Reporting Bugs

[Magicfinger]

Reporting Bugs

So you think you found a bug in The Universal? You're not alone. The program is still Beta. It definitely has bugs.

That said, we get more incorrect or duplicate or outdated or otherwise not very useful bug reports than we get good bug reports. If you'd like to increase the chances that the bug you found gets fixed soon, you want to make sure your bug report is a good one.

Rules for good bug reporting

Make sure you're running the latest version.

If you're running a month-old build of the game, then it's likely that your bug has already been fixed. Try the latest release before reporting bugs.

Use the bug tracker or forums
Please do not report bugs via email or in-game chat.

communication is great. We like getting feedback from Universal players. And we welcome user comments on the forums. But bug reports sometimes get lost among all the other stuff.

The Bug Tracker is the central repository for the games bugs. If you put your bug there, then we don't have to. Other users will see that it's there, so they can add detail to your bug report, rather than sending duplicate bug reports.

Check to see if your bug is already there, rather than filing a duplicate report.

If we can get all the data about one bug into one bug report, that increases our odds of fixing it quickly. Duplicates are annoying. If you have more information, add it to the existing bug report.

Don't put multiple unrelated bugs in the same report.

One report per bug, please. If you put two bugs in the same report and we fix one, we can't mark it closed.

Feature requests are welcome, but they're not bugs.

We have a separate tracker for Feature Requests . If the game crashes or clearly doesn't work as designed, that's a bug. If you have an idea for an improvement, that's a feature request. Filing your feature request as a bug is annoying. Again, it's a good idea to scan the existing feature requests and avoid posting duplicates, and put one feature request per post. And remember that this is a free project done in our spare time -- we can't do everyone's pet feature. (But feel free to add it yourself.)

Support requests are welcome, but they're not bugs.

If you need help getting the game to run on your computer, or need something explained, and you've read the docs , then feel free to post in the appropriate forum. We don't use a tracker for this yet.

Select a reasonable severity for your bug report.

Severity ranges from D (lowest) to A (highest). If it's a repeatable crash bug, feel free to post it as an A. If it's just a little nitpick that doesn't make the game unplayable, knock it down to B - D. But if you automatically set all your bugs to high priority because you can, then we'll just knock them back down and call you a fool(i).

If it is a graphics bug, make sure you are using the latest video drivers for you card

Some bugs are caused by universally bad logic. Those ones occur on every machine. Note that the developers do test the game, so such bugs tend to be found quickly. (Unless they're in rarely-visited corners of the game logic.)

Other bugs happen only on some operating systems. These ones are a lot harder to find. If you always report your OS (e.g. "Windows XP") then we can try using the same ones (if we have access to them) and possibly see the bug more quickly.

Describe exactly how to reproduce the bug.

If the bug is repeatable but only in odd situations, describe exactly how to make it happen. The more detail you give, the more likely we can do it too without having to contact you for more help. If the bug is intermittent (sigh), tell us that, so we don't think you're crazy when we try the same steps and don't get the same results.

Does the bug allow people to cheat

if it does please post the bug as locked so that this information does not become instantly publically known, if it is ultra serious (i.e "i type *givealllotsofmoney and it makes everyone into billionaires) then please feel free to continue to email abuse@theuniversal.net

Thanks for reading this, and thanks for reporting bugs.