09 Jan, 2009, Fizban wrote in the 21st comment:
Votes: 0
Kayle said:
Well, Got HK's email, and the bug is already fixed in SmaugFUSS, SWFotEFUSS, and SWRFUSS. So, no work for me. :P


Eh would have been minimal anyway, think it took me five seconds to add it to the tbaMUD SVN. Was good timing on his part though, we're about a week away from the next release.
09 Jan, 2009, Kline wrote in the 22nd comment:
Votes: 0
Hi, either please PM or email me so I can check this in the old ACK!MUD code and my continued AckFUSS work both. It's not nearly as popular a base as ROM, Smaug, or Circle, but is still part of the Diku/Merc family.
09 Jan, 2009, Kayle wrote in the 23rd comment:
Votes: 0
I forwarded the email to Kline. :P
09 Jan, 2009, Scandum wrote in the 24th comment:
Votes: 0
Sounds like the rescue - backstab bug, or an equivalent. Stock Rom is particularly lazy when it comes to this.
10 Jan, 2009, Fizban wrote in the 25th comment:
Votes: 0
Scandum said:
Sounds like the rescue - backstab bug, or an equivalent. Stock Rom is particularly lazy when it comes to this.


Yep.
10 Jan, 2009, Hades_Kane wrote in the 26th comment:
Votes: 0
One thing that I would recommend a lot of people do who run ROM or similar codebases is to add in a new wiznet value for 'bug' so that any time there is a bug call, you'll see it.

That's helped catch quite a number of things on our end having done so, and has proved invaluable when trying to create mprogs when you are half asleep :p

This also would probably be a valuable thing to stick in the RaM project as well.

If Zordrac had such code on his MUD, he would have likely caught this bug within the first day or two of it being abused.
10 Jan, 2009, Zeno wrote in the 27th comment:
Votes: 0
You mean bugs never used to display on the MUD?
10 Jan, 2009, Sandi wrote in the 28th comment:
Votes: 0
In ROM, they display in the shell.
10 Jan, 2009, Cratylus wrote in the 29th comment:
Votes: 0
Sandi said:
In ROM, they display in the shell.


In communist Russia, shell displays on YOU!

-Crat
10 Jan, 2009, Hades_Kane wrote in the 30th comment:
Votes: 0
Zeno said:
You mean bugs never used to display on the MUD?



Sandi said:
In ROM, they display in the shell.


That about says it. By default, the bug calls are saved in the logs, and if you don't check your logs often, there's no telling what you could miss.

I don't make a habit of checking my logs regularly, so having the bug call display to immortals who choose to see it has been a wonderful, if not obvious, addition.

There are things like that I run across and have trouble understanding why none of the authors of the codebase had thought of it as well. But then again, I run across so much bloat in the codebase too, that I have trouble understanding why so much of it is in there when it serves no purpose :p
10 Jan, 2009, zordrac2 wrote in the 31st comment:
Votes: 0
Seeing it in the logfiles (or even if you set that to appear in wiznet) is not enough to stop this, especially if you have a player (as we had) who refused to do it while an imm was logged on.

I actually first saw this bug in the logfiles when it first came up (it DOES display as a BUG in logfiles), which first happened when this player first started playing (no other players in our mud's history have used it, as it is not a particularly well known bug, so let's keep it that way). I wasn't sure why it was displaying, and actually thought that it was my fault, as I had set some variables incorrectly in a number of commands that I had written myself, which, I imagined, could lead to the same BUG message. I actually thought that this bug message was incorrect, that there was no bug at all.

After I fixed up my own commands and was still getting the BUG messages, I was a bit annoyed, and assumed that I still had something somewhere that I had missed (as you would think).

Then I wrote a new command that accidentally gave an enemy double hits when you used the command. When I created Temari's fan skill Fusajin no Jutsu: Scythe Whirlwind technique, it gave the enemy double hits, at least when you used it wrong. I wasn't sure why, but some players helped me to figure out the bug. I had set up some of the variables wrong. As it turned out, I had done the exact same thing that the people who made the buggy stock Merc (or possibly stock Diku) command had done, but in reverse. I didn't mean to, of course, and it had taken all of 1 hour for one of our players to notice it and to work out how to fix it.

Then we were having unexplained crashes, 10 per day, which were really bothering me. Some of them were found to have been caused by one of our new features (I won't say which one, as that would hint as to what this bug is), and putting in various variations of them. I had to put in dozens of exceptions to get them to work. Rather than thinking that it was the stock code that was causing the problems, I thought that it was my code.

I eventually found the explanation for our crashes - I had put in END IF twice in a couple of mob programs. An insidious error, at the building stage rather than at the coding stage. Took me ages to find it.

But by the time that I had found that, I had already seen this weird stuff in the stock code, and thought that it might be the cause. When I finally got rid of the mob program problems, I saw that this could be quite a serious bug.

I tested it, saw that it was true, and conspired to spy on this player. As I had seen in the log files, they never abused it with someone there, so I went invis (wizinvis) to spy on them, then snooped them when they logged on. This caught them in the act, and saw it in physical form.

Finding a fix was tricky, as I had to get my head around it. If I fixed it, then it would disable the command, and it was a useful command. Finally I worked out a rather tricky if statement that would work. Worked perfectly. I was quite impressed with myself.

Seeing that it was known since 2002 does not surprise me. Also seeing that they couldn't work out a fix does not surprise me.

Please be aware that my 1-line fix does not stop any legitimate function of this command. You can still use it as it was intended. You just can't abuse it.
10 Jan, 2009, Skol wrote in the 32nd comment:
Votes: 0
Zord, thanks for bringing it up. I'm sure there were lots of games who'd never fixed it.
One addition to that function people might like that I'd done was:
if (!IS_NPC (ch)
&& IS_NPC (victim) /* End old check */
&& ch != victim->master) // new addition to allow for pets
{
send_to_char ("Doesn't need your help!\n\r", ch);
return;
}

Additionally though, I'd suggest a check to see if ch is already fighting, like:
if (ch->fighting == NULL) // this part added
set_fighting (ch, fch);

So it doesn't try to 'set_fighting' when they already are.

Anyone who can understand the above, already knows what we're talking about rather than a normal 'player'.
10 Jan, 2009, Skol wrote in the 33rd comment:
Votes: 0
Just noticed I had _NOT_ fixed said bug, now it is fixed. The addition above also helps avoid a 'already fighting' bug at times. Thanks again Zord
10 Jan, 2009, Scandum wrote in the 34th comment:
Votes: 0
Still a poor implementation. Does it actually work if you try to rescue a player if mob A is attacking you, player B is attacking mob A, and mob B decides to attack player B?
10 Jan, 2009, Hades_Kane wrote in the 35th comment:
Votes: 0
zordrac2 said:
Seeing it in the logfiles (or even if you set that to appear in wiznet) is not enough to stop this, especially if you have a player (as we had) who refused to do it while an imm was logged on.


Wizinvis is a beautiful thing :p Ssolvarain is notorious for being on at all kinds of wacky hours wizi, and he's caught a number of people attempting to cheat in that way.
10 Jan, 2009, Ssolvarain wrote in the 36th comment:
Votes: 0
Yeah, it's usually assumed that that one person you can't see upon login is myself.

And the assumption is usually correct.

I employ several ninja-like strategies that are effective against different little features of clients >.>
10 Jan, 2009, Kayle wrote in the 37th comment:
Votes: 0
I'm the same way Ssol. I never log off. I'm usually just Invis. And even after two years of working on MW, people still don't realize that. :P I really should step things up a notch and actually work on game content instead of rewriting things, I should have an open mud after two years… Hmm..
10 Jan, 2009, Ssolvarain wrote in the 38th comment:
Votes: 0
There was also the infamous newbie riot of 08, where I had to rename 12 belligerent newbies at once. Oh lord, to have had the global silence command then. Botters I can smite or smack or beat or… whatever. I'll stop here, because the things that occurred that day were either an extreme freak of nature or karma seeking revenge for catching that donkey show while I was down in TJ.
10 Jan, 2009, Igabod wrote in the 39th comment:
Votes: 0
I've never understood the draw of a donkey show… I've seen what goes on there and it ain't pretty.
10 Jan, 2009, Ssolvarain wrote in the 40th comment:
Votes: 0
Why was 2 girls 1 cup such a sensation? I think the human mind is inadvertently drawn to strange, twisted things that make us go "wtf".

Horror movies, midget porn, etc.
20.0/45