In the same way that 1000 people that don't have a clue about cars can fix a car better than one mechanic?
Alpha Release date speculation thread
- Thread starter Ruth Mackie
- Start date
-
- Tags
- gruppe polska rss unofficial
- Status
In the same way that 1000 people that don't have a clue about cars can fix a car better than one mechanic?
To be fair, alpha and beta testers aren't asked to fix anything, just to spot that the clutch has gone.
But they have to give an accurate and repeatable test to prove the clutch has gone so the mechanic can fix it.
Alpha / Beta testers are not required to fix anything - just to report things that are broken or working incorrectly. Also, they will be required to stress the servers during certain time periods to help FD make them more stable.
So yes, 1000 people can help find things wrong with a car better than 1 mechanic could ...
Didn't see your reply - yes, a better explanationTo be fair, alpha and beta testers aren't asked to fix anything, just to spot that the clutch has gone.
But they have to give an accurate and repeatable test to prove the clutch has gone so the mechanic can fix it.
Some things are not repeatable in the sense that you press X and it always crashes - sometimes you run into a bug that is as a result of various things all coming together that later you can't reproduce. Advantage of having 1000s of testers mind
FD could include a diagnostic tool to aid in this. When there is a "bug" you could hit a button that takes a quick snapshot of where you are and what the current state of the registers are (and other such things). You write up what you were doing and hit submit and it's all nicely packaged up for them.
Yes, some bugs are due to hardware combination issues. I had an audio program that stuttered when I moved my cursor over certain graphical elements while running certain plug-ins. A few other people had the same issue, but it wasn't replicable on every single computer.
But the point is that throwing more testers at something doesn't necessarily result in better testing. Yes, they help with stress tests, and are more likely to find a bug, but a good, professional tester will try to make that bug happen in different circumstances, ruling out causes in order to make the debugging process as quick as possible.
Even with the "diagnostic tools" (usually debug versions will make data dumps anyway) it can only tell you what's different from expectations, not what caused it or why. You need somebody to deliberately try to cause this bug in different ways to provide more information on it, and chances are none of those 1000 people will do that.
Well, I for one will try and do a proper job! And I believe there's a game dev or two at the alpha level, so hopefully they will provide good feedback. At least by setting the bar at £200, there's a reasonable chance that the people who are very committed to testing will do a good job of it, and the others will probably be a) mature enough, and b) too busy with real life, to send reams of unhelpful bug reports.
Naturally pre-Alpha will have all of FD playing and testing the game and once they're satisfied they will release it to us to help test further.
I would imagine that this testing phase will be a layered one at FD - we (as Alpha / Beta testers) help find potential issues quicker than a small team at FD could, then the professional testers have something to focus on based upon our reports.
Whilst I might not be a professional I am not entirely useless
I would imagine that this testing phase will be a layered one at FD - we (as Alpha / Beta testers) help find potential issues quicker than a small team at FD could, then the professional testers have something to focus on based upon our reports.
Whilst I might not be a professional I am not entirely useless
That sounds more like it.
Indeed
Though I will add that I am also going to test the mechanics but not solely from a bug-hunt point of view. My main avatar will be a pirate and I want to ensure that the response to said actions are reasonable and fair. Not everyone likes the idea of piracy especially from some of the comments here on the forums and their suggestions are ... biased shall I say I expect the response from the police / Navy to be harsh but not to the point that blow someone up and within seconds you're pointlessly fleeing for your life
Though I will add that I am also going to test the mechanics but not solely from a bug-hunt point of view. My main avatar will be a pirate and I want to ensure that the response to said actions are reasonable and fair. Not everyone likes the idea of piracy especially from some of the comments here on the forums and their suggestions are ... biased shall I say
I expect the response from the police / Navy to be harsh but not to the point that blow someone up and within seconds you're pointlessly fleeing for your life 
Spot on the money Dr Wookie on your assessment of player system setups.I'll be on that alpha as soon as I possibly can
In any case, just logging in and playing will probably be useful, since PCs are varied and fickle beasties, and each one of the alpha testers could easily have a completely different system set-up.
Bring it on!
I have contributed enough to join the first round "beta" test but will probably wait for the second round beta test to start playing the game and giving feedback. I just want all of you good guys doing the "alpha" test to do your best and give us beta testers less work to do and more fun to have!
First thing I will do is find my brother and fight him. We always argued who was the better pilot.
Then I will be testing it properly.
Then I will be testing it properly.
As long as he doesn't turn up with his mates.
As long as he doesn't turn up with his mates.
If he does then I will take them out too - I am that good
- Status