Bug - Fixed continuationState stuck at PENDING after "Script" button is used in the relay browser

[Magus_Prime]

I don't know whether this is the same issue or not but it seems to be related. I auto-adventured in the Arid Extra-Dry Desert, while looking for pages of the manual, for ten turns. I didn't find all the pages and automation stopped. The sidebar in KoLMafia was red.

I continued adventuring in the relay browser and the sidebar stayed red through multiple relay browser adventures. As soon as I typed something, in this case "debug on", in the gCLI the sidebar turned green.

This is with r14772.

 

[Veracity]

THat sounds like correct behavior. Auto adventuring and GUI/CLI actions affect the display state, whereas using the relay browser does not.

Can you explain exactly what you see as incorrect? I.e., "when I did such and such, I expected this thing to happen, but this other thing happened instead.

 

[Ensiferum]

Auto adventuring and GUI/CLI actions affect the display state, whereas using the relay browser does not

I am not sure why this is suddenly considered good and correct behaviour. It's actually pretty confusing in some cases.

Example:
I am fighting in the relay browser, clicking the Script button to fire off my CCS.
Round one I get hit for huge amount of HP. Mafia aborts the CCS, but there is absolutely no information in the relay. Previous behaviour was that the charpane will turn RED and I'll see something went wrong (mafia charpane is visible in the background). Right now it's staying GREEN and no matter how many times I click the "script" button, all I get in the relay is "You twiddle your thumbs."

Only after alt+tab to the mafia window and navigating to the CLI tab I can see that it actually aborted for health reasons:

Health fell below 412. Auto-abort triggered.
You're on your own, partner.

Why do we have to go through all this extra hassle to see that a script aborted?

 

[Magus_Prime]

In the past, I've, perhaps incorrectly, interpreted a red sidebar as a notice that something failed and that I should "fix" whatever happened to cause the failure before continuing to adventure.

I'm not used to being able to continue adventuring normally in the relay browser with a red sidebar. If this is expected behavior then I'm willing and able to adapt. I'm not saying that it's wrong but it is different.

 

[Veracity]

I am fighting in the relay browser, clicking the Script button to fire off my CCS.
Round one I get hit for huge amount of HP. Mafia aborts the CCS, but there is absolutely no information in the relay.

This confused me, since it did not agree with my experience.

- You are fighting in the relay browser
- You click the "script" button to execute your CCS
- The CCS aborts
- There is "absolutely no information in the relay"

I decided to test this out. I set my CCS to this:

[ default ]
"pickpocket"
abort

I entered a combat in the Relay Browser and hit the script button. Here is the text that I see in the middle of my screen:

You deftly slip your fingers into your opponent's pocket and grab something.

You acquire an item: thin black candle
You also manage to snag some Meat!
You gain 27 Meat.

Gronald climbs up and sits on your shoulder, and hands you some Meat. Huh, where did he find that?
You gain 69 Meat.

You grab a handful of pencils from your cup and hurl them at your opponent, creating a veritable pencil rain and causing 20 damage worth of splinters and graphite poisoning.

He pops a pimple, but you dodge the geyser of pus.

Macro Aborted ("abort "KoLmafia CCS abort"")

That agrees with your claim, except for the "absolutely no information in the relay" part of it.

I did an action in the relay browser.
I look at the relay browser and saw the result of my action.
Meanwhile, the KoLmafia GUI - which I frequently have hidden, so cannot see in any case - did nothing.

Previous behaviour was that the charpane will turn RED and I'll see something went wrong (mafia charpane is visible in the background).

As I said, I don't have the the mafia GUI visible, so I wouldn't have seen this.

Right now it's staying GREEN and no matter how many times I click the "script" button, all I get in the relay is "You twiddle your thumbs."

Is this a change in behavior? I don't recall trying to use the script button except at the beginning of a combat, since I tend to set up my CCS with things early in the combat that have to come first - like that "pickpocket" line.

Only after alt+tab to the mafia window and navigating to the CLI tab I can see that it actually aborted for health reasons:

Health fell below 412. Auto-abort triggered.
You're on your own, partner.

OK, so you are saying that when the CCS aborts, you don't see something like this in fight text?
File a bug report.

Why do we have to go through all this extra hassle to see that a script aborted?

As I said, I could see that my script aborted by looking at the fight results in the relay browser.

 

[Ensiferum]

Is this a change in behavior?

It is, yes.

As Magus_Prime said, previously such failure resulted in a red charpane, that indicated something needs fixing and actually prevented you from continuing. And that was one of the reasons I've always kept mafia charpane visible in the background, along with the easier to read stats.

As for my example, it seems I did not mention that there was a lag out with a blank page after clicking the script button. So after refreshing the page or just clicking main, there was nothing but a "thumbs twiddle" message left.

If that's the way things will be from now on, we will have to adapt. It's just hard to ignore things that have worked exactly the opposite way for years and right now it's confusing.

 

[Veracity]

I think it is likely that the side pane will no longer change color as a result of scripts in the relay browser any more. If you'd been following the discussion leading up to this change, you'd understand why.

However, a blank page with no feedback upon pressing the script button is a bug - and, possibly, the script button being enabled at all after script aborting is a bug. I think the other combat action buttons should be enabled - you are still in combat - but if a script will fail to execute, the script button should not be enabled.

Thanks for your report. I am sure roippi will be right on it.

 

[roippi]

I'm far more interested in making the relay browser experience correct - i.e. diagnostic information on why things broke should go to, y'know, the relay browser. And simultaneously to the gCLI, which is still the case.

So no surprise, I agree with veracity.

I know that peoples' brains get used to things, and thus CHANGE BAD, but I don't see the old behavior as particularly useful. Something breaks in the relay browser, so you tab over to the main interface to see... it's red? And that tells you something useful? You still have to check the gCLI. All that "red" is doing for you is confirming that something broke - which is again something that the browser should be responsible for, since that's where the error happened.

 

[fronobulax]

The red was the signal to me that something went wrong. I would not necessarily scroll down in the relay browser or switch to the gCLI to figure out what went wrong unless or until I saw red. So I can see the point. But, I am a firm believer that what happens in the relay browser stays in the relay browser so I think the way forward is to identify what "errors" the relay browser is detecting and make sure they are visible.

I don't think making the char pane red is a good idea and I am not fan of popups so I think the answer is going to depend upon manipulating the center frame somehow. If the relay browser wants to tell me about an error then if it prints the message in bold red (since I am not colorblind) and then autoscrolls the window so that message is visible I'd be fine with that.