TESTERS, WE NEED YOU! I understand that many crashes have been happening recently in empires, i've experienced them too. We do test every single change that makes it into each empires version. No new versions are pushed live without a public beta test. We have made numerous testing threads, and calls to testers. But we rarely get enough people to allow us to test thoroughly. Many of these crashes could have been detected if we had enough people testing. Releases are delayed and re-tests occur if bugs are found. Whilst, yes this is indeed on us to release versions of the game that are bug-free, we need you to help us find the bugs! So if you are calling for a "revert", and did not partake in the beta testing, please join in with the future tests! No release is made, until a successful test with 0 bugs detected happens. Just because we don't find the bug during testing, doesn't mean its not there... About the Beta: The beta branch is always available for use, you can try it at any time, we have a permanent dedicated beta server running 24/7 so you can play anytime! See here https://forums.empiresmod.com/index.php?threads/guide-how-to-download-the-new-empires-beta.17240/ for instructions on how to switch to the beta if you don't know.
No you don't have to find the cause of the crash to revert, you just revert the entire thing! No even if there were most testers there is always a chance for game breaking bugs to make it through, which is why there is such a thing as REVERTING. You can't expect more testers, that's unrealistic. You must adapt... Nobody is asking you to release bug-free version. That is absolutely impossible.
I know. But some of these "obvious" bugs could have been found if we had more testers... I'm fairly sure it doesn't normally crash at 2v2, but at a 20v20? perhaps...
You will NEVER get 20vs20 people to test anymore, that's not happening, even if it did, the crash on tropicvendetta happens only on specific maps, so what should we play 20vs20 on every single map? Come on be realistic that's not happening and you know it. I'm all for getting more testers, but as long as you modify code like you're doing game breaking bugs will happen again! And you will have to revert again, because it's part of development.
That tropicvendetta crash wasn't map specific, it could have happened on all maps with detail objects. There was a sneaky code bug that would occur in a very specific situation, this situation was always there in that area on tropic(hence i could look specifically at it). I've submitted a fix, this should be coming soon... But that fix might not work... we need to test it!
So you want to say you need more testers, but not run a empires group and just spam with events calling when and where you gonna run a test? Well, you gonna gain nothing by just writing in forum. People needs reminders, Event call, information when, people have their own things to do, you know? We have people in different time zones... Make group/Paste group link, here and we can easily cooperate with you. Without it, it is doomed.
Martin is right, all the previous developers had steam groups for testing. But then again back then people actually cared about the game... http://steamcommunity.com/groups/EmpTest http://steamcommunity.com/groups/EmpiresDedicatedtesters
Then other devs and i need the ability to spam events there! Can someone give me admin on that newer testing group? They seem the most active
Actually the current devs are the first ones in like 6 years that give me hope. Probably a matter of personal opinion. Not to say previous devs didn't put a lot of work into it, but the bigger picture seemed missing. You can't develop for this game, whilst listening to the community. Whatever you do, 90% complains and 2% cheer. The only way for the game to move forward, is to do you own thing. It's their game, we are here to help them, not the other way around. Edit: or were you talking about the community, not the devs?
To be honest I didn't know about the testing groups until very recently, but I knew that most of the people who would attend the testing would be in the vet pug group. http://steamcommunity.com/groups/empvetpug So yeah, I guess making another testing group to get a more up to date group of testers would have been a good idea, but it just feels like there's a hundred groups already and quite honestly I'm a big fan of just using what's already there. That said spike did give me the ability to make announcements and stuff in the dedicated testing group, but at the same time I dunno if I feel like bothering with it anymore. Sorry.
I would be happy to give you access to send announcements on my VIPER group now ESB group there are over 1000 members.