Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

Then thank you for your input and let me keep this thread for my questions.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

The changelog lists this for 1.42:

8. Fixed - When one player surrenders to another, all objects that change ownership will have their orders cleared.

Is it still happening in the 1.44 release version?

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

yup. under 1.44 with BM 1.09 + 1.09 patch.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

Send a savegame to malfador then.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

No evidence that he cares or reads emails. Besides, I'm sure that one is already reported. I did just report another bug, for what it's worth:

under v1.44 you can add mines to a fleet. In fact they show up under the left column and will be added to the fleet if you "add all to fleet"

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

He responded to my e-mails about bugs, and afaik he did it for several other players too...

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

It seems very hit or miss whether or not he responds. Sometimes he'll respond to 4 or 5 emails in a row, then not to any for a long time. Doesn't seem to be any discernable pattern, just random.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

I'll find if more information is needed with my bug report I'll get a reply, but otherwise I don't usually get one.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

I usually don't get a response (and I'm a beta tester...).

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

The frequent and extensive changelogs seem like plenty of evidence to me. It wouldn't hurt for Aaron to set up some kind of autoresponder to acknowledge that he has received your e-mail, but otherwise I'd rather see someone work on code rather than compose personal replies to every bug report.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

I have the impression that you get a reply from MM if he needs more information about the bug you reported. So no reply might not be a bad sign! At least many bug reports I sent him and got no reply were fixed in the next patch.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

Is there an online bug database somewhere that is kept up to date so that we can see if bugs are already reported? It would be useful to set up bug severity/priority. It seems MM just knee-jerks on emails, some emails and not others.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

There is one on se5.com, but Malfador doesn't go through and mark things as reported/fixed.

http://spaceempires5.com/en-US/project/issues/SE5

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

In fact he only answered my first e-mail, but for practically all of them, I could see the changes in the changelog soon after.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

Don't the beta testers maintain a database of bugs/features?

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

Some questions: How many SEV players are there? How many send him bug reports? How much time does he have to read and compose replies?

I could easily see him getting at least fifty e-mails a day in just bug reports. Not just because SEV is buggy, but because even a niche game has a lot of players.

So. Which do you want him to do, fix bugs, *Which he is doing* or answer e-mails?

Far as I'm concerned, service beats out nearly every other company.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

It's not an either/or issue and yes, I do know he is fixing bugs. I never said I wanted him to answer emails, though somehow that's what everyone thinks I meant by "evidence that he ... reads emails". He must be keeping some kind of list (at least) of bugs and feature requests and has prioritized them for fixing. Inevitably, some "bug" reports either aren't going to be fixed or aren't really bugs. Similarly, there are a huge number of feature requests that, I'm thinking mostly won't be incorporated due to practical reasons. These all could be addressed in a simple remark. Making this viewable somewhere with periodic updates would do several things:

- allow players to see the list so that they won't further clog his email with bug reports or feature requests for things that already have been sent in. Periodically posting the list somewhere is much faster than viewing numerous emails so this would save his time.

- makes people aware of the existing bugs to possibly avoid them in game play for those that are avoidable. He could even keep those *secret* bugs off the list for those that might lead to multiplayer cheating. Though this really just gives the advantage to a cheater who knows about the bugs.

- allow modders to address any issues that can be addressed via data files.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

Aaron's the one to convince, not us. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Aaron has never been particularly good at community relations. Posting his lists online might work, but I fear he would only keep it up to date for so long before letting it wallow in the realm of un-updated web content.

For reference, he turned down the idea of making primary use of the bug/issue tracker on SE5.com due to it being "too late in the process" to change gears.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

Also, the number of different people reporting the same bug factors into how much priority fixing that bug gets.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

Sorry but here I have to disagree completely.
There hard to find bugs, that will therefore be only reported late and from one person and yet this may be a game killing bug if it happens.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

Yes, that's the problem. Knee jerking on emails shows no organization.

I still can't see why the beta testers don't maintain such a thing for him.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

It's not quite as described.

MM maintains a list of reported bugs. Factors considered are reproducibility, save-game, severity, frequency, etc. Earlier in the beta, Tampa_Gamer maintained an extensive list of bugs/issues.

E-mail frequency (popularity) is associated more with getting a requested feature or change added sooner rather than later.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

"getting a requested feature or change added sooner rather than later" seems to me like knee jerking to emails. It does not seem like a systematic approach to fixing bugs in order of severity and, possibly, adding feature requests if practical as desired.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

If you ignore the ranked listing of bugs by severity et all that Kwok mentioned, then certainly. Bugs are treated differently than feature requests; you don't need a ton of emails about a bug to get it fixed. Aaron does have organization, he just doesn't make it public.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

Slick, that wasn't aimed at you. That was a comment for everybody who complained about not get an e-mail back.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

Some good news on the Join Fleet order:

Version 1.48:
1. Fixed - Ship Experience and Fleet Experience "Combat To Hit Offense" was not always being applied.
2. Fixed - Only Fighter groups can be added to fleets.
3. Fixed - Join Fleet order button was not enabling properly.
4. Fixed - Join Fleet order was not joining the fleet on the same turn it moved into the sector.
5. Fixed - In a Simultaneous game, if you are a player and save your game before
ending your turn, the internal multiplayer game name will not be changed. The game
used to change the internal muliplayer game name on any save, so when the player
ended their turn, the .plr file would have the same name as the filename they saved
with mid-turn.
6. Fixed - In a Simultaneous game, if a player saved their game before ending their turn,
designs created previous to the save would not be added by the host.
7. Fixed - Speed up for big list windows with large numbers of items.
8. Fixed - The unique tech areas "Power Leech" and "Shield Implosion" were not being placed on planets.
9. Fixed - Adjusted AI research priorities.
10. Fixed - Improved accuracy of FPS counter.
11. Fixed - Improved timer resolution.
12. Fixed - When starting a game as a Host or a Player, no empires can be defined in the Game Setup window.
13. Fixed - Order files were sometimes lost if the host received them while taking his turn.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

Thanks, Fyron, these are some nice fixes.

I like fix #7 which speeds up the list windows. In a 255-system game, I find that the colonies button for example has a long pause before the screen comes up. Eventually, it got annoying and I tried to use those buttons as little as possible. I'd move the mouse over to the button, about to click it, and I stop myself because I don't want to wait so long.

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

Thanks Fyron. Is there a history.txt for 1.47?

Re: Some random SE:V questions
 

It only fixes one bug introduced in 1.46.