[Dec '22] Improvements & Bug Fixes
Rolling changelog of for December 2022

GM COMMAND UPDATE

GMs will now see a feed of recent grid forum posts in the same readout that shows them admin and player notes since they last checked. This should help GMs stay on top of what is going on on the grid forums more easily and effectively.

CRITTERS IN VEHICLES @ INGRESS/EGRESS

You should now be able to pass through the immigration gates with a critter in your vehicle. If anyone see's further issues with this please submit an @bug.

GUN LICENSE UPDATE WITH MULTI-CALIBER GUN

Some guns have multiple calibers they can switch between. These guns were not able to be added to an existing gun license because the .caliber was stored as a list and the code was expecting a string (which is what it is for 99% of guns). I've added code to handle this additional situation and this should now work.

CYBERWARE REPAIR TOOL MESSAGING

Fixed some bugs with the messaging on these.

E-NOTE WITH ZERO BYTE FILES

Some how files are being created with no content. I'm not sure where that is happening, but when it does happen, the system is expecting a list of strings and just getting an empty string as that's how the file WAIF was set up from a default value perspective. I've added some logic to check for this situation when displaying a file with 0 bytes so it doesn't TB.

If anyone creates a file that shows up as [0b] please @bug exactly how you did it so I can plug that hole. Thanks!

DEFUSE [explosive] MINIMUM TIME

I've reduced the minimal defusal time on explosives from 60 seconds to 30 seconds.

DEFUSE [explosive] MESSAGES

I've also added additional messages that show while defusing and updated how we call the verb that performs the actions while you're defusing so that the messages show evenly over the time you are defusing, and not just at the start and end.

DEFUSE [explosive] TIME TAKEN

I've also added a message showing you how many seconds you think it is going to take you to defuse it.

DEFUSE [explosive] CONFIRMATION

You will now have the option of aborting the defusal after seeing how long it will take. It also warns that while defusing you will not be able to stop or do anything else.

I'd like to make it so you can stop defusing but the code doesn't really support it right now, so I'd have to make some changes to that, so this is an intermediate step.

HONKING MOTORCYCLES

The honk code on bikes hadn't been updated in a long time. At some point we changed from .running to .started to determine if a bike was started. This verb was still using the .running prop. I've resolved this.

HONKING MESSAGES

Honking messages were updated at some point on vehicles and contained a %sound which is not supported by bikes. I've set bike specific honk messages so they don't include this sound which was not getting subbed properly.

OTHER HONKING SUBS

Some of the honk messages in the bike honk code were not being substituted properly. I've resolved that as well.

CYBER AIMING MESSAGING

I've updated the messaging when cyberaiming at an edge or exit with telescopic lenses, such that the messages will show the proper long name for the edge or exit instead of 'n' when you see a message such as 'Joe stars intently at the s'.

I've also removed references to 'edges' from the messages because you aren't always aiming off/over an edge.

VEHICLE TRANSFER TERMINALS ADMIN NOTIFICATION

I've fixed a permissions bug in these that was causing a mail about a manual vehicle transfer to not be sent. We were still logging a note when these were used so it wasn't invisible, but this makes it more prominent.

VEHICLE TRANSFER TERMINALS ADDITION RESTRICTIONS

The WJF are very powerful, and they could technically transfer vehicle ownership manually no matter where the vehicle was. I've changed this based on player feedback to restrict it to only vehicles inside the city.

VEHICLE TRANSFER WARNING

I received feedback that we weren't properly setting player expectations for people in the WJF about when/how/how often the vehicle transfer terminal can be used. As a result I've added an OOC warning to the administrator override of manual transfers that warns this player doing it (someone who is already in a position of power ICly) that they need to carefully consider why they are using the terminal, not use the terminal often, try to RP things out and use other means first, and not abuse the terminal or they would be hearing from the GMs.

KNOCKING 11 MEGS OFF THE DATABASE SIZE

With the move to SQL notes complete, the old in MOO notes system has been fully deprecated. We weren't keeping the notes themselves in the MOO, those were on disk, but the index of what notes existed, and their subjects, were in the MOO. Between player and admin notes there were something like 120k of them. The notes indexes were taking up about 10 megabytes of space in the MOO, and in memory.

I've removed them, and now we are ten megs lighter.

BROWSER OBJECT

We have an in-moo browser object for querying websites. This thing is cool, but there was a bug in some code for long lived browser objects (like we use for our healthchecks) that was essentially adding a new 'link' to a list of links, each time it ran. There were 20k of them taking up a meg if soace. I fixed the bug and pruned the list, so it's not taking up that space.

We are now down from 196 megs on disk to 185 megs.

SPACECRAFT LANDING

Spacecraft can now 'land' properly like other aeros and vehicles when they are not in space.

REQUISITIONS MESSAGING

There was a quiet error happening when an order carton was delivered due to the potential for a property to not exist. I've added some error catching around this.

REQUISITIONS ORDER CARTONS SPAWNING %COLOR ITEMS

There was a bug where we were spawning %color items. This was due to us overwriting an items name after it was set without taking color into account, which wasn't something we needed to do. I've removed that extra step and this should fix the issue.

This will fix anything in an order carton now that hasn't already been spawned. If you have a %color item that you want fixed, put in a service request.

MOTORCYCLE ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS

These were not setup properly to be considered both engines and small engines, which meant that if you uninstalled one of these from a vehicle that considered itself to have a small engine (like a Deliverator) you could not install it back. This has been resolved.

FARADAY COLLARS

These were not broken. They were just unclear on how they worked. They needed to be powered but there was nothing that told you that, or if the device was powered on or had a battery.

I've updated the look_self of the item to show if it has a battery attached and if the device is powered on.

The device auto powers on when it is worn if it has a battery attached. The description now states that.

BUGS UPDATE

We did an 8 hour bug bash on Sunday and tackled some of the more annoying / difficult bugs. The non-coders on the staff also helped, investigating if a bunch of bugs were still happening, and identifying exactly how to reproduce. We also took that time to introduce some of the staff to the commands they need in order to resolve issues that happen somewhat often (like applying memberships, adding rooms to the exclude list for mess generation, etc). This was awesome, and I wanted to thank the staff for showing up.

We have 168 bugs remaining. I've also noticed a downward trend in the # of bugs being submitted each week -- which is a big positive!

@BUGS / @VIEW-BUG / @VB

Players now have access to @bugs which will show you a list of bugs in the system. There are a few options you can use such as:

@bugs mine (view bugs you've submitted)

@bugs new (view 20 most recent bugs)

@bugs assigned (view assigned bugs)

@bugs unassigned (view unassigned bugs)

@bugs resolved (view resolved bugs)

You will only see public bugs or private bugs you submitted.

You can then use

@view-bug (aliased to @vb for short) [id]

IE: @view-bug 15

This will display the bug to you, and keep you in a 'menu' of sorts with options. The only option currently available is 'c' for leaving a comment.

You can choose if a comment is public/private. If private it will only be visible to admin.

You can hit 'enter' in the menu to exit, or just type @abort.

New system, so please report any issues with it using @bug :)

Ambulance door messages fixed.

Ambulance backdoors should have proper messages.

Vehicle Cargo Delivery NPC fixed.

Fixed one of the Vehicle Cargo Delivery NPCs that wasn't giving cargo. It should now give cargo, hopefully.

If it doesn't, please @bug it with info on what it did do, what it didn't do, and any feedback the NPC gave you etc. Ty.

HELP FILES UPDATED

steal -> forwards to pickpocket

pickpocket -> mentioned help farming

pointout -> added helpfile on this command

downgrade -> forwards to codelock

@bug -> updated with new commands / removed references to Jira

UNLOAD CARD FROM FREQQY

Had a report of someone saying you couldn't unload a securetalk card from a freqqy. It is already possible but the alias you have to use is 'card'. I've added a new alias of 'securetalk' so that will work too.

OH MY GOD THE PIZZA NOOOOOO!

Pizza slices were not spawning from pizza boxes with names. This has been fixed. Pizza on, my dudes.

TEMPORARY PERKS IN @STATS

The way we were querying for perks in @stats meant that temporary perks would continue to show up even if they were expired (think commuter pass for crate delivery). This was causing confusion. I've resolved this by expiring temp perks that are past their lifetime before displaying in @stats.

VEHICLE PARTS

There were some invisible things that were determining how well certain parts performed which were accounted for in prices but not visible to players. These were traction (for tires) and max damage for all parts.

VEHICLE PART INSPECTION
- traction is now included in inspect where applicable
- max damage a part can take is estimated in inspect where applicable

HANDLING / TRACTION
- Motorcycle parts are better balanced with handling and traction mods
- all radiators have varying handle mods that increase as they get more expensive.
- many other parts now have a handle mod where they didn't before

HANDLING CONSIDERATIONS

Parts define a 'handle mod'. These make it more/less difficult to control the vehicle in a variety of situations & is a part of getting more expensive parts in some situations. It's the tradeoff you make for whatever value that part is providing. If a part says it reduces handling, that means driving the vehicle will be more difficult. IE: the skill check for successfully controlling the vehicle more difficult. This has always been the case. I wanted to state it here for the record because more expensive does not mean less issues with handling. It usually means more issues.

TIRES AND SPEED

Tires do NOT have any implications on how fast a vehicle can go. They used to, but that system was removed when it was refactored in 2020-2021. Tires increase traction and either increase or decrease the difficulty to handle the vehicle.

(Edited by Slither at 12:36 pm on 12/26/2022)

VEHICLE PART INSPECTION

Not a bug -- just a heads up. When you inspect a part (assuming you have the right skill to see more details), you will ONLY see information about properties of that part that have a positive or negative impact on the vehicle when installed.

For example, if a tire increases or decreases traction, it will show up. If a part, like a tire, does NOT impact traction, it will not show up. This means that some tires, for example, which have a handle and traction mod of 0, don't show as impacting traction. That's typically what you'll see from baseline parts in most cases.

The benefit of using one of these parts is that in many cases the vehicle requires that part (IE: 4 tires) to move.

FREIGHT HAULING UPDATES

First, I've only partially tested this code as I am waiting for a player with the right licenses / vehicle to be online to fully test and help me validate. I think everything should be working, but fair warning if something is wonky along the way, I'd like to hear about it.

As we had the system set, it would offer deliveries from Withmore to Withmore or Withmore to San Mara or San Mara to Withmore. This was an issue as not every vehicle can make it to San Mara. Thus, as of now, there will be no deliveries from Withmore to San Mara. However, deliveries from San Mara to Withmore are still enabled, as if you're in San Mara with a vehicle, you got there some how!

I've also made it so that if you make a deliver from outside the city into the city or inside the city to outside the city (not a thing now, but could be in the future), you get double the delivery time, and additional money (as you have to go through the gates). This should make it more lucrative. I still need to gather feedback on if the pay is enough.

BIKE STICKERS

It looks like when vehicles were overhauled more recently, a few changes were made:

1. The names of the locations on bikes were changed in some cases. IE: front end changed to front fender.

This had an adverse affect as stickers are stored in a matrix based on their part location name, and the addon matrix was not updated when the part location was.

2. The 'external' locations on a bike, where parts and their stickers were visible were reduced to include only a handful of locations.

This had the effect of making it so even new parts with stickers in the right location might not have been considered visible when looking at the bike.

I've gone ahead and updated this list to include just about everything on a bike since many parts are visible. This should mean stickers will show up more often when they are on installed parts.

This will not fix stickers on broken locations. That may not be easy/possible. I'll look into it more but no promises.

FREIGHT HAULING

Should work again now.

MOTORCYCLE RADIATORS

I've balanced these a bit more. Please keep in mind that just because a part says 'reduces heat' and another part says 'reduces heat' doesn't mean they reduce heat the same amount. This is just an indicator of where they are on the spectrum. Other things, like handling, and hit points for the part play into the pricing as well.