The Bugbox Swarm - Let's talk about it
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The Bugbox Swarm - Let's talk about it
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Posted 2024-06-22 19:59:29 (edited)
It's normal for all games to have bugs - especially those that are constantly under development. However, Wolvden feels as though it has hit a roadblock where it can never be considered short of the bugs that need squashing. I mean, their are bugs dating as far back as 2021 - that's three years ago! I definitely don't blame the devs for it. Any game would have these bugs, however they have been let to build up to an unmanageable number unless drastic measures are taken. Though the exact math cannot be done, because the bugbox itself is bugged (with pages not holding a consistent amount of bugs), looking we can at least see 98 pages of active bugs - 78 of which sit unclaimed. Why are new features being released monthly, bringing more and more bugs, when old bugs are left to sit? I have a few suggestions - both on the devs part and functionality part to fix this issue. Functionality When submitting a bug, players should be able to categorize the bugs into art issue, spelling errors, minor coding errors, coding errors, and gamebreaking bugs to help the appropriate devs better find the bugs. There are many bugs that are simple fixes but just get burried underneath other bugs and go unseen. Players could also be allowed to flag bugs as a duplicate or something they realized as not a bug. Sometimes I submit a bug and then quickly realize that someone reported something that was similar or I see people who say "nevermind" after a feature is explained to them. These bugs can clutter up the box. This could also allow players to flag exploits that may have slipped into the box - being they are meant to be sent privately to the modbox. There was a case where an exploit from the first matchmaker went unnoticed and it was still being spread around as a helpful tip come year two! That's not cool! Developers I know that the team is small and people cannot just be added to the team. However, I would like to recommend that the existing team take a month or two off from any new coding and focus on the old. In this month, any development updates andevent coding would be put on hold and Lunar would be skipped or kept to just the new base/eyes. All efforts would then focus on squashing bugs - ideally starting from the oldest bugs and working towards newer ones. As a member since beta, I know something similar was done for beta where testers were left to their own accord for two months while the devs worked on coding and bug fixes from stress testing. I want to see this done again - I don't need another new event, I need a game that feels seamless and bug-free. An alternative that I would much prefer, but is definitely more drastic would be to rotate between dev updates and down months. I know the timeline for this year was to have one update a month but that fell through - I also know that their was meant to be more of a focus on QoL things but that didn't work out either. This idea could help with both! It squashes the bugs and ensures they stay squashed and gives us QoL - which is a while other story with how many suggestions plague the forums. Just using the most recent example from the timeline - instead of doing the event, the enclave update, and the hunting update these would be spread out like this: Jan - new event update Feb - bug month + minor QOL updates March - enclave update April - bug month + minor QoL updates May - Hunting Update. |
 Lily (GH!) #3016 |
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Posted 2024-06-22 21:05:31
I personally feel like the staff should set aside times throughout the year to work on nothing but bugs. New content means nothing to me if all we get is more bugs tacked on the hundreds we already have. If the staff was to say take 2 or 3 months a year to work on nothing bugs the game would flourish because of it. So many of the reports we have in the bugbox seem simple. So many seem like they are an over site. So many have gone completely unnoticed due to being buried in the stacks of reports. We don't want more new game play. We want better game play. There's a bug report out about the "recently" added scar encounters not actually being added. That report was made December 2023. 6 months ago. It hasn't even been picked up. I'd love to get that feature actually added but yet we go on without it because devs either haven't noticed or haven't bothered with picking it up. We deeply appreciate all that goes into this game. We really do. However, we really want more to be put into the things we already have. Bugs fixed. Content added that was already supposed to be added like the scar encounter. Features we've been promised/teased for years like the group update that keeps getting pushed. Lily's suggestions are wonderful. Being able to categorize bugs would so helpful for everyone involved. Also, I 100% support being able to mark our own bugs as "not a bug". Then devs could just close the report and not even have to think about it. |
 s̶t̶a̶i̶n̶e̶d̶ #43996 |
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Posted 2024-06-23 01:16:56
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 Remmie #8429 |
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Posted 2024-06-23 07:16:40
Currently, while searching for bugs you have to guess and/or rely on other people's spelling. However, I disagree on allowing players to have any control over other people's bug reports... or other people's anything in general, that is for staff to do. |
 Indra, Orca Enthusiast #120909 |
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Posted 2024-06-23 09:04:04
The game has fallen into a pattern where, if you've played for a few months, you're almost guaranteed to find a bug. I understand coding a game is not easy work, but it could be solved so simply if they sorted the bugs into different categories. This way, they would know which bugs are game breaking (such as the Matchmaker exploit, although I think that's more of a Modbox thing) or just simple typos that can be solved within thirty seconds. I didn't even know that there were scar encounters in the first place. I love the game and I think it could truly be way better if they just took some of these ideas into account. |
 🦊Skulk🦊 #46971 |
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Posted 2024-06-24 19:42:50
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 Ihmislehma #1850 |
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Posted 2024-06-24 19:48:22
As someone who can considerably be a "veteran" of the site, it slightly pains me to see mechanics and promised features stated in updates, alongside many others have to pile up Bugbox. This amount shouldn't ultimately exist, in laymen's terms. Heavily agree with others in this thread have stated: Some of these bugboxes have lasted for years (this one, and this one especially from my own personally submitted Bugboxes) that may have underlying issues long-term, be it connected to Development Updates or not. And they're just... not being taken as seriously as those that are being currently made. Many of these buried-away Bugboxes could lead to exploits that haven't been unearthed yet, and here they are being swept under the rug because the priority lies elsewhere. While I know it's easier to fix bugs that are happening in the now, to make sure things have been fixed, it just feels like fixing things that have been broken over the years is something that doesn't even seem to take the first burner. I do like the idea of having months dedicated to stomping these bugs out, and it could be even shown publicly like Development Updates! Maybe even give not necessarily insider info on the coding of the site, but give some interesting facts, banter, and overall just something interesting about what makes this site this site to the players as an inbetween for updates. I'm personally one who tends to snoop fixed bugboxes and am just intrigued as to the process of how coding is finding and fixing these problems. And I know the devs tend to host streams on Twitch and the like about progress on art, coding, and anything LD/WD-related, but not everyone has the time to visit there. So something to kinda give players an idea on how these bugboxes are handled, maintained, and ultimately fixed would be a nice turnaround! And while I can see others being mad no new content is being released, I'm sure a majority of the playerbase would be happy to see these features that were hidden behind code that seemed to go crazy be implemented and in full display. A well-maintained site is a site worth sharing and using, in my opinion. Sorting, as others have stated, and even marking our mistake-boxes (aka our "whoops, i myself can see this isn't a bug") as fixed/not a bug would definitely fix the severe influx there is hiding within the cluster. |
 [Kim] Rolling Events Only #13734 |
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Posted 2024-06-24 20:48:35 (edited)
I will say, my favorite anniversary update was the 3rd one, where we got loads of QoL. They said they were focusing more on bugs around that time, and frankly, I wish they would keep on with that in mind. That being said, I unfortunately don't think they can spend too long focusing on bugs. A large portion of players would feel like nothing is being done because they aren't getting something new, and while I personally would love for them to make everything just right before adding new features, that's just not good for financial reasons. Shiny New Thing™, you know how it is. And people tend to forget things that used to be issues after the fact, and view that time as a blank spot where nothing happened. Take the server migration for example - great change, but I bet a lot of players forgot we even had or needed it. The old bugs are probably even less likely to be addressed, since they aren't 'active' issues. Like yeah, the survival chance of pups will stick onto the corner of the pupsitting screen if you switch pupsitters using the arrow keys and scroll, but that's been a thing for years and has fallen into a black hole where it's ignored. It's normal to me now. As another long-time player, I've kind of just gotten used to the bugs as features themselves - I'll literally do the pupsitting screen thing when I'm bored from sorting pups onto their sitters. I've almost developed a fondness of the bug, it's been hanging around since before the 1st site anniversary. Maybe it's my cynicism talking, I'm not sure. But yes, I'd like to see a shift in focus. We don't need a new event for a while, we have 5 month-long ones now. Give those and Lunar some time to breathe, I wanna see some bugs annihilated. |
 Whirligig #11137 |
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Posted 2024-06-24 22:31:02
So, yes, great idea. Bring back those streams, communicate and show off a talley of how many bugs they squashed in a mini dev update, and overall have fun putting the pressure of a new big update behind them and interact with the playerbase. |
Lily (GH!) #3016 |
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Posted 2024-06-26 19:21:43 (edited)
Support ! I'm someone who gets bored here often and therefore take hiatuses often but fixing bugs instead of adding new content is the way to go in my opinion. |
 Ꭴꮝꮧ Ꮠꮘꮅ 🪻 #136647 |