This post is the bug I'm talking about. It should be easy to test if it affects the version you're using.

Edit: I just tested it in 2.11, and it doesn't drop you back to the command prompt when you're attacked. However, I did notice something strange. Gonna start a new thread in bug reports.

The move planet/eject players to sector bug has been fixed.

The original one was, but there was a new, worse one. I think it was just fixed a couple days ago with the release of 2.13.

10/24/11 was the release date for 2.13 and that is the one I an referring to as being fixed.

As soon as I can, I'd like to work with you guys to do some testing of combat and overcome this ability to spam and lock up a player. I'm almost positive we can do it from my own tests, but it's always better to test with real conditions, remote connections, etc.

Mongoose, obviously we don't want latency and CPU to be a determining factor, but both random and deterministic outcomes can be fun. There's nothing inherently wrong with either. Poker and chess are both great games. I personally think that the ability to attack or escape in TW should depend on the ship type and should be mostly consistent. It shouldn't depend on your connection speed, latency, or whether or not you're using a bot. That's the target.

Where there any movement delays in the game you were testing?

I think there were, it was the Sandbox game on the old beta server, also set for 56k emulation up and down.

But, I cannot honestly remember if there were ship delays or just the emulation.

If movement delays are disabled (constant 250ms), then a player can do a surround in less than 2 seconds. If movement delays are on, it should take 30-60 seconds to do a surround. So isn't it better for combat if movement delays are ON?

A single fig attack x 1k will spam them plenty long enough to do the surround then come back for the kill.

So it's the wall of text that immobilizes them?

I'm not exactly sure. When JP does his own tests, it works as it should hit 1 hit 2 hit 1 hit 2 etc.. but he's exactly equal ping with his two charactors.

You get two players together, and it matters not who has the faster ping, just who starts the attacks first gets to spam the second one with a "wall of text" as you say. Followed by wham-bam, you're at the menu, no reaction time at all. I can type the attack commands or send my macro, but it matters not.

I'll run some tests, too. I want to see what happens when the target of such an attack is running a saveme script that tries to move them or transport them away immediately when the 1-fighter attacks begin.

Maybe the server doesn't process input while there is output queued. If that's the case, I can imagine a lot of ways to exploit it.

Set a script or macro to fire off a couple thousand single figs and see if the other play can get a command off... since saveme is a script it might fit in the command, but typing by hand to get away from such an attack might not be doable.

Well, usually when you have ANSI turned on and you get a message while at a prompt, you receive the ANSI command to erase the current line, then the message, then the prompt is redisplayed along with any partial input you've typed. When hit by this fighter spam, I imagine that it would be hard to see what's going on, but you should still be able to type commands. But maybe not. We shall see.

It's doable, the this version is not near as fast on the rapid fire as version 2.07. So it is possible you could hit > to retreat if they had to fire 3 or 4 rounds to get away.

Here is what I used.