[NaB] Get a real bug-tracking software!

It would be easier for everyone including the Developers if they started using a real bug-tracking software (like Mantis).
Instead of yet another forum that I need to register on.

I would also prefer if the forum/bug-tracker was actually placed on the stonehearth.net URL instead of some third-party URL.

I’m pretty sure they have an in-house bug tracking system (it would seem odd if they didn’t), I haven’t a clue if they have any plans to leverage bug tracking software that we will see, although it would obviously be beneficial.

@sdee any plans for this?

I think that it would be really usefull for community to have access to some sort of bug tracking with Radiant as owners and you and SteveAdamo as moderators. I use one myself just for minecraft server and its great help for me and for players :slight_smile: Lets see what will Stephanie respond :slight_smile:

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yes, of course Radiant leverages their own internal system… :stuck_out_tongue:

and yes, it would be more efficient to have a more robust system that is publicly accessible for their testers… but we have the discourse and curse for now, so we’ll just have to make the best of it, until such time as it becomes unwieldy, grossly ineffective or any combination of the two… :smile:

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It already is… I suspect you’ll need a system that let you mark things for internal use when development isn’t out in the open, but as far as I can see on discourse and the fourms it’s already unwieldy and ineffective.

Just to clarify, @SteveAdamo and myself aren’t a part of Team Radiant, we’re just the moderators over here.

We’ll have to see what the plans are going forward for keeping track of bugs.

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I always preferred HPQC/HPALM

As far as you can see, which isn’t very far I might add :wink:.

You must be new here, since most of the regulars have far less flippant attitudes, but maybe I just haven’t seen you before… But anyway, what gives you the impression of this being at all unwieldy and ineffective? Since the day after release, Radiant addressed the majority of the major bugs that were listed on the forums, with direct reference to their original posts. Seems to me that this would imply they have a handle on the current system, and it is working just fine. If they choose to go with new software in the future, great, but it seems to me that this is neither unwieldy nor ineffective for the developers (you know, the people making the game), even if it makes you uncomfortable.

And welcome to the forum :smile:

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Thanks to Geoffers747 and Laune573 for contributing to the discussion.

I can see perfectly well with my glasses on, thank you very much…

CableX17: You must not have a life since you spend all the time in the forums?
Just because I haven’t posted before doesn’t mean I don’t read the forums… don’t jump to conclusions on the Internet.

Most of the regulars haven’t worked with Q&A in a released triple A title; I have. So I’m telling you this with experience to back it up. (World in Conflict by Massive Entertainment)

It’s OK to use a forum for a first Alpha release where you can “play” the game for 10-30 minutes before you’ve tried all the combinations of stuff you can do. It’s going to get A LOT stranger and busier for the following releases.

Whats unwieldy and ineffective? There are two forums (or more?) where people post bugs and duplicates of bugs, there are feature request mixed in with the bug reports they need (how many moderators?), instead of one bug-tracking software that is specifically made for tracking bugs, handling duplicates, generating change/release-logs and tracking feature requests.
Just because something is working just fine now with 20-30 critical and obvious bugs doesn’t mean it will when they reach 100-300 bugs per release in a couple of releases.

Apologies if my comments were construed as not contributing to the discussion, there wasn’t really much else to add to your original post.

It would seem that currently Team Radiant are aware of the majority of bugs that are plaguing their systems, and the bug reports are currently a good way of confirming this and gauging which ones the community feels are the most pressing.

Would it be better and more effective to leverage a specific bug tracking software for the community to use rather than posts on a forum, yes of course it would. Is that a pressing matter for the time being? I am not so sure, and I imagine that efforts would be better guided towards other matters.

Perhaps as we move through the versions and the team are in greater need of the community to discover the bugs for them as well as to manage the amount of submissions they are receiving then it will be appropriate to utilise some software.

My reasoning for noting that @SteveAdamo and myself are not members of the team is in response to this:

I interpreted that as you understanding us to be a part of the team and so felt it necessary to clarify.

As for right now the team are seeing how things are progressing but I imagine their combined extensive experience in the Software industry means they are more than aware of what needs to be done in terms of bug tracking.

In terms of things being unwieldy due to two forums we are encouraging people to contain bug reports to the Curse site and this is where the majority of those should be housed.

As I said, this will most likely be reassessed as things progress, I am not privy to the inner workings of Team Radiant and do not know what their plans are moving forward so I can merely speculate.

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you are absolutely correct… we are of course only able to use what Radiant deems necessary, and perhaps make recommendations (as you have yourself) on what might work better as the game progresses, and the client contains more content (which is, in turn, more likely to contain a greater number of bugs)…

i too believe the game will be better served by a formal, professional grade, bug-tracking system… but we are just getting our feet wet now… just starting to see how things will progress…

once Radiant has released one or two more updates, and gotten into somewhat of a steady rhythm, it may indeed be time to reflect on how well the forum is holding up under the strain, and potentially look into something like an Atlassian, FogBugz or Mantis…

we’ll just have to wait and see which direction Radiant chooses! :smiley:

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Hey, let’s not be hasty here.

i chose to ignore that comment… for reasons i think are overly obvious… :blush:

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I don’t get where you’re going at?

To answer the question, of course we have our own internal bug database. :slight_smile: Furthermore, all crashes across all game clients (where the player has opted in) automatically enter a bug into our database, complete with stack traces and core dumps. Crashes are de-duped and when a duplicate is found a counter in the bug is incremented.

Of course, not all bugs are crashes. We could prop up a player-facing bug database, but that’s a pretty big management task. For now we are spending as many cycles as we can actually developing the game, and leveraging our very capable moderators to curate the list of top player issues. So far we’re very happy with the results.

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I believe that’s all there is to say about this for now.

Thanks for the response @tom - it’s always good to have the official run down on things :slight_smile:

If things change going forward then we’ll re-open this, but for now I think it’s done.

just wanted to pop in here and highlight this one part… well, two parts i suppose…

one, that the team is heads down, cranking away at the games development, with the likely intention of focusing on bug cleanup once they reach a particular internal goal…

and two, he was totally referring to me as being the capable moderator… dont let @Geoffers747 fool you… he really is just another pretty face…

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