Has anyone made a bug thread?

[WarKirby3333]

Hello folks.

 

I notice that in some buggy games with a strong community, for example, Team Fortress 2, you get a community led effort to identify and classify these bugs.

 

See here for an example: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=909575

 

As most of us are aware, new vegas is a severely buggy game. I think we're in need of something like the above.

 

Such a thread would serve two purposes

 

1. To act as a centralised resource for modders who are interested in bugfixing. A big list of "This is what needs fixed" for them to work through. The list could also contain links next to each bug, for mods which fix it, or the names of modders who are currently working on it so as to prevent duplication of effort.

 

2. To act as an information resource for bethesda to use in making future patches. I've put this as second priority because I'm not heavily optimistic of developer recognition of such efforts, although it can happen. Also because this engine is so heavily moddable that a modding-led effort is more likely to be successful than in many other cases

 

The primary problem with such a list, particularly in a forum format, is that it requires someone to take over the responsibility of maintaining it. A possible way around that would be setting up a wiki just for bugs, organised by categories like:

 

Quests (probably would be the biggest category by far)

Map (missing map markers, etc)

Dialog (looping dialog trees)

AI (Things like the travelling trader in novac who goes nowhere and has no stock)

Graphics (centaurs have an empty hole in their mesh if you blow their face off)

Weapons (including inconsistencies like not being able to repair X with Y, where it would seem to make sense)

Armour

Perks

Skills

 

Anyone have thoughts on the matter?

[WastelandAssassin]

i don't know about a thread, but there is a compilation of fixes for the bugs in the game

so there are fixes for many of the bugs in the game

 

as for a thread, i don't recall seeing one main thread for bugs, but it isn't likely that one will survive too long (well, from past experience, long threads do have a tendency to become a war zone or a troll pasture, so as much as i hope such a thread will be able to thrive, i have my doubts)

[WarKirby3333]

That compilation is no longer maintained, which is entirely the problem here.

 

Unless someone with a ridiculous amount of free time and desire to help comes along, I doubt any single person will be able to do what's necessary. I think for modders to fix this game, it will require a concerted community effort, with everyone being able to contribute just a little of their own, and at least a few people working on just sorting out others' fixes rather than contributing their own. The game is just too broken for one person to fix it all. Yet it also has too much potential for people to abandon it.

 

I think a wiki driven approach would be a good one.

 

On the surface, it would have the entire bug list, divided into several pages by category. Each individual bug would have it's own page detailing the symptoms, severity, and a list of mods which fix it. If multiple mods fix a bug in different ways, the best one would be chosen to be highlighted according to principles of balance, logic, and lore consistency.

 

And to cut down on workload,, it could be taken for granted that everyone is using the latest official patch (which would be clearly stated on the frontpage). Any bugs fixed by developers could be removed from the list to keep things as tight as possible.

 

On top of that, a bugfixes mod page on there, would list the top currently maintained fix compilations with links to download them (probably from here) organised by total number of bugs fixed, winh single-fix mods being lower down the priority list unless the issue they fix is catastrophic and game breaking.

 

I would gladly volunteer some of my time on the organisational side of things!

Edited December 7, 2010 by WarKirby3333

[WastelandAssassin]

that sounds like a great idea, but i'm not sure if this is the place to create it

like you said, it will be like a Wiki page, not a forum discussion

now, i know that the Fallout: New Vegas Wikia has lots of recorded bugs (usually you can find them in the quest pages or most relevant pages)

i don't know if you have written of all of the reported bugs, but they seem to have quite a collection of these

so maybe you can contact that site, and try to make a joint effort?? (basically add a bug-fix section to that Wikia, and do your whole idea)

 

if you are interested, the site i mentioned can be found here

[Linmor]

The bugfix compilation has been put back up here.. Bugfix compilation patch.

 

Due to the imminent patch coming out in a few days, it is awaiting that to determine what fixes need to stay or go.