Writing Bug Reports

As we get closer to beta I wanted to write up a little guide on submitting bug reports.

Here is a typical bug report:

“Hey, my wingmen won’t dock correctly. I try to make him dock, and he won’t.�

This bug report does describe the error seen by the tester. But it is not as helpful as it could be. The key thing to understand when you send a bug report is that the development team will need to reproduce your bug exactly to figure out why it is broken and fix it. Looking back at the example bug report, is there enough information to duplicate the bug on another computer of someone you have never met? No, more information is needed.

Before you write your bug report, ask yourself: what will the development team need to reproduce this bug?

They need to know which version of the mod you are using. They need to know which wingman you are using. What type of ship is it? What is it trying to dock to? If that is a station or asteroid, where is it? If it is cargo, what kind of cargo?

The development team will need to put themselves in your exact conditions. So list those as precisely as you can. If you used a command (like ordered the ship to dock) how did you do it? Which ship did you order to dock. Which command did you use?

Testing Technique

Writing good bug reports is not easy. There are some steps you can do to make finding and removing bugs much, much faster (which is good for everyone).

Keep a notepad by your computer. When you hit an odd behavior or clear bug, pause the game. Write down everything you can about the situation.
Where are you in the game (station name, deep space, specific system).
What ships are involved (exactly, patcom, corvette, truck, small miner).
What orders did you issue? What were you trying to do that might have caused the bug?

Once you have written down everything, save your game. Make a note of the name of your save game and don’t delete that one.

Now, before writing up the bug report, try to make the bug happen again. You might have to back up and load a prior save game. If you can make the bug happen again, write up the steps that are needed. If the bug does not happen again, try a few variations to make it happen. If it does not happen again, keep your notes, but don’t submit the bug report.

If you can make the bug happen again, then submit the full report, with all the details. If you have a save game that lets the bug be reproduced quickly, move it to a safe spot in case it is needed to cause the bug.