Testing Protocols

Experimentation

(stub)

Anything you might think is a bug, no matter how minor should be reported. Feel free to report enhancement requests for existing features in the game if you feel something is incomplete and/or hard to use. However, do NOT submit entire feature requests - feature discussion is done on the Ideas Forum - this site is for tracking development of planned components.

Found a Bug?

Upon finding a bug, one should not immediately report it. First, an appreciable amount of information should be collected about the bug to make it useful. (And for faster fixes.)

Collecting and compiling information

  1. Reproducability - To really know what a bug really is, and what caused it, reproducing the bug is essential. Start off by trying to replicate what caused the bug before
    If the bug causes crashing, or data corruption, reproduction might be difficult (as rebooting the MUD is an extremely privileged activity). If this is the case, try to contact a Guardian with such privilege to reboot after each test. Unfortunately some crash bugs root to memory leaks, which are very hard to track down and almost impossible to reproduce. In this case, just try to find out as much as you can.
  2. test

Reporting

The most important thing to remember when bug reporting: 60% of all bugs reports are duplicates

  1. First, try to find a bug report describing the issue encountered. Use the search tool for help. If the bug has already been reported, but you have additional information not already provided - add a comment with your new information. If no report seems to match what was found, go ahead to step 2.
  2. Make a log file: Many MUD clients have the ability to create logs themselves. If this feature is absent, or unknown, logs can easily be created by copy/pasting the text directly from the output screen. In either case, make sure to trim the log down to only the essential information, while assuring any relevant information remains intact. Again: Provide as much information as possible, but try not to spam.
  3. Create a New Ticket and compose a Short Summary that concisely describes the issue.
  4. Fill in the description with details about what the bug affects, what causes it, etc. Try to provide as much detail as possible. Also, make sure to correctly use terms like THINK and KNOW, to reflect the level of experimentation done.
  5. Fill in ticket properties: It is very important to properly categorize reports.
    1. Priority should reflect the level of impact on gameplay, and the frequency of impact. 'Blocker' should only be used by developers unless the bug relates to something outlined in the roadmap. However, all crash bugs should be considered blockers.
    2. Component should best reflect which aspect of the game is most related to / affected by the bug. If you do not know what component to choose, simply leave 'General'.
    3. Severity should be fairly straight-forward. LOG_BUG is for any bugs reported on the log channel (something Guardians see).
    4. Assign to should be left blank unless you know what you are doing. This is mostly automated anyway.
    5. Milestones can be found on the roadmap page.
    6. Version MUST be in synch with the Milestone. The first milestone listed is 0.1, and every following milestone is incremented by 0.1.
    7. Keywords: Try to use words related to the bug so it can be easily found by others possibly reporting the same thing. Make sure to separate each keyword by a comma.
    8. CC: Don't worry about this.
  6. Preview the report to make sure there were no mistakes.
  7. Submit it, and then make sure to attach your log file.