Now totally broken

[bv]

I had fixed all my UTF8 problems and everything worked fine yesterday. Today, I discovered that TF would not start at all. Totally broken, not even an error message. Apparently, there had been another forced, undocumented update.

I went on to uninstall and re-download from Steam, but things still do not work

The problem here is not that programmers make mistakes. I have been programming since 1968, and know that it is impossible to avoid bugs. The problem is fundamentally flawed routines for pushing out changes.

I am a retired QA manager, and know a bit about methods to avoid bugs in the first place and how to catch the ones you do get before they cause too much damage.

Automatic regression testing is a must, nobody can afford the amount of manual testing it takes to avoid blunders like we have seen with TF lately. Stringent checks before anything is released to the public are a must.

And not least – there is no reason to force updates for an offline game. There are no security risks that may need emergency handling, so the user should be allowed to install updates at their own convenience. It should also be possible to revert to the situation before an update.

Implementing all this takes some time and effort. Not implementing them means that there will be disruptions to the development team in order to put out fires all the time, and will cost a lot more. Besides, it will inevitably lead to a poor reputation and loss of customers.

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