User:Wingless/Sandbox/Bug Guidelines

The following page is a style guide (bugs). Many pages contain Bug sections near the end of the article. These sections are meant to hold any bugs the relevant item may have. Due to different servers, player customizations, and preferences, it is sometimes unclear what should or should not be included. Before adding an item to a page's Bug section, please consult these guidelines first.

Reporting bugs

• Bugs should be informative, clear, and concise. All Bug sections are styled as bullet points, not paragraphs. If the bug you are writing about seems to have a particularly long description, such as describing how to perform a bug, consider summarizing it briefly and linking to a source with more relevant information.
• Do not post images or videos to prove a point unless absolutely necessary. If it is absolutely vital that a video be included, it is better to link to the video. Images should be shown as thumbnails.
• All bugs should still uphold to the rest of the style guide. This includes grammar, spelling, and formatting.

Removing bugs

Before removing any bugs, first consider whether or not it is indeed a bug by utilising the following guidelines. If it is found not to be a bug, then it should be removed. State why it isn't considered a bug in the edit summary - if you cannot justify removing a bug in the edit summary, you should not be removing it. If the information is relevant in some way consider finding a way to work it into an existing article. It is always possible that an item that is not a bug is in fact relevant information for another article.

What if my bug is removed?

If your own addition to the Bugs section is removed, do not immediately add it back into the article. First check the page's history to see who removed the item, and if they left a reason in the edit summary. If the person did not leave a reason or if you do not agree with their reason, consider asking them for an explanation or elaboration on their Talk page. If the matter is not resolved, make a new post on that talk page and state your case as to why your item is a valid bug. The resulting discussion will determine the final fate of that bug entry. If it is decided that a bug removal was justified, do not ignore this decision. Repeated adding of a removed bug entry and ignoring the reason for its removal can be grounds for a temporary block from editing the Wiki.

Guidelines for bugs

The following is a set of guidelines to follow when writing bugs. Before making an addition to a Bugs section, try to make sure that the item follows these guidelines.

Bugs should be ordered as follows in this section :

• Game-breaking (major). The bug greatly alters the weapon's attributes and affects how it is used within the game to such an extent.
  • The Half-Zatoichi is no longer honorbound and can be sheathed at any time.
• Game-breaking (minor). The bug alters the weapon, but its effects are not obvious and only take effect in certain circumstances.
  • The Sandman's ball can pass through setup gates.
• Cosmetic. The bug has no discernable effect on gameplay; it is merely an eyesore.
  • The Saxxy does not Cloak with the Spy in the first-person view.

Note: Cosmetic bugs, and their status as a bug, are open to debate. Many feel they are irrelevant, whilst others note their value. Please raise the issue with other editors in the IRC or the general discussion page, and come to a reasonable conclusion.

Determining Bugs

What are bugs?

• Bugs should be facts about the item in question. They may only be tangent to the actual nature of the page in question, but should have a direct relation nonetheless.
  

Examples:

Good bug: The model, on rare occasions, will deform when it crits. (From Holy Mackerel)
This entry states a hard fact that when a player gets a critical swing with the Holy Mackerel the item may deform.

Poor bug: When the Flare Gun is dropped on death, you can see a flare model attached near the underside of the gun. (Removed from Flare Gun)
While this entry is a fact, it is an expected property of the item due to the way it has been made and thus was removed.

• Bugs should be new information that is not already available in the infobox or elsewhere in the page. It should also be information that does not belong in the infobox or elsewhere in the page.

Examples:

Poor bug: This item does not have a kill-icon related to the item. (Removed from Frying Pan)
The kill icon for the Frying Pan is already plainly visible in the infobox on the right-hand side of the page. This bug merely restates what is depicted in the infobox.

Poor bug: When the player equips this weapon, they cannot receive ammo from ammo packs for their primary and secondary slotted weapons. (Removed from Persian Persuader)
This not a bug at all, but merely an extension of the listed downside of the weapon.

• Bugs items should be factual, and not neglect other instances of the same thing.

Examples:

Good bug: Genuine Neon Annihilators do not play the bass guitar riff when taunting. This is due to the promotional item having a different item entry from the crafted ones. (From Neon Annihilator)
This item is a hard fact about the Neon Annihilator. The Neon Annihilator, like the Manmelter, has a special taunt sound but, due to way the item has been coded by Valve, the unique sound does not play when taunting with a Genuine Neon Annihilator.

Poor bug: If a players load out is slow enough to update, the player can equip the Pyrovision goggles with The Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head. (Removed from Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head)
While true, this entry neglects that this is a well-known bug that can be applied to almost all colliding miscellaneous items.

What are not bugs?

• Bugs items should not record clipping.

Poor bug: Summer Shades had clipping problem with the Anger. (Removed from Summer Shades)
There are a lot of colliding items in Team Fortress 2, and thus many of them will end up clipping. Expected clipping is not a bug and should not be recorded.

• Bugs should not be trivial and not noteworthy such as a visual glitch or a quickly-patched bug. Bugs should be about the item addressed within the page, not the mistakes the developers made in the implementation. If it is a statement on the way an item once functioned, then it should be placed in the Previous changes section of that page.

Example:

Poor bug: There is a Glitch when you hold R {to reload the weapon} and shoot, it does part of the reloading and shooting at the same time. (Removed from Shortstop)
This is a very minor visual bug and not worth mentioning in the article itself.

• Bugs should not concern over a lack of item's levels.

Example:

Poor bug: The Made Man's item level does not appear in the backpack view. (Removed from Made Man)
Whilst most likely a mistake on Valve's part, some items do not have item levels. These do not need to be listed, as they provide no ill effects on gameplay, and do not count as a cosmetic bug. If there are more items with no levels, it is preferred that you add "no level" to the item's infobox.

• Bugs should not list how the game handles certain tasks within the game. Occasionally, there might be two colliding instances that the game decides on what happens.

Example:

Poor bug: The Balloonicorn assist does not show after destroying a building.

When equipped with the Bird-Man of Aberdeen, the Balloonicorn gets credit for kills instead of assists.
When a player has the Alien Swarm Parasite and the Balloonicorn equipped, the Alien Swarm Parasite will get the Assist instead of the Balloonicorn. (Removed from Balloonicorn)

This is the game trying to choose which one goes first, and is an expected way of how the game handles assists.

• Unlockable items using stock sound effects or animations are not bugs, unless the sounds/animations exist, but are unimplemented.

Examples:

Good bug: There are a set of walking sound effects for this item. They are pitch shifted sounds, borrowed from the Knife. (From Liquor Locker)
This states that there are unimplemented sounds for walking whilst this item is equipped. Much like the page where this comes from, it may be better to place this under a header of "Unused Content" to clear up any issues.

Poor bug: If the Scout has only 1 shell remaining when he reloads this weapon, he still loads two shells.(Removed from Force-A-Nature)
This is an example of the game using a stock animation where it may appear to be a bug. In these cases, they are not bugs but simply the way the animations work - there is no animation for reloading one shell in to the Force-A-Nature.

• Certain Strange parts cannot be added to items that seem like they can utilise them. These are not bugs, but rather the decision of Valve. For instance, the Medi Gun cannot have the Strange Part: Allies Extinguished added on to it. This is because Valve chose to not allow it. Indeed, they choose what strange part can go on each weapon. In these cases, it is best to ask on the talk page before adding the bug entry.

See also

• Style guide