribble. Likely they'll come to holodeck soon.
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  • mrspam404mrspam404 Member Posts: 58 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Yes I see with today's announcment of the patch tomorrow takes care most of the big bugs that have been out now for 2 weeks, so I'll be happy come tomorrow. Or I should be anyways. Good job Cryptic. When I heard sometime this month, I assumed it would be later rather than sooner, so good job getting this out.
  • sekritagentsekritagent Member Posts: 510 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    If Cryptic's engineering is worth a damn...

    It might be QA's availability that's driving it. Every time a new patch is released, it's probably double effort on a) anyone who has to deploy the code to both Tribble and Holodeck, and b) QA probably has to test the new stuff AND regression test the whole build for major features working and known trouble spots. It's less effort overall for both QA and whoever's managing the releases to batch them up, frustrating as it is that so many things were reported but went live anyway.

    I would think there'd be plenty of QA contractors who would work for decent prices but god only knows what Cryptic is paying to put up with their rushed production schedules. We've said over and over that we wouldn't mind a little less stuff if it were of higher quality, but like everything about STO, Cryptic doesn't give a damn and does whatever they want.

    The blame for the massive amount of bugs sits on two people:
    • Stephen D'Angelo for allowing such poor production practices with NO IMPROVEMENT for 4 years (I hope he's amazing at something because this is just...)
    • Daniel Stahl for letting the schedule be rushed this way and not defending the team's ability to deliver quality stuff to the players
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  • macroniusmacronius Member Posts: 2,526
    edited June 2013
    Patching 1-2 issues at a time is safer in my experience (dev talking here). Cluster f of changes all at once is guaranteed to break other things. Also this is a company with not such a good track record.

    If the product is well engineered, there is no reason that patch X to fix email should have any effect on patch y to PvE queues for example. Obviously, integration testing is a must but integrating 1-2 changes is a lot simpler to verify that a dozen.

    I predict mayhem tomorrow and more outages. Let's hope I am wrong.
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  • tacofangstacofangs Member Posts: 2,951 Cryptic Developer
    edited June 2013
    http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=10631381&postcount=61

    Game breaking bugs will be fixed (look at today's patch notes), the non-game breaking kind, will be delayed.

    It's not about wanting to release bug fixes all at once, it's about not wanting to introduce new bugs while we're working on the important ones.
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  • delerouxdeleroux Member Posts: 478 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Because pushing out builds little by little is incredibly inefficient as far as development workflow goes. You do realize they have to compile each new build before pushing it out to live. If they did this for every single minor change they made, it'd take forever to get anything done.

    Moreover, not all bugs are classified equally. Developers use bug priority based on how game breaking or significant a bug is. Some bugs will be literally approved to be pushed to live.
  • imadoctornotaimadoctornota Member Posts: 469 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    anazonda wrote: »
    This... From experience, I can tell you that a large, well build patch is always the safer choice, since you can release all the fixes in a package that has be cross tested with each other.

    Smaller, more often patches tend to allow for more bugs.

    As they say in construction and carpentry (probably tailors say it too) "measure twice, cut once."
    Thanks for the expansion that had "as much content as the last"
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  • dracounguisdracounguis Member Posts: 5,358 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    2 weeks to fix major bugs. very sad.
    Are we going to get something to compensate for the 30 minutes we'll have to take when the server comes back up JUST to delete 2 weeks worth of Exchange Item Sold messages?
  • ask4spock1ask4spock1 Member Posts: 135 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    tacofangs wrote: »
    http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=10631381&postcount=61

    Game breaking bugs will be fixed (look at today's patch notes), the non-game breaking kind, will be delayed.

    It's not about wanting to release bug fixes all at once, it's about not wanting to introduce new bugs while we're working on the important ones.


    Even a medical doctor will want to stabilize the patient before operating.

    Whether it is the game or in a person if you don't stabilize either you may incur far more issues.
  • imadoctornotaimadoctornota Member Posts: 469 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    ask4spock1 wrote: »
    Even a medical doctor will want to stabilize the patient before operating.

    Whether it is the game or in a person if you don't stabilize either you may incur far more issues.

    Medical analogies don't always work when you're talking about finicky technology.
    Thanks for the expansion that had "as much content as the last"
    9 Episodes = 30+ episodes...?
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    It's pronounced "S.T.O." "Stow" sounds idiotic! lol
  • danteandersendanteandersen Member Posts: 44 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    dracounguis wrote: »
    2 weeks to fix major bugs. very sad.
    Are we going to get something to compensate for the 30 minutes we'll have to take when the server comes back up JUST to delete 2 weeks worth of Exchange Item Sold messages?

    You whine about two weeks before bug fixes for major bugs are up... go ask a Champions Online player how that bug fix for "A Bullet Bound for Biselle" zone event is coming along. You know, the bug where the event doesn't ever work... the bug that has been in game for over a YEAR!

    But yeah, please feel free to whine and moan how it took two long weeks for Cryptic to put out a major bug fix for STO :rolleyes:


    -END OF LINE
  • gonjaagonjaa Member Posts: 126 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Every new build introduces new bugs. Limiting the number of builds you need to release is key.

    Someone above mentioned compiling. Most people don't understand the time and physical resources it takes to compile something this large, good call on that although the bugs point is probably #1.

    New code cannot be introduced ad-lib either, everything needs to be coordinated carefully. The worst case for a gaming shop is to have one hand not know what the other is up to.
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