HC3 Terms of Beta Testing / Beta Tester Manual

We of HC3 (TonyE, Akula, CV32) would like to welcome all of the beta testers and thank you for your time. I played Harpoon for a decade before I came a beta tester for HC2002, and have since alpha tested and programmed many creations. Each of us has been there and realize most of the frustrations and opportunities the testing brings. We want to keep the beta process valuable and to that end we expect meaningful participation, not every day, not even every week.

The rules:

1. The rules are open to argument and are not set in stone.
   
2. The contributions of beta testers will be reviewed by HC3 roughly every 3 months, the first review will be in March 2008.
   
3. Each beta tester is expected to contribute meaningfully at least 3 times in each 3 month period (yes, 3 items on your 89th day counts).
   
   • A confirmable well formed bug report is a meaningful contribution.
     
     • Test scenario with as few units as possible OR a saved game if a test scenario is not possible.
       
       • Small test scenarios are best because we periodically break the saved game format making any previous saved games useless.
          
         
       • Small test scenarios are best so that my debugging is much shorter, looping thru 3 units as the code runs takes much less time than looping thru 100 units.
         

[*] Build of the game component used to find the bug

[*] Detailed instructions to re-create the issue.

[*] Any system specific information that may help.

[*] A well-thought out and detailed response in the Pipe Dreams sub-forum is a meaningful contribution.

[*] Contributions of PE reports and other utilities is a meaningful contribution.

[*] Posts that say 'ditto', 'same here', 'I agree' may be helpful but they will not keep you in the beta testing group.

[*] If you are asked to leave the beta group you may rejoin. The penalty will be some suitably annoying process that hopefully verifies you really want to contribute the next time around.

See the attached PDF or Word Document (the contents are the same) for more guidance on getting started and understanding HC3's expectations of beta testers.

HC_Beta_Tester_Manual.pdf

HC_Beta_Tester_Manual.doc