Warning: I was slightly disgruntled while writing this. And it's excessively long because I wanted to rant (sorry). Please read the bold bit and glance at the code box if you want the tl;dr version. Thanks!

I was hoping that there might be some wonderful people out there who could answer some questions of mine (instead of 'this is just how it is' and 'this isn't something you should issue, please contact your envoy if you want to suggest skill changes').

My questions: why do certain defenses drop on client reconnect, but not others? Why do we lose them at all, if the character remains connected to the world? And, why was this not the case back in, say, May?

It's no secret that I need to reconnect my client pretty often. Mushclient, Mudlet, it doesn't matter what it is (except Nexus, strangely enough). Two Shanthmark revolts ago, I needed to reconnect 194 times in one session. On average it's around 30-50 if I'm not really doing much. If combat is involved... fun times.

I have reconnecting down to an art. It lasts maybe half a second -- if I'm slow -- so I'm fine with it. I don't mind disconnecting/reconnecting anymore.

What does bother me, though, is that when I reconnect, it is never a true disconnect -- my character retains a lot of defenses and is still able to be interacted with (and killed...) while I'm not there to control her. But, although I retain a good number of defenses, I always lose the most important/power-hungry/time consuming/irritating-to-raise ones.

I'd just like to throw out there again that this was not the case a few months ago. I would like to understand why this happens (and will it persist?) so I can stop feeling so sorry for myself and resign any hopes I had at being somewhat effective in combat. As a druid, losing demesne effects and bonded spirits all the time makes me cry. I think I've used CrowForm twice in the months that I've had it.

This is an example of most of the defenses/effects I need to raise whenever I go to play, and which of them are lost when I reconnect my client:



Oh, and locking into modules... et cetera... I'm sure I'm missing things.

EDIT: Either I'm masochistic or I really love this game, because I've put up with this for six months or so now. I love our Admins. I just wanted an answer that would put my frustrations to rest. Hence: rant. <3

Well, for what it's worth, I think you've always had to relock modules after reconnecting. I think I've always had to at least after fixing my client.

To the question at hand though, we've brought it up a few times here, and every time we've gotten the response "Lusternia notices that you are disconnected, and thus clears your defenses". We've never gotten a response as to why some defenses remain and not others though, nor why it's only happened recently, nor any explanation as to why it also happens when we were never disconnected in the first place (and no, I don't count reconnecting as being disconnected, even though your old connection gets disconnected when the new connection connects).

EDIT: Oh, and to add... It happens to me too, and I stay connected the whole time (i.e. I see the message saying "This character has been logged in a second time, and this session is being closed.").

I vaguely recall being told that nothing in the code was changed in regards to it awhile ago. Which, I dunno, is kind of hard to believe. /shrug

Well, clearly something was changed in the code.

It just may not have been in an area of the code explicitly related to the problem, but somewhere else that impacts this.

All the players know something changed. I keep getting the same 'meh, it's how it is' answer.

Admins... please, for my sanity, tell us why and if it will continue. -bumps-

If you can be more specific?

The way defenses are coded, some are stored by character persona (so Xenthos has a set of flags that get turned 1 or 0, Svorai has a parallel set, etc) and some are stored by active connection.

Can you spell out what defenses you're talking about? I don't know of any change made in recent years that would affect how defenses themselves work.

EDIT: Waiting to DC didn't take long at all.

LOST:
Acquisitio
Aethersight
Attunement
Nature Barkskin
Nature Blend
Deathsight
Tea
Moonwater
Invoke Red
Nature Rooting
Stagform
Staghide
Twirl Cudgel
Waterwalk

DID NOT LOSE:
Protection Scroll
Ecology Deepbond
Stag Lightning
Stag Trueheart
Kingdom
Beauty
Perfection
Mercy
Fire
Kafe
Frost
Galvanism
Deathsense
Thirdeye
Quicksilver
Levitate
SixthSense
Truehearing

Also worth noting, is that other bug that caused people to lose all power reserves and hunger when they reconnect in the arena started about the same time this bug did as far as I could tell.

If I remember you said you didn't actually fix the cause of that arena bug, but added something to handle when it happens?

Should also include what you didn't lose.

That is a good point, edited that in now.

A few months ago, all of our defenses/effects remained with us if we had to reconnect our clients (because it froze, our internet died or something). This is because our characters never truly disconnected from Lusternia (we didn't QQ, and people could still interact with our characters).

Now... whenever we need to reconnect our clients, we lose a good deal of our defenses/effects.


LOST AFTER RECONNECT
--------------------------------
Acquisitio (Enchantment/spell)
Waterwalk (Enchantment/spell)
Deathsight (Enchantment/spell)
Beers (Brewmeistery)
Teas (Brewmeistery)
Constitution (Cooking)
Dexterity (Cooking)
Nightsweats (Alchemy)
Perfume Oils (Lorecraft)
Red (LowMagic)
CharismaticAura (Influence)
Penumbra (Night)
ShadowGarb (Night)
Squirrel (Totems)
Night (Totems)
Skunk (Totems)
Rock (Totems)
Crow (Totems)
Groundhog (Totems)
Tree (Totems)
Bear (Totems)
Stag (Totems)
Monkey (Totems)
Horse (Totems)
River (Totems)
Wolf (Totems)
Moon (Totems)
Snake (Totems)
Sun (Totems)
Perch (Crow)
Crowform (Crow)
CarrionStench (Crow)
Barkskin (Nature)
Blend (Nature)
Rooting (Nature)
Twirl Cudgel (Druidry)
Demesne Watch (Druidry)
Murder (Druidry)
Pollen (Druidry)
Thorns (Druidry)
Spiders (Druidry)
Swarm (Druidry)
Storm (Druidry)
Treelife (Druidry)
BenignProphesy (Runes)
ForeshadowProphesy (Runes)


KEPT AFTER RECONNECT
--------------------------------
Kingdom (Enchantment/Spell)
Beauty (Enchantment/Spell)
Mercy (Enchantment/Spell)
Levitate (Enchantment/Spell)
Perfection (Enchantment/Spell)
Protection (Enchantment/Spell)
Kafe (Herb)
Truehearing (Herb)
Rebounding (Herb)
Sixthsense (Herb)
Quicksilver (Lorecraft)
Fire (Lorecraft)
Frost (Lorecraft)
Galvanism (Lorecraft)
Vitae (Lorecraft)
Performance (Dramatics
Performance Role (Dramatics)
Shield (LowMagic)
Nightsight (Discernment)
Deathsense (Discernment)
Thirdeye (Discernment)
Insomnia (Discipline)
Metawake (Discipline)
Crowsfeet (Crow)
Spiderweb (Crow)
Bonenose (Crow)
Deathmask (Crow)
Fused runes (Druidry)
Briars (Druidry)




I think you're right -- that these defenses/effects dropping on reconnect coincided with the power bug in the arena. Though I can't remember when exactly that happened.

I think it's important to note that it's not even necessary for us to DC. We just have to reconnect to the game for this to happen. E.g. I am still logged in on Mush, but reconnect without disconnecting on Nexus.

It would not be so bad if things stopped attacking you when you had to reconnect, but they don't-- the continue to wail on you becuase you aren't "disconnected" but you lose your top defenses on the reconnect.

Well I guess that explains that quite well enough. Would be generous to have code that carried over the defences to a new connection if the old was still present!

I can look into the issue but no promises anything will turn up.

Any reason defenses are stripped upon disconnect? I assume it has something to do with preserving memory, but wouldn't it be possible to have them stay on say five minutes after a disconnect?

Well, if I understand right, it's because what Sior said - some defences are done per-connection. Connection is the line between your computer and Lusternia.

So when you connect again, you have a new 'connection'. Old connection, and defences that were associated with that old connection, go away.

Why do some stay? Because not all are associated with this connection, some are associated with your character.

Ah, right, now I see it. It would be really nice to have them all per character then if that is possible.

That's a massive waste of resources. There's a reason we do some per-link, not per-character.

Just checked the list and checked our code. There's nothing out of the ordinary that would cause the second group to mysteriously vanish, and the first group vanishes because of how it's coded (by connection and not per game character).

Hm... by second group in that quote you meant one titled 'DID NOT LOSE:'?