Please post all bugs in our Mantis bug tracker, NOT here.

[HerrJoebob]

Just read through 4 pages of random nonsense to complain that it's ridiculous to have to sign up for yet another account just to post bugs ... I already have two just to use the forum for this alpha (and they're plaintext authentication for bonus points). Started to post a bug earlier and frankly I'm just not interested in having Yet Another Login.

[ryacko]

The mantis bug tracker is too difficult to register for. Also, you're doing it wrong if the bugtracker requires a captcha for registration when I already must type in my login information to authenticate the page.

Bug 1: holding cell doesn't appear to count towards prisoner capacity at all. why have holding cells then?

Bug 2: do prisoners path find through the outdoors? My prison complex is multiple buildings... please don't tell me I spent multiple hours building a prison that cannot work. None of my prisoners seem to want to go to the canteen.
Or the yard.

Or do anything except try to escape (of course I have a network of gates)

[frenchfrog]

Bug 1: holding cell doesn't appear to count towards prisoner capacity at all. why have holding cells then?

For continuous prisoners arrival game mode?

Bug 2: do prisoners path find through the outdoors? My prison complex is multiple buildings... please don't tell me I spent multiple hours building a prison that cannot work. None of my prisoners seem to want to go to the canteen.
Or the yard.

Or do anything except try to escape (of course I have a network of gates)

If by outdoor you means not zoned space, then yes, your prisoner will walk through that space.
For you canteen and yard problem, have you check your "Regime" (you need a warden to adjust these settings). Prisoners will go in the canteen in the "Eat" time and in the yard in "Yard"/"FreeTime".

[ryacko]

Huh. Only one prisoner has eaten in the canteen so far. Waste of prisoner feeding money, gets trashed every day.

Although it's a bit funny that the infirmary is currently a holding cell, after 90% of all prisoners attempt to escape.

For continuous prisoners arrival game mode?

No I disabled that.

[emilf99]

Help me I can´t install the game the game. There comes up a Winzip file up when I download the game and it wan´t let me install it because of some reason

[Mas Tnega]

Extract the files first.

[emilf99]

thanks I will do that

[emilf99]

But it still wan´t let me into the game. Does it have something to do with the SDL.dll file.

[emilf99]

Are there not any youtube videos where you can see what you have to do

[frenchfrog]

There is: "Unzip file windows" on YouTube

[orbitfire]

Did anyone consider user-friendly best practices at any point in setting all this up...?

1. This thread (CLICK) which explains how to activate your account, on the forums and the Wiki, should probably be emailed to new customers, instead if hidden away in a thread on the support page. It's kind of important information.

2. From what I am hearing, Mantis is terrible and so is the convoluted method for getting people registered to it. Why is it necessary to make each step in this process as counter-intuitive as humanly possible? Consider a clear and concise tutorial sticky post and skip some unnecessary steps. Why the super top-secret garbage? Let anyone sign up for your Mantis (or Bugzilla, if you want to be serious) tracking system and use a confirmed / unconfirmed method of sorting through them.

3. Write up a sticky thread explaining how to write proper bug steps. That will save you time and help with communicating issues.

4. Fix your most critical bugs. Not sure why you have a "bugs are fun" attitude. Hint: they aren't. Seriously.

Disclaimer: I say all of this out of respect and admiration for what you're trying to achieve.

[xander]

Did anyone consider user-friendly best practices at any point in setting all this up...?

Not really. Originally, bug reporting was done directly on the forum. However, several people demanded a bug tracker and IV obliged. The public facing tracker was an afterthought.

3. Write up a sticky thread explaining how to write proper bug steps. That will save you time and help with communicating issues.

I agree. Such stickied topics existed for Darwinia and Defcon. However, they were written by random forum members. If you want such a sticky, write it up and post it. If it is useful, I am sure that others will use it, too. Otherwise, if IV are getting the kind of feedback they need/want without a sticky, their needs are being met, and you can't really expect them to post such a thread.

4. Fix your most critical bugs. Not sure why you have a "bugs are fun" attitude. Hint: they aren't. Seriously.

Right now, the game is in alpha status. It is not feature complete. The goal at the moment is to implement all of the features that IV and players want. As new features are introduced, new critical bugs will also likely be introduced. There is not much point in fixing bugs right now, as the game does not currently represent a stable release. Bugs that keep people from playing at all should be fixed, but many of the not-so-critical-but-quite-annoying bugs (such as not being able to build near the border) need not be fixed yet. Those are the kinds of bugs that are fun. And yes, they are.

Once the game is basically feature-complete and goes into beta status, IV can and should worry more about bug fixing.

xander

[Mas Tnega]

1. This thread which explains how to activate your account, on the forums and the Wiki, should probably be emailed to new customers, instead if hidden away in a thread on the support page. It's kind of important information.

My e-mail linked to a PDF with those exact instructions.

2. From what I am hearing, Mantis is terrible and so is the convoluted method for getting people registered to it. Why is it necessary to make each step in this process as counter-intuitive as humanly possible? Consider a clear and concise tutorial sticky post and skip some unnecessary steps. Why the super top-secret garbage? Let anyone sign up for your Mantis (or Bugzilla, if you want to be serious) tracking system and use a confirmed / unconfirmed method of sorting through them.

What benefit would opening up the bug tracker bring? It's already 31% duplicates and 8% crash dumps.
(Mantis was thing people specifically demanded. I still don't rightly understand why, outside a failure to grasp that relocating a bug report, asking the reporter for a severity and priority and giving it the explicit status "Closed; Duplicate" doesn't improve it)

3. Write up a sticky thread explaining how to write proper bug steps. That will save you time and help with communicating issues.

There was one. Barely anyone used it. It got unstickied for some reason.

4. Fix your most critical bugs. Not sure why you have a "bugs are fun" attitude. Hint: they aren't. Seriously.

You can't fault them for not fixing an issue marked crash/block/urgent/immediate when it's called "It crashed" has the details "It crashed" and the steps to reproduce are "Dunno; it just crashed", even if it does have debug logs.
I've looked at the unsolved highest priority and highest severity stuff. The majority of it is from the most recent version or contains words the effect of "It crashed". Not counting the duplicates, many of which weren't that important in the first place.

[orbitfire]

Thanks Mas Tnega. I realize what stage of the production process they are in. However, they could have set things up a bit simpler knowing that when it comes to usability, you have to idiot-proof it (in other words, not create a nightmare for people). Now that we know that, they could make an effort to streamline some of these processes so the feedback is less of a cluster-fuck. I felt really uneasy when I was thinking of buying the Alpha and I read those comments about not being able to register or download the game, all because their instructions (the processes) were incomplete or poorly thought out.

"My e-mail linked to a PDF with those exact instructions."

Well good for you. A PDF file is your solution? No, anyone with a clue about usability would have just included instructions in EMAIL TEXT.

"What benefit would opening up the bug tracker bring?"

Because it would be less complicated for the end-user. It's besides my point though, since the problem is the cluster-fuck of a process in place.

"There was one. Barely anyone used it. It got unstickied for some reason."

Then make people use it under threat of torture and death. It's not something that should have been un- sticky -ed.

"You can't fault them for not fixing an issue marked crash..."

I was referring to their comment that they are "not fixing any bugs at this time." They know bugs exist and what they are, just not doing it right now.

Anyway, my point should be clearer now.

[ryacko]

Where is my save file located? I need to know to report a bug.