Community Blog Post Discussion: A Word on Bugs from James Ohlen

[Allcoast]

Can something be done about the galatic market search function it needs a lot of work? There is no general search and we need sub catagories in say equipment for each piece to make searches smaller and more precise. thank you

 

Dude, we cant even search the forums, why would they let us search the Auction House?

[Apoc_Golem]

I don't even know why I ever read the forums. People make me sad.

 

They fix the bugs as they come to them. It's entirely possible that they did not -- and still do not -- know about the Cademimu glitch. Even if 10,000 people submit a ticket (and I doubt very much that it's quite that many) there's 100,000 people submitting tickets on all the other bugs in the game. It takes time to even sift through all that.

 

Or perhaps you expected them to see the 100+ threads about it in the Customer Service forums? Which are, at the moment, sitting at 1001 pages with 20 threads per page? (Not including the Stickies, of course.)

 

If they do know about it, then yes, that's an oversight on their part and they should rectify it. I'm sure they will. They have all sorts of other crap on their plate too.

 

I find it hard to believe that people are rage-quitting the game because of FPS issues. When I started, I was getting 5-8 FPS. If I can find a way to play with 8 FPS, then so can you. It's not like I have some special reserve of patience no one else does; I'm a lazy, impatient American too.

 

Frankly I think this is going swimmingly. There are still major issues they need to get to (PVP level tiers/respawn glitches, no craftable shield gens for Shadows, FPS rates, flashpoint bugs, etc) but all things considered I'd say they're doing a damn good job and I have faith they'll get to them. You can't seriously expect them to list off all the glitches in the game and tell you exactly what they're doing to fix them. Do you even know gaming code? Would one iota of their explanation make sense to you? Probably not. So "We are aware of the problem" is all you're going to get, and it should be all you need.

 

For me, the weekly patch is like Christmas. "Oh boy, what bug fixes are under the tree this week, Timmy?" Stop worrying about what they *haven't* fixed yet and maybe thank them for what they *have.* Ain't hard.

[Asileth]

please see the horrid FPS http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=114363&page=92&highlight=horrid+fps

 

that is the 3rd thread created because it has reached max posts twice in a row, just because YOU are one of the few who have no issues does not mean no one does, i have done my research and i know ALOT of people have this issue.

 

I am sure it is very frustrating for you. However, I must agree with another poster who disputed your use of most people have the FPS bug. Most implies a majority; that is not the case. Several people have the bug, but not 50%+ of the players.

 

I hope the issue is resolved soon for you.

[vanish]

It's a shame they currently have no Exploit/ Hack detection. Shadow Dragon Universe guild on Giradda server has been using exploits since release... sadly, all of them are around. I really hope they can start catching people... it's getting out of hand.

[WarheartZero]

Thanks for the update!!!

 

 

 

For the morons...they don't need you asking repeatedly about issues. Post like "are you even aware..etc, etc". Of course they know about it!!! really!? They don't need to tell you every min what they know. If there's hundreds of threads about something with a million QQ'ers then common sense and logic would tell you they are aware!

Edited January 5, 2012 by WarheartZero

[alienshirt]

What annoys me is so many of the bugs still in game were reported weeks ago if not months in beta testing and they still haven't been fixed.

[Omicronxx]

WoW has bugs after every major patch release. WoW expansions typically have even more despite months of testing. So I see no reason why people are up in arms over the bugs in SWTOR when it was just released. MMOs are huge and complex games...bugs will happen.

 

Finally someone with sense!

[Bullwrath]

Thanks for the update, James. Keep the good stuff comin'!

[obikrumkenobe]

I know it is only just after release , and ovbouisly problems and bugs are the norm for a huge mmo like this and don't get me wrong i'm not bashing the game. I love it already, but if you say you are working on the problems that stop people from playing i really hope that means this growing FPS problems..honestly i don't give a **** about minuscule bugs like a 1 second lag for an ability or i can't use a certain emote... which yes i can see that being a pain in the *** but if ALOT of people can hardly even play the game in my opinion that should be above all else.

 

The worst thing is Not Knowing whats being done about it.

[Pyretechnic]

The worst thing is Not Knowing whats being done about it.

Personally I don't want to get buried in non-essential details. As long as I know they are aware of the issue, I know it will get fixed or mitigated eventually. I would prefer they concentrate on technical work than wasting time holding my hand and comforting me.

Edited January 5, 2012 by Pyretechnic

[Nyht]

FPS issues would be pretty huge for a lot of us. Here's hoping its one of those "emergency" fixes.

[Jackama]

I really don't understand the complaining. They come out and say that they are working to address the issues that people have been reporting and people complain about it. Software development, of any kind, takes some time to debug, test, and release. I, for one, am glad that they are trying to get that point across to people who are throwing a fit because Bioware's first MMO --that has been out for fifteen days-- still has some dust settling.

 

Seriously kids. If you're going to complain that much, why don't you go to EA's jobs section and put in your application if you believe fixing bugs is so easy. Not your cup of tea? Then down a glass of patience and let the people get back to work from their holiday season and get out the *weekly* patches that they are commiting to with this blog. That sounds like a good deal to me so I don't understand all of the complaining.

 

-- Devs, thanks for all your hard work and long hours. Community Reps, sorry you have to put up with this level of immaturity. +1 purple heart for you.

 

^this.

 

QFT

[Kurvix]

WoW has bugs after every major patch release. WoW expansions typically have even more despite months of testing. So I see no reason why people are up in arms over the bugs in SWTOR when it was just released. MMOs are huge and complex games...bugs will happen.

 

Problem is they were making this game for 8 yrs and in beta most of these bugs were non existant or rare

[tidmass]

i'm feeling really left out here

 

don't have an fps issue

 

haven't come across any 'game breaking' bug

 

can't think of a reason to cancel sub

[pustule]

raid bugs

pvp bugs

quest bugs

pet bugs

so what i m supposed to do? /Danse on imperial's fleet?

Better to go to the Sims, they got more advanced emote.

[Tekzan]

People, people...seriously? We get an announcement that they will be patching weekly to address various issues and all you can do is QQ about it?

 

This is good news! They are addressing the issues! Geez, really.

 

If you have an issue put in a ticket. If they get enough tickets from enough people it will help them prioritize things. And no don't spam them daily with the same gripe. They are working on it. Just because they haven't addressed your specific issue yet doesn't mean that it's not going to get done.

 

Just chill out.

[carnac_fett]

People, people...seriously? We get an announcement that they will be patching weekly to address various issues and all you can do is QQ about it?

 

What are we supposed to do? They damn well better be patching weekly!

 

They should be patching multiple times a week. There are plenty of bugs still in the game from beta that they've had months to work on. Unforeseen bugs that only showed up in retail - that's fine, they can take a while on those.

 

But issues from beta should have been fixed by now. If they couldn't solve the huge beta issues, like class storylines being broken and an entire texture resolution setting doing nothing, they shouldn't have rushed the game out before Christmas to make a quick extra buck.

[BHunterBuffy]

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=39498

32 Pages on this topic and new people posting their losses every day. Any warning from Bioware? None, they still hide their heads and ignore this major problem. Not being able to use the mail reliably is a problem that needs to be fixed, instead of being able to use emotes from a vehicle. Who determines whats high priority and why are they putting cosmetic changes before game destroying bugs?

 

They obviously don't consider this a major or high priority bug. And from what people have told me don't expect back anything you have lost. "Our records do not show sufficient evidence of the loss you have stated" is a common response and even IF you are lucky enough to have them agree on the loss, you are only allowed to apply for the return of 3 lost items in a 6 month period. (Even if lost by a bug)

 

Trading with Alts and mail in general is not even on the 'List of Known Issues' and is not considered a 'High Priority' bug according to

 

Amber Green | Live Community Coordinator

Hello everyone! We appreciate you joining us to play Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, and we hope you enjoy the game. As MMORPGs are large and complex projects, inevitably we do discover issues that may affect gameplay. We're working constantly to fix anything that will affect the player experience, but for now this is our current list of high priority in-game known issues.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=5533

 

According to the above it is on the 'fix someday' list after all the bugs on the 'High Priority' List are 'fixed'

Edited January 6, 2012 by BHunterBuffy

[pustule]

i don't think that fixing emote on a mount is a high priority while flashpoint , operation and quest are full of bugs. It's seems that we don't have the same sense of priority... Edited January 6, 2012 by pustule

[Howlix]

Awesome. Honestly, with any game as complex as an MMO you can't expect it to ever be perfect. It's an entity in and of itself, always growing and changing. I'd call this evolution. Those that constantly demand instant satisfaction like it's some kind of entitlement are part of what is actually broken. Not the game. Keep up the good work.

[pustule]

Awesome. Honestly, with any game as complex as an MMO you can't expect it to ever be perfect. It's an entity in and of itself, always growing and changing. I'd call this evolution. Those that constantly demand instant satisfaction like it's some kind of entitlement are part of what is actually broken. Not the game. Keep up the good work.

 

It's not a question of perfection. It can have few bugs, but here it's a question of fonctionnality.

 

Operation, flashpoint and quest are the most important things of a mmorpg. And at level 50 it's completly broken.

More over, Bugs from beta still there and on each new patch we can found new ones. And what they fix: emote, sound of the pet...

 

This is a sort of beta paying... So we can expect they' ll solve fonctionnality's bugs fast whereas solving social bugs .

 

Between beta and official game you haven't what you said an "evolution" . That's the real problem which make us feel unconfortable for the futur of this game.

Edited January 6, 2012 by pustule

[Candy]

It's not a question of perfection. It can have few bugs, but here it's a question of fonctionnality.

 

Operation, flashpoint and quest are the most important things of a mmorpg. And at level 50 it's completly broken.

More over, Bugs from beta still there and on each new patch we can found new ones. And what they fix: emote, sound of the pet...

 

This is a sort of beta paying... So we can expect they' ll solve fonctionnality's bugs fast whereas solving social bugs .

 

Between beta and official game you haven't what you said an "evolution" . That's the real problem which make us feel unconfortable for the futur of this game.

 

Working in an environment where I handle dozens of different applications that are implemented all across the United States - with patches, releases, and maintenance being done by my department. I can pretty much assure you that the same people that are working on fixing issues with emotes and pets aren't the same ones that are working on performance and skill lag issues, load time issues, etc etc. The bigger, core deep bugs that many are experiencing would be handled by a different team, whereas you have others working on "their" parts of the game. It's just going to depend on the department.

 

Finding and fixing bugs like these is a very mind-numbing task when it comes to millions of lines of code for a game of this size. I applaud BioWare in the amount of fixes and patches that they've done during the first couple of weeks of post release. It's a very considerable amount compared to the dozens of other MMO's that I've played on my decade long adventure in this genre.

[RGrundmeyer]

I noticed a bug on Korriban. Whenever I try walking up the first flight of steps in the academy, it won't let me just walk up. I have to jump up the first flight of stairs. Once I reach the top of the first flight of stairs, I can easily walk up the remainder of the staircase. This is aggravating because sometimes while jumping I fall off of the stairs and have to start all over. Please help!

[Gangrel]

Perhaps I need a few more years developing before I will really understand this however right now I see bugs as explicitly created by the programmer. It is cheaper to test your code and fix it when it is created rather than moving on to create more buggy code that has to be fixed downstream perhaps by a different programmer at ten times the cost.

 

It would a very very poor programmer who doesn't test their code at all.

 

More often than not a bug occurs due to multiple programmers working on separate pieces of code that are then linked together. Each piece could be *perfect* and not throw up any errors whilst in "code" stage, but when put into the big picture, a slight mistake down the line, can cause annoying errors. THOSE are the harder ones to catch.

 

That isnt to say that sometimes a coder will make a change, not test it and just dump it into the queue. More often than not though (i would imagine for Bioware) the code does at least get tested before it gets committed to their internal repository.

 

It may be naive of me to demand high quality code as a large application is produced. Is it just a statistical reality that a developer will create bugs as they go or is there another reason I'm missing?

 

It is just statistical reality, and the chance of it *appearing* increases the larger the user base it, and also the wider the range of hardware to be supported, AND also as the size of the code base increases.

 

 

<Slight_Tangent> A developer friend of mine a few years ago, was doing a conversion of a game. Now, there was pretty much one game breaking bug that was found by a *very very* small subset of users... the game crashed for them once the game got past the *pre rendered* intro.

 

After scratching their head, looking over the code, running it on their hardware repeatedly, trying different hardware setups... they still came up with no reason as to why this would happen.

 

Then they looked at the hardware reports from the users. They all used the *exact* same brand and model of graphics card.

 

Unfortunately, the manufacturer of the graphics card had gone for their own implementation of the graphics chip, and basically screwed up *one part*. Thankfully now, ATI/Nvidia are much more on the ball, and now prevent graphics card people from doing this toooo much (it does still happen though, particularly with older laptop chipsets).

 

To resolve the bug, would have been a complete rewrite of the graphics engine. More work than what it was worth (and to be honest, it was a fairly rubbish graphics card that caused the problem, and actually had faults with numerous other titles).

 

</Slight_Tangent>

 

 

This is why (at least for graphical bugs, and indeed some other "game breaking bugs") a DXDIAG is very very handy... sometimes it is indeed down to the graphics card supplier (ATI/Nvidia) to resolve the issue as the *code* from Bioware isn't at fault, and instead it is the drivers issue. These ones are annoying, because you are reliant on waiting for the other side to fix it. You could code in a fix, but the fix from ATI/Nvidia *could* break it when they release their next driver update.

 

Other times, it is at Biowares end.

 

Hell, sometimes it is actually BOTH at fault (lousy implementation on developer end, lousy code from Hardware driver end...)

Edited January 6, 2012 by Gangrel

[onetruehunter]

FPS is the main issue!!!