Real bug reporting and feature request online doc

Discussion in 'Halo and Forge Discussion' started by Lazy Animator, Feb 28, 2016.

  1. Lazy Animator

    Lazy Animator Legendary

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    Greetings fellow spartans, forgers, and halo enthusiast. This is my first full-on post since joining forgehub in early January and I think it's gonna be a doozy. My plan may seem ambitious and maybe a little crazy to some but I believe it's something the community really needs. So my plan is this: I want to create and maintain a true public document or web page for reporting bugs and feature request in Halo 5.

    The reason I believe this is necessary is under the current system (whether we're talking here on forgehub, over at halo reddit, halo waypoint or whatever else is considered halfway official) is the total lack of tranparency or two sided communication. There's no way to know what issues they are aware of and what they are currently working on from one update to the next. Outside of say, a few standout employess at 343 like Tom French there's no response to our bug reporting through any of the aforementioned channels. Now I've had some people say this is going above and beyond what most developers are doing in the industry and what most players expect. I totally agree. It is not the norm for game developers to have an open doc or spreadsheet or any such thing showing the player base what has been logged and what is priority/ currently being fixed. The reason its not normally neccessary is because most developers have reasonable turn around times on fixing things. Usually we report what we will and then it's anyone's guess from there. But just imagine how great my idea would be for a second.

    What if there was one place everyone could go and report a bug, or put in a feature request and then it would all get organized into a neat list that we could all see? I don't have any examples at the moment but I know this isn't a new idea. Obviously for this to gain any traction we would have to get 343 on board with the idea, and that's where we may run into a wall. From talking to a few of you more in the the know it seems 343 is content on their current system of tracking and fixing bugs, as well as adding features. But for me this simply does not cut it. To have such a great base game (the new movement, traversal, weapon balance etc.) But one that's neutered of gametypes, custom game options and riddled with bugs is not in anyone's best interest,and I'm sure we can agree, or what anybody wants or enjoys. So now I'll stop explaining the "why" and move on to the "how."

    None of what I'm proposing is very complicated. All we need is a few different submission forms and the spreadsheet/website. If we're going the manual data entry method then obviously we're going to need people to cull through that data. This probably would not be ideal. Some sort of automated system would be better. So long as the system can take the category or flag info about what type of submission it is and file it accordingly. That way we have everything going is in it's proper place and we don't get a bunch of duplicate submissions. Now I'm no programmer but I believe there are tools readily available that would get the job done. Things like Google docs or probably anything on this list would be a great start.

    http://mashable.com/2008/02/06/forget-excel-14-online-spreadsheet-applications/#5LBUwWPuXOq9

    Someone showed me this last night but I'm not sure where it goes after that
    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Eo557ucqFMBrRW8HsqpVkQdGT0g6U_P30Nuw0EzdQIo/viewform?c=0&w=1

    So I'm throwing this out there a bit early but for a good reason. I know I can't do this on my own. My tech skills are limited and I'm doing everything from a tablet at the moment. But I know logic and design very well. That's why I'm hoping there are some of you out there interested in coming on to help with this project. I know a few of you have direct lines of contact with 343. If we could gain support through the various Halo community sites I have a great feeling about the success and positive effect it would have on Halo as a whole. So if anyone is interested in helping out, in any capacity whatsover, please reply to this post or message me directly. I look forward to any feedback and let's get this ball rolling! (Just like the soccer ball does now that it's fixed :) heheh...
     
  2. Chesus Khrist

    Chesus Khrist Bangin Pizza / FGPBCIA
    Senior Member

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    So you want to make place for everyone to complain about bugs, and it would be directed toured 343. Here is your answer :D https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us it's a great place full of great people who have tea over all the bugs, problems, and how 343 is secretly trying to steal all of are money from REQ packs. It's a great place and already directly with 343 :D
     
  3. Lazy Animator

    Lazy Animator Legendary

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    No you don't understand what I'm driving at, it's not to non - constructively complain. It's supposed to be a bridge between players and 343. Once bugs are reported they go into a publicly viewable document. Then 343 would update us on what's taking priority and actively being worked on. They could also give us an ETA on when patches are coming. Waypoint and Reddit don't do us enough good.
     
    #3 Lazy Animator, Feb 28, 2016
    Last edited: Feb 29, 2016
  4. Lazy Animator

    Lazy Animator Legendary

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    I was gaging interest with this and it seems like either people can't find the page because it gets buried fast or that it's not as good of an idea as I thought. If everyone is happy with the state of the game and believe the current systems of communication are sufficient I guess I'll just quit now. I still love the game, but man if I didn't have every problem I've already noticed over these last few months as well as a bunch of new ones. If I were to make my own list of issues I recon it would be no less than 50.
     
  5. Sn1p3r C

    Sn1p3r C Halo 3 Era
    Creative Force

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  6. Lazy Animator

    Lazy Animator Legendary

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    Finally someone who understands! Yeah I post to the forgehub bug report in the first link. I even use waypoint sometimes. Thanks for the second link, more research is underway!
     
  7. Overdoziz

    Overdoziz Untitled
    Forge Critic Senior Member

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    That's my bug submission form by the way. Right now it would go a Google spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...1yX_Xk2OTpGVMFLLlMK7-3JJt8/edit#gid=468489587

    It's not the best way to organize it, but without using an actual bug tracker website it's probably the best option.
    I brought it up with Warholic about a month ago, but I never got a response.

    Personally I feel like it would be a good way of delivering feedback to 343 in a clear and organized way across all (Forge) communities.
     
    Lazy Animator likes this.
  8. Lazy Animator

    Lazy Animator Legendary

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    Awesome, it must have been you that sent it to me in the chat last week then. I agree, if we had a true 2 way street set up it would be better for everyone. Developing in a bubble is what led to some truly great ideas turning out half assed, and I'm speaking of games in general here.
     

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