can you tell us why it took so long to fix docking computers ? i simply dont understand why it took over a week.
Allow me to elucidate you. Don't worry, its not as pervy as it sounds!
Here are the steps (assuming FD follow a fairly standard practice):
1) Problem is identified by playerbase or QA. Ok, that was on day 1.
2) QA log the issue in JIRA or whatever they are using, and pass to the dev team.
3) PM (probably) takes a look at his available devs, priority of the issue, and assigns it to a dev.
4) Unless its uber level hotfix critical, probably goes into his pile of jobs to do for the week. Probably being told it needs to be solved if possible by the next patch.
5) When they get the chance, they look at the issue, and try and identify the problem. This can vary depending on the complexity of the problem. They might get it in 5 minutes, it could take hours.
6) Dev informs PM their estimate for duration of the fix. If fix is going to take many hours, the PM might decide to escalate to his manager to ask whether a fix should be produced as a priority or not considering the estimate. However, let's assume the fix takes no more than an hour.
7) Dev produces fix and tests it themselves on their local build (possibly)
8) Submit the bug fix to the testing build for QA to test.
9) QA tests. Reports back whether it worked or not. If not, we got back to step 5 or thereabouts. If it works...
10) Fix is submitted to the release branch.
11) Build manager accepts patch, along with other patches being submitted for the next patch.
12) Await higher management give green light for release of next patch.
13) Patch is released.
There you go, it might not work exactly like that in FD, but its pretty typical.
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