+Changes to Empire 4.3.30 - Thu Apr 26 18:14:49 UTC 2012
+ * 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. Without that, we could fail to update the treasury, record
+ play time, and write log entries. The old code is racy. It goes
+ back to Empire 2. It was patched in 4.2.10, 4.2.12, 4.2.20, 4.3.6,
+ 4.3.10 and 4.3.23, but the core problem remained unaddressed.
+ * When shutdown aborts a command, the terminating player thread could
+ still get stuck sending output, and thus lose the race just
+ mentioned. Broken in 4.3.23.
+ * 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.
+
Changes to Empire 4.3.29 - Fri Jan 20 19:20:20 UTC 2012
* drop and fly from carrier could fail to load last civilian or
military.
carrier moved. Abusable, but it involves going broke, so it's
rarely practical. Slightly more practical before 4.3.6 removed
budget priorities. Broken for ships and land units when Empire 2
- added their maintenance cost, and for planes when v4.3.3 replaced
+ added their maintenance cost, and for planes when 4.3.3 replaced
nuclear stockpiles by nuke units.
* Fix bogus internal error triggered by navigate and march
sub-commands 'r', 'l' and 's'. Broken in 4.3.27.
* Fix "show land s" to show columns xpl and lnd again. Broken in
4.3.15.
* Code refactoring and cleanup.
- * Documentation on custom tables, xdump updated.
+ * Documentation on custom tables and xdump updated.
* Info file fixes.
Changes to Empire 4.3.27 - Sun Apr 17 11:36:29 UTC 2011
now gone.
* Fix give, setsector and setres not to wipe out concurrent updates.
* Fix explore, move, test, transport not to ignore spaces in path
- arguments. Broken in 4.3.7.
+ arguments. Broken in 4.3.7. Deprecate use of 'm' without space
+ before its argument.
* Improvements to map drawing commands:
- Don't fail silently when asked to draw a map around an invalid
unit, explain the problem.
projects / empserver / blobdiff