struct trdstr members trd_x, trd_y are used only for teleporting
trades. For others, trad() wrote garbage coordinates to the trade
file. They weren't used except by xdump. Fortunately, even there
they're visible only to deities.
Write invalid coordinates instead. Do that in set() as well, so that
coordinates are valid only when we have a teleport destination.
Spotted by the Clang Static Analyzer.
take_def() and ask_move_in() printed both to the current player and to
land unit owner. Their use of prcom() and xyas() looked particularly
suspicious: they used the current player, then printed the result to
the land unit owner. Fortunately, current player and land unit owner
are the same, since even even deities can't attack with foreign land
units. Normalize to current player for consistency.
Switch get_ototal(), get_oland(), kill_land() and move_in_land() to
current player as well.
Local analysis can now easily find out what's up. Before,
whole-program analysis was required. The Clang Static Analyzer
complained about code that is actually fine.
Oops when a stale copy is written back, i.e. the processor was yielded
since the copy was made. Such bugs are difficult to spot. Sequence
numbers catch them when they do actual harm (they also catch different
bugs). Generation numbers catch them even when they don't.
New ef_generation to count generations. Call new ef_make_stale() to
increment it whenever the processor may be yielded.
New struct emptypedstr member generation. To conserve space, make it
a bit-field of twelve bits, i.e. generations are only recorded modulo
2^12. Make sure all members of unit empobj_storage share it. It is
only used in copies; its value on disk and in the cache is
meaningless. Copies with generation other than ef_generation are
stale. Stale copies that are a multiple of 2^12 generations old can't
be detected, but that is sufficiently improbable.
Set generation to ef_generation by calling new ef_mark_fresh() when
making copies in ef_read() and ef_blank(). nav_ship() and
fltp_to_list() make copies without going through ef_read(), and
therefore need to call ef_mark_fresh() as well. Also call it in
obj_changed() to make check_sect_ok() & friends freshen their argument
when it is unchanged.
New must_be_fresh() oopses when its argument is stale. Call it in
ef_write() to catch write back of stale copies.
Store them and ef_type in bit-fields.
Allocate eight bits for ef_type. Values range from 0 to EF_GAME
(currently 16), so this is plenty.
Allocate twelve bits for sequence numbers. Sequence number mismatches
are now missed when the numbers are equal modulo 2^12. Still
sufficiently improbable.
Common machines store the bit-fields in a 32 bit word. There are
twelve bits left in that word for future use. Total savings 16 bits,
which is exactly what the previous commit spent on wider uids on
common machines.
Before, they were stored as short. Wider uids use more space, but the
next commit will recover it by narrowing other members.
The use of short has always limited the number of ships, planes, land
units and nukes to SHRT_MAX (commonly 32768). Only the most extreme
games ever came close.
Commit 49780e2c (v4.3.12) added struct sctstr member sct_uid to make
struct empobj member uid work for sectors. This made the limit apply
to sectors as well. We've had games with more than 32768 sectors.
Member nws_uid is unused since the commit before previous. Remove it.
Member nws_seqno is of marginal value, because we write news only
through ncache[], and thus aren't prone to the errors sequence numbers
can catch. Remove it.
Make timestamp selector virtual, computing nws_when + nws_duration,
and remove member nws_timestamp. Impact:
* In ncache(), the removed timestamp equals nws_when + nws_duration,
both for new news and updated news. No change.
* delete_old_news() becomes invisible. Before, its move of unexpired
news to the beginning of the news file touched all the timestamps.
That was unwanted, because the move does not change news, only their
storage. Improvement.
* empdump no longer flags the imported news changed via the timestamp.
This is somewhat unfortunate. Document as bug.
With these members removed, struct nwsstr no longer matches struct
emptypedstr, so clear news table flag EFF_TYPED and remove union
empobj_storage member news. This loses the automatic maintenance of
member ef_type via struct emptypedstr. Remove ef_type as well.
This shrinks struct nwsstr from 20 to 12 bytes on common 32 bit
machines, and from 32 to 16 bytes on common 64 bit machines. Since
the server doesn't map the whole news file (EFF_MAP is off), this
reduces I/O, while the table's memory use remains the same.
Historical note: struct nwsstr is now pretty much what it was back in
BSD Empire 1.1. Members ef_type and nws_uid go back to Empire 3 (for
C_SYNC?). v4.3.12 added member nws_timestamp, which doubled the size
on common 64 bit machines. v4.3.15 added nws_seqno.
struct lndstr member lnd_flags is a leftover from Empire3's C_SYNC,
which was ripped out in 4.0.0.
struct lonstr member l_sel, struct nuk_str members nuk_ship, nuk_land,
and struct trtstr member trt_bond have been there basically forever
without any use.
Collateral damage was disabled, because after msl_hit() reported a
miss, the missile may or may not have reached the target.
Fix by splitting msl_launch() off msl_hit().
Drop the disabled collateral damage code for sector targets, because
sectors can't be missed. Enable it for ships and land units.
Since msl_launch() returns whether the missile is sub-launched, drop
launch_missile() parameter sublaunch, and simplify its caller.
Keep only the common part in msl_intercept(), and give it internal
linkage. Wrap new msl_abm_intercept() and msl_asat_intercept() around
it. They are simpler to use.
Before Empire 2, nukes could be delivered only with bomb (special
mission 'n', airburst only) and launch (targeting sectors or
satellites only).
Empire 2 made nukes available for any kind of bombing, and for any
missile strike on sectors or ships. This included interdiction and
support missions. Nuclear-tipped anti-sats and bomb mission n were
removed.
Unfortunately, this was done in a messy way, which led to
inconsistencies and bugs. The problem is that ordinary damage affects
just the target, while nuke damage affects an area. Code dealing with
plane damage was designed for the former. Instead of rewriting it to
cope with area damage cleanly, nuke damage got shoehorned into
pln_damage(), the function to compute conventional plane damage, as a
side effect: computing damage blasted sectors in the area.
If the plane carried a nuke, pln_damage() returned zero (conventional)
damage. Without further logic, this simply bypassed the code to apply
damage to the target. This worked out okay when the target already
got damaged correctly by the side effect.
However, some targets are immune to the side effect: when interdicting
a move or explore command, the commodities being moved are not in any
sector.
For other targets, damage has effects other than damaging the target:
offensive and defensive support don't apply the (conventional) damage
to the target sector. Instead, they turn it into a combat bonus.
Without further logic, nuclear damage doesn't contribute to that.
To make all that work, pln_damage() returned the nuclear damage for
ground zero as well. Because a plane does either conventional or
nuclear damage, one of them is always zero.
Most callers simply ignored the nuclear damage, and applied only the
conventional damage.
Bug: land units and ships failed to retreat when pin-bombed or
missiled with a nuke. That's because they received zero conventional
damage.
The mission code flies planes and missiles and tallies their damage.
This mission damage included nuclear damage at ground zero (except for
missiles sometimes, see below), to make support and commodity
interdiction work. Unfortunately, this broke other things.
Bug: when bombers interdicted ships or land units, nukes first damaged
the ships or land units by the side effect, then again through mission
damage. Interdicting missiles had a special case to avoid this.
Bug: when interdicting move, explore or transport, nukes first damaged
the sector by the side effect, then again through mission damage's
collateral damage.
There may well be more bugs hiding in this mess.
The mess is not worth fixing. While the idea of interdicting and
supporting with nukes sounds kind of cool, I believe it's pretty
irrelevant in actual play.
Instead, go back to a variation of the original rules: nukes can be
delivered only through bomb mission 's' and launch at sectors.
Make arm reject marine missiles in addition to satellites, ABMs and
SAMs, and clear the mission. Make mission reject planes armed with
nukes. Oops when they show up in mission_pln_equip() anyway.
Make pln_equip() allow planes with nukes only for missions 's' and
't'.
Clean up pln_damage() to just compute damage, without side effect.
Change strat_bomb() and launch_missile() to detonate nukes. Simplify
the other callers. Parameter mission of msl_launch_mindam() is now
unused, remove it.
Missiles exploding on launch no longer set off their nukes. That was
pretty ridiculous anyway.
msl_equip() used mission_pln_equip(), which is for automatic defenses,
and therefore silent. Its users launch_as(), launch_missile() and
launch_sat() printed failure diagnostics based on assumptions on what
could go wrong.
Switch to the appropriate function for commands, pln_equip(), and
remove the guesswork. Implement mission 'i' there. When launching
from a foreign base, its owner now gets informed. Unimportant at this
time, as players can't easily deploy missiles in foreign bases.
This change also switches off automatic supply for launch. Consistent
with bomb.
These were leftovers from Chainsaw, and their only remaining effect
was a flak bonus.
The got replaced except for flak by plane selector stealth under
Chainsaw option STEALTHV, which became mandatory in Empire 2. It is
unclear why STEALTHV didn't cover flak. No planes with these
capabilities have existed in the stock game since Empire 2.
pln_arm(), pln_equip(), mission_pln_arm() mission_pln_equip() took a
mission parameter encoding the kind of sortie (strategic bomb,
pinpoint bomb, transport, ...), a flag parameter to further specify
the plane's role, and a parameter ip to specify the load.
The flags argument was always either P_F (intercept), P_F | P_ESC
(escort), or zero (any other role).
With non-zero flags, mission and ip argument were not used in any way.
Use mission 'e' and null load for escorts, and remove flags.
Intercept can still be identified by mission zero.
Also change pln_mobcost() to take a mission parameter instead of
flags, so that pln_arm() and mission_pln_arm() can simply pass on
their mission.
A player thread may sleep on input or output, except:
(1) While it is executing a C_MOD command, it may only sleep on input.
(2) While it is being aborted by the update or shutdown, it may not
sleep at all.
To find out whether a player thread may sleep on input, code has to
check condition (2). It needs do to that in recvclient().
To find out whether it may sleep on output, it has to check both
conditions. It needs to do that in pr_player() and upr_player().
The code tracked condition (1) in global variable play_lock_wanted.
It checked condition (2) by examining struct player member command.
Replace all that by new struct player member may_sleep. Initialize it
in player_new(), update it in dispatch(), shutdwn() and update_run().
This makes the tests in recvclient(), pr_player() and upr_player()
obvious. play_wrlock_wanted() is now unused, remove it.
Player threads may only sleep under certain conditions. In
particular, they must not sleep while a command is being aborted by
the update or shutdown.
io.c should not know about that. Yet io_output_all() does, because it
needs to give up when update or shutdown interrupt it. The function
was introduced in Empire 2, but it didn't give up then. Fixed in
commit a7fa7dee, v4.2.22. The fix dragged unwanted knowledge of
command abortion into io.c.
To clean up this mess, io_output_all() has to go.
First user is io_write(). io_write() automatically flushes the queue.
In wait-mode, it calls io_output_all() when the queue is longer than
the bufsize, to attempt flushing the queue completely. In
no-wait-mode, it calls io_output() every bufsize bytes. Except the
test for that is screwy, so it actually misses some of the flush
conditions.
The automatic flush makes io_write() differ from io_gets(), which is
ugly. It wasn't present in BSD Empire 1.1. Remove it again, dropping
io_write()'s last argument.
Flush the queue in its callers pr_player() and upr_player() instead.
Provide new io_output_if_queue_long() for them. Requires new struct
iop member last_out to keep track of queue growth. pr_player() and
upr_player() call repeatedly until it makes no more progress. This
flushes a bit less eagerly in wait-mode, and a bit more eagerly in
non-wait mode.
Second user is recvclient(). It needs to flush the queue before
potentially sleeping in io_input(). Do that with a simple loop around
io_output(). No functional change there.
LWP and Windows implementations already did that. Rewrite the
pthreads implementation.
The write-bias makes the stupid play_wrlock_wanted busy wait in
dispatch() unnecessary. Remove it.
