We were experiencing a good deal of lag that was associated with
city/council guards trying to guard locations that were in the sewers
and the guard was currently stationed outside of the sewers, or the
reverse.
To make a long story short, the guards were basically trying to get to
rooms that they couldn't access themselves, and they kept trying to do
this, consuming a good deal of time in the process.
To fix this, I've made it so that each sewer grate location contains a
pseudo-down room link into the sewers. Players are unable to use this
link. They must still use ENTER GRATE. However, guards are now able to
move themselves up out of and down into the sewers. This means that they
will also come to the aid of citizens that are being attacked near the
guards will be protected by these guards as normal, even if the guards
are in and out of the sewers.
As soon as this is applied, there are likely going to be a large number
of guards in all of the cities that will spontaneously start moving as
they are (finally) able to return to the stations that they were
supposed to be guarding. After a couple of minutes, all guards should
settle down. Security ministers and aides will likely want to check
their guard configurations to make sure that they are still viable.
These new 'down' exits from sewer grates should not be visible, and
there should be no way a player can pass through them without using
ENTER GRATE. I've tested most of the standard things like thrustkick,
Elemancy gust, jumpkick, and the like. There are likely a few
non-standard methods of movement that I've neglected to check. If you
find a way that you can move, or someone can force you to move, into the
sewers without the grate, please bug it.
In addition, items shouldn't be able to pass through this connection
into/out of the sewers. For example, arrows and thrown items should not
work. Again, if you find anything that does, please bug it.
Mobiles should not be able to pass, by their own power, through the
sewer connections. This includes wandering mobiles, or mobiles that are
ordered to move through the sewers. This should not affect mobiles that
are following a player.
Artistry users may rejoice, I believe that I've finally fixed the bug
that resulted in another player constantly seeming as if he was "hounded
by a sketch" when in reality, he/she wasn't. Thank you very much for
your patience in this matter, it really was a difficult bug to hunt
down.
And finally, I've fixed a bug that was causing jewellers, masons, and
chefs to encounter difficulty in preparing their craft items. Comms
should be checked and removed properly. If you're trying to create an
item that does not have any commodity requirements set on it, you will
be told as such. It would be a good to bug this. Again, my sincerest
thanks to those that were patient with the problem, and for the helpful
bug reports.
Penned by my hand on the 15th of Ultio, in the year 454 AD.
