BURNED BY MacroQuest 0905 and the New UI. WARNING TO ALL!!

PlayPal · Post by **PlayPal** » Thu Sep 12, 2002 7:39 pm

icon wrote:Conspiracy is not the reason for everything bad that happens to everyone. - Icon

Now we are talking Conspiracy Theories?? This reply to a now VERIFIED and previously known problem for some is so laughable, it does not even warrant a response.
But wait, we just did so.

Get real. No one is saying ANY of this was done on purpose. We are saying.. HERE>.. Problem identified and duplicated. You are warned that it is not just ONE person acting out of turn or facing bad-luck. It can happen to you!

You decide if the risk is worth it.

Moriss · Post by **Moriss** » Thu Sep 12, 2002 8:06 pm

Just want to clarify a couple of things. First off, I WAS using the 9/5 release the second time this happened to me. Secondly, I sure as hell am not angry with anyone, not trying to place blame, nor do I think anyone did this on purpose. That's rediculous. I don't know a damn thing about how the program works and can't even say with any authority that MQ was the cause. I just started using MQ last month and I'm obviously pretty naive because I didn't even know zoning was an issue.

Like I said in my first post, I wasn't even going to post this on the forums for fear it might ruffle feathers. Despite my "bad luck" I still think MQ is a great program and my warning is not meant to disrespect your work in any way.

pxlpluker · Post by **pxlpluker** » Thu Sep 12, 2002 8:45 pm

ok, has not happend to me. i always use the old ui with MQ. but a fellow co worker is using it. started about 2 weeks after i did. he had a macro tthat shot bow if he had a target. he got into trouble in TT and zoned. poof. no gear. yes VI gave it back. now. please take this to privite messages before VI reads it and know what happened.

its an issure.

but take this thread down please.

icon · Post by **icon** » Thu Sep 12, 2002 9:30 pm

I was originally going to argue back about your post and it's implications, until I realized how pointless it would be. Not to mention immature, trollish, and everything I hate about message boards.

So on that note I apologize if I misinterpreted your post. I'm a bit defensive about Plazmic ever since I first found out he worked at Microsoft and did NOT want donations. If you really want to be feminine about it, you could say he found a special place in my heart since then and I'm an irritable jackass sometimes.

Anyway, to make a point to this post, I've never had the problem, but I've never zoned with a macro running, so adding a simple routine to /endm every time you hit a zoneline or see the words "LOADING... PLEASE WAIT" would solve the problem until an official fix is out.

I haven't looked over the sourcecode recently, but I honestly don't know how MQ could cause this problem, since it has no direct access to the items in your inventory nor your charactor file. Maybe there's a bug in EQ that causes that to happen extremely rarely, and having a macro running while zoning triggers that bug. Otherwise once you realize that your entire charactor and equipment is nothing more then the equivelent(sp) to a text file listing the level, stats, and gear sitting on your server's hard drive, once you realize that, it's hard to imagine how macroquest could cause it all to 'poof'. That's why I think the bug really exists more on EQ's side of the fence. That would also explain why the GM's are giving restorations and charactor rollbacks, when normally they do everything they can to avoid helping you.

- Icon

rizwank · Post by **rizwank** » Thu Sep 12, 2002 9:33 pm

calm down all, I have yet to see a post saying that Plaz did this on purpose (or that he did it at all)

When it comes down to it, its prolly VIs fault.
NO client side app should be able to delete all your banked and otherwise gear.

dont you get saved if you /camp... wouldnt /q be a fix

L124RD · Post by **L124RD** » Thu Sep 12, 2002 10:45 pm

Salutations,
a few things
1) If this continues being a flame topic I WILL lock it
2) There is a topic on it... use the search feature BEFORE posting bug reports (and if you did maybe.. .*gasp* reply instead of posting a new topic)

ShangoDe · Post by **ShangoDe** » Thu Sep 12, 2002 11:19 pm

Well, not to slight your situation or say it sux and better luck next time and all that cuz that will just tick you off worse, perhaps after you get ahold of your anger and calm down you might be able to share some info with the coders to see what was so different about you

IE

System Specs... OS and version of EQ (old first disk with kunark, velios and luclin as seperate installs or perhaps trilogy pack with luclin)

Zone you were in and a copy of the mac running.

Time of day

Anything else that may be helpful for them to debug and insure that this happens even less often.

If ya want guarantees ask a priest, if ya want promises ask a politician but if ya want results ask for help not retribution

eqjim · Post by **eqjim** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 12:10 am

can MQ detect zoning?

can you have MQ auto-shut off all macros when you zone?

rizwank · Post by **rizwank** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 12:57 am

You zone before MQ knows ;p .. I thought there was a delay built in.. hm

sorry dude about losing your gear... that does suck though, and i feel bad for you

l124rd, you go girl!

gingertips · Post by **gingertips** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 2:42 am

Is this reported bug only affecting people when using the new ui?

I will admit Ive had no problems but Im using old UI. still too many problems being attributed to the new ui in game for me to feel its safe.

Valerian · Post by **Valerian** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 9:16 am

I know as soon as the version was out that supposedly "fixed" this bug, I tested it on a newly created character... zoned with a simple macro running (can't remember which) 4 times before it finally poofed all items.

This could possibly be a lag issue causing it, maybe the delay that was added could be extended slightly to make up for lag on slower systems/connections.

meanwhile, I make it a point to NOT use ANY macros with the new UI, though I occasionally leave it loaded for the enhanced commands and such.

RPZip · Post by **RPZip** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 10:29 am

I'd say do what I do, which is don't zone with a macro running.

Period.

PlayPal · Post by **PlayPal** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 11:26 am

RPZip wrote:I'd say do what I do, which is don't zone with a macro running.

Period.

Which leads me to the obvious question.... Why?

Think about what the program is doing when running a macro in this case.. it is telling the DOABILITY key to PRESS... Pause... PRESS again... over and over. Are you thinking that this action is VOLATILE to the operation of the game? Or is the idea that doing this macro action *while in the process of Zoning".. makes it even more Risky??

I am trying to understand, ASSUMING that the act of running a Macro while Zoning was the actual cause, what would lead to such a failure in the Server Side game code to maintain Account integrity of the database.

BTW, it is now 24 Hours and even after two petitions were 'esculated' up the chain by a couple of Server Guides... no GM has addressed the matter to me ingame. I am sending another petition now.

Valerian · Post by **Valerian** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 11:37 am

I can tell you that I, personally, had the same problem as you. zoned with a macro running, and lost everything on the other side. My petition (and my "Contact Your GM" email) took about 3 days to be resolved. (actually, the "contact your GM" email got it fixed about 1 hour before the in-game server GM got to me)

My advice, keep petitioning every 6-8 hours if you possibly can, I think it may refresh the timer on the petition you already have, keeping it active and "escalated". By the time mine was resolved, I had a petition active for roughly 40 hours. Also, escalated petitions seem to last longer than basic petitions.

Unfortunately, in my case, I'd just recieved a gift from a friend worth 4k, just before zoning and losing everything. The save I was rolled back to was about 2-3 saves prior to my obtaining that item, so I lost it forever. *sigh*

S_B_R · Post by **S_B_R** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 12:07 pm

PlayPal wrote: Which leads me to the obvious question.... Why?

Think about what the program is doing when running a macro in this case.. it is telling the DOABILITY key to PRESS... Pause... PRESS again... over and over. Are you thinking that this action is VOLATILE to the operation of the game? Or is the idea that doing this macro action *while in the process of Zoning".. makes it even more Risky??

Well you also have to look at where MQ is getting ALL the information it uses. It's getting it out of memory, so it is manipulating things in ways that are not possible without MQ.

I haven't really looked at the code so I can't speak to how it's actually doing things. But it seems that when client is updating/sync'ing itself with the server, while zoning, something is causing the new data from being written to memory. Or it's being overwritten with faulty data that then getting dumped cause it doesn't match what the server has. Just like if you've ever had a lag induced dup'ed item, the server thinks the item is bogus so it goes poof.

BURNED BY MacroQuest 0905 and the New UI. WARNING TO ALL!!

Repro