ID:52080
 
Ok, so I'm feeling well enough to do stuff. And stuff I have done.

I remembered a conversation I had with Dever about possible exploits in the game itself. One of which was loading a character from The Lobby once it was already in game.

Not fully knowing how the game is going to work meant that I don't know what kind of repercussions doing this could have. So rather than risk it in the future, I decided to deal with it now.

Basically, when you load your character, the savefile is renamed to characternameckey.isf.in_use and is read by the actual game. The Lobby is instructed to disregard any file that doesn't end with .isf. When you're finished with your mob in the game and decide it's quittin' time, the mob's save proc is executed, which will recreate the savefile, and as an added bonus, if it finds a .in_use file, it'll remove it.

Aside from that small (but incredibly painful thing to figure out), I've updated what will become the website in the near future. I wont link you too it yet (however, if you're creative, you'll figure it out pretty damn easily), but it should be ready in a few days.

As for other random crap, I made mention in a forum thread somewhere along the line that I'll include dynamic signatures for your characters, so you can display just how sexy you are in other forums. This is still on the books, and shouldn't take long to do. Another thing I discussed with my peers was the possibility of game achievements. Personally, I've never really had a care for them, but apparently seemingly pointless crap people can compare themselves with is the "in-thing" at the moment. So I suppose I can throw those in as well.

If you have suggestions for other bonus stuff that really doesn't alter the game in any way, be sure to make mention of them. I'm not fussed in the slightest.
I remembered a conversation I had with Dever about possible exploits in the game itself. One of which was loading a character from The Lobby once it was already in game.

I made that simple. In the game, everytime a client connects to the game, I add them to a list. I then save that list to a savefile. When a player tries to get into the game, I just read the savefile, and check if their ckey is in the list. If it isn't, let them login, else, tell them they're already logged in <_<
What happens when the server crashes with all those soandsockey.isf.in_use files sitting there. Permanently locked character savefiles aren't good. Might want to check for soandso being actively connected to the game before disregarding the savefile--similar to what DT said.
yay, dt wins.
Vermolius wrote:
What happens when the server crashes with all those soandsockey.isf.in_use files sitting there. Permanently locked character savefiles aren't good. Might want to check for soandso being actively connected to the game before disregarding the savefile--similar to what DT said.

Man, you really just have absolutely no faith in my ability, do you?

If a server crashes, those save files are pretty damn useless. Ideally, if a specific server is down, I don't want people attempting to connect to it by loading characters that are still located there. In use characters is a good step one to see that doesn't happen.

As for bringing the savefiles back when the server comes back online. Well, there are two methods I can think of straight away to do this.

Number One: Run a proc in the server's world/New() to restore any in_use savefiles for that particular server.

Number Two: Loop an external script every minute or so to check if a server is online, if not, loop through and restore the savefiles for that particular server.

No tracking, no savefiles, no worries.
Tiberath wrote:
Man, you really just have absolutely no faith in my ability, do you?

Who said that? I had no knowledge of your handling of permanently locked savefiles. I have faith in your ability. Just thought I would run a potential issue past you, not that you are incompetent. Don't be insecure.

Just because I make posts that don't agree with everything you say doesn't mean that I mean ill of you in other, more serious, posts.
Vermolius wrote:
Don't be insecure.

Insecure is what I do best. =)
Can't be an anti-social insomniac without insecurity.
Tiberath wrote:
Vermolius wrote:
Don't be insecure.

Insecure is what I do best. =)
Can't be an anti-social insomniac without insecurity.

Quite well said.