/bug reporting worthwhile?

[knowheres]

I play on the PvP Venekor server.  As most know many game mechanics exploits come out on the PvP servers which might not have been as game impacting on PvE servers.

 

Anyways I'm a very active gamer and have come across several mechanics exploits.  Based on my /petition experience and the prefabed responses, I somewhat doubt the /bug reporting avenue is worthwhile.

 

There should be a reporting avenue in which you are somehow credited for your discoveries and effort to making the game environment better.

 

Basically I am interested if their are other avenues to report game exploits other than the /bug command and if the /bug command is even reviewed.

[Freliant]

Almost all the things I have ever /bug'ed have been fixed or tweeked. It just took some time. I always make sure to put as much information on how to reproduce the bug as possible, and what my reasoning for thinking its a bug. For example, level 20 fabled armors that had the mitigation of a level 10 fabled piece (Troglodite Ribcage); it was changed next LU to be a level 10 piece of armor. I also /petitioned quite a few things that have made it into the game.

I can tell you from first hand experience that there is someone on the other end sifting through the stuff, so if you have a valid concern, /bug or /petition it.

As for "exploits" for supposed PVP infractions, you should also /petition it, cause the game is probably working as intended, but some of the features makes it way too advantageous to someone else. For example, if I mage takes his time to climb up a very hard to reach place, and nukes people, knowing fully well that he can kill them way before they can get to him. That is exploiting the enviorment, but its not a bug.

So, yes, bug reporting is very worthwhile.

[EtoilePirate]

I have known it to happen, playing as a Test regular, that certain /bug and /feedback reports will, in fact, get dev and QA folks in game sending tells, asking about things and having us help test to reproduce.Does it get you any personal glory?  No, but it sure as hell makes the game work better.  They really do read their /bug reports.

[SouthernAvenger]

For example, if I mage takes his time to climb up a very hard to reach place, and nukes people, knowing fully well that he can kill them way before they can get to him. That is exploiting the enviorment, but its not a bug. ^^^^^ Actually thats called tactics......  Have you never read Sun-Tzu's The Art of War Use your surrondings to your advantage... civilizations have been doing that forever. i.e. Castles, Great Wall of China, barb wire, yada yada yada But then again i've not pvp'd in this game. However in every other MMPORG i've pvp'd in i have used my surrondings. Then again SOE normally always considers the norm in other games exploiting in theirs.

[HanktheDwarf]

If you got to the top of a mountain through sheer will, then it's not an exploit.  If you simply jumped, crawled, and ran your way up, and anyone else can get there too, then it's not really an exploit. Because obviously, if you can nuke down, people can nuke up. But let's say your gnomish mage walks up to a rock, and instead of standing on top of it, he falls through.  He's completely invisible and untargetable to anyone, but can still target and nuke people.  That, would be an exploit.I think /bug is pretty worth while.  Granted, some take a little longer to fix than others.  If you really want to make sure you get their attention, add "PVP EXPLOIT: blah..." to the title of the bug report.

[Owlchick]

We read every single one of the /bug, /typo and /feedback reports we receive.   Personally, I start my work day off with a cup of tea (Earl Grey, though I prefer English Breakfast) and then listen to Moorgard read these reports aloud in our office.  He's handy to have around that way.

I prefer the ones that are polite and somewhat entertaining, but I don't skip around; I start at the top and work my way down the list.  Some stuff we're already aware of and have fixed/are fixing/whatever.  Some stuff is news to us which is the best kind of /bug or /typo to get...because that's why we loooove the testing community, who track down errors that we've missed.

It helps if the report is concise and gives us as much detail as you can remember.  Even better when it's something like an NPC doing something odd and you still have them targetted while you're reporting whatever it is.  The ones that can be frustrating are like, "I was in Commonlands and this orc was acting weird..." and the player waited until s/he got to Freeport East to type it all out, so now we have no general frame of reference as to where this orc might be...and certainly no idea why it's behaving any weirder than normal.  Er, usual.  Whatever.

Anyway, keep those /bugs and /typos coming! They are all read, even if it does take us time to track things down and fix them.

Oh...and some things that are reported aren't bugs at all, which might explain why it appears nothing was done about some stuff.

[Mig]

Where should we post UI feedback? In the game or on the boards?Be nice to have an option to turn on a revive conformation screen that asks you "if you are sure if you want to revive."

[Rijacki]

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Owlchick wrote:

We read every single one of the /bug, /typo and /feedback reports we receive.   Personally, I start my work day off with a cup of tea (Earl Grey, though I prefer English Breakfast) and then listen to Moorgard read these reports aloud in our office.  He's handy to have around that way.

I prefer the ones that are polite and somewhat entertaining, but I don't skip around; I start at the top and work my way down the list.  Some stuff we're already aware of and have fixed/are fixing/whatever.  Some stuff is news to us which is the best kind of /bug or /typo to get...because that's why we loooove the testing community, who track down errors that we've missed.

---

Hmm... I'll have to remember to add in some humour then.  I always strive for polite but mostly to the point without a lot of commentary most of the time.More flies with honey, though, and all that

[Ravenwind]

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Owlchick wrote:

We read every single one of the /bug, /typo and /feedback reports we receive.   Personally, I start my work day off with a cup of tea (Earl Grey, though I prefer English Breakfast) and then listen to Moorgard read these reports aloud in our office.  He's handy to have around that way.

---

I prefer Tetley tea myself.  My fiancee's British and she got me hooked on the stuff.  :smileyhappy:

[Deila]

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Migyb wrote:
Where should we post UI feedback? In the game or on the boards?

Be nice to have an option to turn on a revive conformation screen that asks you "if you are sure if you want to revive."

---

Suggestions and ideas that you think would improve the game would be a /feedback in-game.

I still think there should be a Suggestions forum out here on the boards too, since In Testing seems to get the deluge of people's ideas, though those aren't being tested on Test (which is what this forum is for - feedback on things currently on Test). There seems to be a never-ending stream of ideas though, and having a proper forum for those strikes me as a great idea.

 

[Calman]

nice to know that all the feedback is read.

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RavenwindBR wrote:

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Owlchick wrote:

We read every single one of the /bug, /typo and /feedback reports we receive.   Personally, I start my work day off with a cup of tea (Earl Grey, though I prefer English Breakfast) and then listen to Moorgard read these reports aloud in our office.  He's handy to have around that way.

---

I prefer Tetley tea myself.  My fiancee's British and she got me hooked on the stuff.  :smileyhappy:

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You really should try Yorkshire Tea, Im from Uk and it really is a nice cuppa. Best Tea i have ever had IMHO.

[Wossname]

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Owlchick wrote:

We read every single one of the /bug, /typo and /feedback reports we receive.   Personally, I start my work day off with a cup of tea (Earl Grey, though I prefer English Breakfast) and then listen to Moorgard read these reports aloud in our office.  He's handy to have around that way.

---

Yeuch! Earl Grey is the tea of Lucan himself! English Breakfast is much better

[Quinan Bellatrix]

Twinings, English Breakfast - no substitutes, except Irish Breakfast if you have a hangover.  :p

 

Oh, and yeah, bug reports are good.

[Rijacki]

I prefer green teas myself.  Loose-leaf jasmine pearls *sighs happily*

[knowheres]

Thanks for the insight.

[Barx]

Thanks for the info, Owlchick =)I always try to get every bit of information thats needed in there... most of my /bug reports are about quest oddities (a good portion of which is quests whose "Current Zone" is shown as "Unknown" when it should be some zone).I'll try to throw a bit of humor in there... and if Moorgard is reading them aloud, maybe some tongue twisters!/bugThe NPC "Moorgard" 's dialogue is bugged. For some reason, it cannot properly say:Peter piper picked a pack of pointy peckled purple peppers. She sells sea shells by the sea shore. Ramma-lamma-ding-dong.

[Calr]

It's all about English Breakfast!

[Owlchick]

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Wossname wrote:

Yeuch! Earl Grey is the tea of Lucan  Jean Luc Picard himself!

---

I prefer English Breakfast (or Irish Breakfast, which I have at home) with milk.  At the office, however, English Breakfast is not always available, so I then take Earl Grey.  Hot.

Anyway, now I've done gone and hijacked a thread and must restore it to its original trajectory.

Keep your /bug reports, cards and letters coming!

[Tyndaleon]

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Owlchick wrote:

We read every single one of the /bug, /typo and /feedback reports we receive.   Personally, I start my work day off with a cup of tea (Earl Grey, though I prefer English Breakfast) and then listen to Moorgard read these reports aloud in our office.  He's handy to have around that way.

I prefer the ones that are polite and somewhat entertaining, but I don't skip around; I start at the top and work my way down the list.  Some stuff we're already aware of and have fixed/are fixing/whatever.  Some stuff is news to us which is the best kind of /bug or /typo to get...because that's why we loooove the testing community, who track down errors that we've missed.

It helps if the report is concise and gives us as much detail as you can remember.  Even better when it's something like an NPC doing something odd and you still have them targetted while you're reporting whatever it is.  The ones that can be frustrating are like, "I was in Commonlands and this orc was acting weird..." and the player waited until s/he got to Freeport East to type it all out, so now we have no general frame of reference as to where this orc might be...and certainly no idea why it's behaving any weirder than normal.  Er, usual.  Whatever.

Anyway, keep those /bugs and /typos coming! They are all read, even if it does take us time to track things down and fix them.

Oh...and some things that are reported aren't bugs at all, which might explain why it appears nothing was done about some stuff.

---

OC, one question from someone who hasn't played on TC here (but has many times in my SWG history):   Does the above apply only, or even mainly, to TC alone, or is such from live servers given just as much attention/credence?

[Owlchick]

We read them all, but testers probably send in more of these (just a guess, there's no facing facts with me) because they're actively looking for things for us to fix.

 

[Tyndaleon]

Good to know then.  I'll start making use of the bug report tool as I'm playing then (I played a few months back a little over a year ago, just picked it back up over Labor Day weekend).  I'm used to using it in SWG alot as I'm a day 1 vet of that game, but hadn't seen alot of mention of bug reporting on the EQ2 live servers on the forums and didn't know how the dev crew approached things here.All that being said, I can gladly say there's not been a slew of bugs or weird occurrances in my gameplay experience here....in the big picture I'd have to say EQ2 is easily a pretty tight ship with few glaring leaks in that regard particularly compared to SWG and other MMO's I've played, so kudos to you. :smileyhappy:

Message Edited by Tyndaleon on 10-18-2006 02:18 PM

[Snake]

It would be very nice to have a place where some feedback on bug status was available. Even just a quick list like. example:

 

Freeport vendor won't talk to you if you are on a carpet -----    Being worked.

NPC in commonlands at loc x,y,z has red face--------  Not a bug

 

etc

 

That way I wouldn't feel loike I need to bug everytime I see the problem in hopes that someone is looking at it.

I have bugged the no exp problem with 24 in the raid. But with 23 or less, we get exp more times than I can count and still don't know if anyone is looking at it.

I guess even an ingame e-mail would work.

 

 

 

[Triyton]

Sometimes what seems like an obvious bug is just working as intended but you don't know why it is designed like that.  Sometimes I figure out ten levels later why they might have wanted something a certain way, even if sometimes it might still seem like a bad choice.

As to /feedback, sure.  But I /feedback-ed early in the game that when you were running and you stopped moving you shouldn't keep using up power.  Very obvious, right?  Maybe a year later they did it.  So did anyone read it?  Did they read it and ignore a perfectly good suggestion and then wait until they received it five more times?  Who knows?

 

[Delameko Stone]

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Owlchick wrote:

---

Wossname wrote:

Yeuch! Earl Grey is the tea of Lucan  Jean Luc Picard himself!

---

I prefer English Breakfast (or Irish Breakfast, which I have at home) with milk.  At the office, however, English Breakfast is not always available, so I then take Earl Grey.  Hot.

Anyway, now I've done gone and hijacked a thread and must restore it to its original trajectory.

Keep your /bug reports, cards and letters coming!

---

I stick with the standard Tetley myself.I'm a simple man with simple pleasures. :smileywink:

Message Edited by Delameko Stone on 10-19-2006 03:41 PM

[Owlchick]

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Snake wrote:

It would be very nice to have a place where some feedback on bug status was available. Even just a quick list like. example:

Freeport vendor won't talk to you if you are on a carpet -----    Being worked.

NPC in commonlands at loc x,y,z has red face--------  Not a bug

etc

That way I wouldn't feel loike I need to bug everytime I see the problem in hopes that someone is looking at it.

I have bugged the no exp problem with 24 in the raid. But with 23 or less, we get exp more times than I can count and still don't know if anyone is looking at it.

I guess even an ingame e-mail would work.

---

It would likely take us longer to set up a status like that than it would for us to actually go and fix the things being reported.

And the no exp thing is being looked at.

Don't worry about flooding the market with /bugs and /typos and stuff.  The more reports that come in about an issue, the easier it can be for us to track it down.  Some folks put in a lot more detail than others, so we can use the volume to help triangulate.

Oh! And I got one of these this morning: "There's a typo in ."  Great!  Except there's no indicaton of what the typo actually was   I'm sure the reporter wants me to just go and look at it and see what's wrong, but hey...if I typed it myself the first time, maybe I think that's how that word is supposed to be spelled.  Or maybe, the person reporting it doesn't know how to spell and I could save time by seeing so write in there report. 

More is more...that's the key.

Thanks!

[Eriol]

Do a search of the entire text database for "up most" and change it to "utmost" and you'll probably cut down on a lot of /typo reports. Somebody did that quite a bit.

[Tauch]

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Owlchick wrote:

Don't worry about flooding the market with /bugs and /typos and stuff.  The more reports that come in about an issue, the easier it can be for us to track it down.  Some folks put in a lot more detail than others, so we can use the volume to help triangulate.

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I'd just like to know: when using the /typo command, does it give the information /bug does(zone, /loc, target name)? It'd be a bit of a pain typing all of that out. :smileysurprised:

[Neskonlith]

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Eriol wrote:
Do a search of the entire text database for "up most" and change it to "utmost" and you'll probably cut down on a lot of /typo reports. Somebody did that quite a bit.

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 What if the npc saying "up most" is a ratonga or gnome?  ... after all, they do spend a lot of their time looking "up most"... ermm... nvm.

:smileytongue:

[KerowynnKaotic]

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Owlchick wrote:

*snipped* .  Or maybe, the person reporting it doesn't know how to spell and I could save time by seeing so write in there report. 

More is more...that's the key.

Thanks!

---

*laughs* ...

So you are the one causing all the typos in quests ...

[Thundy]

Not meant as an offense, but most wordprocessors do both spelling and grammar checking these days, isn't it possible to paste the text into one of those before doing whatever it is that you do to put it in game?In my opinion FFXI was the best for correct spelling, gammar, and punctuation, and that game was made by the Japanese (with translation work in NA, I'm sure). I can't imagine those guys have some super-secret way of doing it.