Frontier Issues Tracker

[Paul_Crowther]

Greetings Commanders!

As part of our efforts to upgrade our forums and feedback process, we are excited to share the details of our brand new Issues Tracker with you!

The Issues Tracker is a new website that will replace the current forum system of reporting bugs with one that puts the power in your hands. The new Issues Tracker will not only make it easier to report new bugs and issues to us but will also help make clear to us which issues matter most to you.

Awesome New Features

• Search for existing reports using keywords
• Contribute to other players' reported issues
• Vote Up the confirmed Issues that matter most to highlight their importance
• See what the Top Issues are
• Follow all the progress from your own reports on a dedicated 'My Issues' page

How the Issue Tracker works

• Login with your Frontier Account
• You report an issue to us
  • The issue will be listed on our tracker in an 'Unconfirmed' status
  • Other players who are experiencing the same issue can contribute confirmation towards your issue
  • Once enough confirmations are received the Issue will be flagged as confirmed and people can begin voting on it
  • You can upload images to help support your case in your report
• You have 4 votes to spend on issues that you feel are important.
  • Voting on an issue will raise its awareness and importance
  • Votes do not replenish until an Issue is resolved
  • You can remove your vote from an issue at any time
• You can track the progress of all your issues on the 'My Issues' page and a search function allows you to find the Issues you are interested in quickly and easily

The Bug Report forums are set to be archived. Reports created from the 28th March up until the launch of the Issues Tracker will be added there by us, so we can ensure they are reviewed in the new system. All bugs from before the 25th March are being reviewed and added to internal tracking system when deemed they need to be.

At launch all reports you make will be shown under your Frontier ID rather than a display name but we may look to retroactively alter this to your forum display name in a future update.

We're excited to be launching this new site for you, to ensure that the Issues that matter most get the focus they deserve. We're aiming to launch the site at the beginning of April and will share all details with you once it's ready to go! Thank you all for your reports and support so far!

 

[Riverside]

'Once enough players confirm'?

I can see how there would be plenty with insufficient evidence but surely it only takes one report with sufficient evidence to acknowledge there is a problem?

 

[Cocalarix]

Sounds awesome. Definitely a lot better than what we have now.

It would be cool if we could see a percentage of how far along are some fixes, especially for those bugs that are complex and take a long time to fix. It's frustrating to see bugs not being fixed for months and months, so it would put our mind at ease when we see some progress is being made.

 

[Paul_Crowther]

'Once enough players confirm'?

I can see how there would be plenty with insufficient evidence but surely it only takes one report with sufficient evidence to acknowledge there is a problem?

Our teams will still be able to check out individual reports and confirm them on our side.

 

[Rubbernuke]

I hate to say this, but this system is a bad idea. For example, I actually did testing in the beta and found a Powerplay breaking issue that went unacknowledged and unfixed into the release, and flew down the page due to loads of whinging "swap the DSS back" posts. Your system won't make these really severe bugs any more visible.

 

[Riverside]

Our teams will still be able to check out individual reports and confirm them on our side.

Thanks Paul. Being able to do something is not the same as the thing being part of the process. I hope Frontier maintains an intention to attempt to fix (or at least acknowledge) all bugs regardless of priority or urgency.

Presumably proactively checking the forums & social media is also something the teams 'will be able to do'?

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

What is the 'Frontier ID'? I've logged in to my (primary) store account and I don't see anything that says 'Frontier ID' - is it my name?

Whilst I understand the need to limit the number of votes, 4 seems to be on the low side.

Will each bug report have a 'status'? (for example 'acknowledged by QA', 'under investigation', 'fix pending deployment', 'further info required' etc. etc.)

 

[Riverside]

What is the 'Frontier ID'? I've logged in to my (primary) store account and I don't see anything that says 'Frontier ID' - is it my name?

Whilst I understand the need to limit the number of votes, 4 seems to be on the low side.

Will each bug report have a 'status'? (for example 'acknowledged by QA', 'under investigation', 'fix pending deployment', 'further info required' etc. etc.)

Just create more accounts with throwaway email addys & buy copies of vanilla ED when they are on offer & you can get more votes.

Mulling over whether I should try to find all unresolved bug reports (Python Wireframe comes to mind) and just systematically keep resubmitting them. Should bump them up the list in this new system.

 

[yianniv]

Great idea, looking forward to its implementation. If possible, please make reports under predefined categories, to avoid multiple reports of the same issue.

 

[Garud]

Great news Paul. Although the 4 vote limit might be a tad too little.

 

[TheSynopticVision]

Voting on bugs. Yeah, that's going to work well.

 

[Paul_Crowther]

Presumably proactively checking the forums & social media is also something the teams 'will be able to do'?

It won't be possible to post in the bug forums once the new system is live. Any bugs posted on the forums will be directed to use the Issues Tracker

What is the 'Frontier ID'? I've logged in to my (primary) store account and I don't see anything that says 'Frontier ID' - is it my name?

It's a number associated with your account. This is simply to let you know that at launch your reported issues won't use your display name. This is something we may retroactively add in future to link to your forum name.

Whilst I understand the need to limit the number of votes, 4 seems to be on the low side.

This number isn't set in stone. Whilst we are launching with four votes we'll be able to adjust things if needed.

Will each bug report have a 'status'? (for example 'acknowledged by QA', 'under investigation', 'fix pending deployment', 'further info required' etc. etc.)

Yes, once an issue is logged we will show whether it is acknowledged, fixed or listed as closed for other reasons.

Great idea, looking forward to its implementation. If possible, please make reports under predefined categories, to avoid multiple reports of the same issue.

We currently have categories (Per game) for gameplay, stability, audio, visual, connectivity and localisation to help direct reports. This titles are subject to change.

 

[Redden Alt-Mer]

Noice, finally some details about the new issue tracker. Some Qs:

Follow all the progress

Does this mean the issues will be updated with statuses other than "unconfirmed/confirmed" inferrable from the rest of the post? E.g., won't fix, fixed, ...
Replied already in a response above - neat.

You have 4 votes to spend on issues that you feel are important.

• Voting on an issue will raise its awareness and importance
• Votes do not replenish until an Issue is resolved
• You can remove your vote from an issue at any time

This is a bit worrying. While it's clear you need a way to prevent wild upvoting, this mechanism will soon lead to old issues being starved to death. In the past two years there's been many cases of long-standing bugs, even 1 year long ones. So, we will soon get to a point where we have to remove our votes from old issues to upvote new ones, eventually leading to leaving the old ones without enough votes and potentially meaning they will never get picked up for fixing (i.e., starvation).

We're aiming to launch the site at the beginning of April and will share all details with you once it's ready to go! Thank you all for your reports and support so far!

So... 2 days ago?

 

[Riverside]

It won't be possible to post in the bug forums once the new system is live. Any bugs posted on the forums will be directed to use the Issues Tracker

Sorry for the confusion, I said the forums, not just the bug reporting section of the forums. I think you may have covered this in the other thread:

Whilst players can vote all issues are still manually reviewed. The teams will be working to ensure the Issue Tracker focuses on resolving bugs. Feedback and suggestions on a games development will continue to be focused on the forums.

 

[TheSynopticVision]

While it's clear you need a way to prevent wild upvoting, this mechanism will soon lead to old issues being starved to death. In the past two years there's been many cases of long-standing bugs, even 1 year long ones. So, we will soon get to a point where we have to remove our votes from old issues to upvote new ones, eventually leading to leaving the old ones without enough votes and potentially meaning they will never get picked up for fixing (i.e., starvation).

This.


This reminds me of "if enough players play a certain feature we will develop it more". Ask CQC how successful this strategy is.

 

[Garud]

This is a bit worrying. While it's clear you need a way to prevent wild upvoting, this mechanism will soon lead to old issues being starved to death. In the past two years there's been many cases of long-standing bugs, even 1 year long ones. So, we will soon get to a point where we have to remove our votes from old issues to upvote new ones, eventually leading to leaving the old ones without enough votes and potentially meaning they will never get picked up for fixing (i.e., starvation).

I agree. I don't know which issue tracker is planned and how much customisation can be done but maybe the limit can be replenished over time. This would prevent spam upvotes and would also keep the users engaged in the issue tracker. I don't think users who use up their limit will be keen on going through the issue tracker.

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

What is the 'Frontier ID'? I've logged in to my (primary) store account and I don't see anything that says 'Frontier ID' - is it my name?

It's a number associated with your account. This is simply to let you know that at launch your reported issues won't use your display name. This is something we may retroactively add in future to link to your forum name.

Thanks Paul but it's still not 100% clear for me - is this Fronter ID a new thing or do I have one already? Or is it something that will be assigned to us the first time we use the issues tracker?

 

[Garud]

Thanks Paul but it's still not 100% clear for me - is this Fronter ID a new thing or do I have one already? Or is it something that will be assigned to us the first time we use the issues tracker?

The frontier ID is not always visible but its like the primary key associated with your frontier account. You can find it at the bottom of Elite's startup screen too.

 

[Paul_Crowther]

Sorry for the confusion, I said the forums, not just the bug reporting section of the forums. I think you may have covered this in the other thread:

To clarify on this one, any reports should be posted on the Issues Tracker. If someone posts one outside of there we'll be directing them to the Issues Tracker. Issues on the Tracker, even individual ones not being confirmed by other players, can still be manually reviewed but they will need to be on the Issues Tracker, just as previously bugs were directed towards the Bug Tracker forums.

 

[Paul_Crowther]

Thanks Paul but it's still not 100% clear for me - is this Fronter ID a new thing or do I have one already? Or is it something that will be assigned to us the first time we use the issues tracker?

You won't need to do anything to get it other than have a Frontier account (Which you should have just by posting on the forums). It simply displays as a designated number not your username.