So you found a bug - now what?

Bugs are not fun. Not at picnics, not in your tent and definitely not in your game. No matter how carefully code is tested, the laws of Murphy and software Hoodoo dictate that some bugs will make it into the game. The purpose of this article is to help you understand how to submit bugs and how we deal with them.

What is a Bug?

A bug in a game is usually refers to something that isn't working correctly and/or involves some form of error. Game bugs come in different sizes. Some bugs may be very minor ones that don't keep you from playing the game, like a typo in quest text. Other bugs may be a lot more intrusive, like a bug that causes you to crash out of game.

If the problem is something you just want changed because you don't like the way it works, it shouldn't be considered a bug, it is considered feedback. Feedback can be posted on the official forums.

If a bug affects your gameplay, you may want to submit a petition AND a bug report. The petition will help resolve your specific, personal issue, while a /bug will help Quality Assurance and the Development team identify and correct the underlying problem.

Getting Help with a Bug

There may be some bugs that only affect one of your characters. When this occurs, you'll want to use the /bug command. If the bug is keeping you from logging in, typing /bug won't help much; you'll need to review the steps you can take to get it resolved outside of game. Our Technical Support forums are a good source of solutions. The Knowledge Base is also a great source of information. You can often find a resolution to your problem there without needing any further assistance. If find that you need assistance, you can use the petition tool in the Knowledge Base.

The Life Cycle of a Bug

1. A Player experiencing the issue uses /bug to report the bug in game.
2. Quality Assurance (QA) receives and reviews the bug report along with other reports on the same issue.
3. QA investigates the bug, determines if it can be duplicated and determines the severity of the bug. QA may also record how many times the bug was reported to occur, by how many different players.
4. QA sends a verification of the bug to Development, tracking the verified bug in the bug database.
5. Development reviews the report and determines where the bug should go in the priority list of other bugs and other features being worked on for the game.
6. Development fixes the bugs based on the priority list.
7. QA tests the fix for the bug.
8. Development releases the fix in the next available update.
9. The bug is squashed!

Submitting a Bug Report

To report a bug, please use the /bug command in game. While we do use the forums to get more information on bugs, the /bug reports are our main source of information. The /bug reports allow us to collect, properly categorize, and track bug report information in a bug database. If you have additional information to submit that cannot be detailed in the bug reports, like screenshots, diagrams, etc., then please be sure to include a link to where the information can be found in your /bug report (for instance, if you have posted a screenshot on the forums).

The screen shots included in this article use the example of reporting a bug found with the voice communication feature found ingame. See the additional steps below (click images to see entire window):

The Bug Report Window

Category:

When submitting a /bug report, it's important to select the appropriate category for the bug. The category can be selected by clicking on the arrow to pull up the dropdown menu and highlighting the correct category. If you can't find a category that fits the bug, you can use "Other."

Next, choose the most appropriate subcategory from the drop down lists.

Location:

When you bring up the Report a Bug window, the location will pull up your current location. If you are no longer in the location, you can travel there and use the "Update Location" button. If you are unable to get the location, describe the area as best that you can.

Information:

Enter information about the bug in the bottom area of the window. Bug reports need to include specifics and as much detail about the issue as possible without being redundant. It is not safe to assume just because you mention the name of an item or a brief description of a quest that we'll know exactly what you are talking about. The reports need to be written as though the person who is reading it has absolutely no previous knowledge of the problem or content. Don't assume that the system will append additional information. It won't!

A good rule of thumb is to include who, what, when, where and why.

Who: The exact, full name of the NPC or creature involved.

What: The exact, full name of the mission, quest, item, slot, ui location or building.

When: The date and time (include time zone) the bug occurred unless it happened seconds before the /bug report. Did it happen just once? Does it happen every time you try to perform an action or series of actions?

Where: Describe your location in addition to the coordinates. This can be particularly helpful for bugs that involve issues with world geometry.

Why: Outline what happened before the bug occurred, especially if the actions were complex or if it is reproducible.

Optional Info:

While this area is optional for submitting the report, if they are relevant, they should be selected. These options help us help us track down further information about the bug.

Here are some examples of good and bad bug reports:

Bad: "The mob is stuck in a rock."

There is no information from the player about what zone they are in, what their location is, what creature they referred to, what actions they took to produce this issue, or any other relevant information that would assist in tracking down the specific issue and its causes.

Good: "We were hunting a Kimogila on Lok. Because there were only two of us, we'd take turns getting its attention and running it around a pile of rocks. When we had it almost dead, it got stuck on a rock or something and we could no longer hit it, but it could hit us. The location is just west of where I submitted the bug, where you will see a big pile of rocks. I was not going to go stand under it and let it beat on me for the exact location, hehe."

Bad: "I'm running the mayor's third mission and I have destroyed all the mobs and tried to give the loot to the guy, but the guy says I'm not done."

This bug report does not include pertinent information such as the name of the NPC they are handing the items to, the exact names of the items they are attempting to give to the NPC, and what zone they are attempting to do this in. While we may have information available to us in regards to the more complicated quests, having this information in the report makes it much easier to track down the issue and determine if indeed all of the appropriate steps are being taken (e.g. they are attempting to give the proper items to the correct NPC, etc).

Good: "I am running the third mission given by Mayor Meebups in Bespin. I killed ten Eopies and gave all ten "Eopie snouts" to the Mayor. He now tells me that I have not completed the quest, but all the tasks are checked off and I can't see anything left undone. I cannot take the fourth quest until I complete this one. I tried deleting the quest and redoing it, and got the same result."

Bad: Bacta Spray doesn't work right.

Unfortunately, with this bug report, we cannot tell if the player is talking about a purchased item or player ability. Furthermore, we don't know if the bug is that it does not heal at all, heals for the wrong amount, only works in outdoor zones or turns the player's skin green.

Good: The Medic ability, "Bacta Spray" has an inaccurate description. The description says: "A spray of bacta that heals the Medic with a level 1 heal", but this ability is functioning as a group ability every time I use it. Either the description should be changed to reflect it is a group ability, or the ability should be changed so it no longer hits my entire group.

Bad: This Snorbal quest has the wrong rating.

With this report, we have no information on how the rating is incorrect. Just a little additional detail will save us a lot of time in tracking the issue down, which we can use to process more bugs!

Good: The Great Hunter, Phase II mission to kill 10 Snorbals on Lok is improperly categorized as a solo cl 35 quest. The only Snorbals to be found on Lok are cl 53 and cl 54.

What if I can't get in game to report a bug?

If you are unable to access your game you can always access the Bug Report Tool found in your game folder. We have included a screen shot of the location and name of the file. The tool works exactly as the ingame process detailed above.

So What's Bugging You?

Now that you have your very own bug-squashing kit, help us to help you enjoy a better Galaxy. Remember to use details: who, what, when, where, why, and become part of the solution!

See you in game!