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dublication bug



Hi everyone,

I want to get rid of a bug that most of you might already be familiar
with. I´m talking about the "dublication bug", a way to dublicate items.
It´s actually more a cheating-trick than a real code-bug but I still
refer to it as a bug.

For all of you who still don´t know, here´s a description how it works.
Unfortunately, there are two different ways (that is important if we try
to get rid of it):

Variant 1: (one char needed, changing maps)
1. Save your character on map A
2. Drop the item(s) you want dublicated on map A
3. Leave map A and crash the server (hundred ways of doing so) on map B
4. Reconnect and return to map A. You will now find the item(s) both in
   your inventory and on the floor where you dropped them.

Variant 2: (two chars needed, no changing maps)
1. Save character A, who has the item(s) in his inventory
2. Char A drops his item(s), char B picks them up
3. Save char B and crash the server
4. After reconnecting, both chars have the item(s) in their inventory

I think everybody should agree that this bug is very annoying. It is one
major reason why playing crossfire gets too easy after some time.
Pleople use it to create heaps of potions, diamonds and improvement
scrolls. Of course one could refuse to seize the bug, but it won´t be
fun collecting stuff while you know that you could also get it all in
a second. I´ve met newbies online, hoarsing around with improvement
scrolls and asking me if I could need a few hundred... that is not okay!
And not to forget that server-crashing could be greatly reduced by
fixing that bug too.

Now straight to the point: How to get rid of that bug?
It has already been discussed a few times, but never with any good
results yet, as far as I know.

The best way of course would be to prevent any possibility for a player
to crash the cf-server intentionally. Unfortunatly, I believe this is
impossible. There are hundreds of different ways to crash the server -
most people are actually crashing their client to bring the server down.
And one can never prevent players from using crashable clients.

So we gotta find other ways. The only one I can think of is to save
characters automatically at specific points of play:
(You might realize now that this problem starts getting related with
the `checkpoints´ issue!)

- Characters should get saved automatically every time they apply an
  exit and change maps. That would prevent usage of version 1 of the bug.

- If one character saves on a map, all other players on the same map
  must get saved too. I know this sounds a bit nasty, but I cannot
  think of another way to prevent usage of bug version 2.

Fortunately, saving a char takes no time, so it shouldn´t be a
disadvantage if players get saved more often. These new saving-rules
could help to fix the `checkpoints issue´ as well (what happens to
players after a crash?). If players should wake up at certain
checkpoints after a crash, it will be necessary to save them at least
once they enter a new map anyway.


I would be glad to hear what other people think about that issue. 
And of course, if anybody can figure out better ways of how to fix the
dublication bug - tell me! =)

  					Andreas Vogl


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