[CF-Devel] Apartments & Server crashes - Bad voodoo...

[kbulgrien at att.net]

>
     
      Kevin R. Bulgrien wrote:
     
     >
     
      > Scenario:
     
     >
     
      > 
     
     >
     
      > 1) Enter apartment
     
     >
     
      > 2) Drop ultra-cool artifact on floor
     
     >
     
      > 3) Exit apartment
     
     >
     
      > 4) Play a while
     
     >
     
      > 5) Server crashes
     
     >
     
      > 
     
     >
     
      > Results:
     
     >
     
      > 
     
     >
     
      > The ultra-cool artifact is GONE!
     
     >
     
      > 
     
     >
     
      > Not in player inventory, not in apartment!
     
     >
     
      > 
     
     >
     
      > This is REALLY BAD VOODOO...  It was a VERY ULTRA COOL ARTIFACT!
     
     >
     
      > 
     
     >
     
      > Why isn't the apartment saved when you exit?  I think that the
     
     >
     
      > player autosaved during step 4, which is why the artifact is
     
     >
     
      > no longer in his inventory, but the apartment did not
     
     >
     
      > autosave...
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
        Define 'play for a while'?
     
     
I don't remember exactly, but it was on the order of just a few
minutes.  I have not modified the default timing parameters in
the config file.

This behavior has occurred a few times.  Sometimes it kills a recently
dropped object, and sometimes it duplicates an item that was
recently picked up from the floor of the apartment.

Note that since the Sept. 2 CVS update, the server has been
more unstable.  The crashes I am speaking of have happened
without being intentionally invoked by way of the O M swords.

Conjecture:

I suspect that the window of opportunity is quite small...

The player autosave timer may have 1 min. left on it (or a
similar small time), so the player autosaves, but the 
apartment map doesn't save for 5 minutes.  If a crash
occurs in those 4 minutes, inventory madness occurs.

P.S.

I agree about "making sure the server doesn't crash"...  Not
realizing that an apartment is treated the same way as a 
regular map, I was surprised when I lost a 50000 platinum
item I had just bought - with a character that is not high
level enough to find this a meaningless loss.