I keep seeing questions and misunderstandings about the player progress bugs, so I figured I'd write something up to help explain what's going on. (These aren't really FAQs, since the whole thing is confusing enough that most people aren't aware of what questions are even useful to ask.)
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Q: What's this all about? What does this bug do?
A: There have been a number of bugs in DROD 3.0 and 3.1 which inserted bad data into DROD's internal lists of which rooms you have ever visited and conquered. The symptoms of these bugs are:
1. DROD thinks you have mastered a hold, although you haven't really conquered all the secret rooms.
2. When viewing the Restore screen for a conquered hold, the % Explored and/or Secrets Found numbers are too high.
Q: So what caused that?
A: We're not entirely sure what all the causes were, but one major known problem involved viewing a demo originally created by a different player. Rooms which the demo's player had already explored/conquered were credited to the player viewing the demo.
Q: Are they fixed now?
A: We can't be entirely certain if these bugs are all eliminated, but version 3.1.0.55 fixed the demo-viewing variety.
Q: So if I've upgraded to 3.1.0.55 or later, I don't have to worry about this any more?
A: Sadly, it's not that simple. If the data for your player was already messed up, it will remain messed up. Even worse, there can sometimes be invalid data which isn't affecting any hold right now, but can interfere with a hold you will import later.
Q: Is there anything I can do to remove the invalid data from existing holds?
A: Yes, if you know how to backup your data and are interested in trying out some beta software I wrote to deal with this issue. See
this topic.
Q: That sounds dangerous. Is there anything else I can do to at least prevent invalid data from "interfering" with holds I haven't imported yet?
A: DROD 3.1.0.55 and later will look for and purge this type of invalid data in two situations:
1. You upgrade from 3.0.* to 3.1.0.55 or later. It's nice if it happens automatically, but DROD can't really tell when it's just been upgraded from one 3.1 version to another.
2. You delete a hold using 3.1.0.55 or later. Any hold will do, even if you create an empty one just to delete it because of this answer.
But this only protects holds you have not yet imported. Messed up data from the holds you already have loaded will remain messed up.
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As always, backup your *.dat files before trying out any "
patch candidate"
. If you don't know what that means, wait for a full-fledged patch on the Downloads page.
[Last edited by schep at 04-07-2009 01:21 AM : beta tool is here]
