Future of FAF (Split from derailed topic)

[Ze_PilOt]

I'm not even sure I will take back later. Most likely I won't, but you never know.

Feel free to build a team of beta testers & coders if you want something.
That means testing all the feature mods + all the coop maps to be sure nothing is broken with the fixes.

[Sheeo]

I sign up for that team.

I can do troubleshooting on those server issues too.

[IceDreamer]

Obviously I'm in. The problem I am hearing from numerous modders is that the lack of updates is killing morale. Nobody is sure any of their work will ever go live any more

You've merged a whole bunch of fixes already. Sheeo will finish and finalise the shield fix soon too. The Coop maps need considerable work and I will probably need help for those. I think my concern is that since the maps will probably take a while to test properly and get working, we don't want to wait for the Shield script to go live. That's a very major bugfix to one of the biggest problems in the entire game, we don't want it to languish.

Let the testing begin... Again...

[Ze_PilOt]

I'm not willing to put only any change that wasn't heavily tested.

And yes, modders shouldn't expect much change or any change at all in FAF anymore.

I would like to continue bringing new shiny things for FA, but fighting against the community is something I'm not willing to do anymore.

[IceDreamer]

You never heard the complaints because complaining to you would do nothing Partially it hadn't had much attention before because we all thought that Brute51 had fixed it properly. Then when people discovered that he actually had not, everyone just sort of gave up and nobody looked too closely.

So then, for people signing up, this stuff needs testing:

SAM DamageFriendly = false to stop them blowing up your own base
Cybran Coop missions 4/5/6 - I'm going to need help with these
Shield fixes
Continental Shield fix

[H2H_TechMonkey]

Woah!! this thread got Hijacked.

ZEP I certainly wasnt criticising anything, more offering to help in anyway I could i think what you (and team) have done for FA is awesome. I havent been around as long as some I realise, but I am thoroughly addicted to a game, that when I played on steam I merely thought was "OK", but now with FAF I think it's awesome.

The offer of help still stands. I cant code, but am a system admin and am ok with web hosting, networking etc.

[pip]

I'm not even sure I will take back later. Most likely I won't, but you never know.

Feel free to build a team of beta testers & coders if you want something.
That means testing all the feature mods + all the coop maps to be sure nothing is broken with the fixes.

Brute51 said something about setting up a test process when new code is added. It would be necessary that 2 coders review and approve any new code before it is accepted and that at least 2 other testers test any new change. After this is done, an admin (a gatekeeper) would decide to include the new code / changes, and at some point, wrap up an update and release it. If the new code is not approved, the submitter would have to improve it before submitting it again.

[rootbeer23]

the process exists already. take for example rk's explosion mod. it has been played with numerous times.
i have never seen it misbehave. some might have. if it was to be made default, it would be a smooth transition.

[pip]

the process exists already. take for example rk's explosion mod. it has been played with numerous times.
i have never seen it misbehave. some might have. if it was to be made default, it would be a smooth transition.

No, because Rk4s explosions breaks one the featured mods (Nomads), so it would actually be rejected until compatibility issue is fixed. There is a reason why Pilot insists that all featured mods and coop missions are tested when new code is added : it's to make sure the FAF environment is coherent and fully functional.

[Brute51]

What Pip mentions is a process that I've been discussing with Pip a few times now. We use it at the company I work at, and with great results. It ensures only quality code is added to the project (which in our case is vital - we're engineering automated robots for continuous production on the global market).
I think we could implement the same process here but it does require a team of a few active and dependable people (developers (implentation and code reviewing), testers (to test every aspect of a code change), a gate keeper (a senior developer who guards the trunk) and possibly a specifier (someone who specifies changes in detail)). We'll also have to develop automated testing because no one likes to do manual regression tests. I"m not sure about how to do "segment testing" here but we could explore that too.
(on FAF I think "segment testing" is a better word for "unit testing").

I can write a document about how the process works and share it, see what the reactions are...


@Pilot: Are you interested in keeping the server running? I can imagine you're not, if that's the case please let us (the community) know so we can find alternatives.


p.s. In case you're wondering, I work as software tester.