Does Funcom Have QA Testers?

Barnes · 2019-10-28T14:58:58.674Z

Caco:

But as usual, Conan Exiles seems to have a talent for keeping ppl away with the lack of “QA”, after they spent a week of playing, farming and building, yesterday, a clan of 5 players came, and burned the pillar base with explosive and gas arrows while the base had a Bubble on.

If yours is the post that prompted my last reply, please forgive my intrusion into your conversation. I’m sorry about what happened to your friends’ base. Lollipops are tough to master, and using a bubble can be quite tricky. Splash damage can definitely be a factor, and if the base has feet of clay it can be easily burned. I hope they fight on.

Caco · 2019-10-28T23:30:40.402Z

No need to apologize, Iagree, there are always other factors, I wouldnt discard them for sure. Maybe broken with the recent update, and yet, I suspect it could be something else too, due to the history of these servers having “unfair” players.

papabear2009 · 2019-10-29T05:47:37.459Z

I’ve QA for Microsoft and xbox games are required to go through their QA process which is suppose to be for testing stability on the xbox platform but what was rumored that companies will say that this is an official QA process or “their QA team”, we hardly would get to play any games since we are trying to just make the game crash on xbox so a lot of switching between apps, force shut off etc. All that would take up most of our day and if we had time left then we would do achievement hunting which would be really the only time we could play the game.

BoogerParty · 2019-10-30T08:03:37.017Z

Does it make you feel tough to insult strangers on the internet? Just curious.

Ignasi · 2019-10-30T09:25:09.065Z

Please do keep it civil and adhere to our community guidelines.
https://forums.funcom.com/t/conan-exiles-community-guidelines-please-read/54375

Walkerbait81 · 2019-10-30T10:59:08.617Z

Its very hard for people to remain civil when the game is constantly getting updates and hotfixes that cause the game to stop functioning as it should, with each fix comes a new problem and often brings old ones back. If these so called hotfixes were tested properly before being forced onto every platform you wouldn’t have to spend your days clipping the community guidelines onto every thread. I cant wait to see what the mounts do to the game considering you cant run past a large base without it crashing.

Kapoteeni · 2019-10-30T11:17:55.393Z

Walkerbait81:

Its very hard for people to remain civil when the game is constantly getting updates and hotfixes that cause the game to stop functioning as it should, with each fix comes a new problem and often brings old ones back.

We, the players, can’t affect the quality of the updates. What we can affect is our reaction to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. We don’t have to accept any kind of crap, but we can choose to face it with patience, dignity, politeness and an analytical mind.

jot29 · 2019-10-30T11:36:08.654Z

Kapoteeni:

an analytical mind.

Dont release a patch which contains bugs. Its SO EASY (or really bad bugs like Relic hunters).

Delay such a patch until things are fixed, but this would also delay the DLCs and thats the reason for releasing broken patches.

And get a tester (or 2) with a checklist to check most things in the game. Spawn in every thrall and every weapon/item (yeah, I know that there are many - but its their job). Teleport to recipes to see if you can learn it.
Dont wait until player stumble on such things, because if you use “an analytical mind”, such things cannot be overseen if someone ACTUALLY tested it.

Kapoteeni · 2019-10-30T11:47:03.642Z

The thing with any QA testing is that catching every error is time-consuming. I’m talking from a proofreader’s perspective, but the process is pretty similar.

Let’s say a proofreader catches 97 % of errors in a single reading of a text. Let’s say the original text has 10,000 errors. The proofreader catches 9700 of these, leaving 300. On the next reading, he catches 291, leaving 9. On the third reading, he catches 8, leaving one. Each reading takes the same amount of time and costs the contractor the same amount of money. Most contractors are willing to pay for the first run, and maybe the second. Few are willing to pay for the third run, rather accepting the tiny amount of errors still remaining. Basically no-one would hire the proofreader to find the one remaining error.

All QA is a diminishing returns investment. The publisher must choose how much to invest in it, but the thing to understand here is that doubling the resources used in QA won’t double the results - it yields maybe 5 to 10 % better results.

Now, I’m not saying that Funcom couldn’t, or shouldn’t, do a better job. The number of glitches slipping through the cracks is making people unhappy, so obviously they haven’t found the sweet spot where the investment in QA results in an acceptable number of remaining errors. But demanding perfection every time is unrealistic. No company can afford that. (I wish they did - I’d love to get paid more for proofreading.)

jot29 · 2019-10-30T12:42:17.891Z

Kapoteeni:

error is time-consuming

Bingo! Time = money Funcom has to spent.
If players find bugs = zero money for Funcom…

Proof reading and checking item stats are kinda hard to compare… Because while proof-reading you cannot check against HOW it should be correct. Its a text. Also language…
But items only have correct values or NOT.

And lets not forget that IT can have automated testing environments (compared to proof reading).
And Funcom uses automation for some things, because otherwise a “false row”, wouldnt have result in a bug where items had wrong values.

The thing is: Setting up tests is tedious (I am a developer too). UI tests are to this date still a nightmare or you have to built in special things in the normal code already, which is again time consuming.

Kapoteeni · 2019-10-30T12:50:53.336Z

jot29:

And lets not forget that IT can have automated testing environments (compared to proof reading).

Oh dear. So many companies just use MS Word’s automatic spellchecker and think it’s fine. There are constant attempts to automatize translation and proofreading.

A professional proofreader can use context to determine what’s correct or not. Most of the time, figuring what the text should say is easy. And when it’s not, we can contact the author and ask what they meant.

The end result is the same as with programming QA testers. If a single typo is left in a text, the poor translator/proofreader will receive comments on how unprofessional and amateurish they are, and should go drown themselves in a toilet because they’re obviously worthless at their job.

jot29 · 2019-10-30T12:52:45.203Z

Kapoteeni:

. If a single typo is left in a text,

To this date there are still so many wrong translations, but people dont even bother writing a bug report… The breath of the red mother in german was long the “breath of the red BUTTER”.
Bearer is completely wrong translated to “waiter”… But this are not bugs people are upset about. People are upset about really broken things. Not some false text…

Robyrot · 2019-10-30T13:16:44.514Z

Kapoteeni:

hird reading, he catches 8, leaving one. Each reading takes the same amount of time and costs the contractor the same amount of money. Most contractors are willing to pay for the first run, and maybe the second. Few are willing to pay for the third run, rather accepting the tiny amount of errors still remaining. Basically no-one would hire the proofreader to find the one remaining error.

This is a well redacted and intelligent post. I salute you, friend.

n2wichita75 · 2019-10-30T13:39:45.384Z

The answer to this is obvious. Yes. They have no need to pay a QA person when they can release material and have their customers do the work for free. Video game industries have got in the habit of releasing game breaking material and fixing it as they go. With your money and help of course.

tyswifty · 2019-10-30T14:22:53.556Z

Spawn in every thrall and every weapon/item (yeah, I know that there are many - but its their job). Teleport to recipes to see if you can learn it.

Congratulations, you just missed the Relic Hunter bug because new Relic Hunters were not affected.

Now everyone is upset and users are making posts questioning whether you have anyone testing the game at all, since you miss things that are SO EASY to catch.

jot29 · 2019-10-30T14:31:14.140Z

If testlive servers would reboot daily, people would have found it on Testlive…

Congratulations you found the reason no one discovered the bug…
Testenvironment behaves different than live.

Or just look at Funcom streams. The run around with a glowing torch which lasts more then 60minutes, but removed the feature for players to mod it (so it would be 50minutes).

tyswifty · 2019-10-30T14:40:52.485Z

Except you didn’t account for any of that in your “it’s SO EASY” explanation.

Sorry, the patch is out now, you cant take it back, and people are still mad that you didnt test anything.

jot29 · 2019-10-30T14:45:27.387Z

tyswifty:

Except you didn’t account for any of that in your “it’s SO EASY” explanation.

I never said, Funcom should remove testlive then…

But before EVEN pushing it to testlive, make this checks

Because (big surprise) people on Testlive mostly test only NEW things. No one things old things get broken or stats are wrong on items which NEVER had a change in the patch.

PS.: Another thing which would have the checklists already prevented → WRONG protections of armors.

Kambujan epic flawless armor only shows as one bar of cold protection PC Discussion

Game mode: [Enter game mode here: Single-player)] Type of issue: [Enter one of the following: Bug Server type: [Enter one of the following: PvE Region: [Please enter your server region] Kambujan shaman armor-epic flawless version only displays as one bar of cold protection, same as regular and exceptional versions. Shouldnt it be at least two? I just found after many attempts Llarn Steeltoe the named armorer that can create the epic flawless set and had him craft it on the improved armore…

Barnes · 2019-10-30T15:04:17.737Z

jot29:

If testlive servers would reboot daily, people would have found it on Testlive…

Congratulations you found the reason no one discovered the bug…
Testenvironment behaves different than live.

As a TestLiver, I must correct this misapprehension. Any private PC server has the capability of running the TestLive version. Any private PC server running the Dedicated Server Manager tool can simply tick a checkbox to run the “Bleeding Edge” or TestLive version of the server. This, and Single Player, is where the actual gameplay testing is intended to occur.

When the official TestLive servers were re-tasked after the Call To Arms event, it was made clear by the dev team that the environment would be subject to low-frequency reboots. This is the only way to open up some elasticity in the gameplay environment, so that hardcore gamebreakers like myself can drop in and pull at it like a barbarian-flavored saltwater taffy.

Ultimately, there is not a functional way for the TestLive patches to roll out exactly as posted to the TL testing phase. There will be add-ons, strip-offs, last-minute patches and shunts, new content (that could not afford to be spoiled), and other changes as it makes its way to Live. I find that to be the thing that bothers TestLivers the most, but it’s part of the process.

system · 2019-11-06T18:31:12.467Z

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