Empire Server

Release notes for Wolfpack Empire 4.3.30 This release fixes several bugs, some of them critical. Deities are urged to use this release for new games. Upgrading mid-game is not supported, and expected to result in total disaster. Fine print: you should be able to upgrade with the empdump utility, if you know what you're doing. This release was made from the Git repository at http://git.pond.sub.org/?p=empserver;a=summary Released files: Source code * empire-4.3.30.tar.gz Everything * empire-client-4.3.30.tar.gz Just the client Pre-formatted documentation * empire-info-text-4.3.30.tar.gz Text * empire-info-html-4.3.30.tar.gz HTML User contributed files: * contrib/empire-server-4.3.30-i386-win32.zip Server binaries for Windows (Ron Koenderink) Change log: Changes to Empire 4.3.30 - Tue May 22 18:34:52 UTC 2012 * Disable damage to base sector or ship when missile explodes on launch for now, because damage done to other missiles there can be wiped out in some cases. Broken in Empire 2. * Fix navigate and march not to wipe out concurrent updates. Abusable, but probably not worthwhile. * Fix some buffer overruns in fairland. Has always been broken. * Fix arm to require nuke and plane to be in the same sector. A remote nuke got teleported to its plane when the plane moved. Broken in 4.3.3. * Change login command kill (used by client option -k) to kill less ruthlessly: send a flash message and try to flush output, exactly like a server shutdown does. * Fix server shutdown to wait for player threads to reach a safe state. Before, player threads raced with shutdown, and failed to update the treasury, record play time, and write log entries when they lost. Bug goes back to Empire 2. Patched partially or unsuccessfully in 4.2.10, 4.2.12, 4.2.20, 4.3.6, 4.3.10 and 4.3.23. The race was hard to lose in practice, until an unrelated "simplification" in 4.3.23 could get player threads stuck sending output after shutdown aborted a command. * Idle timeout changes: - The grace period for clients to complete login and logout is now separate from the idle timeout. Configurable with new econfig key login_grace_time, default is 120 seconds. - The idle timeout for visitors is now separate from the one for players. Configurable with new econfig key max_idle_visitor, default is five minutes. - Fix the idle timeout when the connection gets stuck sending output. Broken in 4.3.20. - Idle timeout during execute now terminates the connection, not just the execute command. * Fix stack smash in build. Remote hole! Broken when Empire 2 added the confirmation prompt. * Fix stack smash in scrap and scuttle. Remote hole! Broken when Chainsaw added the confirmation prompt. Additionally, the confirmation prompt is misleading when the player supplies conditionals. Redesign the flawed prompt. * Fix execute's echo of the command. Broken in 4.3.28. * The mobility cost of retreating a defending land unit was calculated for an uninitialized sector. This could charge incorrect mobility, prevent retreat, or, if the stars align just right, crash the server. Broken in 4.3.6. * Commands cutoff, headlines, land, lstat, motd, neweff, payoff, qorder, sorder, and wall now behave like the other information query commands when the player's connection can't take more output: they pause to let other code run. * Revised command permissions: - arm and disarm no longer require money, for consistency with the other commands to move stuff around. - satellite no longer requires money, for consistency with lookout, radar, sonar and skywatch. - qorder, sorder, survey and test no longer require a capital, for consistency with the other commands that report on stuff the player owns. - start and stop no longer require a capital, for consistency with the other commands to control production. - fortify now requires a capital, for consistency with mission, morale and range. - Anybody may now use country, echo and financial. - Visitors can no longer use census, commodity, map, nmap, sinfrastructure (useless without sectors), read (visitors don't get any telegrams), and change (always failed). - Players can no longer use map and nmap before break. This is consistent with all the other commands to examine the environment. It also prevents people from trying multiple unbroken countries in a blitz to find the one with the nicest vicinity. - Players can now use resource before break, just like census. * read could swallow the first telegram header when showing the telegrams that arrived while waiting for the player to confirm deletion. Broken in 4.3.29. * Fix 'm' in path argument of explore, move, transport: - Don't moan about deprecated argument syntax ('m' without a space before its argument) even when there's no argument. - Recognize the flags argument again. Broken in 4.3.27. * Market fixes: - Command market is no longer available to visitors, because it triggers execution of trades that have become ready. - Fix a race condition that could cause commodity trades to be executed multiple times. Abusing this to duplicate commodities seems tricky, but possible. Broken in Empire 3. - Don't expropriate sellers of units. POGO got the the money, the telegrams and made the news, the seller got nothing. Broken in 4.3.17. * Login command quit and server shutdown could lose player output. 4.3.23 tried to fix the shutdown case, but the fix was incomplete. * Fix login command quit to really quit. It sometimes just swallowed buffered input, at least on some systems. * 4.2.22's fairer command scheduling failed to cover the execute command. Fix that. * When a client shuts down input transmission to log out, output could get lost. Our client never does that. * Don't skip post command treasury update and status notification on EOF from player, after quit command, and when command is aborted by server shutdown. An unluckily timed EOF or shutdown can deprive a player of money gained from scuttling tradeships or sacking a capital. Can be abused to build bridges and infrastructure free of charge. Can also be abused to designate sectors for free, but the stock game's sector types are all free anyway. Has always been broken. * Fix client not to send an empty line on player interrupt (normally ^C) before the first command. This was missed in 4.3.26. * Code and info page cleanup. * Documentation fixes. The client did not materially change since 4.2.28.