Releasing patches with a broken updater (2nd edition)

[ThomasHiatt]

Dear FAF devs,

Enough people have complained in aeolus and on the forums about not being able to download the patch that I am compelled to come here and say this again.

You know the message:

The file wasn't sent properly by the server. Try again later.

It is great that you

Fixed a word wrap bug that caused missing characters in tooltips and chat, and allowed certain chat messages to crash the game.

But when that comes at the cost of hundreds of people no longer being able play the game, I would rather you didn't. Your response will be that the people having this issue are using anti-virus software that prevents the client from downloading the files, I know, but I really don't believe that everyone having the issue is using anti-virus. And even if anti-virus is the only issue, do you really want FAF to only be playable by people with no anti-virus software? I'm sure there are people that stop playing or end up not joining faf because of this issue. You have to be able to do better. If you can't fix the updater, and refuse to stop releasing game patches, at the very least you should include instructions for manually installing them on the what's new page.

[Uveso]

Well, since i am here on FAF (2 years) i had never a problem with the updater.

So, do me a favor and answer me one question:

How can i fix a bug, that never occurs on my PC?
Any help here would be fantastic.

[ThomasHiatt]

1. You could find someone who does have the bug who is willing to work with you and give them a special version of the client that will print out any of the relevant info you need to solve the problem, and then keep giving them the new versions of that client as you work on it until it fixes the bug. Maybe you could even get them to use a debugger or screenshare/let you control their PC if they are especially trusting.

2. You could see what is different between Downlord's client and the official client that makes Downlord's client work for some people to install updates.

3. you could install anti-virus yourself or manipulate your PC in some way so that you do experience the bug.

4. There is a new patch system in the works that may or may not solve the issue, you could help get that integrated into the client and see if it fixes the problem.

[surtsan]

I think it got fixed (from the slack, but someone else will have to confirm, it was a permission server issue side, correct me if wrong)

[Brutus5000]

It is great that you

Fixed a word wrap bug that caused missing characters in tooltips and chat, and allowed certain chat messages to crash the game.

But when that comes at the cost of hundreds of people no longer being able play the game, I would rather you didn't.

These crashes actually affected a few hundred players, because some subversive elements of this community decided they wanted to break FAF for all players and crashed every lobby they could get hands on. So this patch was urgent. (And the issue is fixed now.)

[Uveso]

@ThomasHiatt:

Now if we do this all (and we do more) and there are still errors, what can we do ?

THAT was the question.

But to answer every question/proposal:

1: That's how we are doing it.

2: The different between the FAF and Downlords client is simple. FAF is programmed in Pyton and Downlords client is written in Java. There is nothing to compare.

3: I have 4 different PC with different virusscanner, Win 7 and 10. If i cant find a bug here then i can't do anythng.
And i can't manipulate my system to get a bug. Thats the main problem, the bug does not happen here.

4: I am.


And a private note from me:
There is no lack of ideas how to run this all. We know everything you wrote.
We just have not enought men/time to do it all.