Plot machine activation bug

[pajlizard]

Just apon entering my lair right now, I saw that all my constructed rooms that could have machines in them had been activated (Ie, crystal-shaping workbench and consigner orb)
EDIT: After further poking it looks like my smelter isn't activated. But both crystalshapers and the consinger and the stoneworking room are. Huh.
Edit again: The smelter seems active now, apparently. *Squints disapprovingly at unwanted scaleforge*

This is not something I have done myself, as i had intended to keep the rooms un-activated for aesthetic reasons, so I'm wondering- Is this a bug? What could have caused it? Prehaps something to do with the recent down-time on order?

And also: How the heck do I fix it?

Lair plot info, just for reference:
CommunityID: 76858 (In Desokul)
PlotID: 10120641
Position: 21496 28720

[Vaz]

Bump.

This is a serious problem: Istaria spontaneously did something to a player's lair/plot with no input telling it to do so.

The only apparent workaround for this bug is to deconstruct everything in the lair, since the affected structures are on the upper layers and things planned on lower layers will lose connectivity. That's a loss of, what, 20% of the materials? Imagine if those lower layers weren't just planned but also built! Not to mention the hassle of re-planning.

Furthermore there's no guarantee this won't happen again.

So, some kind of investigation please?

[Starstilanxs]

Another bump.

Where's the help, Virtrium? Come on now. At least advise them in SOME way, shape, or form.

[Steelclaw]

Sorry, a little insane on this side of things. I'll poke around later this week and see if anyone knows what's going on.

Has anyone verified the ability to activate someone else's structures? (While unintended, it would explain what's going on.)

[Vaz]

When we discovered that machines were active in Slee's lair, the only room whose machines were still inactive was the smelting chamber. Shortly after we noticed that I experimentally pressed the Activate button for it. The button didn't seem to do anything: no immediate effect and no system messages. It was not greyed out, though, and while at the time I assumed that was normal (albeit a small failure of GUI design) I now wonder.

Checking the log, I see that the time between when we noted the smelting chamber's machines were inactive and when we noted they had just activated was about six minutes:

[02/25/12 19:56:45] [channel: me] Except the smelting chamber's machines. What's up with that?
<snip>
[02/25/12 19:58:25] [channel: other1] Is it possible for an outsider to do this, or no?
[02/25/12 19:58:45] [channel: other2] I don't think so...
[02/25/12 19:58:52] [channel: me] I don't think so. I tried just now.
<snip>
[02/25/12 20:02:33] [channel: other2] ..Wait, what? Did it just spontaneouly activate itself?

Will try to experiment further.

[Raptress]

I almost don't want to post this since I fear people will exploit it to grief others before it gets fixed, but a non-plotholder can indeed activate machines. Tested with a character on a different account with no permissions that allowed it any sort of access to the lair.

If at all possible, it seems the ability for the plotholder to deactivate machines/NPCs would fix all of this. Please fix it in some manner too. The prospect of someone activating machines in my lair is terrifying because of the rebuild that might entail in a worst-case scenario.

[Steelclaw]

Thanks for checking. I suspected that a fix for allowing players to activate community structures may have inadvertently allowed players to activate any completed structure. Looks like the fix needs to be fixed.

Deactivation, however, may be non-trivial, but I'll see what, if anything, can be done. (The answer may very well be "nothing".)

[Mimir]

Bump.

...
The only apparent workaround for this bug is to deconstruct everything in the lair, since the affected structures are on the upper layers and things planned on lower layers will lose connectivity. That's a loss of, what, 20% of the materials? Imagine if those lower layers weren't just planned but also built! Not to mention the hassle of re-planning.

Furthermore there's no guarantee this won't happen again.

So, some kind of investigation please?

If a fix cannot be put in, can the 20% loss be suspended? This would still be a hassle to re-do a lair but would not require farming 20% of the materials again, and again, and again.

[Mensar]

I started reading this thread because I have a problem with a machine in my lair not activating after the room popped. But now I see this is the opposite problem.

Dumb question: people use machine lair rooms as decoration? I always just assumed their lair was glitched.

[Dracaena]

If a fix cannot be put in, can the 20% loss be suspended? This would still be a hassle to re-do a lair but would not require farming 20% of the materials again, and again, and again.

That would just be a bandaid. It has to be fixed or you will just be on an endless loop of decon/rebuild forever whenever some troll shows up at your property. Though I agree that we should be able to get compensation for the material loss from what we are forced to decon for repairs.

I have pretty much quit playing since my lair was damaged in this manner. No point in further work until this is fixed. Now I just haunt the forums for news as they insist on closing my tickets.

@Mensar Dragons don't get plot fluff. Plain corridors are dull so we use things like t2 machine rooms to make pretty corridors and rooms. As we don't get benches, ponds, trees, flooring paving, etc, etc.

[Mimir]

That would just be a bandaid. It has to be fixed or you will just be on an endless loop of decon/rebuild forever whenever some troll shows up at your property. Though I agree that we should be able to get compensation for the material loss from what we are forced to decon for repairs.

I have pretty much quit playing since my lair was damaged in this manner. No point in further work until this is fixed. Now I just haunt the forums for news as they insist on closing my tickets.

@Mensar Dragons don't get plot fluff. Plain corridors are dull so we use things like t2 machine rooms to make pretty corridors and rooms. As we don't get benches, ponds, trees, flooring paving, etc, etc.

/agree

I wondered why you were not around.

I think it is more of a problem than just three or four lairs that have been vandalized. This really is something that should take a front burner priority.

I know that recently there has been more and more old players returning, but wouldn't you think this is a minor fix to keep them happy (read-paying their sub)?

When I first went into Dracaena's lair I thought it was one of the huge 3 or 4 lairs on the server. It looked that good. When someone puts that amount of work into something, virtual or not it is heartbreaking to have this happen.

Is there a possibility to return activation to the way it was ie. we wait for a GM or Dev to activate a public plot? Besides world projects are not what they used to be and the number of them are almost non-existent on the Order server I have found.

[LOVWYRM]

Devs- pls take a look and try to help here.
Its really important!!!

My suggestion:

It should be possible to find out who activated the rooms.
Pls check that and say a serious warning- or ban the player if there is no good explanation why he/she destroyed other players property!

[Steelclaw]

Well, the good news is, none of the damage is permanent.

Once the initial problem of anyone being able to activate a structure is solved, we'll look into the logistics of allowing plot owners deactivate their own structures at will, rather than pushing the burden onto support staff.

[Mimir]

Well, the good news is, none of the damage is permanent.

Once the initial problem of anyone being able to activate a structure is solved, we'll look into the logistics of allowing plot owners deactivate their own structures at will, rather than pushing the burden onto support staff.

So what I am reading is the support staff HAS the tools to deactivate a room?

And it is or will be coded to allow the OWNER to activate/deactivate at will?

[Velea]

NO Support staff does NOT have the tools to deactivate a room.

[Mimir]

NO Support staff does NOT have the tools to deactivate a room.

OK I wanted to clarify this as I really think paying players not logging is a bad thing.

And even though Steelclaw said "Well, the good news is, none of the damage is permanent." I agree but...

If a deactivated machine is the first room in the lair, absolutely everything has to be taken out behind it to re-build that one room. This does not include any ores or whatever that may be in silos, possessions in lairs or halls, that need to be stored someplace while the rebuild takes place.

On a biped plot this is a problem as well, but nothing compared to the magnitude of what needs to be done to fix a lair.

[Thicklesip]

Lousy situation currently. Fingers, toes, and claws crossed that everything is resolved with ease and speed!

[Vaz]

Well, the good news is, none of the damage is permanent.

Once the initial problem of anyone being able to activate a structure is solved, we'll look into the logistics of allowing plot owners deactivate their own structures at will, rather than pushing the burden onto support staff.

Thank you for the update, Steelclaw. :]

If it turns out to be too difficult to allow players to deactivate their own machines, I suggest a simple fix that would also solve some other problems:
Don't require connectivity between lair chambers.

[pajlizard]

Well, the good news is, none of the damage is permanent.

Once the initial problem of anyone being able to activate a structure is solved, we'll look into the logistics of allowing plot owners deactivate their own structures at will, rather than pushing the burden onto support staff.

So glad to know the root of the problem can be solved!

Being able to activate and deactivate plot structures at will would be really, really nice.
Also @ Xoshara, yus! That sounds like it could be brilliant for replacing bug-activated structures! Though might get a bit tricky when adding now structures and potentially getting them to line up. But heck I don't know much about how these things work :B

Hopefully it shall be an easy method to deactivate lair rooms so people (Including I) won't have to decon a ruxus-load of stuff and loose out on materials! Thanks for the feedback and help, Steelclaw

[Mimir]

Has there been any progress on this? I have yet to see Dracaena return. And at least one of the others has pulled a disappearing act as well.