Hey all!

As part of our continued focus on communication I wanted to share a little insight into the bug fixing process that happens at SEMC. We receive many, many, many bug reports through our ticketing system (at this current time we have over 1000 reports in the log being worked through) and for our engineers to target those reports they need to work through them on a case-by-case basis attempting to reproduce the bugs themselves.

Our talented engineers have a large list of bugs that are currently being fixed for the 4.4 cycle (bugs do also get hotfixed live too, if they are critical). I wanted to share some, but not all, of the bugs currently being worked on for the next cycle:

Bugged quests (several bugs relating to quests including quests not being available and some quests not progressing)

ARAL not consistently available in private parties

Profile UI blank for some accounts

Party UI ‘flickering’ when users tap on the chat field

3V3 ranks not being rewarded after the first few games

PC client issues including black UI assets and inability to center on hero with spacebar

Players unable to open level chests

Points not being added after a victory

Unable to double rewards by watching ads

Sometimes causing a grey screen when moving between elements of the game

A number of critical bugs in the Chinese client specifically

These are not all the bugs currently being worked on, but they are a selection of bugs being worked out for update 4.4.

Why is a heavily reported bug not on the list or not fixed yet you may ask?

This could be for numerous reasons. Firstly whenever a bug is reported the team needs to attempt to reproduce the bug themselves whilst monitoring areas of the code to see which part is being affected and what specifically needs fixing – not all bugs are easily reproducible and not many bug reports have reproduction instructions. While we do try to catch and fix as many as possible before each release, sometimes things manage to slip through and make trouble for all of us. We’re here to help, and while we’re here, we’d like to help you understand what we need to know to investigate. As many of you know, one of the first responses you are likely to get when you come across a bug in the game and post it somewhere is, “Did you report it?”. Reporting bugs is one of the most helpful steps you can take, but in order for us to address the reported bugs, we need some specific information. The following things greatly increase our chances of being able to reproduce and ultimately fix that annoying bug you are experiencing. Here is the basic info we need to start looking into your issue:

What is the bug or issue?

Can you consistently make the bug happen?

How do you make it happen? Step-by-step instructions to reproduce the bug are invaluable .

What do you think the correct behaviour should be?

What’s your IGN and Server Region?

Do you play on Mobile or Computer?

What device and Operating System (OS) version are you using?

Secondly, as we continue to add new content and fix existing bugs on an update-by-update basis, more bugs will pop up. These can be anything from minor inconveniences to major game breaking bugs that should not make it to live! Here is a small video showcasing some of the more interesting PBE bugs that we have to deal with before we push an update live.

We also find that when we fix one bug it creates more issues and sometimes bug fixing can be a cascading chain where fixing one thing creates 99 problems you never knew you had.

If you want to help us please make sure you read the bug reporting instructions above to learn how to effectively report a bug! Reproduction instructions are incredibly useful and help our team with the isolation of the bug allowing it to be targeted for a fix! Of course, some bugs just aren’t this simple and fixes will take longer but we hope to get as many of them as we can before each update goes live!

Cheers,

Excoundrel