Beta test next time pretty please!!

[artemis667]

Aside from the performance issues reports (which I haven't had personally) this was an incredibly good patch. Most of the complaints are either about the performance issues or people having to adjust to new mechanics.

For the most part that's true, but there's some funny stuff going on, particularly with tag changes, and one or two other things. There are remarkably complex systems in this game - and I imagine a lot of issues may have been diagnosed in beta, but the fixes are still in progress. That's OK, sometimes it takes time to get something working 100 percent.

 

[TheeLord]

Aside from the performance issues reports (which I haven't had personally) this was an incredibly good patch. Most of the complaints are either about the performance issues or people having to adjust to new mechanics.

The stuttering and jittery performance has affected everyone I'm sure, some probably just notice it more or have better computers to compensate.
MP simply does not work for majority of cases
friendly rebels spawning affected tons of ppl

Just off the top of my head. It's not a case of people getting used to the new mechanics or anything, it's bugs..

 

[Ignatich]

If Paradox thinks that solving this with professional team of beta-testers is too expensive, then they can consider improving automatic testing. Such tests can look like this: bring up world, do some action, check results, destroy world (to make sure all game objects destroy correctly). Tests can also be used for MP environment - launch server and client, send command, validate world checksum on both to make sure there is no desync.

Such tests, provided most game actions are covered by them, can help to catch problems early in the development cycle. I'm sure they would help to find such simple bugs like invalid range on tag change or ctd on cardinal death before release. Of course Human QA would still be required for things that couldn't be automated, like game balance issues.

Performance testing could also be automated, for example Windows has things like ETW/xperf to help with that.

 

[Pugman]

I'm going to venture a guess that they aren't paid testers. If they aren't one can't really look a gift horse in the mouth. If they are, I won't state the obvious. If volunteer testers are used I think it would be a good idea to increase the number (open beta maybe) to make up for not having any real power to make any demands on quality. Without quality all you have left is quantity.

 

[majber]

How 150+ testers can miss distance bug (already fixed in hotfix) Its almost impossible to miss sth THAT big. Or bug with marches picking rivals. I mean its one day of testing...

 

[HerrStarr]

no "few bugs", it's unplayable. And bugs are a minimum part of the problem which mostly consist in the horrible rebalancing.
Doubled income for all european nations, russia almost never forming, portugal STILL prefere to make war against WA nations instead of colonize brazil, cardinal stacks instead of spawn as intend, ottomans joining league wars, ROME PROTESTANT, strange and totally unrealistic trade behavior from AI etc. etc.
We will probably be able to play a game as intendend to be in a month because of the number of things to do.
I feel a little mocked by paradox, considering that i bought almost every dlc on D1, most of them cheaper and most of them with a reasonable amount of issues, solved in few days.
Now? Charlemagne and AoW. Two epic fails (still two great expansions after a pair of patches but.. c'mon, hire some REAL testers)

 

[RobRoy3]

Now? Charlemagne and AoW. Two epic fails.

Agree, CM (and RoI) were fails, as were some previous EU4 patches.

But, unless you're one of the people suffering from performance issues, AoW is quite playable.

 

[Mauer]

I'm going to venture a guess that they aren't paid testers. If they aren't one can't really look a gift horse in the mouth. If they are, I won't state the obvious. If volunteer testers are used I think it would be a good idea to increase the number (open beta maybe) to make up for not having any real power to make any demands on quality. Without quality all you have left is quantity.

Basically crowdsourcing the testing. Maybe with the new forums they can implement a standardized bug reporting to facilitate things for the QA staff, instead of relying on people submitting their bug reports in a regular post and hoping they follow the suggested format, which we never do.

 

[Panzerschiffe]

no "few bugs", it's unplayable. And bugs are a minimum part of the problem which mostly consist in the horrible rebalancing.
Doubled income for all european nations, russia almost never forming, portugal STILL prefere to make war against WA nations instead of colonize brazil, cardinal stacks instead of spawn as intend, ottomans joining league wars, ROME PROTESTANT, strange and totally unrealistic trade behavior from AI etc. etc.

How testers can miss these things is beyond me. I appreciate the tweaks to the game but these glaring issues being present on day 1 is ridiculous.

 

[rrw77]

Well I do agree it's annoying to buy a game with a number of bugs that probably should be caught beforehand, however, I'm very happy to cut Paradox a lot of slack as most of the really major bugs are quickly addressed in beta hot-fixes and I know they will continue to support the game with patches, and to be honest I have logged 992 hours on Steam playing EU4 (and probably a few more when I've not had internet access), and whilst I have bought all the major DLCs and some of the minor ones, the amount of entertainment the game has provided me relative to what I've paid (I've not totted it up but I'd guess it's somewhere around £100) represents incredibly good value. So yes, it's fair to ask Paradox to do their utmost to remove bugs prior to release, but I don't think there's really any justification for outrage or acting like Paradox don't provide a good product (not saying anyone in this thread has done so by the way!)

 

[wergy]

150+ beta testers and issues like massive performance drop, AI unable to use features, broken peace deals etc. never came up? It's rather hard to believe...

 

[calvinhobbeslik]

How testers can miss these things is beyond me. I appreciate the tweaks to the game but these glaring issues being present on day 1 is ridiculous.

Many of those things are not easily fixable "bugs," and many are just someone's opinion of how the game should act.

 

[I_AM_King_Midas]

Beyond that, even if a bug is caught, it can affect so little (or be so rare) as to be marked "Will not fix" (which means that the prio is on bigger, more showstopping bugs until later patches), or the cause may be difficult to diagnose prior to locking down for release.

Do you think that is the current problem? That paradox releases the game bug free save for that rare 1 in 10000 circumstance?

 

[Pugman]

150+ beta testers and issues like massive performance drop, AI unable to use features, broken peace deals etc. never came up? It's rather hard to believe...

Finding the bug and creating a bug report are two different things. One is easy and the other requires effort. If one doesn't feel like doing paperwork and isn't being paid for it, you can figure out the rest.