Re: CF: BUGS: (was Re: Crossfire 0.95.2 released.)

[Raphaël Quinet <Raphael.Quinet@eed.ericsson.se>]

On Tue, 2 Feb 1999, Jacek Konieczny wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 31, 1999 at 02:34:27PM +0000, Mark Wedel wrote:
[...]
> > Change move_gate so that it won't roll off things like grass or other
> > immovable objects.
> This totally broken boulder&gates mechanism. Such as used in new Scorn
> gate house andin raffles.
> However I cannot remember the grass problem.
> Would you please stop "fixing" those imaginary problems?

The problem with the grass is not imaginary.  It was reported by Anthony
Thyssen two weeks ago.  Excerpt from his message:
: PS:  Have you ever noticed that a closing gate will not only `roll'
: objects and boulders of then but other objects too!!!
: 
: I wanted to add a hidden gate so I put it under the floor!  When the
: gate closed however it `rolled' the floor of it!!!  It will also roll
: buttons and ANY other object including other gates which is on top.
: 
: Gates also will roll if caught at the right moment, flying arrows, and
: spell effects!!!!  It is rare but I have seen it happen.

So it is not an imaginary problem.  Maybe the fix introduced by Mark is
not the best one, but something had to be done about this bug.  Sure, it
would have been better if Mark had spent more time testing it, but I
don't care about that.  In fact, I am glad that he did not waste his time
testing all maps.

Remember that Crossfire is still in development.  We are not only players,
but also testers and potential developers.  As a developer, I prefer to
have an early release even if it is unstable, instead of having a more
stable release that comes a few weeks later.  If you want a stable release,
maybe it would be better to wait until version 1.0 is out...  Anyway, I am
sure that a patch for this "gates & boulders" problem will appear on this
list within a few days.

> And please release next version as soon as possible, but only tested, and
> with bug-fixes for REPORTED bugs.

NO!  I don't want Mark to waste his time on testing everything before
making a release.  A key idea in Open Source software development is
"release early, release often".  I am sure that Mark has plenty of other
things to do in Real Life, and any minute that he spends testing the
game means that the next release is delayed.

If the server does not crash immediately after a bug fix and it is still
possible to start a new character and enter a couple of houses, then IMHO
the game is stable enough for a new release.  All other bugs will
certainly be found by one of us on this list, and patches will follow
soon enough.

Also, it is a bit ridiculous to ask Mark to fix only the reported bugs.
If he finds something strange and he thinks that it needs a fix, than I'd
rather let him fix it before too many people consider the bug as a normal
feature of the game.  And if it requires many changes in the maps because
the bug fix broke some maps that were taking advantage of the "feature",
then so be it.  It is anyway easier to edit the maps than to add many
special cases in the server code.  Maybe it is annoying to always change
the maps, but in the long run it is better to spend time making the server
more consistent.

That being said, I will have a look at the "gates & boulders" problem...

-Raphaël
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