NWN2 - Modmaking

[RQScott]

First of all: Hello everybody!

 

This topic is about Neverwinter Nights 2 - Modmaking. I read the thread tips for modmaking (by J.E.Sawyer). I know its 'old', but i think the information are always up to date. Thanks for that thread, really nice summary. But let me pick some quotes out of it:

 

Before I begin with a phase breakdown, I

[Diamond]

I'll try to guess why not...

 

Most people (players, not modmakers) would be reluctant to use it or will be abusing it. They know how to use forums, but not Bugzilla.

You'll have to integrate Bugzilla in Bio forums (would Bioware want to do it?), otherwise people would have to create yet another account.

Creating Bugzilla would be bad PR because it means for Obsidian to directly admit that game is not of production quality.

 

What else?

[RQScott]

I dont like Bugzilla and the other open-source bugtracking-systems. Thats why we did our own, and it isnt difficult to create. We integrated the user-rights (and user management) from our forum (in our case phpbb, but any other can be used as well) - so there is no need to create new account. I dont think most players would abuse it, have a look to the bioware-hosted forums, compare the number of users with the "abuse, spamm or flame"-content. I dont think that it is a big problem.

 

Creating Bugzilla would be bad PR because it means for Obsidian to directly admit that game is not of production quality.

 

Same with the forums. But it would be better PR to show that you are interested in the bugs and their solutions. (I dont even think, that the use of a bugtracking system would cause 'bad' PR.)

Edited February 14, 2007 by RQScott

[J.E. Sawyer]

Atari uses Test Track Pro for bug management, which is a stand-alone app, not a web-based front-end for a database. We used to use Mantis (web interface) for bug-tracking, but that left us with two bug lists: one for internal QA and another for Atari QA. We switched over to TTP so that both teams would be entering bugs into the same database and moving through the same workflow.

 

We don't typically get bugs by reading forms; that's what the e-mail address is for. Messages sent to that address are filtered and manually entered into TTP to go through the pipeline.

[Wistrik]

I don't like email because of the filters. How many true bugs are missed because someone unknowingly missed a filter? (There is never a response given, or if there is it's canned. I know, I know, not enough personnel to give responses.) This could explain how obvious bugs remain in games even after several patches. The forums are full of mentions, but nobody could get through the email filter so the bug remains.

 

I sent an email the other day using the guidelines in the Bug Report sticky on Bioware's forums. Hopefully it got through the filter. There's a target (re)acquisition bug I'd like to see fixed. The last four (or so) patches failed to fix it.

[Rob McGinnis]

If there's something really important that you would like to see fixed in NWN2, or you think it is not being addressed, you are free to send me a PM on the Bioware forums to let me know about it. Alternatively, we have the Community Representatives that do a great job of letting me know what issues people have. Also, I am in the Community Representative IRC channel throughout most of the day (IRC: irc.neverwinterconnections.com, Public Channel: NWN2CR) and we get programmers and such stopping by as well.

[Wistrik]

Thank you, I was unaware of most of those options. I only recently became aware of the CRs at Bioware's forums, due to not spending much time there.

Edited February 14, 2007 by Wistrik

[RQScott]

Thank you for that information! You know, i sometimes looks different from "outside". Now we are able to understand "whats going on" and how you work. I will visit the IRC Channel soon.

 

Kind regards

RQScott

[Sand]

Um... where's this IRC channel?

[Rob McGinnis]

IRC: irc.neverwinterconnections.com

Public Channel: NWN2CR

[Sand]

I get some weird page about Apache and Linux.

 

EDIT: Nevermind! However, the chatroom isn't IE7 friendly.

Edited February 14, 2007 by Sand

[RQScott]

You need a irc-client (like mirc) to connect.

[Gorgon]

haha noob.

[PIPBoy3000]

Bug tracking is a funny business. I initially built a bug tracker from scrach to manage Dark Waters testing. More often than not, it ended up being cumbersome, and I've lately switched back to forum postings. If the number of testers and developers is small, I think I prefer the informal approach.

[RQScott]

We will use our bugtracking - system with release of our pw. We dont use it for testing, since testing is not public - we manage those bugs / suggestions and comments in our internal boards.

 

The original reason for not using one of the open-source bugtracking systems out there were serveral:

 

Edited February 16, 2007 by RQScott