RARE apparently does read bug reports, but mistakes happen (edited).

  • Cannon Boe
    Seafarer
    Insider

    I can understand, that most people that write to support just want a refund. But how bad is that if they don't even read my bug reports and just reply with instructions for a refund?... Some time ago I created a topic about PTT bug violating my privacy (as a grown up having a wife and playing from my office room that CAN be a problem), so I was told to go report a bug "properly" and my topic got locked down. Well, why I created this topic in the first place was because I know how companies care about issues reported privately and publicly. RARE seems to be just another one of them. I didn't mention that I want a refund even once in my bug report! Their whole response was:

    "Ahoy there,
    If you purchased the game via the Windows or Xbox store, you can contact the Xbox Live Billing team via: https://support.xbox.com
    If you purchased the game from another retailer, you should contact them directly for information on refunds."

    Then I got an e-mail asking how happy I am with the support. I am not happy at all and I should be able to tell about it to other people interested in this game. There's no "bug reports" section on the forums for a reason - They don't even read the ones reported "properly".

    Now. Did my bug got acknowledged by them? How do I know? I don't think it did. Probably that 6 lines of text was just too long to read for them, so they assumed it's another refund request. But then, why did they give me a list to choose "I want to report a bug" (or something like that) from?...

    This PTT bug needs a HOTFIX, I can't believe it's being ignored so much. This topic is not about the bug though. It's not something that I should report to them to be ignored again. It's a comment about their practices.

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  • Lord Trunky
    Founder

    There's been a few posts over the last week or so about Rare and their lack of customer service. I feel your pain. I'm sure the bug will get fixed but like with most things about this game, we are in the dark.

    My advice. Toggle it when you spawn in the tavern. And get a decent set of headphones. Privacy sorted.

  • Cannon Boe
    Seafarer
    Insider

    @lord-trunky said in RARE doesn't read bug reports.:

    My advice. Toggle it when you spawn in the tavern. And get a decent set of headphones. Privacy sorted.

    I didn't want to talk about this bug here to not get the topic locked again. I know the workarounds. Pressing PTT button once is enough to turn talking off. Friends tell me if they can hear me twice (in-game and on discord) and I tell them. However, when I play solo, it's not intuitive to press PTT button when I don't intend to talk, so most of the time I forget about it.

    I'm pretty sure they break some privacy laws in most countries by ignoring that bug. Don' they? They let other people hear my surroundings without notifying me (no "you're talking" icon) and against my will (I set it to PTT in settings for a reason).

    Again, mods, I'm not reporting a bug here. I think discussion is allowed.

  • Lord Trunky
    Founder

    @notracistatall said in RARE doesn't read bug reports.:

    @lord-trunky said in RARE doesn't read bug reports.:

    My advice. Toggle it when you spawn in the tavern. And get a decent set of headphones. Privacy sorted.

    I didn't want to talk about this bug here to not get the topic locked again. I know the workarounds. Pressing PTT button once is enough to turn talking off. Friends tell me if they can hear me twice (in-game and on discord) and I tell them. However, when I play solo, it's not intuitive to press PTT button when I don't intend to talk, so most of the time I forget about it.

    I'm pretty sure they break some privacy laws in most countries by ignoring that bug. Don' they? They let other people hear my surroundings without notifying me (no "you're talking" icon) and against my will (I set it to PTT in settings for a reason).

    Again, mods, I'm not reporting a bug here. I think discussion is allowed.

    You have discord running as well? We turn off all in game chat when on discord. No wonder they hear you twice! In fact I have it off all the time even if I'm single playing. No interest in listening to a group of kids whooping as they b*****e up for the 5th time.

    Privacy laws vary from country to country. I'd expect having a PTT that defaults to on or off won't break those laws. Or even come close to it.

  • CoyoTe4711
    Captain
    Founder

    Reporting a Bug is a pain in the butt. If I encounter a bug in the middle of a play session I dont want to spent the next hour trying to figure out how to report the bug via a c****y website. I want to report it quick and easy, maybe even attach a screenshot.

    Whenever I encounter a bug now, I just tweet it at @Seaofthieves on twitter. Its an easy way for me and they hopefully get the message, I dont care how they handle it internaly. I also suggested to them why they dont have @SeaOfThievesSupport as a twitter handle or something like that where you can simply tweet stuff at. I've seen it at many other service providers like spotify, a german cable provider, discord, adobe, all have some sort of customer interaction via social media plattforms as support front end. and it shouldnt be limited to twitter. just use every major plattform, you want your game to be better and bugs fixed, ppl will report bugs if it is as easy as tweeting or sending a status update, or post on the forums in a special catergory solely for bug reporting. Cut the website or make it easier to use, like a simple form with contact details like an email address will suffice and a field where you can describe when and where and what bug you encountered. Its 2018, its not that hard to get ppl to participate.

  • Cannon Boe
    Seafarer
    Insider

    @lord-trunky said in RARE doesn't read bug reports.:

    You have discord running as well? We turn off all in game chat when on discord. No wonder they hear you twice! In fact I have it off all the time even if I'm single playing. No interest in listening to a group of kids whooping as they b*****e up for the 5th time.

    Privacy laws vary from country to country. I'd expect having a PTT that defaults to on or off won't break those laws. Or even come close to it.

    What... I'm not wondering why they hear me twice... I know why. I just say that if they tell me then I know to press this PTT button, but if I play solo then OTHER PLAYERS, who I DON'T KNOW can hear even my wife talking in background about stuff that noone should be hearing. Still I want to keep the possibility to talk to people when I decide to. That's what PTT setting is for.

    As for last part - it's not about defaulting to on or off. What do you even mean by that? How can talking be "defaulted" to ON while PUSH TO TALK button is not pushed? The game just ignores my settings. I'm pretty sure telling someone "sure you won't be talking unless you push the button", which PTT setting basically is, and then sending your audio without your knowledge to other people, would be law breaking in most countries.

  • Lord Trunky
    Founder

    @notracistatall said in RARE doesn't read bug reports.:

    @lord-trunky said in RARE doesn't read bug reports.:

    You have discord running as well? We turn off all in game chat when on discord. No wonder they hear you twice! In fact I have it off all the time even if I'm single playing. No interest in listening to a group of kids whooping as they b*****e up for the 5th time.

    Privacy laws vary from country to country. I'd expect having a PTT that defaults to on or off won't break those laws. Or even come close to it.

    What... I'm not wondering why they hear me twice... I know why. I just say that if they tell me then I know to press this PTT button, but if I play solo then OTHER PLAYERS, who I DON'T KNOW can hear even my wife talking in background about stuff that noone should be hearing. Still I want to keep the possibility to talk to people when I decide to. That's what PTT setting is for.

    As for last part - it's not about defaulting to on or off. What do you even mean by that? How can talking be "defaulted" to ON while PUSH TO TALK button is not pushed? The game just ignores my settings. I'm pretty sure telling someone "sure you won't be talking unless you push the button", which PTT setting basically is, and then sending your audio without your knowledge to other people, would be law breaking in most countries.

    If you have PTT on by the games choice even though you set it to off and you forget then fiddle around with the mic settings. After a bit of testing mine now only pics up my voice and not the surrounding chatter. Might help you out until the bug fix.

    Oh...

    The game defaults to one or the other in the settings. If it's set to "On" when you fire it up then that's the default.

  • Cannon Boe
    Seafarer
    Insider

    @lord-trunky said in RARE doesn't read bug reports.:

    @notracistatall said in RARE doesn't read bug reports.:
    If you have PTT on by the games choice even though you set it to off and you forget then fiddle around with the mic settings. After a bit of testing mine now only pics up my voice and not the surrounding chatter. Might help you out until the bug fix.

    Oh...

    The game defaults to one or the other in the settings. If it's set to "On" when you fire it up then that's the default.

    Not sure what default setting has to do with the problem. Default setting is there only the first time you start the game. When you change it, it's customized. And it saves, it is PTT, but there's a bug that required you to click the PTT button to stop talking at start. That has nothing to do with default setting.

    My wife is working next to me on our big-a*s desk, it's pretty much impossible to set the mic perfectly. Even then, it's not only about her talking, it's about us both talking. I shouldn't be forced to remember that this game lies to me about my settings and unlawfully shares my audio with other people. I'm not asking for any workarounds. I know workarounds, but they're all either bad or they require some action every time I start the game..

    Anyway, this wasn't supposed to be a topic specifically about the PTT bug, for sure I wasn't asking for any solutions. In this topic I wonder WHY do they do that. Why do they ignore the bug reports and reply with something completely unrelated. I also wonder what gives them the right to send my audio to other people against my will LYING to me that I only talk when my button is pushed.

  • M0ustacho
    Captain
    Founder

    Reporting a bug via the Support is really easy. Just open My Request, wait a second or 10 then the actual page of tickets opens. And there you can issue your bug.

    The site of the tickets isn't particular fast, but it's good and I always get a reply after a day or 2 which part of the Development team is looking into it.

    @Deckhands could you check if the My Requests page could load faster? This might be a website glitch, but it exist from Alpha.

  • The Lupino
    Master
    Founder

    This bug does need to be fixed. I had no idea it was even happening to me till I saw a post in the forums. What a privacy breach when you have been playing not realizing your other mic-less teammates or whatever can hear everything you say unbeknownst to you. Like mentioned already, without some kind of notification your mic is picking up sound like in the majority of other games, this issue becomes particularly serious. Someone could be giving their SSN number or something to their spouse out loud cause they think push to talk is on when it really isn't.

  • Cannon Boe
    Seafarer
    Insider

    @m0ustacho said in RARE doesn't read bug reports.:

    Reporting a bug via the Support is really easy. Just open My Request, wait a second or 10 then the actual page of tickets opens. And there you can issue your bug.

    Yeah, it's as easy as it is pointless. At least judging by their response to my report.

  • M0ustacho
    Captain
    Founder

    @notracistatall well, was your bug report really clear and in the correct bug sectiom? You need to choose from multiple choices like World, Items, etc.

    I have to say I have never encountered any weird responses from Rare thusfar. If you are unsatisfied, than take the survey and be honest. Might be an intern copy pasting wrong messages.

  • Cannon Boe
    Seafarer
    Insider

    @m0ustacho I don't have problems with turning my thoughts into words, description was obvious for sure. I tried to choose proper stuff from lists. Even if I chose something wrong, why would they answer like that? I didn't mention a refund at all.

    If you're interested, this is what I wrote in bug report:

    *"I'm sure you got info about this bug a lot already as apparently it's there since BETA. For some reason that's totally unimaginable to me you ignored it so far. Someone could sue you for that bug and win easily. I'm of course talking about Push To Talk button not working correctly. I (and 3 other friends I played with) have talking in game set to PTT, yet all of us have talking enabled after joining a game. PTT button has to be clicked to disable it. What this means is that when I'm playing without my friends (who can remind me to press PTT button), I'm often sending audio from my surroundings AGAINST MY WILL. That's not intuitive at all to me (or to anyone!) to remember about clicking that button when I don't intend to talk at all! I'm not a kid that talks about games all the time. I'm in my office room, where I work with my wife. I often talk to her about things related to our business. How can you send our voice to other people against our will?

    That bug deserves a hotfix and it's there since BETA. Something is definitely wrong."*

    Saying that it's because I chose some wrong option is naive. I definitely chose reporting a bug, not requesting a refund from the list. Even if I chose everything wrong, why would they reply like that if they read it? Come on.

  • RareCSM
    Lord
    Rare Employee

    Hello there,

    Apologies that your ticket was answered incorrectly, I have re-opened it for our team to look at.

    Just so you are aware, I can guarantee that every single Bug report submitted via the support site is looked at and logged with our Test Team. New issues are logged into an internal Bug tracking database, and new, existing & open issues are tracked and communicated to Rare Leadership on a weekly basis.

    -RareCSM

  • GrumpyDoggy

    I won't beat about the bush - you're right, it's not great if we don't read your bug reports, and you're entirely right to feel frustrated if we have through the player support process failed to deal with a ticket in the right way.

    I can't comment on exactly why this bug report got handled as a refund enquiry, but you're spot on - that response literally makes no sense for what you sent into us. I can assure you this kind of outcome is not by design. Bug reports get grouped up (we do get multiples on the same issue) and reviewed so we can route them for immediate addressing as a hotfix, as feedback on design etc. We don't put 'em in a recycle bin - at least don't intend to. Mishaps do occur though as we scale up the number of agents now that we have so many more active players - that's not from a point of complacency, we actively want the feedback if it's gone wrong so we can go get it better next time.

    I know here at Rare, the single most important signal we act on is what comes in from you, the players. It might be a bit "meta" but that also applies to the flow round the customer support experience. Keen to understand if there are ways that make it easier to use or understand, and if there are kinds of things there's no great way of doing in its current form.

  • Ghost 0f Dawn
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    RARE isn't "violating your privacy" over a mild PTT bug that has you hot-mic until you push your PTT key... once. An inconvenience that should be fixed to be sure, but no one is violating your privacy, get over yourself.

  • Dumatixx

    @rarecsm

    Hi, I have played both betas and the one alpha content yet I haven't received any skins for the boat. I've always had problems with cashing in loot from the forts and chests which I have only received money from 3 out of the 7 that I had cashed in :s.. The game is great and I enjoy playing but it needs alot of work. I do hope you guys are able to make this game better because it has a tone of potential.
    I think the game should have more content with leader boards and maybe boat upgrades give you a 5-10% increase in health or speed to give people who to grind something to look forward to.

    Thanks
    Dumatixx

  • Cannon Boe
    Seafarer
    Insider

    @RareCSM @GrumpyDoggy thanks for clarification.

    @Ghost-0f-Dawn Yes, they do. How is that a mild bug if I don't even know (no icon at all) that I'm talking against my will and settings that are perfectly clear? You DO understand that I can talk about confidential stuff with my wife, right? t's an inconvenience when you're 15yo boy. When you're a grownup running a business in the same room, it's a clear privacy violation. So far your only argument why this is NOT violating my privacy is just... Because you think so. Get over yourself.

  • Irhcsajr
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    Guys/Gals please try to be patient with Rare. You have to understand that the first few weeks of a major game like this takes patching and there are always going to be bugs at first.

    Thousands and thousands of players all asking for help at the same time. Just be patient, enjoy the Sea, and they will get to you when they can.

  • Cannon Boe
    Seafarer
    Insider

    @irhcsajr said in RARE doesn't read bug reports.:

    Guys/Gals please try to be patient with Rare. You have to understand that the first few weeks of a major game like this takes patching and there are always going to be bugs at first.

    Thousands and thousands of players all asking for help at the same time. Just be patient, enjoy the Sea, and they will get to you when they can.

    This would make sense if it was a bug introduced with premiere, not during BETA. This is (subjectively to some of us grown up players) a huge bug.

  • Irhcsajr
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    @notracistatall to say that Rare doesn't read bug reports at all is an unfair statement. I promise you they are trying. No one releases a game hoping it fails.

    Except Code}{atch. Those guys literally take peoples money and run.

  • GRIZLEDORF
    Marauder

    @notracistatall are you using the Xbox App on PC?

    The Xbox app is bugged on PC even if you set your microphone to Push to Talk it's always a hot mic.

    Don't use the Xbox app

  • Cannon Boe
    Seafarer
    Insider

    @rarecsm said in RARE apparently does read bug reports, but mistakes happen (edited).:

    Hello there,

    Apologies that your ticket was answered incorrectly, I have re-opened it for our team to look at.

    @Rare-Employee So, this ticket is now clsoed. I don't know when it got closed, but I now see it is. I got no response to it. Is this normal? Was the bug fixed or what?

  • Cannon Boe
    Seafarer
    Insider

    @Rare-Employee I think I should get a reply to my ticket, no?

  • Cannon Boe
    Seafarer
    Insider

    @Rare-Employee How's it going? Still violating players privacy or is the bug fixed already? Still no response to my ticket.

  • Hey NotSid
    Ship Mate

    @notracistatall said in RARE apparently does read bug reports, but mistakes happen (edited).:

    @Rare-Employee How's it going? Still violating players privacy or is the bug fixed already? Still no response to my ticket.

    Just read the patch notes and stop your whining.

  • ChalkyHotDog
    Founder

    Im sure all the reports get read but lets be realistic bugs we reported in the Alpha / Pioneer sessions months before launch are still in the final game!

  • OldManSutii
    Captain
    Founder

    The only time I've found the game "ignore" the PTT set to On is when backing out of a session to the menu and joining a new one. On first launch of the title it seems to correctly pickup the saved setting, and you can simply toggle PTT to Off and back to On for it to be active once more.

    It's annoying yes, but it's hardly a major crime or violation of your privacy.

  • KattTruewalker
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @notracistatall

    Ahoy there!

    The team have logged this known bug with the test team for their attention and a fix. As it's a work in progress and notification will likely come via future release notes, I'll close this down.

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