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Kristoff Atruin
Subdreddit
Test Alliance Please Ignore
1972
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Posted - 2014.03.26 20:54:00 -
[1] - Quote
The problem is likely not the programming itself. Their internal dev server could be working perfectly without most of these bugs. They're using a tagging system where they assign properties to things in the database. What is likely happening is that without a test server, they can't test the process of deploying an update. That means they can't pick up on the fact that steps to update the database values are using the wrong values, or are missing etc, because on the dev server the changes weren't deployed. They were done by hand by a developer trying to figure out how to get something to work the way he wants. Then when deployment time comes around nobody knows that the required changes aren't included in the build. This is why sometimes dropsuits show up after a patch with old skins and other bugs that CCP can fix without requiring us to download anything. They just adjust the data on their side and the problem is fixed.
They might be able to get around this by doing deployments internally to another server first and then running through test cases, but there may also be some oddness with the PSN deployment part that they can't replicate internally.
Source: Been a professional software developer for 10 years and I've seen these kinds of things happen time and time again in project after project, until we put in a rigorous process for creating a build package that a non-developer could deploy and redeploy without bugs slipping through. Even when you do that it's very normal to have to create the build package a few times before everything that is needed is included. |
Kristoff Atruin
Subdreddit
Test Alliance Please Ignore
1973
|
Posted - 2014.03.26 21:03:00 -
[2] - Quote
What I'm saying is they *might* be able to do this internally, but we can't know that they can. PSN could be adding a whole big pile of monkeywrenches into implementing that plan. The usefulness of that staging server depends on it being identical to the production environment. If it isn't, the testing wouldn't be nearly as useful. |
Kristoff Atruin
Subdreddit
Test Alliance Please Ignore
1975
|
Posted - 2014.03.26 21:32:00 -
[3] - Quote
Well that's the other thing too. Businesses often have professional testers to check every feature of an app before it gets deployed to production, but a typical business app has an absurdly smaller number of use cases than a game does. If they could get a proper staging server set up and refine the build process to make the deployment of changes more reliable it would still take a hell of a lot of time to test. Even just documenting all the tests that need to be performed would take forever.
Eve gets around this by having a test server where players find and report the most egregious of problems before the build is finalized. EA et al get around it by charging us an arm and a leg for recycled BS every year, and then paying peanuts to a horde of people who thought playing games for a living would be fun. Realistically, the best CCP can probably do is nail down their best practices for including changes in a build and testing that process internally, and then running some very basic tests that will only scratch the surface of the game. For example, spawn in and see if anything looks out of place (ie: missing armor / shield hp heh), fire each gun to make sure it works and does damage and then anything directly related to the changes. Even that would take a fair bit of time...there's a lot of guns in this game if you include the aur / LP variants. All which are distinct entries in the db and could get borked. |
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