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Decide-o-tron Support Thread!

Robert KhooRobert Khoo Registered User, ClubPA staff
edited August 2011 in The Penny Arcade Hub
So we've conveniently gone live on the eve of PAX! Excellent!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/decide-o-tron/id456494777?mt=8

Please post any support issues you have with app here. The developers can answer questions direct!

Some guy.
Robert Khoo on
«13

Posts

  • LagnarLagnar Halifax, Nova scotiaRegistered User regular
    edited August 2011
    First off, awesome job so far! The dev's did a great job on this.

    I've only encountered a few issues as of yet:

    The first is that it (the App) seems pretty prone to crashing to the I Phone desktop or whatever you can call it. At first it did it a little here and there but just right now I had to launch it 4 times to actually be able to use it. It seems pretty random with what triggers this, as simply launching it, adding a game to my library or even not doing anything will have it crash.

    There are also games being mislabeled. So far I've only seen one game mis labeled, and that was Stalker: Call of Pripyat, which had (expansion) after the name even though it was a whole separate game and neither of the other two Stalker games were needed to run it or anything like that.

    There is also the issue of not being able to chose all the systems that a game is on. The Fallout: New Vegas DLC for example (Dead money that is, I haven't seen the other DLC even when searching for them) cant be added to PC even though thats what I own it on. The PS3 and 360 are the only two options.

    So far thats it, but with it being new it's expected for this to have issues and such.

    EDIT: Not sure if it matters or not, but I'm using this on an Ipod touch 4.

    EDIT 2: Just had it completely freeze on me. Had to restart my Ipod in order to get it working again.

    Lagnar on
  • Dodge AspenDodge Aspen Registered User regular
    I like it, but an iPad version would be nice. Zooming in to fill he screen kinda sucks.

    I'm using it to catalogue my collection, mostly. I don't need help deciding what to buy.

    Also, what is the difference between RDR: undead Nightmare Collection, and Undead Nightmare Expansion? One is retail and one is for download?

    Xbox - Dodge Mega
    Switch - SW-3699-5063-5018

  • MusashiSamuraiMusashiSamurai Registered User new member
    edited August 2011
    The Barcode scanner doesn't scan anything.
    Just endlessly stares at the barcodes without focusing or doing anything else.

    Also, despite synching with my Xbox and PSN accounts, it still didn't pick up all the titles - just been playing CoD: BlackOps, but that didn't get imported.

    MusashiSamurai on
  • The Last ICOThe Last ICO Registered User new member
    Neat little program. That said, I get occasional crashes to the home page. Once when I was trying to scan a barcode, and twice when loading it up. It got to the initial loading screen then had me looking at my app icons.

    Also, I can add Zone of the Enders (PS2) to my wishlist but not my library for some reason.

  • LagnarLagnar Halifax, Nova scotiaRegistered User regular
    Getting the same issue as The Last ICO, except its with Baldur's Gate 2.

  • TheBinaryMillTheBinaryMill Registered User regular
    Lagnar wrote:
    First off, awesome job so far! The dev's did a great job on this.

    I've only encountered a few issues as of yet:

    The first is that it (the App) seems pretty prone to crashing to the I Phone desktop or whatever you can call it. At first it did it a little here and there but just right now I had to launch it 4 times to actually be able to use it. It seems pretty random with what triggers this, as simply launching it, adding a game to my library or even not doing anything will have it crash.
    Hi Lagnar!

    Thanks for providing your feedback! We're the developer of Decide-o-tron and are most definitely working to make the app the best it can possibly be. In regard to the crashing issues you've reported, here's a couple of things you can try to help stabilise the app:

    1) Make sure you are always running the latest version of iOS.
    2) Restart your device. This always helps to keep your iPod/iPhone/iPad running optimally.
    3) Check how many apps are currently loaded in your devices memory. You can check this by double tapping the home button and seeing how many apps/games are currently running. Each of these app/games takes up memory, so it's also a good idea to remove any of these that you are not actively using. You can remove them by holding down your finger on the icon and pressing the 'x' to remove. Tap the home button again to resume normal operation.

    After the performing the above, delete and reinstall the app and you should be good to go!

    Let us know how you go :)

    - Ingmar

  • JimRJimR Registered User regular
    I keep getting unpredictable and unrepeatable crashes, as well as issues with recommend games not all having the thumbs up/down button. Speaking of which, do they actually do anything?

  • TheBinaryMillTheBinaryMill Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    The Barcode scanner doesn't scan anything.
    Just endlessly stares at the barcodes without focusing or doing anything else.
    The camera in iPod's unfortunately do not have auto-focus so they are unable to scan barcodes - this feature can only function on 3GS and iPhone 4's. The next patch (1.0.2) will only show the barcode feature for those devices capable of successful scans to avoid confusion.

    Cheers,
    - Ingmar

    TheBinaryMill on
  • TheBinaryMillTheBinaryMill Registered User regular
    JimR wrote:
    I keep getting unpredictable and unrepeatable crashes, as well as issues with recommend games not all having the thumbs up/down button. Speaking of which, do they actually do anything?
    Hi JimR,

    Can you try the above support steps and let us know how you go?

    Also, the thumbs up/down do influence the recommendations moving forward!

    Cheers,
    - Ingmar

  • skyttskyttskyttskytt Registered User regular
    Just saw the tweet about this being the place to report any weirdness, so I decided to sign up so I could share, since I never had an account here.

    1. I had it crash on me, and then refuse to open. Restarting my phone fixed it, but maybe something to look into to optimize, I'd imagine it's just a memory-related issue (pretty sure my phone needed a reboot too, was using it a lot for web/twitter without a reboot in days). iPhone 3GS, had it sync all my PSN games, and then began to add a lot of what it didn't grab (mostly retail titles) through the recommendations. After a while it just crashed while I was still adding games. Ok, wait, now it's not loading again, just tried to access it after plugging it into my computer, but it opened fine immediately after the reboot, and I've hardly done anything with it since. And now it just loaded after like the 5th attempt, weird.

    2. When browsing games through recommendations, the "Status" always seems to display as "Owned" immediately, and then after a couple seconds it reverts to "NONE." Some of these seemed to know that they were owned (or something was weird), as the "Add to Wishlist" button was greyed out on them, but the status still reverted back to none until I manually set it to owned.

    3. It just recommended me a game that I have added into my library (Mass Effect 2). I even clicked it and it shows it as owned, and didn't revert to NONE like what the others did mentioned above.

    Keep up the good work with everything! Really enjoying this app already, and can see it easily replacing my Amazon wishlist.

    One thing I'd like to see, though I'm not sure how possible it would be, is to maybe have the ability to multi-select games and have just one button at the bottom to "add all to library" (and then maybe pull up a prompt for owned/rented/etc to identify them all at once) to help make the process of filling out a library much quicker. Unless I'm missing something, what I've found is I need to go into each game's info page individually to add them, and that's going to take a while.

  • LagnarLagnar Halifax, Nova scotiaRegistered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Lagnar wrote:
    First off, awesome job so far! The dev's did a great job on this.

    I've only encountered a few issues as of yet:

    The first is that it (the App) seems pretty prone to crashing to the I Phone desktop or whatever you can call it. At first it did it a little here and there but just right now I had to launch it 4 times to actually be able to use it. It seems pretty random with what triggers this, as simply launching it, adding a game to my library or even not doing anything will have it crash.
    Hi Lagnar!

    Thanks for providing your feedback! We're the developer of Decide-o-tron and are most definitely working to make the app the best it can possibly be. In regard to the crashing issues you've reported, here's a couple of things you can try to help stabilise the app:

    1) Make sure you are always running the latest version of iOS.
    2) Restart your device. This always helps to keep your iPod/iPhone/iPad running optimally.
    3) Check how many apps are currently loaded in your devices memory. You can check this by double tapping the home button and seeing how many apps/games are currently running. Each of these app/games takes up memory, so it's also a good idea to remove any of these that you are not actively using. You can remove them by holding down your finger on the icon and pressing the 'x' to remove. Tap the home button again to resume normal operation.

    After the performing the above, delete and reinstall the app and you should be good to go!

    Let us know how you go :)

    - Ingmar

    Alright, I did the second and third step before reinstalling the app and wow this works a lot better. Haven't had a single crash yet. To be honest I didn't even know that double taping the home button did that. Thanks!

    Edit: It was already up to date mind you so I didn't need to update it which is why I didn't do the first step.

    Lagnar on
  • RittTheRooRittTheRoo Registered User new member
    This app has great style, but it wasn't what I was expecting. I was hoping for an unweighted/weighted random selection from my catalog. While the purchase recommendations are nice, for a quick game session it would be awesome to limit the results from my catalog only.

    Speaking of filters... I notice that I can select criteria and filters, but I can't explicitly exclude. For instance, say I want to choose a game that isn't a recent release or an upcoming title. I would have to select each year from 2000 to 2011 and Back Catalog. I realize this is just laziness on my part, but it also makes sense that if I have "My Platforms" checked I should be able to use a minus sign on 3DS (which is in my platforms) so when I loan out that 3DS to a friend I don't see 3DS titles recommended. (This was the only example I could think of without resorting to RRoD or YLoD flame war inciting examples)

    These are really only minor gripes about the app and honestly for the price (free) I can't complain. I was mildly surprised that Minecraft wasn't in the games database (only an upcoming 360 title) given how much Gabe's son plays it.

  • TheBinaryMillTheBinaryMill Registered User regular
    skyttskytt wrote:
    Just saw the tweet about this being the place to report any weirdness, so I decided to sign up so I could share, since I never had an account here.
    Thanks for the feedback, skyttskytt! We'll certainly look into those issues.

    Cheers,
    - Ingmar

  • zer0hvkzer0hvk Registered User new member
    Hey! Thanks a lot for making this app! It looks great, and it has a lot of potential, I'm really liking it. I came upon a couple of strange situations I thought I should share with you guys.

    So, here we go. When I select if I Own, Sold or Rented/Borrowed a game, if I select "Own", the status appears as "Own" for about half a second, then it changes to "Owned", but if I tap "Own" again, the status changes to "Own" again.
    Then, when I selected "Rented/Borrowed", the status is "Traded", if I select "Rented/Borrowed" again, it disappears from my library and the status changes to "Other", and I'm no longer able to change it.
    Also, then tapping "Sold", the first time "Remove from my library" is still an option, if I tap it again, the option is changed to "Add to my library", and it's removed from my Library.
    And now that I have my library almost complete, when I select the Decide-o-tron to recommend me a game based on my library (which now has over 80 games), it answers by saying it can't find a game for me. :/
    Also, and this is just an observation, the preview pictures of the game covers are awfully low-res, is there any way to have a better mi-to-hi-res library of game covers? Thanks a lot for the app!! :)

  • TheBinaryMillTheBinaryMill Registered User regular
    Thanks for the feedback, zer0hvk. We really appreciate all you guys taking the time to isolate these bugs to help us make a better app for all :)
    zer0hvk wrote:
    And now that I have my library almost complete, when I select the Decide-o-tron to recommend me a game based on my library (which now has over 80 games), it answers by saying it can't find a game for me. :/

    In your preferences (top right hand corner of the main decide-o-tron page - the little cog image), do you have your platforms set correctly? If there are no platforms selected this would explain why no recommendations can be made.
    zer0hvk wrote:
    Also, and this is just an observation, the preview pictures of the game covers are awfully low-res, is there any way to have a better mi-to-hi-res library of game covers? Thanks a lot for the app!! :)

    Decide-o-tron supports both standard iPhone and Retina resolutions. If you're using the app on older devices (anything without a Retina screen), lower resolution images are used to help with performance and memory consumption. We'll see if we can increase the image quality on non-retina screens in the future :)

    We'll also make sure your other issues are addressed ASAP!

    Thanks again,
    - Ingmar

  • Gideon ZhiGideon Zhi Registered User regular
    I've noticed that the status selection window (own it, sold it, rented/borrowed it) gets super slow the more games I add to my library. At first I'd had it scan in my PS3/360 collections which added about 150 games to the list, then I added my PS2, Wii, old XBox, Gamecube, 3DS and DS libraries to it. Said screen took around 5 seconds before tapping the "Own it" button did anything. By the time I got around to adding a few PS3/360 games it'd missed, it was taking around ten seconds or more. (My library now lists over 400 titles.) Browsing my actual library is slow as well, even with a system filter on.

    In regards to Dodge Aspen's issue with Zone of the Enders, I've had this issue too - and with several other games in my collection (Twisted Metal: Black, Armored Core 2 and Another Age, Dark Cloud, and others.) The issue seems to be that your library list doesn't have release dates for these games, so they default to 2038. Of course, 2038 hasn't come yet; my guess is that the application refuses to let me add them to my library because, according to its data, they haven't been released yet.

    Your library does not contain import titles either. I own several Super Robot Wars titles for the PS2, not to mention Another Century's Episode R, Aquanaut's Holiday, and Virtual On Force for the more modern consoles. I'd like to be able to add these to my library, which brings me to my next point: There does not seem to be a way to tell the application to only look at the titles in your library. I already know what I'm buying over the next few months, and I have rather a extensive library already; I'd like to be able to get the application's opinion on what I should play that I already own without having to sift through a list of games I don't have (and possibly can't even buy yet.) Might further status additions (backloggery-style completed/beaten/unbeaten maybe) be warranted?

  • @_mantis_@_mantis_ Registered User new member
    After adding ~157 games to my library after importing from Xbox Live (which is amazingly cool), it now crashes to desktop every time you try to launch it. Actually, I'm not sure what it does, since the app is still in the "running apps" list. At any rate, I can't do anything with it.

  • TheBinaryMillTheBinaryMill Registered User regular
    @_mantis_ wrote:
    After adding ~157 games to my library after importing from Xbox Live (which is amazingly cool), it now crashes to desktop every time you try to launch it. Actually, I'm not sure what it does, since the app is still in the "running apps" list. At any rate, I can't do anything with it.
    Hi mantis. Have you tried force-quitting the app and loading it again? You can do this by double-tapping the home button, locating the Decide-o-tron icon in the recent apps list, hold it down for a second till it jiggles, tap the x, and then press the home button again. This will close the app allowing you to open it again.

    Cheers,
    - Ingmar

  • Venkman90Venkman90 Registered User regular
    Hitting the EU later on or...? Can't seem to find it.

  • SquallSquall hap cloud Registered User regular
    was there talk of implementing steamIDs that i missed? that would save me a ton of time

  • Jam WarriorJam Warrior Registered User regular
    Venkman90 wrote:
    Hitting the EU later on or...? Can't seem to find it.

    It's there for me (UK).

    MhCw7nZ.gif
  • AlsiusAlsius Registered User new member
    When using the import feature from my Xbox 360 gamertag, Decide-o-tron only imported roughly 3/4 of my library. The rest I had to enter manually. Other than that pretty neat so far.

  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    Diablo 2 will apparently be released on January 19th 2038, and thus I can't add it as owned in my library.

    Plenty of games that say the same.

  • Jam WarriorJam Warrior Registered User regular
    This issue with the incorrect release dates is a serious test of how swiftly you will fix errors and update the database. Now is your chance to make that all important first impression!

    MhCw7nZ.gif
  • SquallSquall hap cloud Registered User regular
    i cant tell if youre joking or acting super entitled about a free app

  • Venkman90Venkman90 Registered User regular
    Venkman90 wrote:
    Hitting the EU later on or...? Can't seem to find it.

    It's there for me (UK).

    Ah, got it!

  • Jam WarriorJam Warrior Registered User regular
    Squall wrote:
    i cant tell if youre joking or acting super entitled about a free app

    Not feeling personally entitled at all. Trying to offer advice based on the fact that with the intentions that this app has it will be annoying to not be able to properly reflect your full collection. And that the general public (including me) will only put up with so many annoyances before losing interest. In a way the fact that it's free means people have an even lower a tolerance for errors before dropping it as they have no financial investment involved!

    When I say swiftly updated I'm talking fixed within weeks as opposed to months/years. Not asking for hourly fixes or anything.

    MhCw7nZ.gif
  • SquallSquall hap cloud Registered User regular
    apologies, i got unneccesarily defensive

  • Cameron_TalleyCameron_Talley Registered User regular
    Also had the "Crashing to springboard" issue here. Rebooting my iPhone (3GS) didn't solve it. It finally relaunched after trying about 4 or 5 times.

    I did like what I see so far, though!

    Switch Friend Code: SW-4598-4278-8875
    3DS Friend Code: 0404-6826-4588 PM if you add.
  • Speed RacerSpeed Racer Scritch scratch scritch scratch scritch scratch scritch scratch scritch scratch scritch scratch scritch scratch scritch scratch scritch scratch scritch scratch scritch scratch scritch scratchRegistered User regular
    one thing I've noticed after playing around with it for about a minute is that it tends to recommend multiplatform games that I own on other platforms

    for instance I have portal 2 and bioshock 2 for Playstation 3 in my library, and it suggested portal 2 and bioshock 2 for Xbox 360.

  • skyttskyttskyttskytt Registered User regular
    Going along with what RittTheRoo said about exclusionary filters, another thing I'd like to see is be able to set a filter so that the Decide-o-tron function doesn't recommend games that are in my wishlist.

    I'm using it mostly as a wishlist app, adding games to my library so it can better pull other games I might want or could have forgotten about, and it'd definitely cut down on scrolling, as I can sometimes have several pages of 90% already-on-wishlist recommendations when looking for new games to add to my owned or wishlist section.

  • Jam WarriorJam Warrior Registered User regular
    skyttskytt wrote:
    Going along with what RittTheRoo said about exclusionary filters, another thing I'd like to see is be able to set a filter so that the Decide-o-tron function doesn't recommend games that are in my wishlist.

    I'm using it mostly as a wishlist app, adding games to my library so it can better pull other games I might want or could have forgotten about, and it'd definitely cut down on scrolling, as I can sometimes have several pages of 90% already-on-wishlist recommendations when looking for new games to add to my owned or wishlist section.

    If you go to 'Choose Criteria' then 'Exclude Wishlist Games' is a switch.

    MhCw7nZ.gif
  • Jam WarriorJam Warrior Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Having had a quick play around my first suggestions/requests are as expected:

    1) Add a field for alternate names and have them come up on the search. We sometimes call things differently outside America. E.g. Another Code/Trace Memory.

    2) I can understand you don't want to have list vast swathes of Japan only games, but it would be nice to at least get the English language games that only come out in Europe.

    Oh and entering my Live tag only picked up some if my games for some reason (eg no Super Meat Boy).

    Otherwise it's good stuff. A brilliant wishlist organiser if nothing else.

    Jam Warrior on
    MhCw7nZ.gif
  • TheBinaryMillTheBinaryMill Registered User regular
    Echo wrote:
    Diablo 2 will apparently be released on January 19th 2038, and thus I can't add it as owned in my library.

    Plenty of games that say the same.

    Hi Echo - there is indeed a date bug in the app which we will have patched ASAP. It seems it is on the app end, not the server end so we'll be releasing a patch ASAP.

    Thanks for the note :)
    - Ingmar

  • skyttskyttskyttskytt Registered User regular
    skyttskytt wrote:
    Going along with what RittTheRoo said about exclusionary filters, another thing I'd like to see is be able to set a filter so that the Decide-o-tron function doesn't recommend games that are in my wishlist.

    I'm using it mostly as a wishlist app, adding games to my library so it can better pull other games I might want or could have forgotten about, and it'd definitely cut down on scrolling, as I can sometimes have several pages of 90% already-on-wishlist recommendations when looking for new games to add to my owned or wishlist section.

    If you go to 'Choose Criteria' then 'Exclude Wishlist Games' is a switch.

    A-ha. Good to know. I've been having it search based off my library, and it doesn't seem to be an option for doing it that way.

  • Jam WarriorJam Warrior Registered User regular
    If I ask for recommendations based on 'Choose Criteria' and leave all the filter fields blank, it gives different list to if I ask based on 'My Library'. What's up with that?

    MhCw7nZ.gif
  • Blake TBlake T Do you have enemies then? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered User regular
    Yeah I'm sorry to say this crashes way to often (iPhone 4) for it to really be useful in anyway.

    Also in recommended games I am seeing a lot of games I have told it I own already.

    Plus say with portal which I own on ps3 it is recommending I buy it on xbox and pc.

  • skyttskyttskyttskytt Registered User regular
    One more suggestion: It's not as important now as it will be in the future, but breaking down the "recently released" filter would be greatly appreciated. I'm not really sure how it's defined in its current form, but I'd personally rather see it replaced with options for each of the following:

    - Released in the past 3 months
    - Released in the past 6 months
    - Released in the past 12 months

    I think it would make it easier to catch up on games following times where a huge amount of games are going to be released, such as this upcoming holiday season, where there's so much to keep your eye on that you're inevitably going to miss something, and depending on how long it takes you to play through what you buy, you might need more than a "recent" filter.

  • iaothiaoth Registered User new member
    edited August 2011
    The barcode scanner works on my 3GS, but whatever game I scan, it just keeps saying that it doesn't know the game.

    Probably because my games are European...

    Edit: The message I get is "Item UPC not found", which is not surprising now that I think about it, because we generally use EAN here.

    iaoth on
  • TheBinaryMillTheBinaryMill Registered User regular
    Blake T wrote:
    Yeah I'm sorry to say this crashes way to often (iPhone 4) for it to really be useful in anyway.
    We're constantly working on improving stability for all users. Be sure to update to the latest version each time - we've only just begun :)

    Cheers,
    - Ingmar

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