Quote Originally Posted by dvk901 View Post
STRAT PLAY:

1. Money. How much money is a faction making. Is it excessive? Is it enough? Is it too frustrating to get ahead? Do buildings cost too much? Too little? Some of this is 'subjective' obviously, so it isn't up to the beta tester to 'decide on his own' it's OK. It's part of the report. The faction makes xxxxx denarii per turn, it's steady, it builds up, it isn't enough. These are the kinds of things that allow fine tuning and adjustments. They build 'overall statistics' that can be looked at in an overview sorta way and allow better corrections.

2. The look and feel of things. Do cities look realistically built up, or insufficiently built. Is the starting position, configuration of a faction too easy, too hard, just right? If a LOT of people report this sort of thing, you can get a statistic of some kind based on player abilities or known preferrences.

3. CTD's of any kind. This is very frustrating. THAT you get a CTD is of no importance whatsoever. WHAT caused the CTD is the important thing. So a CTD needs to be reported in an orderly fashion:

a. Name of city and region where the CTD happened if it's on the strat map.
b. Exact composition of all armies involved.
c. Name of faction attacking.
d. Name of faction being attacked.
e. Name of the winner.
f. If for a city\town...occupy, enslave, or exterminate does not matter. The CTD's are caused by the units and traits when cities are involved. (or a rare RTW bug that is just...oh well)

4. You need to save often...and before every battle. Why? So if you get a CTD in one, you can replay it and find out what armies were involved, and EXACTLY what units were in them. Then:

a. Name of both faction's involved and what units they had.
b. Names of any 'named characters' involved so that if the saved game has to be anaylsed, we know what to look for.
c. Look for any strange behavior or 'look' in the units. An animation that has gone screwy in a battle CAN cause a CTD...I've seen it happen, and it can't be fixed. And more than likely, it can't be repeated, because it's a wandering and rare occurrance.
d. Knowing what units were involved in that battle leads to the next step.