STO team needs to redo personnel

xuel · December 2014

You guys at STO needs to redo your personnel team, and move people from development to fixing buggs. Game does not need more content at this point, what it needs is these buggs fixed that's been in game for years. Please no more passively fixing buggs and spend a whole month or two to getting them fixed, then work on next season.

drazursouthclaw · December 2014

"We need MORE buggy content RIGHT NOW - don't worry about fixing the stuff that's in the game!" said nobody ever.

geckoisalizard · December 2014

It's too bad they lost hawk, he was their most intelligent programmer. Bug fixes and balancing was possible if he was around.

starkaos · December 2014

There is a large amount of specialization involved in being a dev. Tacofangs probably knows about as much about fixing bugs as the average person. Therefore, he would be limited to fixing holes in the environment. It is not as simple as moving personnel around. So Cryptic would either have to lay off a bunch of devs and hire a bunch of new devs to have a Season of just bug fixes or hire a bunch of new devs and a lot of the current devs would have nothing to do.

virusdancer · December 2014

xuel wrote: »

You guys at STO needs to redo your personnel team, and move people from development to fixing buggs. Game does not need more content at this point, what it needs is these buggs fixed that's been in game for years. Please no more passively fixing buggs and spend a whole month or two to getting them fixed, then work on next season.

But then STO would lose its special charm and we'd have to find something else to complain about...

Well, not that we would have to look far or anything, but still...

starkaos · December 2014

virusdancer wrote: »

But then STO would lose its special charm and we'd have to find something else to complain about...

Well, not that we would have to look far or anything, but still...

We can always complain about it being 10 months since content has been added just like in 2011.

jbmonroe · December 2014

xuel wrote: »

You guys at STO needs to redo your personnel team, and move people from development to fixing buggs. Game does not need more content at this point, what it needs is these buggs fixed that's been in game for years. Please no more passively fixing buggs and spend a whole month or two to getting them fixed, then work on next season.

Oh good--another self-presumed coding and business expert weighs in.

<rude>It's "bugs," not "buggs."</rude>

With 25 years of professional software development under my belt, I have at least a small idea of how this process works. In the Fortune 400 where I work, bugs are given both a severity and a priority, with rankings on each running from 1 to 5, where '1' is ZOMGPONIES and '5' is "meh." An S1/P1 will be scheduled for the next release (or an emergency patch, depending on whether or not revenue is involved), and an S5/P5 will probably never be fixed.

#1 fact to remember: bug fixes, while they might affect customer retention, generally do not equate to revenue generation. New features, on the other hand, do, both in terms of new player acquisition, and getting current players to reach for the wallet. Bug fixes are generally all cost, and businesses don't like things that are all cost.

In any release, the new features are laid out, and bug fix candidates are placed on the table and debated. (Again, I'm speaking from the standpoint of how it works for me, not how it works at Cryptic.) The team estimates the number of hours required to code and test the new features, and whatever hours might be left over in the schedule are devoted to bug fixes. Bug fixes make the list according to time estimates, and their S/P ranking.

Generally new coding and maintenance coding are done by the same team, so I don't know why you think Cryptic would need to replace the current coding team with one that (somehow) is better at fixing bugs. (Ain't no such beast, in my long experience.) In fact, you want the main-line team fixing bugs, because they know the software better than any brought-in-from-outside "bug fix" team, that would need 90+ days to sort things out before making the smallest code change. No company, no matter how flush with cash, would keep their main team idle for the length of time it would take a bug-fix tiger team to come up to speed and make the fixes. In most cases, maintenance coders are not top-line coders, either, so creating a tiger team from the second string players isn't all that great an idea.

What I see in STO (and infer from the way bug fixes are published) seems to me to be just about the industry norm. That might not make you happy--but the mission isn't to make you happy. (It isn't my mission, certainly.) It's nice that you took the time to express your opinion. It would have been nicer had you been able to express an informed opinion.

eiledon · December 2014

jbmonroe wrote: »

-snip-

And this is why the forum needs a +1 emote ;D very nice post.

vsilverwings1 · December 2014

Perhaps Tacofangs and fix those gaps in to outer space in KA :P (which is meant to be underground

....)

jbmonroe wrote: »

Oh good--another self-presumed coding and business expert weighs in.

<rude>It's "bugs," not "buggs."</rude>

With 25 years of professional software development under my belt, I have at least a small idea of how this process works. In the Fortune 400 where I work, bugs are given both a severity and a priority, with rankings on each running from 1 to 5, where '1' is ZOMGPONIES and '5' is "meh." An S1/P1 will be scheduled for the next release (or an emergency patch, depending on whether or not revenue is involved), and an S5/P5 will probably never be fixed.

#1 fact to remember: bug fixes, while they might affect customer retention, generally do not equate to revenue generation. New features, on the other hand, do, both in terms of new player acquisition, and getting current players to reach for the wallet. Bug fixes are generally all cost, and businesses don't like things that are all cost.

In any release, the new features are laid out, and bug fix candidates are placed on the table and debated. (Again, I'm speaking from the standpoint of how it works for me, not how it works at Cryptic.) The team estimates the number of hours required to code and test the new features, and whatever hours might be left over in the schedule are devoted to bug fixes. Bug fixes make the list according to time estimates, and their S/P ranking.

Generally new coding and maintenance coding are done by the same team, so I don't know why you think Cryptic would need to replace the current coding team with one that (somehow) is better at fixing bugs. (Ain't no such beast, in my long experience.) In fact, you want the main-line team fixing bugs, because they know the software better than any brought-in-from-outside "bug fix" team, that would need 90+ days to sort things out before making the smallest code change. No company, no matter how flush with cash, would keep their main team idle for the length of time it would take a bug-fix tiger team to come up to speed and make the fixes. In most cases, maintenance coders are not top-line coders, either, so creating a tiger team from the second string players isn't all that great an idea.

What I see in STO (and infer from the way bug fixes are published) seems to me to be just about the industry norm. That might not make you happy--but the mission isn't to make you happy. (It isn't my mission, certainly.) It's nice that you took the time to express your opinion. It would have been nicer had you been able to express an informed opinion.

Even an uneducated person in the field like me has learned that fixing bugs doesn't make money, making more content does and why I just don't bother I do my best to work around the bugs or just not touch the content. That is to say we can be told "up yours, we aren't fixiing bugs" but that doesn't mean people will stick around to play either.

As Chris from STOked said way, wya ,WAY back, "vote with your wallets". The time will come when they may well start fixing bugs as an overhaul or probably more likely more sales, more events and more content with a variable amount of bugs to retain water in a bucket full of holes....or just close the game completely whichever is more profitable.

If players pay for buggy content then we'll keep getting it.

dylantrinidy · December 2014

The game is a bug infested disease of pandemic proportions, how many bugs can you count before you even log in? lets see while still on the character selection screen the class symbol never shows up for most characters, the current costume your character is wearing never shows up it's always an old one you might have worn at some point, you bridge officers in the character selection screen are not carrying their weapons or rarely wearing current uniform, the ship above your character can sometimes be the wrong or not there at all so basically anything that can go wrong on the selection screen is bugged and that's before you even log in.

ok guys defend it

Unknown · December 2014

This content has been removed.

dylantrinidy · December 2014

darthmeow504 wrote: »

Simple: How much would YOU pay, out of your pocket, to fix these issues? If the answer is none, because you'd rather put up with it than pay real money to deal with it, then congratulations you have grown your first clue.

I'll put it language even you can understand

Game works more people buy things

Game doesn't work less people buy things

STO team needs to redo personnel

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