John, a small but annoying bug (multi-map)

[tobyr]

When you press the N command to natively transport a unit to another map, the status window does always update properly. This means you are often looking at nonsense terrain, but the status window might actually show the list of units on the square you moved FROM, not the square you moved To, which can be quite dangerous confusion in combat.

A typical error: I "n" from "ice room" to "wildland". Now I'm on the surface map but still in "ice room", according to the status window.

The workaround is to press the map arrows twice, to switch to any other map and back again, which causes the status window to straighten out.

- toby

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toby robison
criticalpaths@mindspring.com

[Cam]

John,

Can I take your last post somewhat literally, as per 'Are you keeping a list?' If so, it may be advantageous for someone to re-work it so budding scenario authors could avoid some of these unexpected pitfalls.

[John Possidente]

Thanks, Toby. I've added that one to my list. If there's ever another patch or an update (I can dream, can't I?), I'll have to put you in the credits.

[John Possidente]

Well, I have (let's see...) twenty or so post-it notes in a drawer, on my monitor, etc. Some of them are internally noted stuff (which I probably shouldn't publish).

If you're willing, I think it would be a great idea to collect all the various problems the Apolyton folks have found--collect from them, I mean, not from me--and post a listing. (Might help me organize my list. )

[tobyr]

John, you are supposed to have a bug data base. QA is always supposed to have a bug data base.

Oh well. Take good care of those papers...

- toby


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toby robison
criticalpaths@mindspring.com

[John Possidente]

QA has one, but I haven't asked them for it.

I haven't been a QA guy for more than 5 years. (Like most people in this business, that's how I started out.) I don't even know whether Customer Service still regularly reports new bugs to QA, or if they save them until they're requested. Maybe I should find out; that's the sort of thing I should probably be aware of.

[tobyr]

Here's why the problems reported to you should go into the QA data base:

At some point in developing a new product, you review the bugs reported in the similar old product and decide to fix some of them. Separately, QA reviews these bugs and plans tests to make sure that the new product does not contain these reported bugs, or similar ones.

Civ3 is more likely to have similar problems if the reports you receive do not become part of this process. There's plenty of time, because these reviews do not happen early in the development process.

This is a very straightforward application of Santana's dictum that those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. The QA data base ought to become studied history; I don't know about your personal notes...

- toby


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toby robison
criticalpaths@mindspring.com

[John Possidente]

QA here does keep a regression database, and they do recheck old bugs in new versions of games. (We had one heck of a time fixing a lot of the bugs left over from the MPGE.) Our QA folks are a very professional, conscientious bunch.

What I meant in my post was that I personally am not as conversant with their procedures as I probably should be.

[Kull]

Carlos Santana sure plays a mean guitar, but for true philosophy, you must turn to George Santayana:

"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

"There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval."

"By nature's kindly disposition most questions which it is beyond a man's power to answer do not occur to him at all."

"There are three traps that strangle philosophy: the Church, the marriage-bed, and the professor's chair."