Feature - Implemented Hit main.php on Login

Lets discuss the pros and cons of hitting main.php at login! The idea has been popping up in the Crimbotown thread and other places, but I think we'd best give it a dedicated thread so we can seriously consider it.

I'd like to make it clear that is not purely a Crimbo feature. Even before this Crimbo there would have been a benefit to hitting main.php on login. Both Eudora items, the Pen Pal and GameInformer are sent to the player when he hits main.php for the first time. If you don't hit that page, you don't get the items. For this reason I put that hit into my loginScript.

Now Jick has added another reason to hit main.php on login. Even more importantly, if I time out I need to hit main.php to regain access to Crimbotown and a loginScript won't do that for me.

Since there are now two reasons to hit main.php I suspect that Jick will eventually add a third. Adding the feature now gets us ahead of the problem.

Those are the advantages. The con is that there's another page hit on login. We might even decide to get that extra page hit every time we log back in after timeout.

Yeah, I think I'm pro it too.

+1

I have not looked at the delivery mechanics of GameInfomerPro etc, but is sounds like there is a chance people who used KoLmafia exclusively could miss out since it is possibly to burn turns in mafia and never hit main.php, right?

Right.

This server hit should only happen for people that don't have the relay browser set to open automatically. And once Crimbo is over, only the first login per day will currently give any purpose to that server hit.

lostcalpolydude said:

This server hit should only happen for people that don't have the relay browser set to open automatically. And once Crimbo is over, only the first login per day will currently give any purpose to that server hit.

Click to expand...

Yes, this Crimbo problem in unique in that rare (~once per day) hits were good enough until now. Adding to Bale's lists of reasons for hitting main.php, there was a bug fix that required players affected to hit main.php, but I forgot all the details.

Ideally the main.php hit should take place before loading the character's inventory, so that you don't have to load the inventory again in order to see the eudora items that were delivered when you hit main.php, as you currently have to.

Looks like Halloween may not work right til main.php is hit either.

http://forums.kingdomofloathing.com/vb/showpost.php?p=4582778&postcount=24

Is anyone actually opposed to the extra page hit at log on and when recovering from timeout? This really does seem like it has some real advantages.

Definitely not now. It seems like KoL can/will expand this so you cannot access certain content until you hit main.php, which in turn handicaps mafia unless the relay browser is specifically used. Meaning we have to hit main.php anyway.

Well, mafia could check to see if it is a known case where main.php needs to be hit.

Need to hit main.php if:

• Player has a eudora IotM and this is the first login today
• The date is an expected Halloween
• The month is December or early January

If none of those conditions are true, then mafia does not need to hit main.php

Based on this thread, we probably need to load it no matter what.

Done in 13635.