Smite is amidst the top-downloaded free-to-play games on both Xbox One and PS4, though in recent months these platforms have been finding more and more challenges when it came to keeping up with the game as it lives and breathes on PC. With the game’s world championship in the rearview mirror, it seems the developers over at Hi-Rez are ready to address some of the ongoing complains that have been waged in an effort to improve the overall console experience.
HiRezIsaih posted to Reddit yesterday with a comprehensive outline of the issues that the team was going to address going forward. You can check out the bullet points below.
Issues with slow bug fix turnarounds have left some players feeling forgotten, but some of the changes mentioned in the post include a bug report in future patches and stronger communication between Hi-Rez employees and the players blowing the whistle on these bugs. Smite‘s development team has grown recently, according to the post, to include more quality assurance and marketing members who will now dedicate time to reducing the number of bugs that make it into the live game.
Similarly, players will be able to report bugs more easily now thanks to the revamped support ticket system which guarantees that QA members will review each ticket according to HiRezIsiah.
Smite is currently undergoing some huge changes to its conquest map and items in preparation for the launch of Season 5. You can read more about those upcoming changes here. You can also download the game for free on PC, Xbox One, and PS4.
- More QA Support: In the past few months, we’ve added to the SMITE team. From marketing to Quality Assurance (QA), we have been growing our teams. Our new QA lead, HiRezRedd, brings several years of console experience to the team. His main focus will be to significantly reduce the number of bugs that make it to live SMITE, and ramp up the efforts that are dedicated solely to console.
- Bug Report in Future Patches: Every day, St3alth and I scour the forums and look for bugs that we pass on to the QA team for fixing. Each update, many of these fixes get added and go unnoticed. In 2018, we are making that process a little more transparent. With each update, alongside Patch Notes, we will share a breakdown of the issues that have been fixed.
- Streamlined Player Reporting: In the past, we haven’t had a standardized format for submitting bugs, which can make fixing them difficult. When investigating bug reports, our first task is to reproduce the conditions that the player experienced so that we can take a look at what has happened. Sometimes minor details can make all the difference in finding out why bugs are occuring, so you can help us in fixing these issues by providing as much detail as possible, especially when a bug isn’t happening consistently. To make this easier for everyone, we’ve worked with our support team to create a more streamlined process for reporting bugs. With the new system, players can be assured that each individual ticket will be seen by a member of the QA team. From now on, we will encourage players to utilize the updated support ticket system.
- Network Issues: There are some issues that are out of our hands. Network issues and issues that stem from connection problems are impossible for our team to control. One thing we can do is better communicate how players are able to troubleshoot on their end. I’m working on a guide detailing how Network issues may affect players and how players can best combat those issues.
- Long-term solution: Along with these changes that will improve our ability to address bugs, we are committed to improving the technology that supports our in-game UI. These changes will make for a better gaming experience on all platforms through increased stability and decreased susceptibility to bugs.