16 replies to this topic

[Faolain]

With Ragnarok Online 2: Legend of the Second coming out soon in beta, I just want to address, as a seasoned beta tester of many games, several things that WILL happen and how to help them be fixed, addressed, or simply to save you a lot of frustration. These are things you should always keep in mind when playing. This is a very comprehensive guide and not at all in-depth, but I'm hoping that by doing this it will offer some information to those who feel a little lost or just need a baseball-bat-to-head reminder of the purposes of a BETA.

1. This is a BETA, not a DEMO.

This is an early, unpolished version of the game. It will take them some time to work out bugs, and more than likely have worked on several internally and you'll be receiving some patches soon. There WILL be glitches. There WILL be bugs. There WILL be crashes and exploits. There WILL be lag. Don't whine and complain and throw a fuss over them, or nothing will ever get fixed. REPORT THEM.

2. You are here to report bugs and fix the game, you are not on tour.

Your suggestions will be taken seriously by the lovely people at Warp Portal, but they cannot help you in the midst of your yelling and screaming. If you're here on tour, just get your character to level 10 and wait for launch when things will be much smoother.

3. Whining about things not working IS NOT FEEDBACK.

So which bugs should you report?

1. Game Crashes

If your game crashes, it's probably one of the following: Your computer or the game. If you find that the game crashes over and over at the same point in the game, test it over and over again to see if it's constant. Is there a particular thing causing the crash? Is interacting with a particular NPC causing it? Are you looking in a particular direction when the crash happens? Reporting this will help the team figure out what's causing this crash and more effectively fix it. It also helps if you take a video of this and upload it somewhere like YouTube to offer to the developers in pinpointing the cause of the crash.

2. Class skills not doing the things they're supposed to do

For example, if Increase Agi and Blessing have their effects flipped around in this hypothetical situation or if Heal is behaving erratically, see if you can repeat the error. If you can and it remains a constant problem, report it. If you notice tooltip or description errors, report those too.

3. Falling through the world and other world-related bugs

As with all games in beta there are times you will have terrain errors which cause you for example to go underground, monsters to be bugged underground, for you to fall through the world to your death in a bizarre underworld, and the like. Report these so the developer can fix this problem quickly.

4. Quest Bugs

If something doesn't allow you to complete a quest it should be reported. For example if a monster is not dropping an item you need, your kill count is not being counted, you're being pointed to the wrong place, or the quest text is indecipherable, report it. When you do, be sure to mention the name of the quest and why you couldn't complete it.

So how do I make a good bug report?

Well, before you report a bug, always, always, always check the forums to see if it's already been reported. Multiple threads about the same thing just clog up the forums and make it harder for the GMs to do their job. If you've got more information to add, post in their thread, don't make a new one.

Who, what, when, where, why?

Give as much information as possible. Note the time this happened, the place, your time zone, what you were doing, your job, your level, what HAIRSTYLE you were using. Sometimes, it's just one particular, TINY thing causing the issue. Let Warp Portal know EXACTLY what the bug did. Was there an error message? Etc.

How?

Run through the bug as many times as you can. Produce screenshots or videos. If it only happens when using a particular skill, write that down. Include EVERY BIT OF DETAIL you possibly can.

Spelling is important

You don't have to have perfect english, but if the GMs can't understand you, it won't do them very much good. If your english isn't very good, try your best, and then write it in your native language as well, in case they have someone on the team who speaks your native language. Remember that you need to be understood.

One bug per thread

Each thread will be categorized as a separate bug, so if you want to report multiple bugs, make a thread for each bug. This will make it easier for the GMs to sort through.

Tag your thread

The subject line should tell the GM the idea of the bug. If it's a skill bug, note it as Skill Bug>(Small description of the bug). If you're uncertain how to format your thread, have a look at other reports to see what other people are doing. Avoid posting in all caps or swearing.

Don't bait the trolls

Swearing, whining, or otherwise setting out beef jerky for trolls is going to make your forum life very hard.

What NOT to do

"OMFG GRAVITY THAT PRIEST IS ****ING OP THEY ONE SHOT ME FIX IT ****WADS OR I'M QUITTING NAO MAYBE IT'LL MAKE OTHERS SEE HOW ****ING STUPID U ARE 4 DOING THIS OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!!1!!12!!!1"

This is called a childish douche who won't actually quit but who will get mocked mercilessly on the forums.

What TO do

"The changes to the priest class have made them rather difficult for anyone to beat. Today at 43:27AM FST I was in the PVP arena with several friends, and the priest was able to kill us all and out-heal us all attacking her at once. Here are several screenshots. I was playing a whatever. Here are several more screenshots of this priest doing ridiculous damage. This could be an exploit or a bug in a skill, and it would be worth looking at."

This sort of detailed report would allow the GMs to investigate the issue. It would also open up potential for a dialogue with other players on their experiences with this issue, and perhaps priest players to effectively pinpoint what is causing priests or that particular priest to be so unbalanced. This will be helpful in the long-run. Please note that the above scenario is for example purposes only and is not to be taken literally in any way, shape, or form.

Other things to look out for:

THIS. IS. NOT. A. DEMO.

Minor bugs are sometimes worth reporting but will be on the lower end of the priority list for Warp Portal so it may be awhile before you see it changed.
If there is a problem with exploits, it's impertinent that you report them immediately. Unless you are going for screenshots or videos for the purpose of detailing the cause and how to fix the problem, do not perform the exploit yourself.
There will probably, but MAY not be, a wipe.
Always be kind and courteous.
Reclining chairs are the #1 cause of ferret deaths worldwide.

I hope this thread has been enlightening and will help to lead to effective bug reports in the future.

Edited by Faolain, 14 April 2013 - 10:14 PM.

[ItsFaulkenOMG]

Very well said. Unfortunately though, you can't expect everyone to listen to what one says. Get ready to be flamed by my co-Filipinos and Brazilians as they say. You can count me out tho. As far as I know I'm the friendly type. BTW fix CoA Bugs meplox (

[Faolain]

Very well said. Unfortunately though, you can't expect everyone to listen to what one says. Get ready to be flamed by my co-Filipinos and Brazilians as they say. You can count me out tho. As far as I know I'm the friendly type. BTW fix CoA Bugs meplox (

I've beta tested around 7 games so far, 5 MMO's and 2 non-MMO's, so these are just the general bits of advice I'm offering to people actually looking to beta test this stuff. If people don't want to take my advice, that's fine, but they'll find it'll probably all run smoother if everyone helps to keep things organized and keep the whining or nerdraging to a minimum. There's always a group of people who use betas for tourism rather than their actual purpose.

It's no skin off my back if they want to whine and complain because there'll be many other people who put in constructive work into rooting out bugs and glitches, and THAT'S what matters.

Edited by Faolain, 15 April 2013 - 12:31 AM.

[ItsFaulkenOMG]

I've beta tested around 7 games so far, 5 MMO's and 2 non-MMO's, so these are just the general bits of advice I'm offering to people actually looking to beta test this stuff. If people don't want to take my advice, that's fine, but they'll find it'll probably all run smoother if everyone helps to keep things organized and keep the whining or nerdraging to a minimum. There's always a group of people who use betas for tourism rather than their actual purpose.

It's no skin off my back if they want to whine and complain because there'll be many other people who put in constructive work into rooting out bugs and glitches, and THAT'S what matters.

More of like this: 80% of the gaming population are idiots/turds while the 20% are those literate enough to understand how to not do this and that. Then that what causes the game to lose its players, because of the fact that most of the players are retards themselves.

I haven't tested that many, maybe around 5 or so only i think.

[Faolain]

More of like this: 80% of the gaming population are idiots/turds while the 20% are those literate enough to understand how to not do this and that. Then that what causes the game to lose its players, because of the fact that most of the players are retards themselves.

I haven't tested that many, maybe around 5 or so only i think.

We'll just have to work hard to make constructive, useful reports and hope for the best. Lead by example, I say.

[ItsFaulkenOMG]

We'll just have to work hard to make constructive, useful reports and hope for the best. Lead by example, I say.

Correct. And it's a Beta. They can rant all they want.

[RunOenomaus]

+1 to this. Get a mod to sticky this please. I've been in way too many Closed/Open betas, where people complain "omg this game is so buggy!" when it's in BETA.

[ItsFaulkenOMG]

+1 to this. Get a mod to sticky this please. I've been in way too many Closed/Open betas, where people complain "omg this game is so buggy!" when it's in BETA.

That's just basically how people deal with games illogically speaking.

[ZeroTigress]

Although I like your testing guide, it's unfortunate that nowadays beta just means access to a game before everyone else. Not a lot of MMOs take beta testing seriously (except for SquareEnix with RO2).

Edited by ZeroTigress, 15 April 2013 - 09:04 AM.

[Aimrys94]

I like this post a lot. Thank you for posting! It'll be very helpful.

[Tsujiko]

thanks for posting! Really nice guide!
Thats how betas should be played/tested.

I hope we will have enough people testing in the beta and not just hang around till the launch. I played a few betas before, i have fun fnding bugs (most of the time i found grafik bugs/glitchen and teleport/stuck glitches on maps)
But 5 days is a rather short period @.@ well time to search around on low lvl regions/maps

[Njoror]

Well said!

[Faolain]

Wow, thanks for the pin. I'm so glad you liked my guide. ^^

[lordidain]

Amazing information, I am very appreciative of this guide and will mostly like return in the near future for reference.

[Lonfyre]

Might be helpful to some more than others, but when I've beta'd for other games I usually use a subject format to get it across.
[<Urgency>][<Type>][<Class>]<Brief Bug Description/Subject>

For example, let's say a Heal Over Time Spell for the Priest is not expiring. This is potentially gamebreaking, but not immediately destructive, so this would be a Moderate bug rather than a Major or Minor.

"[Moderate][Skill][Priest]Heal over time not expiring" would be your subject.

Aside from that, just make sure you've tried to replicate the bug a few times and post it in a easy to read yet detailed way of how to replicate the bug so that the devs can check it out on their own.

[SonOfHell]

There will probably, but MAY not be, a wipe.

I was looking for an official document, whether it will be wipe when the server back in its official release. Will be wipe?

[Faolain]

I was looking for an official document, whether it will be wipe when the server back in its official release. Will be wipe?

It has been announced that there will be a wipe. It was not announced at the time that I wrote this guide.