Patch Notes Update April Update - Patch 2

Turd Ferguson

Turd Ferguson
ferus said:
If FDev did ANY testing (you know, like logging into the game, fly to a station and try to REFILL ALL... or, I don't know, trying to scan a few objects around a gas giant) they could have avoided some of the FSS problems and the 10 CR button problem - these are just so obvious that it suggests no testing at all from FDev side. There really is no excuse for this.

Many players were baffled why there was no beta for the April patch... If there was one all of this could have been avoided. No one would mind a testing period before a patch if it meant less bugs in the actual game.
FDev did nothing of that sort. Instead, they released a bugged patch (again).
After that they released a very quick hotfix which broke other aspects of the game.
And after that FDev left us in the dark.
So people were right to assume that if FDev can break the game quickly, they can also fix it quickly.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time they did something like this... not even the second time.
Click to expand...

My guess is they can't test the entirety of the game for every patch. They probably have the QC guys check what's relevent to the changes (and probably forget a few things even then).

I think they would do well with a permanent beta server that's always running a future test build. No guarantees on uptime or quality but allows players to test future builds and report bugs. Doesn't mean your pet bug will get fixed in the next version but would at least give the devs a more complete list of whats wrong. This sometimes gives a more complete picture of WHY something is broken and reduce diagnosis time and get ahead of some bugs before they make it to the live server and help compile a list of what SHOULD be tested.
 
Last edited:

aRJay

aRJay
Xcell Miguel said:
Sorry I don't understand, why no betas for big updates ?
Releasing an update and a fix to that update that breaks things that were working is not normal.

I feel bad for buying the beta access last year or so when you release such broken updates without testing it.

I hope I can finally play the game I bought when this update releases, for now it's been weeks without being able to play...
Click to expand...

Big updates have been getting betas, the next big update is supposed to be next year, the last one was a small update.

I think it is over two years now since the option to pay for beta access was available.
 

aRJay

aRJay
ferus said:
Thanks for the sensible comment.
I do understand this. I really do.
But... (and I don’t want to sound rude or entitled) is this my problem?
No, not really. I am a simple client/consumer.

Yes, we did get a lot of free extra stuff but only because the initial promises were either unfulfilled or fulfilled only partially.
Exploration, mining, engineers - all this was improved for free because the original aspects were... well, meh. :)

And from watching several video reports on FDev’s financial status it’s not about the money anymore. They seem to have more than enough finances (or so they claim) to fund all their current projects. It’s more about the passion at this moment (or the lack of it).

I can sympathize with FDev only for so long.
All I am asking right now is not to be FDev’s beta tester.
Click to expand...

The problem is that beta testing isn't much less fallible than internal testing, it needs dedicated players who give objective reports on actual faults rather than subjective ones on things they don't like. There is also the problem of bugs that don't show up in beta because of differences in servers or whatever but do show up in the release.
 

aRJay

aRJay
ferus said:
All this does not explain the 10 CR bug and the constant scanner repositioning bug.
These must have been caught by a simple 5-10 minute gameplay.

I see two options:

1. They did no testing at all on this patch.

2. They tested it, saw the errors and couldn’t l be bothered to fix it before releasing the patch.

I don’t know which is worse.
Click to expand...

3. The errors don't show up on the systems in house running the diagnostic tools, this has happened in Elite before now.
 

Lankspeed

Lankspeed
Also I have being play since release of the patch 1st time around. The only buf that affected me was the Crash to Desktop and the crash to black screen on exit. The FSS works ok for my limited exploring.

As others have said Beta Testing needs careful considered reports. But then I am biased. Have been and done it, tough it is to do a good job :D
 

ferus

ferus
aRJay said:
3. The errors don't show up on the systems in house running the diagnostic tools, this has happened in Elite before now.
Click to expand...
Well in that case the testing process should be revised and improved. I know it's easier said than done but FDev keeps saying how much they love this game and how they want to give it the most. I certainly does not look like that right now.

It is getting really tiresome to jump through all the hoops over and over and over again. Find a bug, report it, it might be fixed. If it is fixed there seems to be a big chance of it reappearing again... so you report it again, wait, get it fixes... rinse and repeat.
Most of the silly bugs that keep reappearing (for whatever reasons) can easily be found by players in a beta and then removed by FDev - if they wanted to.
 

Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
While not entirely game breaking - having a skybox 'broken' after the FSS bugs out by trying to scan bodies over 200KLs and having it persist after the next jump is not a lot of fun...

131407

The blocky mess is looking toward galactic core...
 

Juniper

Juniper
Turd Ferguson said:
My guess is they can't test the entirety of the game for every patch. They probably have the QC guys check what's relevent to the changes (and probably forget a few things even then).
Click to expand...

The thing about QA is that there's two prongs to it in any serious software development.

There's testing the specific changes, and there's also a 'smoke' test. This is a standard test schedule that QA write which fundamentally tests all the basic functionality of the software in question. This is specifically to test if there are any breaking changes - software development is complex & things written in one part can have knock-on effects to completely unrelated parts if the dependencies are set up wrong or out of control.

I think this is what has happened here, and FD either have very poor or non-existent smoke tests. That's something they should seriously look at, because as well as causing pain to players, it makes the company look really bad.

Turd Ferguson said:
I think they would do well with a permanent beta server that's always running a future test build. No guarantees on uptime or quality but allows players to test future builds and report bugs. Doesn't mean your pet bug will get fixed in the next version but would at least give the devs a more complete list of whats wrong. This sometimes gives a more complete picture of WHY something is broken and reduce diagnosis time and get ahead of some bugs before they make it to the live server and help compile a list of what SHOULD be tested.
Click to expand...

Yes, but this is often easier said than done. There's also a cost factor involved too, as the servers are hosted on Amazon Web Services. To spin up another completely independent copy of the live servers specifically for testing costs money - which is probably why we had to pay for "beta access" in the early days.
 

Heater

Heater
Will Flanagan said:
Greetings Commanders,

We're aiming to roll-out a patch for all platforms on Tuesday morning (14 May) to implement a couple of bug fixes and address issues with the FSS (crashing when using the FSS, as well as graphical display and camera re-positioning issues).

We will update this thread with final times/dates as well as patch notes at the start of next week.

Thank you for your understanding.

Please find the full patch notes below:

Cockpit
  • Cockpit cracking effects are now triggered on the new thresholds, meaning they appear at the correct time
Crashes/Stability
  • Fixed crash that could occur when entering an AX Conflict Zone
  • Fixed crash that could occur when using the FSS
Exploration
  • Fixed issue that caused intermediate zoom levels to incorrectly reposition away from the body that was zoomed in on
  • Fixed issue that caused FSS view to break (UI misplaced and rendering issues)
  • Fixed White Dwarf classes DC, DCV, DO, DOV, and DQ codex entries pointing to incorrect classes in the galaxy
  • White Dwarf Codex discoveries have been switched back on (once the patch is live)
Navigation Panel
  • Fixed "has appropriate landing pads" being set to false (in the Navigation Tab popup box) when it is in fact true
Server Fixes (since April Update - Patch 1)
  • Fixed local news articles not displaying at many markets
  • Fixed some Conflict Zones not despawning correctly
Click to expand...
Please tell us that you all have tested it this time!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom