Testing on the Chaos Shard

Who can test

If you already have a Shroud of the Avatar account, you can play on Chaos. Your usual account name and password work and nothing has to be granted first. Characters, items and gold on Chaos are separate from every other shard, so nothing you do here reaches your real character.

The launcher installs the game, then updates itself and patches the game every time it starts:

What is worth testing is whatever changed last. The patch notes list every change in every build, newest first. Play the ones that touch how you already play, and say something when what you see does not match.

Reporting needs no tester status. Type /oracle or /ask in game, describe what happened, and it files the report with your name on it.

Tester status adds the in-game tester tools, the verification task board and the tester hub, which are what the rest of this handbook covers. Ask on Discord if you want it. Until you have it, the hub and tracker links below will ask you to sign in.

Welcome to Chaos

Chaos is the test shard. New builds land here first, sometimes several in a day, and the point of the shard is to break things here so they stay unbroken everywhere else. Characters, items and gold on Chaos are separate from every other shard.

Your tester account unlocks three things. In the game, the tester windows listed below. On the web, the tester hub with the launcher downloads, the task board and the leaderboard. On the issue tracker, a login that lets you claim verification tasks, file bugs and comment.

The short version of the job: the team files a testing task for every change, you test it and report what you saw, and your report decides whether the change is done or goes back for another fix. The How the loop works section shows the whole circle.

Add web after /tester, /verify, /tweak or /guide to open the same window as a page in your browser on this computer.

Getting set up

One account works everywhere. The username and password you were given sign you in to the game, the tester hub and the issue tracker. If your tester access was granted while you were logged in, log out of the game and back in once to pick it up.

Get the game from the tester hub. There is a launcher for Windows, Linux and Mac; it installs the game, then updates itself and patches the game every time it starts. On Mac, the first time you run it, right-click Chaos Shard.app and choose Open, because it is not notarized yet. Sound and Steam are not working on Mac yet.

Chaos accounts have 3 character slots. If your account was copied from another shard with more characters, only the first three appear.

Every report needs a build number, and it is on the login screen: the line in the top left corner that starts with Chaos Shard. The number before the date is the build. The verdict form on the verification board fills it in for you; in a written comment, type it yourself.

If something breaks so badly you cannot log in, that is a report too. File it on the tracker from the hub, or tell us on Discord.

The tester window

Type /tester to open the tester window. Everything in it works on your own character, on Chaos only.

• Load zone. Type a scene name, pick from the suggestions, and go there. No walking required.
• Skills. Set Skill sets one skill to a level, and level 0 unlearns it. Grant XP adds pooled experience. Buff ALL Skills raises every skill to the chosen level for a number of hours, 4 by default. It is a timed buff, not training: when it lapses your sheet is exactly what it was, and level 0 clears it early. Two things to expect while it runs: scene skill caps still apply, and when it ends your deck drops cards for skills you do not really have.
• Add Buff. Search any buff in the game by name, pick a level and an optional duration in seconds, and apply it to yourself, or to a selected creature. On a creature the buff runs its own authored length, and another player is always refused. Clear takes back only the buffs this panel applied, so a blessing you are testing around stays put.
• Create Item. Type an item name, pick from the suggestions, choose a quantity, and it lands in your backpack. Money is the one thing it refuses; use Set Gold for that.
• Duplicate Selected Item(s). Copies whatever is selected in an open inventory window.
• Set Gold. Sets your gold to an exact amount, up to 10,000,000. Gold is shared by every character on your account.
• Time of day. Set the hour, HOLD to pin it, Reset to hand the sky back to the scene. This changes the sky for every player in the scene, so reset it when you finish.
• Fly. A free camera at the chosen speed, 1 to 100. WASD, Q and E fly the camera while your character stands still; Esc or the button exits and teleports you to the camera.
• Weather. Pick any of the nine weather types, and a wind strength and heading, then set or clear it. Two entries are labelled (scene-specific) and only change scenes authored to use them. Like time of day, weather moves the sky for everyone in the scene.
• Fog of war. Clear Fog (This Scene) reveals every floor of the map you are standing in, dungeon or surface zone; Reset Fog takes the reveal back. Both cover every character on your account, and both survive leaving the scene. After a reset, the circle around you fills back in within a second; that is your character seeing the room, not a failed reset.
• Open Verification Window opens the task board, and Pop Out opens this window as a page in your browser.

The verification board

Type /verify, or press Open Verification Window on the tester window. The board lists the testing tasks the team has filed, straight from the tracker.

The board signs in with your game account automatically. If you log in through Steam, it asks once for your tracker password instead.

Across the top: Open Tasks shows every open task, My Claims shows the ones you have claimed, Refresh reloads, and the filter box takes words or a task number. Three toggles narrow the list: This zone keeps tasks for the zone you are standing in, Live only (on by default) hides tasks whose fix has not reached a chaos build yet, and Directives only hides the bugs other testers have filed.

Pick a task to read it. A task tells you what changed, which build carries it, how to test it, what to expect, and what might break it. Open in Browser opens the same task on the tracker. If it carries a location, Teleport to Bug Location takes you to the exact spot.

Claim This Task puts your name on it so two testers do not cover the same ground. Then test it and report with the three buttons: Verified Fixed, Not Fixed or Partial Fix, plus notes for anything short of fixed. Leave Attach my location on and the team can jump to where you stood. Submit Verdict posts it, and the row reads Verdict sent until it is processed, usually within 15 minutes.

Write a report that counts

A report counts when someone can act on it without asking you anything. Two habits get you most of the way: name the build, and say exactly what you saw.

The quickest report is the verdict form on a claimed task. It carries your build and location for you, and you are done when the row says Verdict sent.

The fuller report is a comment on the task. Copy the Expected list from the task into your comment and put PASS or FAIL after each line, in capitals. Add what you did, what you saw, and how to make a failure happen again. Screenshots help. Written comments are read overnight, so the verdict form is faster when one fits.

Three rules keep a report useful:

• If you did not run a check, write untested after it instead of guessing. An untested line never counts against the change, and a FAIL on a line you never ran sends someone chasing nothing.
• If you find something unrelated while testing, put it in the same comment. It gets tracked as its own bug.
• If your FAIL has not been answered yet, the task waits for a reply before it comes back on a new build. You will not be asked to retest over an open question.

You can also type a verdict comment by hand on the tracker. This is the exact shape the game posts:

VERDICT: fixed
Build: 1723
Place: Soltown (12.3, 45.6, 78.9)

Torch now lights on the first click.

The first line inside the block is the verdict: fixed, not-fixed or partial, in lowercase. Build is the number from the login screen, or unknown. Location and Place are optional. Anything after the block is your notes; in this example that is the line about the torch.

Tweaks and timing

Type /tweak to open the value explorer: a catalog of live game numbers you can override on your own client. Categories on the left (pets, combat, taming, creatures, threat, stealth, rendering), the selected values on the right, saved sets along the bottom.

A tweak is the game's authored number plus your override. Clearing the override lands you back on whatever the current build says, so a set saved weeks ago cannot strand you on stale numbers. Sets can be shared as a text code that survives a paste through chat or a forum post.

Every tweak is local to your client. Nobody else sees your numbers, and a session with stored tweaks says so in chat at login, with a count in the window header, so a forgotten override cannot masquerade as a bug. Some entries reach further than their category suggests; when one does, its help text says how far.

Type /reactions in combat to open the timing overlay for reaction skills such as Riposte. It shows the reaction window that is open right now and a log of your recent reaction casts, and each cast drops one REACT| line into chat that you can paste straight into a report.

Reporting bugs

When you find a bug no task covers, report it. Two ways:

In the game, ask the Oracle. Type /oracle or /ask, describe the bug, and it files the report with your name on it. It can attach a screenshot if you agree; the window hides itself for the shot. If a report like yours already exists, it says which one it matched instead of filing a duplicate.

On the web, file a Bug on the Tester Verification project on the tracker. You cannot file into the team's own project, and you do not need to: overnight, new tester bugs are read, answered and assigned, and your bug stays open until the fix is real.

Wherever you file, the report that helps carries the same things a verdict does: the build number, where you were, what you did, what you expected, and what happened instead. If it only happens sometimes, say so and describe the closest thing you have to a recipe.

You can also read the team's tracker and comment when someone asks you for detail, and anything you would rather suggest than report belongs on the Player Wish List, linked from the hub.

How the loop works

Every fix travels the same circle, and you sit in the middle of it.

When the team fixes something, a testing task is filed at the same moment. Until the fix reaches a chaos build, the task body says Not on chaos yet and the board's Live only filter keeps it out of your list.

A fix goes to our internal QA shard first and soaks there, and the task body says Fixed and in internal testing; not on chaos yet while it does. It stays out of your Live only list, because you still cannot test it.

When we sign that build off it goes to chaos, and the task flips to Chaos build N or later., gets a comment naming the build, and moves to Ready. A check runs every 15 minutes to catch anything the deploy missed. Soaking first means a build reaches you a few days after the fix lands rather than the same night, and in better shape for it.

You claim the task, test it, and report: the verdict form, or a PASS and FAIL comment. Verdict forms are read within about 15 minutes; written comments are read overnight. Verified Fixed closes the task and the bug behind it. Not Fixed or Partial Fix also closes the task, and sends the bug back to the team with your notes attached. A closed task stays closed; the next fix arrives with a fresh task.

Two side paths. A bug you file yourself is picked up overnight, answered and assigned, and stays open until the fix lands, at which point a fresh verification task comes back to the board. And if your FAIL has not been answered, the task is held back until someone replies. Your report is never buried by a deploy.

Click any box in the chart to jump to the section that explains it.

The leaderboard

The tester hub ranks testers three ways, each with a weekly and an all-time column: hours on Chaos, bugs reported, and tests verified.

Hours are credited when you log out, and only Chaos play counts. A bug credits whoever the Oracle names as its reporter, or the author of a Bug filed on the board. A verify credits you when your comment or verdict is posted. The numbers refresh every 15 minutes.

Nothing is attached to the ranking yet; it exists so good work is visible.

Ground rules

Chaos is shared, and a few of the tools reach past your own character:

• Time of day and weather change the sky for every player in the scene. Put them back when you finish.
• Gold and fog of war cover every character on your account.
• Buffs from the tester window land only on you or a selected creature. Other players are refused, on purpose.
• While a skill buff, an applied buff, or a tweak is active, your combat data is left out of the balance numbers. The game tells you once in chat when that starts. It is normal.
• A session that restored stored tweaks says so at login. If numbers feel wrong and you cannot say why, check the tweak window first.

Beyond that: test hard and break things, that is the job. Follow the normal player conduct rules when other people are in the scene. If a tool itself misbehaves, report it like any other bug. And if you know someone who would make a good tester, tell us on Discord and we can set them up.