Bethesda's New Method For Squashing Bugs Leads To Less Buggy Skyrim

http://kotaku.com/5834914/the-skyrim-team-has-a-better-plan-for-squashing-bugs-this-time

Before launch, Howard said, Bethesda is testing Skyrim rigorously and more heavily using a system that runs automated versions of the game overnight, searching for bugs and helping the team squash them. "We're getting better at it," Howard said.

They are also adopting this new EA Sports-s.tyle "live update" system that will let Bethesda tweak the data in their game almost immediately. If a quest isn't triggering because players are doing some unforeseen combination of actions, that might be addressable by tweaking the data tables that dictate the flow of events in the game. If the game is proving to be unbalanced in an unexpected way, that can be fixed on the fly too. And these fixes—Howard prefers to call them "improvements"— will take effect fast. "We can change stats on a sword and it will be available to everyone in a few hours," he said.

Kotaku

:shock: Looks like Skyrim won't be very buggy at all, this is a big step up for Bethesda. The more I hear about this game, the more excited I get :D

Now the haters can't say "lulz this game will be GGOTY, Glitchy Game Of The Year :twisted:"

That sounds really good.

oh there will be bugs...

Sounds good. Hope they continue this for the next Fallout game (I'm not interested in Skyrim)

Since it's there first attempt at this I suspect there will still be some bugs. But excellent news. :D

I guess we must wait to see if it works or not.

I'm guessing Bethesda's system that automatically plays the game, and looks for bugs, is full of bugs.....

Skyrim will launch with bugs. That's the Bethesda way.

i didn't fiind ES oblivion buggy at all n hope for the same with skyrim.

Nice to see this happening. I was worried about major bugs, but I'm assuming now that any big problems will not exist upon release. I realize there will be some little things here and there, but it shouldn't take long for them to be patched.

With a game this big there will always be bugs but its good to know that they are doing everything they can to git rid of them.

i didn't fiind ES oblivion buggy at all n hope for the same with skyrim.

true_gamer007

[QUOTE="true_gamer007"]

i didn't fiind ES oblivion buggy at all n hope for the same with skyrim.

millerlight89

i didn't fiind ES oblivion buggy at all n hope for the same with skyrim.

true_gamer007

Sounds cool and I wish the best for them. I'm getting the game on PC so any bugs that the game has will be fixed by the mod comunity within 2-3 days.

I wonder if the automated system will have any bugs. Since you know Bethesda has issues with QA on everything from tech to the actual game.

well i stil cant finish that vampire quest from oblivion... i believe it when i see it.malikmmm

New method for squashing bugs: 1. Test for bugs 2. ??? 3. Profit!Cherokee_Jack

1. Create system to check for bugs

2. New system is incredibly buggy

3. Skyrim ships with twice as many bugs as Oblivion

4. ????????????????

5. Acquire dosh!

Along with that bethesda has removed attributes, limited choices for clothing even further than oblivion and added in health regen. The quests are all linear and devoid of any choices or consequences. The pc version is a total console port, they didn't even bother to fix the horrible UI on the pc and not to mention the total lack of a 64bit exe. Oblivion style world leveling is back as well. Fallout 3's was bad enough and lacked any difficulty but this is ridiculous. The DLC will be 1 month exclusive to the 360 and weapon and armor degradation is gone. That's right, no more health for weapons or armor.

At least they know they make extremely buggy games and are actually going to do something about it.

I'll believe it when I see it. I still never completed Oblivion because quests getting broken and refusing to advance.

At least they know they make extremely buggy games and are actually going to do something about it.

cain006

If only Bethesda would use this method for Brink :(Juggernaut140

Automated versions of the game?

That means...they're relying on their AI?

I'm calling it now, this will be buggier than Big Rigs and SCS combined.

But can the system check itself for bugs :o

But can the system check itself for bugs :o

painguy1

Actually, the way Bethesda engines are made does allow for the system itself to check bugs.

The problem is, you have to write an AI to keep track of everything that goes on...and not only Bethesda's AI programmers are some of the worst I've ever seen (Oblivion's AI especially is...mind numbing), but there's also the problem that an AI will always do the same stuff, i.e. if the player manages to do something that's not covered by the testing AI by the time the game is released, it's very likely to screw everything up.

[QUOTE="cain006"]

At least they know they make extremely buggy games and are actually going to do something about it.

Ace6301

So basically for the past 20 years they have gone from being complete and utter s*** to just being garbage? Well... I guess that's improvement :|

You mean they're actually going to test for bugs?

New method for squashing bugs:

1. Test for bugs

2. ???

3. Profit

4. Make community fix game

Cherokee_Jack

Fixed that for yah.

I believe it when I see it. If it does turn out well, then great.millerlight89

I'd hold off on the excitement until the game releases, or is at least in the hands of some honest reviewers.

Anything automated can itself be buggy, so there's just no way to know if it'll turn out good until some people have played it.

It would be cool if it was decently polished at launch though, since the game will likely be great.

I wonder if this on the fly update thing will be available on the ps3 version. I think we can safely assume that the 360 version won't have it.

If i get more exited for this game, i explode.

Wait wait wait... Am i the only one that think "wtf?" I mean everything they create have tons of bugs... Now they have made a program (that probably have tons of bugs) that will search for bugs... Dont they have... A testing team?

This team has so much fail in it. HAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHhahahahahahahahahahahahaha...

Well they have to say something like this after the disaster that was New Vega's, great game but absolutely plagued with bugs at launch.

Well they have to say something like this after the disaster that was New Vega's, great game but absolutely plagued with bugs at launch.

SapSacPrime