[Oct '25] Improvements & Bug Fixes
Rolling thread of updates from October 2025

Updated the help text for this command to make it clear you can't give SIC to a room (like a sewer) that doesn't ever (without an amp) get SIC.

I've updated the code so that we do NOT strip ascii from SIC keys, as this was resulting in people with this option on not getting the full SIC key.

This change to not strip ascii should only impact the display of SIC keys and nothing else. If anyone notices weirdness, please @bug and I will fix.

This installed equipment in apartments that are reset will get tossed into the market now instead of sticking around in the apartment after it is reset and re-rented.

I added a fork in the code so that when an outbreak of PDS happens it returns control to the calling verb right away instead of waiting for some stuff in the outbreak code. This should hopefully fix the issues people were seeing where someone triggers a PDS outbreak and that causes someone elses command to lag, or their own. If it is still wonky please submit a new bug report.

This wasn't running the same checks that 'drop' was to make sure you don't drop stuff in coffins. I've added that check.

I also updated both DH and drop to use :notify instead of :tell so the error responses are not shown on transcoder chips if those are in use.

I've expanded the number of fee charging exits that can be hacked via the grid, so that there are several more in game that are hackable. I didn't touch any that were for player run businesses as I don't want to take money out of player pockets. However, there are now 5+ additional exits beyond mag-levs that a decker can hack themself or another person onto to gain free entry for a period of time.

When you inspect a weapon it will now show you the skill the weapon uses. In many cases it is obvious, but there are some where it is not. Now it will be :)

When you load the BGBB main page, there is now a new section at the top for recent activity. You can click through the recent activity and see all the new threads / posts from that past 7 days.

Fixed an issue so that a pose like this:

.wave at me and .tell me, bouncing, "Hi!"

Shows up like this:

You wave at you and tell you, bouncing, "Hi!"
NPC in room: Fengshui waves at him and tells him, bouncing, "Hi!"
[POSE-ECHO] Fengshui waves at him and tells him, bouncing, "Hi!"

It ain't perfect, but if you properly use yourself instead of me, it works better:

.wave at myself and .tell myself, bouncing, "Hi!"
You wave at yourself and tell yourself, bouncing, "Hi!"
NPC: Fengshui waves at himself and tells himself, bouncing, "Hi!"
[POSE-ECHO] Fengshui waves at himself and tells himself, bouncing, "Hi!"

Some examples of what works:

Core -es endings

-sh → +es

Pose: .flash a grin

You see: You flash a grin.

Others see: Fengshui flashes a grin.

-ch → +es

Pose: .watch carefully

You see: You watch carefully.

Others see: Fengshui watches carefully.

-x → +es

Pose: .fix your tie

You see: You fix your tie.

Others see: Fengshui fixes your tie.

-s → +es

Pose: .kiss the ring

You see: You kiss the ring.

Others see: Fengshui kisses the ring.

-z → +es

Pose: .buzz around the room

You see: You buzz around the room.

Others see: Fengshui buzzes around the room.

-y rules

consonant + y → ies

Pose: .try again

You see: You try again.

Others see: Fengshui tries again.

vowel + y → +s

Pose: .play a quick riff

You see: You play a quick riff.

Others see: Fengshui plays a quick riff.

-o minimalist (→ +es)

echo → echoes

Pose: .echo the last word

You see: You echo the last word.

Others see: Fengshui echoes the last word.

go → goes (covered by -o rule)

Pose: .go north

You see: You go north.

Others see: Fengshui goes north.

Irregulars

do → does

Pose: .do it

You see: You do it.

Others see: Fengshui does it.

have → has (special-cased)

Pose: .have the right idea

You see: You have the right idea.

Others see: Fengshui has the right idea.

be (is/are) via verbspec (sanity check in systems that use it)

Pose: .is ready

You see: You are ready.

Others see: Fengshui is ready.

lie/lay irregular (keep as-is)

Pose: .lay down on the floor

You see: You lay down on the floor.

Others see: Fengshui lies down on the floor.

Punctuation & quotes

Trailing period retained

Pose: .flash a grin.

You see: You flash a grin.

Others see: Fengshui flashes a grin.

Quoted text with comma/then another aux

Pose: .watch "closely," then .grin

You see: You watch "closely," then grin.

Others see: Fengshui watches "closely," then grins.

Question/exclaim punctuation stripped from aux, reattached

Pose: .watch?

You see: You watch?

Others see: Fengshui watches?

Colon/semicolon after aux

Pose: .watch: "Now."

You see: You watch: "Now."

Others see: Fengshui watches: "Now."

Multiple aux verbs in one pose

Two -es verbs chained

Pose: .watch Seven and .flash a grin

You see: You watch Seven and flash a grin.

Others see: Fengshui watches Seven and flashes a grin.

Mix of -y and -es endings

Pose: .try again, then .kiss the ring

You see: You try again, then kiss the ring.

Others see: Fengshui tries again, then kisses the ring.

-o followed by irregular

Pose: .echo the words and .do it

You see: You echo the words and do it.

Others see: Fengshui echoes the words and does it.

Speech placeholders work with aux

(Sanity: aux verbs should conjugate; quotes replaced per listener as usual.)

Speech with pronoun sub later

Pose: .flash and say, "I saw (1) earlier."

You see: You flash and say, "I saw Seven earlier."

Others see: Fengshui flashes and says, "I saw Seven earlier."

/everyone expansion doesn’t break aux

(Ensures token expansion didn’t regress aux conjugation.)

/everyone with aux before/after

Pose: .watch /everyone and .go quiet

You see: You watch Razor, Silver, Seven and Tax and go quiet. (names vary by room)

Others see: Fengshui watches Razor, Silver, Seven and Tax and goes quiet.

.be ready. →
You: You are ready.
Others: Fengshui is ready.

.is ready. →
You: You are ready.
Others: Fengshui is ready.

Negation works too: .aren't ready. / .isn't ready. → are/is + n't in the right place.

.is ready. →
You: You are ready.
Others: Fengshui is ready.

.nod and .am ready. →
You: You nod and are ready.
Others: Fengshui nods and is ready.

This applies to driving, flying, and possibly walking/escorting (very edge case-y but MIGHT be the cause of some of the market issues people see).

I've fixed several race conditions in the code that were likely sources of people being shunted off into $nothing when moving quickly through rooms in dynamic space (Badlands, Airspace, etc).

The bugs were mainly geared around the way these rooms clean themselves up, and the way someone might initiate a move into a room and THEN that room cleanup was triggered.

I've added more guards and locks to prevent the race condition from happening. I can't say 100% that this is completely fixed but me and a player drove around for like 2 hours super fast and didn't get shunted into $nothing.

What happens now that it is fixed: In the somewhat rare situation where a room is recycled while you are attempting to move into it, you'll get a message saying the room is not valid anymore. In those cases you'll need to simply try to move through it again (it will likely be fully recycled by then, and dynamic space will spawn a new room).

I did see one issue where the exits weren't completely cleaned up but we couldn't replicate it. In that case you'd need to leave the room and come back in a bit after the room you are in recycles (which recycles the exit in it).

Or you could just go around the bad exit by like, going north then southeast, if you were trying to go east. This seems really rare and I added more debugging to help me identify the problem if it happens again.

Again, can't say this is 100% fixed but… hopefully!

I've gotten rid of the header/footer and funky display stuff for thermos. I think it makes for a cool visual effect but it breaks colors among other things. When wearing these you will see something that resembles a normal room look, but with thermo details replacing the normal look details.

I've also added the room title, because that is OOC info anyway intended for you the player, and I don't see why thermos shouldn't have that.

Otherwise, they function the same, just a less specialized display that causes issues.

Fixed a TB that occurred when you tried to use a portable term in the room you were in (not in your inv, not held).

If you put a space after the first . in a pose:

. look around

It was causing issues. The code seemed to try to autocorrect this, but it wasn't playing well with my recent changes. I dunno if there is anyone out there adding a space but… that no longer works and will return an invalid pose message as the correct for is:

.look around

It's possible there was some coded reason for supporting this, but I don't see it, so it is removed.

There's a new mag-lev style shuttle that leaves from Freesky and goes to KashFlo. We'd like to thank Bubbles and Mono for getting this over the line, and 2024 Glitch and Slither for getting it 70% done and then forgetting about it for almost 2 years. :P

So yep! If you want to catch a ride to Kashflo, hop aboard the Lucky Star. 10k chy to scratch your CP gambling addiction. Have fun!

Fixed the issue where robots couldn't pose.

WEBCLIENT SSL UPDATED

Updated the webclient SSL.

If you have a crate in KOTM, you will see it in your KOTM inventory now.

I've made the drug price changes in KOTM obey the notifications toggle, so if they are off, you don't see this notification.

If you are writing a brlang program that deals with commands on a device or room, and the command takes arguments, you should now be able to use a variable in place of those arguments, across the board.

This change should allow you to compile programs that use request input and variables prefixed with @ to send data to commands in all cases.

This does mean that the requested input data must end up matching the validation shown when you list commands available on a device or room. If it doesn't, the command will fail.

For example if it requests an amount between 1-10000 and your variable is @amount, the program WILL COMPILE even if you didn't define @amount in your code. It will also execute even if when you request the input you put 'asdf' instead of an integer. The program will simply fail.

Be careful using variables :)

There are two force verbs, one is for forcing someone into a vehicle, one is for forcing someone out of a vehicle (from the outside) by pulling them out of a window or unlocked door. They have different prepositional strings in the middle, and are actually different verbs.

This is causing issues with nth matching due to an edge case in how we match verbs. I've renamed the force person from vehicle.

It is now: pullout [person] from [vehicle]

This means it will work with multiple of the same vehicles in a room.

There is now an '@trust person to force' which will allow the person who is trusted to auto succeed at forcing someone into a vehicle and using pullout [dude] from vehicle.

Fixed a minor pose bug with targeting people in some situations not working.

The script when a biomod is successfully installed has been updated to not include the forced speech / smiling that it had, leaving it up to the doctor to handle that as they see fit.

If you are grappling someone in the sewer and you, the person you are grappling, or both of you, are flushed away in a torrent of sewage, the grapple will be broken. There is messaging showing this. This replaces the previous situation where the grapple was maintained despite one or both people being flushed away.

Corpses with missing limbs will now no longer show tattoos on the limbs that are missing.

Some people were seeing 'session expired' when sending a gridmail but their term was still logged in and it was confusing. This was because of the way 'player' works in the context of MOO. The person sending the gridmial was getting the 'logged out' message of the terminal they were sending the message to, because it generates a notification that the session has expired due to a check for if the term is still logged in (that is receiving the mail).

I have fixed this issue. You shouldn't see it anymore.

Thank you to Bubbles for figuring it out and pointing me in the right direction!

We've closed 303 @bugs since 06/01/25. Some of these were old and marked as closed, many were fixed, some we didn't have enough info to resolve. That's an average of 60 bugs closed a month (though that is inflated because I did some major cleanup of old bugs in the past month).

The good news is we are currently closing more bugs than we receive (at least in the past 3 months).

We have 255 total open bugs, and 155 total open public bugs.

ToastStunt offers a generate_json builtin which we make use of for e-notes. This has an mostly undocumented side effect of trying to convert moo binary strings like ~0A to json. I can't seem to find a way to NOT do this, but it has the impact of turning something like Price: ~1.5k into Price: \u001.5k which is a UTF representation of some binary I guess.

This breaks parse_json builtin because it's not valid. So, I've added a wrapped that replaces ~ with '~ ' anytime it finds it to prevent this rare issue in e-notes (and a few other places).

I also went into the database and fixed the 6 files that had ~'s in them which would have been causing them to not show up on e-notes, cause TBs, or render improperly.

I've also flagged the issue to the ToastStunt devs for discussion.

I've updated the flushing code in the sewers to properly deal with stealthed and sitting people. If you are flushed while hiding or sitting, that status will now be cleared as you are washed away. This should hopefully fix any lingering issues with people being in weird states after being flushed in the sewers.

I've updated the apartment purge code to force any sitting players to stand before tossing them in coffins.