TESTING CONTINUES ON THE NEW AUTO-LINK CODE
by Hazed
I’ve been having fun using a pack of alt-POs to check out the new code to allow you to auto-link a second planet into an existing star system.
The good news is that the code works: one of my planet owners now has a second planet, courtesy of the ‘COLONISE’ command.
This took a while to get right. My first attempt at using the command didn’t seem to have created the new planet files – but then we realised that the new planet had actually been put into the wrong system. The erroneous beneficent was the system Aaa, which happens to be first on the list alphabetically.
A quick fix solved that problem, and then I was able to auto-link a planet in the right system. Meanwhile, Alan removed Aaa’s surplus planets.
However, just because the command works doesn’t mean the testing is done. As well as making sure the command, when correctly typed and in the right circumstances, does what it’s supposed to do, I also have to try out all the things that players might get wrong. For example: mistyping the command, using it twice in a row, being the wrong rank, already having two planets in your system, and so on.
Last weekend my attempts to try to do things the wrong way managed to crash the game – sorry about that! But it does show the importance of proper testing.
I’ve got a few more things to try to get wrong, and hopefully this time when I deliberately mess up the command the game will know how to cope with it and won’t crash.
Expect the code to finally be ready… well, soon!
