Reporting Bugs

[Quacksalber]

What's your experience with bug reporting for BG3?

So far, I have got one response that wasn't just the automated one. In that report, I'd listed two issues and the response was "we know about this and are looking into it". IDK which one, ofc. I know we should report only one thing at a time, but it gets quite tedious. I wish there was a way to report a bug from the game per se. Or is there and idk about it?

Anyway, in the response they also suggested visiting the Steam forums. I find this very odd since they cannot be bothered to assign anyone to moderate the forum, which makes it a dubious experience for anyone who's not used to barely moderated Steam forums, and in the majority of cases it certainly won't help with bugs.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by EH!:

Reporting Bugs
What's your experience with bug reporting for BG3?

So far, I have got one response that wasn't just the automated one. In that report, I'd listed two issues and the response was "we know about this and are looking into it". IDK which one, ofc. I know we should report only one thing at a time, but it gets quite tedious. I wish there was a way to report a bug from the game per se. Or is there and idk about it?

Anyway, in the response they also suggested visiting the Steam forums. I find this very odd since they cannot be bothered to assign anyone to moderate the forum, which makes it a dubious experience for anyone who's not used to barely moderated Steam forums, and in the majority of cases it certainly won't help with bugs.

My experiences are okay, At first it took suspiciously long. But I got a non-automatic reply to every single bug report I have filed with plenty of words of thanks. In a circa 70:30 ratio they replied that the teams are aware of the issues, might be also due to the delay and amount of support tickets they are going through. But often enough they also replied they are investigating it thoroughly.

I read on some forums posts that after some time they asked people if the issue still persists, especially at the beginning when it is unclear if one of the many hotfixes already resolved it. I personally never got such question asked.

All in all I do not think it is bad how they handle it. From the sound of the replies it seems they take every bug report I have filed seriously and they take their time to reply the way they do.

I prefer that instead of no replies at all or meaningless replies.

[Quacksalber]

Originally posted by アンジェル:

I prefer that instead of no replies at all or meaningless replies.

Unfortunately for me, it actually has been no replies at all, or a meaningless one xD

Do you send save games? I did that with my first one (no response months later, except a second automated one regarding a patch). Since then, I've stuck to screenshots and describing the issue. Also do you (or anyone) know how to find a crash dump file? All the crashes I'm getting are so extreme I'm forced to reboot my computer.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by EH!:

Originally posted by アンジェル:

I prefer that instead of no replies at all or meaningless replies.

Unfortunately for me, it actually has been no replies at all, or a meaningless one xD

Do you send save games? I did that with my first one (no response months later, except a second automated one regarding a patch). Since then, I've stuck to screenshots and describing the issue. Also do you (or anyone) know how to find a crash dump file? All the crashes I'm getting are so extreme I'm forced to reboot my computer.

Yes, I send with all my bug reports savegames and screenshots. Depending on the kind of bug I also add a DxDiag report to prevent misunderstandings. Pretty much the procedure as it is described on the support pages of Larian Studios.

The crash dump files are in AppData. I have just recently cleaned it up so I am currently unable to find the folder. But it is a general folder which many games are using. Though the game crashes so rarely it never mattered to me, as I always know if it crashes why it crashes. I have not encountered a single time when I did not know why.

At some point I even made myself familiar with mods because I got utterly annoyed by random forums posts with issues about mods. Back then I used not to comment them at all since I have not tried the stuff myself. Once I understood how they work it was easier for me to distinguish the different mods issues.

But back to bug reporting

- savegame(s)
- screenshots, in general 3-5
- description of what is happening (is situation)
- description of what is expected to happen (should situation)
- steps to reproduce the issue
- DxDiag report

Crashdumps were never necessary. Most crash issues would be found in the DxDiag report anyroads.

[Quacksalber]

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Originally posted by EH!:

Unfortunately for me, it actually has been no replies at all, or a meaningless one xD

Do you send save games? I did that with my first one (no response months later, except a second automated one regarding a patch). Since then, I've stuck to screenshots and describing the issue. Also do you (or anyone) know how to find a crash dump file? All the crashes I'm getting are so extreme I'm forced to reboot my computer.

Yes, I send with all my bug reports savegames and screenshots. Depending on the kind of bug I also add a DxDiag report to prevent misunderstandings. Pretty much the procedure as it is described on the support pages of Larian Studios.

The crash dump files are in AppData. I have just recently cleaned it up so I am currently unable to find the folder. But it is a general folder which many games are using. Though the game crashes so rarely it never mattered to me, as I always know if it crashes why it crashes. I have not encountered a single time when I did not know why.

At some point I even made myself familiar with mods because I got utterly annoyed by random forums posts with issues about mods. Back then I used not to comment them at all since I have not tried the stuff myself. Once I understood how they work it was easier for me to distinguish the different mods issues.

But back to bug reporting

- savegame(s)
- screenshots, in general 3-5
- description of what is happening (is situation)
- description of what is expected to happen (should situation)
- steps to reproduce the issue
- DxDiag report

Crashdumps were never necessary. Most crash issues would be found in the DxDiag report anyroads.

What is a DxDiag report?

I did google how to find crash dumps, and the only one I have is from 15th June, so it can't even be related to bg3. I only get the hard crashes in multiplayer.

[Heu, Iterum Id Feci]

Originally posted by EH!:

Anyway, in the response they also suggested visiting the Steam forums. I find this very odd since they cannot be bothered to assign anyone to moderate the forum, which makes it a dubious experience for anyone who's not used to barely moderated Steam forums, and in the majority of cases it certainly won't help with bugs.

I'm fairly certain that they have people monitoring the steam forums, allthough their direct involvement is very rare. Also it's perfectly possible larian employees use the forums with private accounts without outing themselfes. They probably even wouldn't be allowed by company policy to out themselfes as employees, but at the very least it's usually a bad idea anyway, if you just wanna be undisturbed on the forums ;)
In any case it's safe to assume they will be aware of any issue that's somewhat common. However, their priorities might not match up with your priorities for patching.
Ie if you encounter a gamestopping issue, that's highly annoying for you, understandably so. However, if there's only a handfull of people experiencing it, and it is very hard to reproduce, the issue might be on the backburner, until they can collect enough data to actually find and fix the issue.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by EH!:

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Yes, I send with all my bug reports savegames and screenshots. Depending on the kind of bug I also add a DxDiag report to prevent misunderstandings. Pretty much the procedure as it is described on the support pages of Larian Studios.

The crash dump files are in AppData. I have just recently cleaned it up so I am currently unable to find the folder. But it is a general folder which many games are using. Though the game crashes so rarely it never mattered to me, as I always know if it crashes why it crashes. I have not encountered a single time when I did not know why.

At some point I even made myself familiar with mods because I got utterly annoyed by random forums posts with issues about mods. Back then I used not to comment them at all since I have not tried the stuff myself. Once I understood how they work it was easier for me to distinguish the different mods issues.

But back to bug reporting

- savegame(s)
- screenshots, in general 3-5
- description of what is happening (is situation)
- description of what is expected to happen (should situation)
- steps to reproduce the issue
- DxDiag report

Crashdumps were never necessary. Most crash issues would be found in the DxDiag report anyroads.

What is a DxDiag report?

I did google how to find crash dumps, and the only one I have is from 15th June, so it can't even be related to bg3. I only get the hard crashes in multiplayer.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3018815871
It not only provide detailed information which is 99,999996% missing in all cases, but it also makes it simple to find the usual suspects in terms of bloatware which causes often issues throughout many games.

Originally posted by Dαятн Wαfflεmαncεя:

Originally posted by EH!:

Anyway, in the response they also suggested visiting the Steam forums. I find this very odd since they cannot be bothered to assign anyone to moderate the forum, which makes it a dubious experience for anyone who's not used to barely moderated Steam forums, and in the majority of cases it certainly won't help with bugs.

I'm fairly certain that they have people monitoring the steam forums, allthough their direct involvement is very rare. Also it's perfectly possible larian employees use the forums with private accounts without outing themselfes. They probably even wouldn't be allowed by company policy to out themselfes as employees, but at the very least it's usually a bad idea anyway, if you just wanna be undisturbed on the forums ;)
In any case it's safe to assume they will be aware of any issue that's somewhat common. However, their priorities might not match up with your priorities for patching.
Ie if you encounter a gamestopping issue, that's highly annoying for you, understandably so. However, if there's only a handfull of people experiencing it, and it is very hard to reproduce, the issue might be on the backburner, until they can collect enough data to actually find and fix the issue.

There is zero involvement of Larian Studios on Steam forums since the end of early access. Most people even ignore the pinned thread. Otherwise they would knew better than expecting help on Steam forums with the little information they provide.

[Quacksalber]

Originally posted by Dαятн Wαfflεmαncεя:

Originally posted by EH!:

Anyway, in the response they also suggested visiting the Steam forums. I find this very odd since they cannot be bothered to assign anyone to moderate the forum, which makes it a dubious experience for anyone who's not used to barely moderated Steam forums, and in the majority of cases it certainly won't help with bugs.

I'm fairly certain that they have people monitoring the steam forums, allthough their direct involvement is very rare. Also it's perfectly possible larian employees use the forums with private accounts without outing themselfes. They probably even wouldn't be allowed by company policy to out themselfes as employees, but at the very least it's usually a bad idea anyway, if you just wanna be undisturbed on the forums ;)
In any case it's safe to assume they will be aware of any issue that's somewhat common. However, their priorities might not match up with your priorities for patching.
Ie if you encounter a gamestopping issue, that's highly annoying for you, understandably so. However, if there's only a handfull of people experiencing it, and it is very hard to reproduce, the issue might be on the backburner, until they can collect enough data to actually find and fix the issue.

Yeah I know all that. My point wasn't that they don't read anything on Steam - I hope they at least read comments under patch notes, as that's a fairly good way to gauge which issues are affecting a lot of people, but that this forum is in itself pretty off-putting for your average gamer who just wants to ask a question or chat about the game, and not argue about politics, get insulted, or get no replies at all.

Lots of Steam forums have people labelled as devs or moderators. I think it's better for the community at large to actually moderate forums.

[Quacksalber]

Originally posted by アンジェル:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3018815871
It not only provide detailed information which is 99,999996% missing in all cases, but it also makes it simple to find the usual suspects in terms of bloatware which causes often issues throughout many games.

Thanks!

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by EH!:

Originally posted by Dαятн Wαfflεmαncεя:

I'm fairly certain that they have people monitoring the steam forums, allthough their direct involvement is very rare. Also it's perfectly possible larian employees use the forums with private accounts without outing themselfes. They probably even wouldn't be allowed by company policy to out themselfes as employees, but at the very least it's usually a bad idea anyway, if you just wanna be undisturbed on the forums ;)
In any case it's safe to assume they will be aware of any issue that's somewhat common. However, their priorities might not match up with your priorities for patching.
Ie if you encounter a gamestopping issue, that's highly annoying for you, understandably so. However, if there's only a handfull of people experiencing it, and it is very hard to reproduce, the issue might be on the backburner, until they can collect enough data to actually find and fix the issue.

Yeah I know all that. My point wasn't that they don't read anything on Steam - I hope they at least read comments under patch notes, as that's a fairly good way to gauge which issues are affecting a lot of people, but that this forum is in itself pretty off-putting for your average gamer who just wants to ask a question or chat about the game, and not argue about politics, get insulted, or get no replies at all.

Lots of Steam forums have people labelled as devs or moderators. I think it's better for the community at large to actually moderate forums.

The thing is: it is not worth to monitor Steam forums for them with their own forums they manage.

While players and fans might think differently about that, the investment is overall too large and bring countless other issues.

It starts with: if they have to monitor one external forums, they have to monitor them all.

Plus the hazard pay is enormous for making people to read through all that ... stuff what is written even below the patch notes.

It is not like people share reliable information in comments, and the mentioned mods issues makes it even more unappealing for any developer to read here. Imagine it like this: you see hundreds, not dozens but hundreds of threads people complain about stuff which is not caused by the game but by something banal like mods or even worse discord.

After a few dozens of times helping you start with questioning people's sanity for not using the search function. A few dozens more you start questioning your own sanity. True story.

In Larian Studios management Steam forums can be widely ignored, because the people who really care about the game already submitted reports properly via the official channels and are in general represented on their own forums they have full control of.

Just recently a SEGA game got an enormous backlash for their developers being honest and straightforward with their reaction towards inacceptable hate and discrimination. Thank gods the actual developers do not have to deal with that because it is just a motivation killer to read the Steam forums. It could be better with moderators and strict rules, no doubts. But it is not worth it to begin with.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by EH!:

What's your experience with bug reporting for BG3?

So far, I have got one response that wasn't just the automated one. In that report, I'd listed two issues and the response was "we know about this and are looking into it". IDK which one, ofc. I know we should report only one thing at a time, but it gets quite tedious. I wish there was a way to report a bug from the game per se. Or is there and idk about it?

Owlcat have a very good in-game bug report system. it presents you with a form and automatically makes a save at the exact spot to send back to the team, then plops you straight back into the game. I would say this should be standard 'cos a) it's very convenient for players and b) it gets the best possible info to the devs (guaranteed save file per report)

However even Owlcat don't respond individually to bug reports. I'd say it would be unreasonable to expect an individual personal response from Larian especially given how many BG3 players there are.

Originally posted by EH!:

Anyway, in the response they also suggested visiting the Steam forums. I find this very odd since they cannot be bothered to assign anyone to moderate the forum, which makes it a dubious experience for anyone who's not used to barely moderated Steam forums, and in the majority of cases it certainly won't help with bugs.

Like most devs, especially big ones, Larian may not interact directly with the Steam forum, however they will be avid readers of it. All devs read their Steam forums obsessively not just to pick up on problems but also to understand player reaction to their game. Nothing we say here goes unnoticed even if it can seem like it does.

The reason why they are pointing bug reporters to it is they want bug threads posted so that they can get a feel for a) how many players (what % etc) are experiencing the bug and b) how badly the bug is affecting players experience. These are vital metrics for prioritising bug fixes. The Steam forum is about the most effective bug polling mechanism.

The ideal bug reporting combo is probably an Owlcat style in-game bug reporter plus a Steam moan thread so everyone affected can say how it's afected their game and share workarounds etc.

However that might change at a certain popularity of a game - if you got 15m players and most of them are getting this annoying little bug and reporting it it's not going to be that easy to handle say 5m reports of the same bug with everyone calling it slightly different names etc. That could be another reason why Larian are mostly interested in Steam forum reports. Plus their servers might object a bit to 5m save files etc.

[Quacksalber]

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

Owlcat have a very good in-game bug report system. it presents you with a form and automatically makes a save at the exact spot to send back to the team, then plops you straight back into the game. I would say this should be standard 'cos a) it's very convenient for players and b) it gets the best possible info to the devs (guaranteed save file per report)

However even Owlcat don't respond individually to bug reports. I'd say it would be unreasonable to expect an individual personal response from Larian especially given how many BG2 players there are.

Yeah I was thinking of the Owlcat bug reporting system. It's very convenient, no faffing about trying to figure out what to do, how to do it and what to include in the report, or filling out several forms in a row. I know they don't reply too. I just don't get why I got this one response from Larian and no others. I'd expect either none or one if the bug was fixed.

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

Like most devs, especially big ones, Larian may not interact directly with the Steam forum, however they will be avid readers of it. All devs read their Steam forums obsessively not just to pick up on problems but also to understand player reaction to their game. Nothing we say here goes unnoticed even if it can seem like it does.

The reason why they are pointing bug reporters to it is they want bug threads posted so that they can get a feel for a) how many players (what % etc) are experiencing the bug and b) how badly the bug is affecting players experience. These are vital metrics for prioritising bug fixes. The Steam forum is about the most effective bug polling mechanism.

The ideal bug reporting combo is probably an Owlcat style in-game bug reporter plus a Steam moan thread so everyone affected can say how it's afected their game and share workarounds etc.

However that might change at a certain popularity of a game - if you got 15m players and most of them are getting this annoying little bug and reporting it it's not going to be that easy to handle say 5m reports of the same bug with everyone calling it slightly different names etc. That could be another reason why Larian are mostly interested in Steam forum reports.

That makes sense, actually, Thanks! I do wish they had someone performing rudimentary forum modding though, like merging threads when there are 5 on the same topic, and locking the annoying nonsense ones a couple of times per day. I'm not expecting some poor sods to try to answer people personally here - they'd just get harassed.

[hannibal_pjv]

The more info you send, the more likely is that programmers find solution. Saying.. i have a big, does. It help… giving as much info as possible does!

[Kittybass]

I submitted a bug report after the last big patch. A rep wrote back to me last week and asked me to resend the save file in a zip format. It wasn't an automated response. I actually wasn't expecting to hear anything back so I was surprised to get a follow up.