The Bugbox Swarm - Let's talk about it
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Posted 2024-06-27 07:03:49
I'll be the dissenting opinion and say that I considered quitting because of a lack of content and updates. Although I do understand that some of the update slowness was due to the server migration (which was huge, props to the developers for dealing with the lag and pages not loading). We don't have the enclave update long after it was mentioned, the groups update was delayed, and there's been no news on the hunting 'spice'. Even after almost four years there's still not a single non-lethal mutant comparable to 'primal' or 'hybrids' in Lioden. More communication on the status of these updates would help, but not solve the issue because the game does actually need these updates, imo. The April event is great. I'm super excited for some more of the updates mentioned in the anniversary post to come through and I do love Wolvden. A new mutant, the 'addition' to hunting, a new variant, a karma system, a storyline tied to the October event, a sixth event--these are all fantastic things mentioned in the anniversary update that I really am looking forward to. Perhaps I've been lucky, but outside of server hiccups and bugs related to new features (that were fixed in a timely manner for the most part) it hasn't been that bad. The April event was quite bug filled at the start and perhaps there could have been more testing before release, but the developers did an excellent job in addressing almost everything that was brought up as quick as possible. Many bugs in the bugbox seem to be duplicate bugs, false reports, user error (not knowing how to clear browser cache, for example), server-side lag related (which the server migration was meant to reduce), minor / low priority (e.g. Alaskan Marmot vs Alaska Marmot), or browser and device related (various display bugs). Some bugs are edge cases which happen rarely (E.G. a wolf in heat at 7 and 1 1/2 months old won't display as being in heat in Pair List, but can still be bred to their Pairbond, it just doesn't show the heat symbol. Or rolling over on the quest page after completing a quest causes the "Active Quest Expired" message to be displayed). That is not to say that these bugs should not be fixed, but it is important to understand that many of these bugs are minor. I agree that having someone go through the bug reports and remove / tag the unneeded ones would help. If only one person reports a bug, it can be difficult to determine what exactly went wrong and fix it. Major bugs and bugs that have multiple people impacted by them (while having proper information associated with them) tend to be fixed quickly. From what I can see, there are 45 pages of "pending bugs". Pages 20+ consist of bugs that have only been reported by 1-2 people, and page 10+ is 5 or less reports. Several of these bugs have actually been addressed and were just not flagged as fixed. Several more bugs are listed in the "Pending Bugs" that were addressed when other bugs were fixed, but the status has not been updated for all of the reports. I'm not saying that bugs aren't a problem. A few days of going through bug-box entries, fixing very simple ones, and tagging all of them correctly would help find actual bugs in the future. Time should be spent on quashing bugs, especially exploitative or major issues. I've reported at least one (extreme edge case) exploit to the Modbox and it was fixed within 2-3 days, which makes me think the Matchmaker exploit is a more difficult fix (just a guess, I actually haven't heard about the exploit). I'd rather have some bugs and new content than "no" bugs but significantly fewer major updates per year ("no" bugs is borderline impossible). Obviously the ideal is no bugs and more new content, but not everything can be perfect. Programming is difficult, servers lag, browsers (& devices) differ, and some bugs are to be expected. I agree that to help keep the number of reports down, bug categorization on report and the ability to self-flag bugs as "Not a Bug" could be added. Both of these features would help prioritize important ones. |
 Miso 🥣 #1101 |
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Posted 2024-06-29 03:48:54
With that in mind, another suggestion I'd throw into the pot is a category for 'community fixes' that could be appended to the bugbox. Not every bug can be addressed without serverside access, but in some cases (such as things displaing incorrectly), there may be members of the community who are able to provide apps or workarounds to avoid the bug in question. In the case of Wolvden, which has a very small dev team and a very creative/dedicated circle of fans, this could go a long way to easing the pressure of some of these bugs, and people may even be excited to have ways they can contribute to a community they care about. There are obvious problems with this, of course; it would be possible for a bad faith actor to submit a harmful plugin as a solution to a problem, and even good-faith actors can make mistakes. Still, some moderation is probably still a smaller workload than developing the solutions from scratch, and dev team might even be able to use the community's research to assist with ultimately fixing the bugs on their end. |
Kit #140915 |
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Posted 2024-06-30 17:56:55
I really starting to heavily anticipate any complaints towards the admins (and I really see too much due to current fayre event) because I can see and understand how much work they put into it and I just… feel sorry for them? I'm also really afraid to get less content, because development updates are the only one I'm waiting for every Friday and it's like a miricale every time. I feel like child open presents on Christmas and I don't want to loose that |
 Timestream #7115 |
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Posted 2024-06-30 18:03:12 (edited)
I know WD really hasn't been delivering on their update promises like the karma system and the group update, but I feel like it would be much better to have all these bugs resolved before they start working on new content. The game would feel fresher and more playable if you could actually interact with the event without having to encounter any bugs. It would be better to have nice, easy gameplay with no bugs versus buggy updates that are hard to work with. As more stuff gets added to the game, there will be more bugs. This is unpreventable. But I believe it would be better to resolve all the bugs now before trying to fit in new content which will bring in more bugs, leading to "The Bugbox Swarm." There are bugs that are still happening and have not been updated for multiple years. It doesn't make sense to proceed with the content instead of fixing the bugs first. |
 🦊Skulk🦊 #46971 |
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Posted 2024-06-30 18:03:37 (edited)
I'd actually like to change my opinion after reading the others. |
 Ꭴꮝꮧ Ꮠꮘꮅ 🪻 #136647 |
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Posted 2024-06-30 18:14:44
As Miso stated and as from my experience, "bugbox swarm", isn't really an issue. Latest bugs reports are almost all related to the event, and this is the best event I've ever had (technically speaking, the storyline and it's pacing might have a little more work, bur you can't have everything at once). Are there bugs? Yes. Are there LOTS OF content? Also yes! The bugs are not accumilating, the most crucial are being resolved, and all I see in this topic is just some punishment to the admins for bringing us too much content. They don't deserve that, because they seems to be fully aware if possible bugs, and for this event most critical bugs were solved in the first day in the few hours after bugs were reported, which didn't do any harm. I can imagine how tough it was, but admins were ready for that |
Timestream #7115 |
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Posted 2024-06-30 18:15:04
That's exactly why you'd alternate between update months and bug months. Not only would it give the devs time to squash all the bugs, it would eliminate nearly all the bugs. Plus, the devs wouldn't burn out lol. For me, I get bored if there's too many events. I can't put all my focus on two events at once. I have stuff to do that prevents me from putting my full 100 into events, especially when there's too many. Having 2 events going on at once like the Fayre and Lunar overlap was just overwhelming and I couldn't perform the Fayre event as well as I could. (Plus the Fayre event is just really boring, there's little to no stuff you do besides planting plants and joining contests. |
🦊Skulk🦊 #46971 |
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Posted 2024-06-30 18:21:50 (edited)
Sorry about that, you ninja'd me lol  I reported a bug almost two months ago (link to it if you need it) and it has not had further replies. Has the issue been resolved? Yes. Has the bug been fixed? No... My problem has been solved but the issue in the code has not been. It's taken them almost 2 months to get to this bug and it has still not been squashed. A bug that would be a relatively simple fix (all they need to do is disable a pairbond) has taken almost 2 months and counting to get to. And I'm not the only one. There are countless bugs that are months, maybe even years old that have not been fixed. Obviously the Bugbox Swarm isn't yet too much of a problem, but if the devs continue adding more material without squashing more than 2 or 3 bugs at a time, then the bugbox will be overrun with reports. The newest reports about the event have been resolved, but what about the ones that are years old? I don't see the suggestion as a punishment, I see it as more of a schedule for the devs to keep! Adding too many updates and not enough bug squashes would be really stressful on them since they'd see a bunch of bugs that they'd have to fix and no time to solve them. |
🦊Skulk🦊 #46971 |
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Posted 2024-06-30 18:29:44
The scar update was suppose to give us rare scar encounters. We don't have that. That was last year .. It's been that long since the bug has been around and yet we don't have it. New content is absolutely something I want and look forward too but it means nothing if it doesn't work. Also just like to add that there are currently 684 pending bug reports. No one is saying to make a dead stop on every single new piece of content but the bug box needs handled. |
 s̶t̶a̶i̶n̶e̶d̶ #43996 |
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Posted 2024-06-30 18:36:47
I think I treat this topic as something personal, because I feel like if it gets to much support I'll be robbed of the joy of new updates (which are quite rare occasions). Your bug in example seems to be quite unique (in term you're only one who experienced it) and I can understand why they didn't count it as "fixed" — they might just simply don't know that's gone wrong. When you have too many lines of codes it's really sometimes hard to guess wich one cousint the bug, and, as admin stated in your example, they kept it open for new occasions This is not crucial. It's small. Bugs like this won't bring any problem even if there are too many of them. They're a little bit annoying at most, and should they be the reason I won't get more content as soon as intended? Sorry, absolutely not. Should they be an example that admins can't handle update pacing/technical part of WD/need to concentrate fully on resolving them? Also no |
Timestream #7115 |