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[sirdave79]

Can anyone whos been around a while to have an idea suggest how Toady "picks bugs" to fix ?

Does he work down the bug tracker list from top to bottom?

Does he fix whatevers on his mind when hes in bug fixing mode ?

Has he ever/does he prioritise the things people ask in his future of the fortress replies that he feels "should" be fixed ?

Has each version attempted to fix all officially logged bugs ?

I beleive the uniform bug (soldiers equipment clashing with miner/lumberjack/hunter equipment) has been around for a while. How likely is it that the next version will fix this ? ie with so many features seemingly to be added with the next release will there be any bug fixing for existing stuff ?

Exscuse the barrage of questions. Im just sat playing wondering about the new version and I wondered what to expect on the bug fixing front.

Cheers

[Nasikabatrachus]

There's a bug reporting website that he seems to pay a reasonable amount of attention to. I believe he also pays attention to bug reports via email, but I might be wrong.

In any case, the typical pattern is that major releases fix the leftover bugs of the previous major release, with each major release being followed by a bug fixing period.

Bugs that are easier to reproduce tend to get fixed faster, but it's safe to say that most or all reports are eventually addressed. I can remember one devlog where he mentioned trying and failing to reproduce an old report. Of course, bugs that crash the game during relatively common circumstances generally receive top priority.

[Telgin]

I don't think an official policy on bug fixing exists.  It's pretty much whatever Toady considers to be most important or relevant so far as I can tell.  He definitely doesn't try to fix every known bug before new releases, as some of them have been around since the 2D versions.  I believe the main reasoning for that is that they're usually small bugs and a lot of them would go away in a rewrite of those features when he improves them.  An example of that would be the uniform bug actually.  I'm almost certain it's not a bug so much as lacking of features: the game stores an internal uniform for those professions and uses that instead of a military uniform.  The dwarf just can't have but one uniform right now, so he would have to add features to accommodate having those professions alongside a military uniform.

[sirdave79]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I wanted to say "is the uniform bug actually a bug". I Wanted to call it the uniform issue. I got the impression that perhaps some issues hung around "unfixed" pending a feature rewrite as you said.

Its interesting to hear what other people say. Ive only been playing on and off for 3 years or so so ive not seen enough "big" new versions to have much of an idea as to the answers to my questions so thanks for indulging me.

[dorf]

After Toady released the last big DF update, he had a new bug-fixing cycle, followed by an old bug-fixing cycle, followed by stuff from the ESV list, followed by sporadic feature and misc releases.

The highest priority are game-breaking bugs like crashes, but after that I'm not sure. Game saves are a big plus with intricate bugs. Easily fixable bugs might be a higher on the priority list, however there are so many of them that not all of them will get fixed.

[Footkerchief]

In any case, the typical pattern is that major releases fix the leftover bugs of the previous major release, with each major release being followed by a bug fixing period.

No, most of the bugs get fixed in minor releases.  Major releases typically focus on new features and only include bug-fixes related to those features.  The upcoming release will follow this pattern -- here's a speculative list of bugs that may get fixed.

Game saves are a big plus with intricate bugs.

Yeah, saves are important.  Generally, cost/benefit is a major determinant of what gets fixed, where benefit = how bad a bug it is, and cost = how hard to fix.  Providing a save and/or binary patch can lower the cost for many bugs.  Other bugs are structural problems that are inherently difficult to fix.