Though I am a fan of insects and their relatives and would never propose violence against them, I fully support fixing as many bugs as we can find in the WolfQuest games, and we need your help! We currently have enough funding to work on squashing some of those annoying bugs you all have experienced while playing WolfQuest; we'd like your help in determining which of these bugs are the most important to fix and why these bugs happen in the first place. We will accept special bug reports (see the rules below) until the end of March 1, 2011. If you can successfully help us figure out how to reproduce the problem,not only could the bug be fixed in Episode 2.5 because of your help, but also, the person who submits the most helpful bug report and follows the rules of this contest will not only win a WolfQuest t-shirt and embroidered patch, but will also become a beta tester for Episode 2.5. We are hoping to have at least one winner. If you're interested, please follow these rules:
1) If we can't reproduce it, we can't fix it. In other words, the bug needs to be something that happens to you consistently; every time you do something specific. If it's a bug that only shows up sometimes, and you can't make a connection to what you do that causes it to happen, it's not something we can fix so please don't bother reporting it.
2) Each person is allowed to submit up to five bug reports for this contest. If you have more than five bugs to report, or notice a bug/glitch after March 1, you can feel free to submit them by following the instructions on how to submit bug reports (found in the WolfQuest FAQ), but these will not be considered for the contest and will not be eligible for the prizes.
3) If you submit an entry for this contest, you need to be able to attach files onto your e-mails. Even if the bug you're reporting doesn't seem like it needs anything else to describe it, we may have further questions about it and require one of the files listed in the next rule.
4) All bug reports submitted for this contest should be e-mailed to coordinator@wolfquest.org (not bugs@wolfquest.org) with the following information:
- your username and e-mail address
- everything you were doing before the crash/bug/glitch
- the steps we can follow to reproduce the problem
- crash files and output logs (output_log.txt), whenever possible (you may have to run the game as an administrator on your computer on vista and Windows7 to see the output log)
- saved game file(s) (if related to your bug)
- screenshots to show the problem (this is least important- the crash files and saved games are more important)
Good luck! Feel free to post questions below, but any bug reports submitted as a message will not be entered into the contest (and may actually allow someone else to use your bug as a contest submission).
Relevant help topics for finding output logs etc.
http://www.wolfquest.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=29539
http://www.wolfquest.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21329
Contest update:thank you to everyone who entered! While we can't guarantee the problems you reported will be fixed, most of the information we received was quite helpful, and hopefully will be the key to fixing some of those game bugs.
There were, however, a few bugs we are well aware of, but have not been reported with enough information to actually fix. So. Whether you already submitted contest entries or not (even if you already submitted 5), we are extending the contest deadline to Tuesday, March 15 for anyone who can report one or both of the following:
1) issues connecting to/staying in/starting open and private multiplayer games, and
2) issues with mate & pup AI (artificial intelligence behavior), including interactions with you & how they're programmed.
If you're reporting the connection issues, you must include output logs, ideally both from the players who were actually in the game and were able to stay connected, and to the player(s) who were not able to connect at all or not able to stay in the game. (This bug would best be tackled by a team effort.) And of course, also include a description as to what exactly you and the other player(s) were doing before you or the other player crashed.
If you're reporting mate and pup issues, output logs, saved games, and detailed descriptions of exactly what was happening before and during the bug, as well as where exactly you were on the map (a screenshot of you on the map as well as a physical description would be helpful) are the things we'll need to fix what you report.
So if you can report on either or both of those bugs, we'd be extremely grateful, and we'd then potentially be able to fix these problems, which are probably the most major issues we've come across. The fate of WolfQuest is in your hands... you have until March 15th, though please send the bug report as soon as you have it. All other contest details are the same as described above.
Thanks for your help, and the final contest winners will be announced after this new contest deadline, later in the week.