- A bug's title should be a clear, concise description of the issue. Something like "Unit texture flashing" is good. "OMG game brokezor" is not good. Think about what keywords someone might use to search for your bug, and try to include a few in your title. That way, anyone who browses through the forum will instantly know what your bug is, just from the title. Please also give the post a tag based on what type of bug it is. For example [AI Bug] or [Texture Bug].
- A bug description contains several important parts: First is the bug description (What happened), second are the steps to reproduce the bug (How do you make the bug happen), and third is any supporting evidence (links to screenshots, etc.). Since this is just a forum, and not a professional bug reporting tool, I don't think that anyone truly expects full research into issues or screenshots, movies, etc. of them. However, the more information that you can provide, the better!
- A good bug description is like good reporting in a newspaper. It should be an unbiased declaration of facts. Try to keep your emotion at encountering a bug out of the report, and try to include all of the relevant details. Good: "When the AC-130 is called in by a Forward Air Controller, it will hover static, not moving, and it will not respond to movement commands." Bad: "WTF Why the aC-120 no work? WTF F**KING idiots.". For more complicated bugs, the description will be longer. Also, if you take the time to investigate the bug more thouroughly, you may find more information to include in the description.
- A good list of steps to reproduce the bug should start from the last situation that you know the bug did not occur, and then list every step after that. It is probably safe to assume that the tester who reads your bug has some familiarity with the mod, but they may not know all of the acronyms, etc., so it is best to refrain from using abbreviations or acronyms when listing steps. Also, be very careful about how specific a given step should be. For example, if your bug occurs with any air unit, you want to specify "Any Air" and not "The AC-130". However, if it only occurs with AC-130, be sure that you specify that, and do not say "an air unit." The steps to reproduce may sometimes seem absurd and will often seem redundant to the information in the description. Keep in mind that the goal is to make everything as clear as possible so that the tester can reproduce the bug in one try. Towards that end, don't worry about posting the same information twice or even three times in your bug - it helps!
- As these forums become more active, it is likely that a developer will read your post- but do not go crazy asking a developer to post.
- If a patch or new version of the mod comes out, and your problem still has not been fixed, you don't need to report the bug again, but it may be helpful to add to your original post that the bug was found in the new version of the mod.
Here are some examples of "good" bug reports:
Moddb.com
Moddb.com
Edited by: Heaney
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