Summoned Pets Turn to Ghosts

[Lalolyen]

More of a spectrum on whats going on.

It seems that when you zone, the pets.cpp or the npc.cpp is not removing the pet from the database ***OR*** after you zone the scripts forget your old pet after pulling him back up, assigning the new pet a new pet id in the database, and thus zoning leaves an unclaimed pet named SumXXXX or SkelXXXX where xxx is the pet type.

I've tried everything I know, no compile errors but also not doing what I want it to.

Ok, so the question I'm asking now, how is it possible to keep the pets id consistant throughout all the zones, not just:

Step 1: Pull pet from database.
Step 2: Assign a new pet id and forget old pet.


But add a step three: Check old pet, /kill or depop him and remove him from the database. *currently we have about 200+ shadow pet ids in our database and we cleaned them all up 3 days ago*.

Also note that this is a problem for those whom are using the persistent zone states to preserve spawn tables when the zone is inactive. Most people without persistent zone states do not see this as bad as when they come in the zone is in a repop state, clearing out these mobs. However for the people wanting to exploit, they can easily box another player in to hold the zone open while they zone back and fourth on the other toon to duplicate the pets and the items on them.

Also KLS you are welcome to login to our server "Divine Reapers" and check this out yourself. See your PM's for instructions for privileged access while we work on this.

[Lalolyen]

Also another tidbit he he sorry about that..

When APlayer zones from zone A to zone B with a pet, the pet's shadow remains in zone A we know, however if he dismisses his pet while in zone B, the shadow in zone A disappears or depops. BUT if APlayer zones to zone C, and dismisses the pet, the shadow pet in zone B disappears but the one in Zone A remains.

That is why I'm concluding that the script is not cleaning the database entry or either it is placing a new pet id in the database on each zone forgetting the previous pet.

[John Adams]

I was not aware that summoning a pet generated an entirely new NPC ID... If it is, I do not think that is right. NPC IDs < 1000 are pet-class pets, at least what I understood.

[KLS]

It doesn't, I'm not sure what's going on there, the only code that modifies the npc_types table that I can recall off hand are specific commands.

If my code did not work then I think there's something more wrong than merely we're not cleaning up the pets when a client leaves the zone, that means an entirely new npc is made when the client leaves and the normal pet depops with the client.. which lol I dunno I'd be kinda stumped on without being able to duplicate it locally.

[Furrygamer]

Could a factor such as the type of Linux being used or the type of compiler effect these factors? What additional information would you require to speculate further a fix?

[Irreverent]

No, had similar issues in Windows code.

[Furrygamer]

So what did you do to fix it? yes i know linux and window are different! might be able to translate it though. ^.^

[Irreverent]

I would say its not dependant of what type of system you're on. Its just a general code issue.

[gernblan]

This can be a tough one to solve I think, because of course sometimes pets can follow their owners from zone to zone.

I guess finding the way that they are somehow taking on more than one instance across zones and simply preventing more than one (similar to a spawnlimit of 1 I guess but global) would be the way out of this, because persistent pets would not be affected, but pets somehow turning into "ghost spawns" might be avoided.

I'm trying to brush up and catch up on my C++ after I finish absolutely mastering Perl (no small feat as anyone who codes in Perl knows... it's the easiest language to pick up and probably the most difficult language to master out there--a testament of it's power)... and wish I could help track down these bugs more.

I also need to continue studying the eqemu code and learning it in more detail--enough detail to know what's been done already and where everything is.

My participation on that front IS coming though. Once up to speed I'm not a bad programmer, it's just been awhile in terms of certain languages.

For now, I can only play cheerleader to those such as KLS and remind them how grateful I am that they are around.

[jenco420]

Has this been fixed yet, still a problem on my server =(