PTS Bug Reports

ZOS_GinaBruno

When you are playing on the PTS during a testing cycle, where do you typically report bugs and why?

Marabornwingrion

On the forums

On forums so I can be sure that my report will read living human, not a robot.

casparian

On the forums

On the forums because
- other players may read my report and respond to it ("yeah that's happening to me too" or "you're misunderstanding what causes that bug, it's actually..." etc.)
- Someone from ZOS may read and respond to it
- it's easy to link to later ("I reported this here (link) three weeks ago and still no response" etc.)

ZOS_GinaBruno

Thanks for the comments so far, appreciate the insight.

Elsonso

Both the forums and /bug

I do both, but I don't usually duplicate.

For new content related to the Update, I use the forum. This is especially the case where there is a feedback thread for the feature.

Everything else gets /bug, although, if there is a forum thread about it, I might just do some manner of "me too" and add any additional details that I might have.

VaranisArano

Both the forums and /bug

Out of curiosity and for future PTS use (I just got the PTS for this latest update), which method do the developers prefer?

code65536

On the forums

For pretty much the same reasons listed...

• There is no way to get a back-and-forth with the in-game /bug. Most forum reports are not replied to, but a few are. And sometimes that back-and-forth is valuable, e.g., for clarifying things.
• I can go into more detail on the forums. Attach a screenshot, etc. If I need to go back and edit the report, make corrections, add more information, etc., I can't do that with the in-game /bug.
• Other people can see it and share their experiences, elaborate on details that I may have missed, etc.
• An open public record that can be referenced.

feyii

Both the forums and /bug

I use both. Small things I usually only report via /bug ingame, on live or PTS.
But for bugs for which I would like input/feedback from other people or those I find game breaking, I usually post on the forum additionally. The latter only if I didn't see the same bug mentioned on the forums already.

sirinsidiator

Other (please explain)

I report most bugs using /bug, but UI and addon related things I prefer to report on ESOUI since other addon authors see them there, we use tags in the thread title to track their state and also because @ZOS_ChipHilseberg is awesome and responds to these posts. Aside from that the ingame bug tool has a very low character limit in the input field which prevents me from adding all the information I want (full stack traces, steps to reproduce, screenshots, videos etc.) and no proper categories for UI errors (not limited to just them though).

Own

Both the forums and /bug

We like responses, that's why so many use the fourms. Many feel like /bug doesn't work because they get no feedback, and don't see the "fixes" in any recent patch notes. So in the end, they feel ignored. Giving feedback to /bug and replying to all forum posts in some way will alleviate this.

RaddlemanNumber7

Both the forums and /bug

If I'm sure it's a bug then I'll /bug it. Sometimes I'm not sure, because we don't always know what the intended behaviour of the game is. For example, with recent Level Up rewards we were only given very incomplete information about what we should be getting.

Regardless of whether I /bug it or not, if I think something might be amiss I always put something on the forums, in one of the official feedback threads if there is one that is appropriate. If I have /bugged it then I put the ticket number in the post. I post screen shots and give more detailed narrative on the forums. Sometimes the /bug dialogue text limit is just too small to explain in sufficient detail what I was doing and what I saw.

I use the forums for the same reasons as @code65536 gives, plus it also acts as a warning to other players if the bug is serious and doesn't get remedied before the update goes live, as happened with the storage chest delete bug in update 17.

eso_nya

Using /bug in-game

I prefer ingame. Gives me the feeling it goes directly to the "responsible" team, if i manage to pick the correct categories.

Forums come with the impression, that a post has first to get the attention of a bored and underpaid mod and with any luck s/he might forward it to a superiours overflowing mailbox, who than has to find in "junk-mail", read it, agree "tis might be an issue" than forward it to someone who has access to ginas account to log into forums and ask for more details...By the time that happens, someone might have started a flamewar, so a different mod printed out the more funny comments to pin up next to coffee maschine and deleted the post xD

The "Attach Screenshot" - feature could use an improvement tho. usually it catches half the bugreport fading out while my char is slowly turning around. "Add File" would be better.

Cinbri

Both the forums and /bug

Knocking in every possible door is best way. Or is it?

Ackwalan

Interesting that this poll was made. Was it made because the XP bug was found during PTS, and no one reported it, or it was reported and no one got the report?

LonePirate

Both the forums and /bug

I use both. I typically report minor issues only via /bug but for more severe issues or items which other players might encounter, I will report them on the forum and with /bug.

Having reported PTS issues since 2014, I have noticed that items reported only via /bug are seldom fixed or are fixed much more slowly than issues reported on the forum. Even accounting for the usual 2 week minimum turn around between reporting a bug and seeing the fix in a subsequent patch, forum bugs are almost always fixed before bugs reported in-game.

Own

Both the forums and /bug

Also, consider updated the /bug categories to be more user friendly and less confusing

KrishakPanettier

Other (please explain)

I don't always report bugs. But when I do, it is usually about ESO working as intended. --Abraham Lincoln.

LonePirate

Both the forums and /bug

l3alls wrote: »

Also, consider updated the /bug categories to be more user friendly and less confusing

Try reporting a housing related bug in game. It is almost impossible as there are no categories for it.

Ilsabet

Other (please explain)

I'm more likely to report a bug on the forum if there's already an applicable thread. (I'm not likely to make a new thread about something, to avoid clutter and because I assume someone else probably has or will.)

/bug can and should be an easy thing to whip off when I encounter a small bug in-game, but it becomes more of a hassle than it's worth because a) none of the categories ever seem to apply to the thing I'm trying to report, so I waste a bunch of time looking at category options and trying to decide which one is closest on the dartboard, b) it's hard to get details to include because you can't be looking at the issue at the same time you're typing the report, c) you have to stop what you're doing to go through the whole /bug process rather than screenshotting and typing up a post later, and d) you can't attach the screenshot you just took of the actual issue, and the "take screenshot" option is pointless if the camera has already shifted focus from the issue to you filing your report.

On the forum you can go into a lot more detail, attach screenshots, interact with other players, and see responses and questions from devs. There's also a record there for everyone to see and it's (presumably) easy for the devs to refer to a thread or post that can be linked easily.

It's probably also worth noting that I find the forums very accessible because I'm already a heavy forums user. Someone who doesn't have an active forum account or isn't familiar with using the forum would probably find the in-game feature more accessible.

So I've used both, if I had to state a preference it would probably be forums, but there are definite improvements that could be made to /bug to make it more appealing to use.

Also forum is a funny word if you say it enough times.

rhapsodious

On the forums

For PTS, I use the forums because I can adequately describe the issue, I can describe where the issue actually is, and most importantly, provide pictures for evidence. "Provide Screenshot" on the /bug interface is borderline useless.

If I discover an exploit on Live, though, I do file a /bug report hoping the metrics collected (if any) help narrow down the issue, and because you can't describe how to reproduce an exploit on the forums for obvious reasons. I've never received a response indicating it was read or to gather more information, though - if my report is "there is an object that you can stand on in XYZ area to prevent all incoming damage", I never get a follow-up asking where the spot is precisely. And again, screenshot tool isn't helpful at all.

Cinbri

Both the forums and /bug

l3alls wrote: »

Also, consider updated the /bug categories to be more user friendly and less confusing

Exactly this. Very often when you wana report something you just spend most of time in searching apropriate section and hoping that section you chose is right one.

Bashev

Both the forums and /bug

I use both but I prefer the forums. At least I can receive a feedback from a ZoS employee.

Morgul667

On the forums

I like to report on the dedicated threads, as I feel it is structured and collected in the right place, where other people can react and add some data if they feel it would help.

However it feels like they are not taken into account. Quantity of issues reported on the forums that go live are quite overwhelming. As someone who loves the game I would be very happy to see this improved in the future.

Qbiken

On the forums

I prefer the forums. It reaches out to a wider audience and it´s easier for people to become aware of potential bugs. Posting on the forums creates an opportunity for others to test it (if they weren´t aware a potential bug existed) or to contradict my claims about the potential bug.

But as others have said, a more user-friendly bug reporting tool in-game would be appreciated. Also I feel that it´s difficult to find your way through the website/forum to the pages where you can see the response/ticket to your bug-reports.

SantieClaws

Using /bug in-game

By using the bug thing in Tamriel.

Because this one assumes the pest control people may not read all of the forums all of the time yes - even if they may look at major issues there.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

Dorrino

Other (please explain)

I don't report bugs, because i don't get any feedback from the dev team and because most of the bugs that i reported in the past were not fixed.

Zer0oo

On the forums

On the forum because other players can also see it and provide more information and it is harder to ignore bugs if they are noted somewhere public.

In general the ingame bug report is really not well designed and most of the time you are just wondering in what category the bug goes.

Altairien

Using /bug in-game

For bugs (actual bugs, not game design feedback), I use /bug because in my experience that's normally preferred by QA and therefore that's what I'm used to.

For all the good it does here. Either the bugs go into a black hole or else the developers can't be bothered to "fix the shrub that's hovering above the ground at head level"... for 4 years. So I just stopped bugging things a while back.

LtBottle

Both the forums and /bug

Was the first time in downloaded the PTS.

I reported very few bugs, and very minor ones (scalecaller peak map for exemple). but always both on forum and with the /bug fonction.

This one is sometime quite strange.
I remember using it because i didn't find back a perfect roe in my inventory. The answer i received was "we won't talk about game mechanics". That was funny, but made me sure i was talking to a bot.

As it was said before, forum posts helps us to see if what we experience are bugs, or intentionnal mechanics. (Teso is a pretty complex game, you know ) -> best exemple was the buggy heal from dk's whip. How can one player like me know if it's intentionnal or not?

(and english is not my native language, so following other ppl coments is easier.)

anitajoneb17_ESO

On the forums

I have the following issues with the built-in bug report feature :

- I live in France, my game's in english => I don't know in what language I should report
- Typing is horrible ingame, not enough room to explain, hard to edit and correct
- The way the "attach screenshot" feature works is the game is totally unclear to me

Also on the forum I can see if other people have the same problem and already reported it. No point in sending something that other people have reported a dozen times.

Ragnarock41

Other (please explain)

The first thing I do is ask my guildies to confirm if something is good or bad or broken in PTS, so we have time to prepare for it.

Sometimes I don't report bugs in forums purposedly because I don't want more people to know about them and abuse them. I use the in- game report tool instead. (which didn't work for anything so far.)