robbed without a tape

arakira · 2014-01-03 13:14:15

I have just been robbed (I had the red message "your house is being robbed"), but I see no new tape. Actually this is not the first time it happens, but this time I had no access to my house for about 30 minutes... Anyone had this problem?

der · 2014-01-03 13:18:24

I have another strange problem that may be connected:

After I die robbing someone house stays busy as If I am still here, so I can't rob it again. I repeat it with another house and it becomes busy too.

Is it limits or subj. bug?

Last edited by der (2014-01-03 13:18:48)

Hippasus · 2014-01-03 21:13:06

Arakira, this will have been the result of either a connection failure on the part of the robber or them quitting the game (or I suppose the game crashing) before the robbery was completed. In any of these cases, due to the asynchronous nature of the game, the details of the robbery attempt will not have been sent from the client to the server and so the tape recording simply was never sent. For the same reason you will not have received any of the tools which you otherwise would receive on their death. Even if the robber has just died in your house if they rage quit on the death screen no recording will be sent.

Der, I'm not totally sure from your description but I assume you're experiencing 'chills'. In the current version you cannot rob a house you have just died in for a full hour, there are several game-play reasons for this, most importantly so that you cannot grind a single house with endless starter accounts, also, it prevents dual account abuse as you can now only suicidally dump tools and bounties into a friendly house once every hour.

Last edited by Hippasus (2014-01-03 21:53:05)

arakira · 2014-01-04 01:23:03

Thank you Hippasus. So, if during a robbery you realize that you're trapped and will die there, you could just force quit the game to avoid the owner getting the bounty and remaining tools, which seems a bit unfair... But I guess there is no way for the server to know what happened on the client side.

Anyway, I see another drawback to this: you don't know how far the robber went into your house and how well he knows it. He may now know how to break it (or almost) and come back later to finish the job, while you don't know if you should update your security systems accordingly (and you may not be able to afford it since you didn't get any reward from him dying in your house).
Well, it just happened again twice in a row. Someone may be trying to slowly make progress into my house with starter accounts, without having me noticing it (or am I paranoid ? )

Last edited by arakira (2014-01-04 01:58:01)

jasonrohrer · 2014-01-05 17:38:57

I should really fix some aspects of this. First, you should automatically receive the bounty in this case (when the robbery finally times out). Also, you should automatically receive all of their carried tools (we don't know which ones they used, but we can assume the best case for you, the owner).

I'm also thinking about creating a "dummy" tape in these cases that just shows them suiciding on your doormat with a backpack full of tools. That would clear up the confusion about the missing tapes.

Or maybe a special case where they die of a heart attack or something, just so you can tell the difference between a disconnect and a true doormat suicide (though true doormat suicides are pretty rare).

arakira · 2014-01-06 06:42:29

Nice ideas. I imagine that if you move the robbery simulation towards the server, you will now which tools were used, and we'll also be able to see the tape? (to see how far the robber went through the house).

dalleck · 2014-01-07 03:39:35

jasonrohrer wrote:

I should really fix some aspects of this. First, you should automatically receive the bounty in this case (when the robbery finally times out). Also, you should automatically receive all of their carried tools (we don't know which ones they used, but we can assume the best case for you, the owner).

Couldn't the client send a packet to the server at the commencement of the robbery which contains the details of the robber and the robbee as well as the bounty and tools?

Last edited by dalleck (2014-01-07 03:41:04)

jasonrohrer · 2014-01-07 19:01:03

The server knows these details. However, the server-side robbery timeout code is currently not using those details the way that it should when a robbery times out.

arakira · 2014-01-20 04:45:15

I have just been robbed, and I see no tape. I thought this had changed in v29? Maybe this is related to another thing I don't understand:
Yesterday, I checked the neighbourhood list and clicked on a house to rob. Then I had the black waiting screen with the blinking dots (there must have been some connexion lag on my network). After waiting more than 30 seconds, I tried to quit the game by pressing ESC, but I got the message "you can't leave now, you'll die". Does it mean that you can die from timeout even before entering a house? Or, I imagine that probably the server sent me the house data and my connexion got broken just before receiving it (a very small window). But at least this should leave a tape, right?
Also, a last question... The client sends the steps he made while robbing at the end of the robbery, so, in case of disconnection during the robbery, I guess it is impossible to watch the real tape? (since the simulation is done on the client side)

jasonrohrer · 2014-01-20 10:36:40

So... you know you were robbed because you were blocked out of your house for a while? And you're SURE there's no new tape there?

Looking at the server code, the only way a "currently being robbed" state can be cleared is through code that also creates a tape... UNLESS the robber is carrying no tools and just steps on the welcome mat and leaves. Nothing interesting happened there, so it's not logged. Maybe it should be? I just thought those "house check" robberies would be annoying to watch on the tape list.

In your case, this person could have been very slow to do their "house check," thus blocking you out of your house for a while and still not leaving a tape.

Once your client sends a "start_rob_house" request to the server, and you haven't gotten a response back yet, you can't safely quit, because the server might think your robbery has already started, so the client doesn't let you quit. Eventually, after the robbery is over and the client has confirmation from the server that robbery is over, the client will let you quit again.

And YES, if a robbery quits mid-robbery, no move list is sent to the server. In that case, the server "makes up" a tape showing a doormat suicide (so you can see the tools the robber left you).

There's currently no way to differentiate between a REALY doormat suicide and one of these server-created ones. But I think that real doormat suicides are pretty rare!

Unless your house looks SO scary that the robber loses their love for life at the mere sight of what you built.

arakira · 2014-01-20 14:05:56

I was blocked out of my house with the red message "your house is currently being robbed" for about 3/4 minutes (I tried to get in 5 or 6 times). Probably it was a case of a robber standing on the welcoming mat. Sometimes I even see strange tapes with a robber going back and forth 50 times between the mat and the first tile. I guess it is because my insane house drive them mad instantly.

jasonrohrer · 2014-01-20 17:41:11

Well, it could have also been someone who stood on the welcome mat AND had server trouble when checking in the house.

Please continue to report this if it keeps happening to you, though!

DethBringa · 2014-01-20 20:55:47

Well this seems to make perfect sense, from both ends.
1) Found out I had a dodgy line filter while halfway through a burglary and lost my net connection. took probably a good 15-20mins to get back online and found it was a wipe. Was gutted but it cant be helped or it would be exploited from people DCing on purpose.
2) I have had a doormat suicide and it puzzled me till I found this thread.

jasonrohrer · 2014-01-21 08:26:40

Well, in the case of a hard disconnect like this, the server times you out after 5 minutes (so the owner only has to wait for 5 minutes after the point where you disconnect). Of course, the owner could disconnect at the 9 minute mark.... essentially, with a disconnect, the maximum owner lock-out time is 15 minutes.

If you are actively robbing a house, your client pings every 4 minutes. If the server goes 5 minutes without a ping from you, then it axes you.

Oh! And if you quit the game and them reconnect before the 5 minutes pass, the server axes you when you attempt to do something else (like load your own house or view the house list). Essentially, any other server action on your part will purge a stale robbery that wasn't ended properly, killing you. In that case, the owner doesn't have to wait the full five minutes for the robbery to expire.

The Castle Doctrine Forums

#1 2014-01-03 13:14:15

robbed without a tape

#2 2014-01-03 13:18:24

Re: robbed without a tape

#3 2014-01-03 21:13:06

Re: robbed without a tape

#4 2014-01-04 01:23:03

Re: robbed without a tape

#5 2014-01-05 17:38:57

Re: robbed without a tape

#6 2014-01-06 06:42:29

Re: robbed without a tape

#7 2014-01-07 03:39:35

Re: robbed without a tape

#8 2014-01-07 19:01:03

Re: robbed without a tape

#9 2014-01-20 04:45:15

Re: robbed without a tape

#10 2014-01-20 10:36:40

Re: robbed without a tape

#11 2014-01-20 14:05:56

Re: robbed without a tape

#12 2014-01-20 17:41:11

Re: robbed without a tape

#13 2014-01-20 20:55:47

Re: robbed without a tape

#14 2014-01-21 08:26:40

Re: robbed without a tape

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