28.18 Reporting bugs and making suggestions.

Avalon provides three mechanisms for you to give feedback that may influence future development. One is for reporting bugs (things not working correctly), another is for reporting ideas (suggestions for new or altered functionality), and a third is for giving high level comment on overall gameplay, design or balance. Please be sure to use the correct command; a request for a change to something that is working correctly as currently designed is not classified as a bug and may be summarily discarded.

To report a bug, use the BUG command followed by a description of the problem. Be as descriptive as possible and include all necessary information so that we can reproduce it for ourselves. State whether the problem happens all the time or only sometimes. If it involves a CCC or item, include the info number. If it involves a whole category of items, specify the full name (e.g. "a queen bee"). If it involves a particular location, use BUGHERE instead of BUG as this will record the location for our review. If you need more space, submit multiple bugs in succession. It is very useful to us to have direct and 100% accurate text-quotes from whatever occurrence or circumstance may be relevant to your bugreport. See HELP ISSUES to see how your bug reports may be elevated into public Avalon-wide issues.

Your bugs will begin without a rating, and you can type BUGS at any time to see which of your bugfile entries remain 'to be fixed'. This will also inform you of their rating importance. Usually the Gods perform the function of rating bug importance but it is also an ability deities can bestow, short-term, on a mortal to allow you to rate your own bugs. UNRATED shows you a list of your bug-file entries yet to be rated, and RATE <bug-number> <rating 1-50> sets a specific bug entry's rating (if you have the privilege).

You can supply ideas for improvements to the Avalon gamesystem by typing IDEA followed by the text of your idea. If it is something more complicated, e-mail your idea directly to support@avalon-rpg.com or genesis@avalon-rpg.com. To provide lengthy comments on Avalon via the bulletin board, you may use the Comments section. This is an area of permanent record, entirely private save for the Omnipotent deities - only they can read its contents. You may also wish to address some issues out-of-character, in which case you may be best advised to write via e-mail to support@avalon-rpg.com or use one of the contact numbers or addresses found on our website @ http://www.avalon-rpg.com or out FTP site ftp.avalon-rpg.com which welcomes anonymous logins!