Bug reporting guidelines
First of all, thanks for your support! If you report a bug we can fix it. But keep in mind that reporting your bugs appropriately makes our (developers') lifes easier. Here are a few guidelines that will help you write good bug reports.
Mantis bugtracker
The main place for managing and reporting bugs is our bugtracker. When you are not logged in, you can only browse already reported bugs. To be able to report bugs you need to make an account there.
General guidelines
First of all, if you encounter a crash, don't re-run VCMI immediately to see if you can reproduce it. Firstly take a screenshot or copy console output (those mostly green letters on black background). Then back up following files (if you won't be able to reproduce the issue you should upload them with issue report):
- VCMI_Client_log.txt
- VCMI_Server_log.txt
- VCMI_Client.exe_crashinfo.dmp (if present)
- VCMI_Server.exe_crashinfo.dmp (if present)
Now you should try to reproduce encountered issue. It's best when you write how to reproduce the issue by starting a new game and taking some steps (e.g. start Arrogance map as red player and attack monster Y with hero X). If you have troubles with reproducing it this way but you can do it from a savegame - that's good too. Finally, when you are not able to reproduce the issue at all, just upload upload the files mentioned above. To sum up, this is a list of what's the most desired for a developer:
- (most desired) a map with list of steps needed to reproduce the bug
- savegame with list of steps to reproduce the bug
- (least desired) VCMI_Client_log.txt, VCMI_Server_log.txt, console log and crashdump (you should use this option only when bug is not reproducible but then remember to back logs up before trying to reproduce it).
