Mephisto and I have spent a fair amount of time reworking the really old code that was running both always stocked and player run vending machines. Mostly the code was written by Mephisto, with me reviewing and offering commentary. I'm sure he will post a follow up on things i've missed, but I wanted to put the major changes out there for folks who interact with these machines regularly.
1. Complete code overhaul. This code was written almost 20 years ago and then built upon. It was not in line with other systems we have in the game, and it needed a rework. That rework has been done.
2. The machine owner is your character, not your player object, so you don't still have access if you perm. Sowwy. Not that anyone did this, but just saying.
3. Bashing a vending machine to attempt to steal something from it has always been possible, but it was always a bit wonky. This has been reworked. The way it handles multiple bash attempts, and other generalized things like fucking you up with electricity if you piss it off, has been changed. It also makes known when it is in HIGH AWARENESS mode.
4. The way player run vending machines work, and look, and act, remains unchanged on the surface (aside from the bash stuff), though the underlying code is much cleaner.
5. Auto stocking vending machines will now obey RARITY. That means that if the game has too much v-202 in it, vending machines won't continue to let you purchase that shit. It also means that the price will change based on how much of something is on the market elsewhere. This is the biggest change really.
6. Messaging. The messaging has been refactored a bunch to be more in line with our current standards, and is much more customizable from our end, machine to machine.
Thanks Meph, for all the hard work on this. Any issues, please report. Any feedback, please suggest.
Meph, did I miss anything major?
-- S
