[Code] AI Crashing

I played as an AI for a brief period and experienced firsthand the crashing that occurs. I am not sure if it is limited to crashing upon tracking across z-levels, though that is what I experienced.

I did noticed that I could manually move up and down z levels without crashing.

If the crashing is just related to tracking across z-levels, could the code include a workaround that will first check if the target is on the same z-level, and, if not, move the AI vision up or down z-levels to match and then find its target?

Apologies for my ignorance of coding and of the full extent of the crashing issue, but I wonder if labeling the crashing simply a BYOND issue out of our control is missing an opportunity to attempt a workaround of BYOND's bad code using our own.

If I remember correctly, some instances of hotlink jumping and moving up from sublevels causes clientside runtimes or something.

It is apparently fixed in the newest version of byond.

Don't 'jump' to characters, don't 'follow' characters unless ordered to, don't change z-levels unless you have to.

I play AI quite a it, and I found out the following things

A) Research Sub-Level is hell for AI in terms of crashing, do NOT hotlink(click a char to track) or you will almost certainly crash, your only hope is to either change Z-levels manually via changing networks or the up command and to hope for best

B) Broken cameras apparently crash AIs alot (never had this happen, but static areas are laggy

Take also in mind that AI's crashes was also an issue before new map.

As a temporary fix (That only accounts for the sublevel crashes)

If you move to THIS tile, as highlighted here, you can safely move-up without crashing.

Just be sure to pan over to research if you accidentally move down to medical aswell.

You're welcome! OwO

If the crashing is just related to tracking across z-levels, could the code include a workaround that will first check if the target is on the same z-level, and, if not, move the AI vision up or down z-levels to match and then find its target?

This won't reliably help, I wouldn't think. The issue is DreamSeeker (the program you use to play the game) getting stuck in an infinite loop, or outright crashing, whenever too much new map data is sent. So, whenever you jump views, swap Zs, etcetera, you run the risk of triggering said crash. It used to exist before as well, on the Exodus even, it just wasn't as exacerbated. The solution proposed wouldn't really minimize the amount of data nor the size of the delta required to update what you see.

As far as fixes go, 512 appears to have solved the issue, as far as my testing indicates. However, this requires that both the client and server be bumped, and since 512 has a recent history of really crippling issues, we're holding off for now. No real windows, because this shit runs on Lummox time, but maybe in March/April? We'll seee.

If the crashing is just related to tracking across z-levels, could the code include a workaround that will first check if the target is on the same z-level, and, if not, move the AI vision up or down z-levels to match and then find its target?

 

This won't reliably help, I wouldn't think. The issue is DreamSeeker (the program you use to play the game) getting stuck in an infinite loop, or outright crashing, whenever too much new map data is sent. So, whenever you jump views, swap Zs, etcetera, you run the risk of triggering said crash. It used to exist before as well, on the Exodus even, it just wasn't as exacerbated. The solution proposed wouldn't really minimize the amount of data nor the size of the delta required to update what you see.

As far as fixes go, 512 appears to have solved the issue, as far as my testing indicates. However, this requires that both the client and server be bumped, and since 512 has a recent history of really crippling issues, we're holding off for now. No real windows, because this shit runs on Lummox time, but maybe in March/April? We'll seee.

So what you're saying is that we should totally get two more AIs to support the sublevel and surface level and have each AI sectioned off to a specific level only? ;D