QA Tester Application

[tommy61157]

Hello, my name is Thomas, I was active on the forum a bit, took a bit of a break, but I'm now back mainly for this game, I'm extremely Excited for this game and wish to test it out as fully as possible! Within 10 minutes of this post, I'll put up my full PC specs on my signature, I can run Fallout 4 at High, so I'm assuming I'll be able to run this, especially since I plan to get a pascal GPU when that line of GPUs are released by NVIDIA. I have always greatly admired and appreciated the work of this community and I want to help this project out as being a willing tester to see where it will go and I hope I can offer helpful insight into the project along with bringing up weird bugs. While I do not wish to be a programmer, I do have basic programming knowledge and I know how to fix and find minor issues which may make me an extra benefit to have as a QA tester (or if nothing else, I could give an educated guess as to what's going on). If you have any other questions, feel free to ask, but I certainly hope that you will consider me to be a QA tester for the game! In any case, I'm very excited to see where this game will go and once I have a bit of money, I'll try donating 20-30 dollars to the project too!

Edit: My PC Specs are now fully in my signature, also, if you are accepting donations for the project, please link me to where I can donate.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Ahoy there matey! Good to see you again.

...once I have a bit of money, I'll try donating 20-30 dollars to the project too!

No need for that anymore. We still have some saved up, but cannot really put it to use to speed up the process anymore.
It is now in the hands of the developers to put the stuff we already have to good use.

 

[tommy61157]

Ahoy there matey! Good to see you again.


No need for that anymore. We still have some saved up, but cannot really put it to use to speed up the process anymore.
It is now in the hands of the developers to put the stuff we already have to good use.

I kinda wanted the donator tag to be honest XD I still want to give some money though since I want to support the site for the amazing work on the build mod and the Hearts of Oak game.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I wouldn't know how to even send money for the site. That should have to go to @Keith, I suppose, since he owns it.
And for the PotC Build Mod, I honestly don't know who you'd send it to. Also, it'd be illegal to accept.

 

[Thagarr]

Ahoy Thomas, that should be a fairly good test rig, we don't have many AMD platforms at the moment. When you get a chance, could you please write up a quick review of the latest demo, and any problems that you encounter on your system and post it here, thanks!

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Long time no see.

When are you going to overclock that rig? That motherboard/cpu combo is usually good for 4.5-4.7 ghz with decent cooling, and that makes a very noticeable difference in performance, especially with older games.

 

[tommy61157]

I wouldn't know how to even send money for the site. That should have to go to @Keith, I suppose, since he owns it.
And for the PotC Build Mod, I honestly don't know who you'd send it to. Also, it'd be illegal to accept.

Well, if you guys do need money for ANYTHING, feel free to ask, I almost feel guilty having the build mod and to eventually have the Full Hearts of Oak game for free, you guys are awesome people and deserve something for your efforts.

Ahoy Thomas, that should be a fairly good test rig, we don't have many AMD platforms at the moment. When you get a chance, could you please write up a quick review of the latest demo, and any problems that you encounter on your system and post it here, thanks!

I honestly wasn't expecting such a quick response, I'll have a Detailed review up by midnight or a bit after Saturday Eastern US Time (GMT -5 I believe) Sorry it won't be quicker, I'll be sure not to be this slow from now on.

Long time no see.

When are you going to overclock that rig? That motherboard/cpu combo is usually good for 4.5-4.7 ghz with decent cooling, and that makes a very noticeable difference in performance, especially with older games.

Hylie, my computer hates me, trust me, I've tried everything, I can't safely get it above 4.2GHz (without lots of crashes). Besides, I'd rather have stability, since I plan on keeping my CPU for a few years and I can't afford to really burn it out. I'm not going to push it, especially since I've already wasted 400 dollars I shouldn't have had to spend on this build... It's a long story, don't ask...

I also noticed I didn't post my monitor in my signature, I'll correct that now, It will simply be a smart TV that I use for a monitor that's 1080p 60Hz. I don't make a lot of money right now, so I can't exactly afford a stellar setup, especially since one of my monitors recently died :/

I will get my detailed review up ASAP, my plan is to make a daily log on this thread or wherever you want it of every little thing I notice, I want to give you guys as much information as I possibly can. I'll even monitor CPU and GPU usage while playing.

 

[jsv]

that should be a fairly good test rig, we don't have many AMD platforms at the moment.

I have a box here that doesn't lack in AMD department, but I'm not sure whether it meets the minimal requirements. It's AMD A4-3300@2.5GHz with 4G of RAM and Radeon HD 6570 for graphics. If Hearts of Oak is supposed to work on something like this, I can try testing it...

And for the PotC Build Mod, I honestly don't know who you'd send it to. Also, it'd be illegal to accept.

People say you are a good Citizen, Pieter.

 

[Thagarr]

@jsv, if you wish to apply as a QA tester, please create your own application thread, and post a review of the latest Hearts of Oak demo.

@tommy61157, no hurry mate, we just got into the IndieDB top 100 again for the second year in a row, we aren't going anywhere!

 

[Hylie Pistof]

@tommy61157 I understand how it is when money is tight. Your rig will last a decade or so as is. The FX is pretty much bulletpoof though if you ever do decide to crank up the performance. Basically the only way to kill one is to make the motherboard catch on fire. That has happened.....

Meanwhile it should do great in modern games.

 

[tommy61157]

@jsv, if you wish to apply as a QA tester, please create your own application thread, and post a review of the latest Hearts of Oak demo.

@tommy61157, no hurry mate, we just got into the IndieDB top 100 again for the second year in a row, we aren't going anywhere!

Just got home, detailed review will be up in approximately 6 hours, btw, if you're using CryEngine (if not, tell me which engine please) then it WILL be CPU heavy, Unity tends to vary, though, lately, Unity Games seem to like beating up GPUs more than CPUs, but it really depends on the game and how well optimized it is.

@tommy61157 I understand how it is when money is tight. Your rig will last a decade or so as is. The FX is pretty much bulletpoof though if you ever do decide to crank up the performance. Basically the only way to kill one is to make the motherboard catch on fire. That has happened.....

Meanwhile it should do great in modern games.

I do plan on getting a Pascal GPU by NVIDIA when those come out along with 16 more GB of RAM to make it quad channel, but then I'm going to make this rig last until 2020 where I'll get a new mobo, RAM, and CPU, keep in mind with windows 10, if you get a new mobo, you have to get a new windows key, I learned this the hard way... Also, Unless you have like my friend has to where he overclocked a FX-9390 to 6.7GHz, it will not last you ten years, at least not for AAA games.

Edit: On a funny note, the first time I tried getting the latest demo and installing it, the package came corrupted and I was going to tell you guys to provide me with an md5 hash, but then I realized that IndieDB has that on the file page, fail on my part, LOL

 

[tommy61157]

Alright, this will be a bit scattered, but it has a ton of info and I have provided video and screenshots to help out.

I am running this game Fullscreened on Fantastic Settings (btw, only fantastic and low? Weird, lol) I'm also running it off my storage drive.

To begin with, the game seems to love hanging at the main screen for a minute looking like this before it will let me actually do anything:

https://puu.sh/lS5Vi/061ebb3ea0.jpg

(For some reason Puush captured both my monitors, screw it, there's nothing valuable in that convo that you guys will be able to make out anyways)

Also, I kinda wish you could at least have a Vsync (for stability) and a brightness option in the game's menus:

Steam Community :: Screenshot

Also, I documented a video containing my problems with the character creator among a couple other things (sorry about the cough, no idea where that came from):

But basically it needs an option to go back if you don't want to create a character and go there accidentally and it would be nice to have a confirmation message when you have created a character. Also, that flickering bug though O.O lol.

The whole time I was actually in the game, I used the test guy on a singleplayer world. The only thing seemingly to do was to enter the ship that was nearby, but when I did and it took me out to the ocean, the combat training thing came up and when it said press space to fire cannons, I couldn't. Also, I got stuck in a weird combat training loop where I couldn't get out of it, it kept fading to black then starting it again until I simply did nothing for a minute then it went away. You may be wondering why I don't have footage of this, well, that's because for some reason, OBS has a very hard time recording the game, what's not helping is that when you get into the game, the main process name changes which confuses OBS, so I eventually said potato and just did a monitor capture which seemed to work, which now brings us into our next set of bugs which, well... I think the video speaks for itself...

Also, sorry, no clue why I'm so loud in my videos, will be fixed next time.

Also, quick question, if I wanted to start a multiplayer server, what ports will this game use or is this configurable somewhere? Please get back to me on this.

Continuing, I noticed how some terrain got misplaced until I got up close to it...

Steam Community :: Screenshot
http://images.akamai.steamuserconte...024/A2C75D2FDA779D7D00CC963C98C07A80E04A838D/

Lastly, going out to sea and looking for more bugs just caused a couple of freezes and crashes.

So, that's about all I could get from it, on average, the game would use 1-1.3GB of my RAM, 10-20% CPU (sometimes both were lower) and 50% (Approximately, don't take this number heavily) of my GPU for some odd reason.

Did I do okay? Are there any logs I don't know about in my game which I should post too? Hopefully I've given you guys something of value.

EDIT: Now, everytime I start the game, it won't properly start up and just gets stuck at this:

http://images.akamai.steamuserconte...730/0B6D97C2E0CB5071D7F00A9ECAE4771A2736B379/

 

[Thagarr]

Thanks for the writeup Thomas, I have added you as a provisional QA Tester, please post your next review in the appropriate release thread in the development forum. The next demo should be out before the end of the year, baring any unforeseen problems.

The menu freeze is a known issue and is being worked on. I didn't notice that kind of problem with the menu during character creation, not sure what is up with that. I know JohnSilver is working on implementing much better graphics settings options, and some should be available in the next demo. In that demo, it is set to take you out into the ocean when you click on the ship, it is part of testing the tutorial system. When the tutorial starts, you need to follow the instructions and tab through each station on the ship. Please remember these are Pre-Alpha demos, there will be a LOT of things that don't work properly, and that is what your feedback is for.

As of right now there is no multiplayer, and there isn't likely to be for quite some time. At some point we would like to have at least a PVP skirmish option, but that is something for much later in development.

Yeah, it's not a good idea to leave command of the ship at the moment, the character can not swim yet! I really have no idea why the demo wouldn't run for you again, I have never had it fail to load for me. Just out of curiosity, what directory did you install the demo to?

 

[tommy61157]

Thanks for the writeup Thomas, I have added you as a provisional QA Tester, please post your next review in the appropriate release thread in the development forum. The next demo should be out before the end of the year, baring any unforeseen problems.

The menu freeze is a known issue and is being worked on. I didn't notice that kind of problem with the menu during character creation, not sure what is up with that. I know JohnSilver is working on implementing much better graphics settings options, and some should be available in the next demo. In that demo, it is set to take you out into the ocean when you click on the ship, it is part of testing the tutorial system. When the tutorial starts, you need to follow the instructions and tab through each station on the ship. Please remember these are Pre-Alpha demos, there will be a LOT of things that don't work properly, and that is what your feedback is for.

As of right now there is no multiplayer, and there isn't likely to be for quite some time. At some point we would like to have at least a PVP skirmish option, but that is something for much later in development.

Yeah, it's not a good idea to leave command of the ship at the moment, the character can not swim yet! I really have no idea why the demo wouldn't run for you again, I have never had it fail to load for me. Just out of curiosity, what directory did you install the demo to?

Thank you so much for making me a QA tester, my next notes I'll try to put in the appropriate forum from now on. Also, quick question, what does it mean to be a provisional QA tester? I don't get the provisional part. Also, it's installed in D:/HoO (On my second hard drive)

Edit: Nvm, I looked it up, for the time being, that's fine, I hope to be one for the entirety of this game's development and for any other games you guys end up making

 

[Thagarr]

Provisional means you are a team member on a trial basis. Have you tried deleting the demo and reinstalling?

 

[tommy61157]

Provisional means you are a team member on a trial basis. Have you tried deleting the demo and reinstalling?

I'll try that and see how it goes tomorrow and then make another post here, it's 1:30 AM where I'm at, so I'm getting pretty tired, I'll definitely post an update before I go to work tomorrow though.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Just got home, detailed review will be up in approximately 6 hours, btw, if you're using CryEngine (if not, tell me which engine please) then it WILL be CPU heavy, Unity tends to vary, though, lately, Unity Games seem to like beating up GPUs more than CPUs, but it really depends on the game and how well optimized it is.

It's Unity now.

 

[tommy61157]

Reinstalling the game fixed it, I'll be sure to post in the development forum if I find anything new from now on, in the meantime, here's a nice friendly character for us to use as a preset, I named him Potato :

http://images.akamai.steamuserconte...648/7A176043ACB362D7C3C61E1726D113B5D41183F4/

EDIT: What I did was set every slider to maximum and got this, lol.