More BFV XML Bugs, and Some Oddness

[Forrest Thiessen]

Peter: This is soooo cool to have a Linux server pretty much ready when
the game’s released—thanks for all your efforts!

I’ve been studying the XML event logs generated by the server (various
versions, but I’ve checked the following on the latest version, too),
and have the following comments:

1. BUG: roundInit events are missing from the logs.  In BF1942, they
look like this:
     <bf:event name="roundInit" timestamp="276.721">
         <bf:param type="int" name="tickets_team1">375</bf:param>
         <bf:param type="int" name="tickets_team2">375</bf:param>
     </bf:event>
   These events occur early in each round and mark the actual start time
of
   each round; that "actual" start time can be just after the timestamp
at
   the beginning of each <bf:round> tag, or it can be a minute or more
later,
   depending (I guess) on how fast things initialize.  Without the
roundInit
   event there is no way to tell when gameplay actually starts, and so
any
   statistics will have to be based on the <bf:round> timestamp. . . and
will
   therefore show the round duration as having been longer than it
really was.
   Can we please have roundInit events back?

2. BUG: There is a bug in BF1942's XML logs that causes victorytype
reported
   in the <bf:roundstats> structure at the end of every round to ALWAYS
be "4".
   That same bug appears to be present in BFV.  Even though it's a bug
   "inherited" from BF1942, it sure would be nice to fix it (like you or
   someone else apparently fixed the bug in BF1942 that caused all games
to
   be logged as "GPM_CQ", even when they weren't--the mode reporting
feature
   works correctly in BFV's XML logs).

3. WEIRDNESS: The semantics of flag captures have changed from the way
   they are handled in BF1942; it's definitely incompatible, but whether
it's
   a bug or not. . . (maybe it's a "feature"?).  In BF1942, flag
captures in
   all play modes other than CTF are denoted as "Attack" scoreEvents.
In
   BF1942 CTF mode, flag captures are reported as "FlagCapture"
scoreEvents.
   In BFV, however, any kind of flag capture is reported as a
"FlagCapture"
   scoreEvent.  That's probably ok and can be dealt with, but it's
definitely
   a change from how BF1942 behaved.  Is there a reason to change the
scoreEvent
   type of flag captures?  If not, could we leave them as "Attacks" so
as to
   be compatible?  (Note that BFV also introduces a new "Defence" (yes,
it's
   misspelled) scoreEvent type that is generated by something to do with
flags,
   but I haven't figured out yet--probably something to do with the new
   behavior of flags in   No big deal--it seems unrelated to the
   Attack/FlagCapture issue). (Note 2: BF1942 and BFV both seem to have
   "Objective" and "ObjectiveTK" scoreEvent types; I haven't been able
to try
   them in BFV yet, but they are definitely *BROKEN* in BF1942--I can't
get
   them to be produced for anything, even in Objective-mode Secret
Weapons
   maps; hopefully they work in BFV, if not, that will be a bug, too).

I'm leaving out from this list things that should be in the XML logs,
but aren't in BF1942, and I'm guessing aren't in BFV, either (things
like no logging of game pauses, of operator messages ["game.sayall"], no
logging of map or kick votes, no record in the log of date and time [you
have to get it from the file name], and no reliable way to tell which
log file is currently active, if any, etc., etc.).  Presumably, those
are things could be addressed in release 1.1 of the server (or 1.2, or
1.3. . .) since they are "new" features, rather than "bug" fixes.

Thanks,

--Woodrow
  thiessen at cyberscapearena.com







-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Chang [mailto:peter.chang at dicecanada.com] 
Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2004 4:38 PM
To: Bf1942 at Icculus. Org (E-mail)
Subject: [bf1942] bfv five-by-five

yes, it's true, this man has no life... 
in an effort to have a 'release' w/ no known major issues i present... 
       
http://bfvietnam.lightcubed.com/dist/bfv_linded-v1.0-20040314.2319.run 
       
http://bfvietnam.lightcubed.com/dist/bfv_linded-v1.0-20040314.2319.run.m
d5 
and 
       
http://bfvietnam.lightcubed.com/dist/bfv_linded-apps-v1.0-20040314.2324.
run 
       
http://bfvietnam.lightcubed.com/dist/bfv_linded-apps-v1.0-20040314.2324.
run.md5 
the later only have binary thingees (the exes and the pb .so's) along w/
the readmes etc since the content hasn't changed.
check the readme to see if your favorite bugbear has been addressed, but
this will be the *LAST* interim release (unless a 16-ton weight drops on
my head) and v1.0 should be considered baked. this is especially true
since there should be clients soon.
\p