Sandbox and point and click improvements

[kestasjk]

(edit)

Hi,

The Games > Sandbox mode functionality has been finished up. You can now create sandbox games that will work the same in drop-down and point and click mode, and the create sandbox page lets you position units prior to startup:

You can control sandbox mode via the drop-down UI using the links at the bottom, and there is also a link there so people using the drop-down UI can go to the point and click UI:

You can use this are on a non-sandbox game to copy it to a sandbox game which only you can see.

The point and click UI has links to the drop-down board, the archive pages, and buttons to control sandbox mode. Votes now appear under CONTROL, which is where options to let you control the game will go:

And in the HELP section there are now several links to extra resources, as well as the lodge suspicion button, which can be used to lodge cheating requests:

Behind the scenes some changes to try and prevent the white screen of death, which I think happens when orders/units are output mid-process due to relaxing locking, and changes to multi detection, webpushr disabled as it's too annoying for now, notifying people per browser rather than per account.

Any issues please post below with a game ID / screenshot etc

[echidna]

Yes, I volunteer. I will forward all death threats to you, is that OK?

[learnedSloth]

Obligatory Dijkstra: Testing shows the presence, not the absence of bugs.

Getting affirmation of no regressions could take forever, but if you haven't heard from testers for a while they probably haven't found anything.

[gimix]

Happy to help.
Just some questions:

• "linked to the live db" means that one can use the environment to play regular games, while other players in the same game use the standard env?

• could you please share a list of the new updates/fixes as soon as you release them in the test environment?

• should we create a (rather detailed) checklist, so that the testers can mark any features that worked/didn't work for them?

[kestasjk]

Obligatory Dijkstra: Testing shows the presence, not the absence of bugs.

Getting affirmation of no regressions could take forever, but if you haven't heard from testers for a while they probably haven't found anything.

True, but I'm not aiming for perfection just want to avoid creating headaches for players and mods

Happy to help.
Just some questions:

• "linked to the live db" means that one can use the environment to play regular games, while other players in the same game use the standard env?

• could you please share a list of the new updates/fixes as soon as you release them in the test environment?

• should we create a (rather detailed) checklist, so that the testers can mark any features that worked/didn't work for them?

Yep that's right; things you do in staging.webdiplomacy.net will apply on webdiplomacy.net

Updates are mainly polishing up sandbox mode, some point and click UI improvements to close some gaps in functionality e.g. lodging suspicions, getting help, sandbox builds/control etc

I should create a detailed checklist, but for now happy for people to play around and see if anything obvious breaks


Have to say React/TypeScript is quite nice to develop on. The lint checker is really touchy and wants the code formatted just so but it does make everything consistent, and the way you can see changes as you go is very nice.

ChatGPT 4 and copilot also is pretty crazy; it made the allocation screen way quicker to write (though it needs optimization and refactoring)


Below are pics of the main change areas:


edit: I'm noticing processing is quite slow also, too late to look into that now but interested if anyone noticed if it got worse suddenly or gradually?

[kestasjk]

Looks like we had some activity on the staging site and no-one reported any issues so I've deployed those changes and will keep an eye on it. Really like the sandbox map.. I feel like I could make variants point and click pretty easily, though I'm interested if it works well on mobile etc as it has to do a lot of pixel shading and uses mouse events

[2ndWhiteLine]

Not a sandbox issue per se but I have no idea how to use the press feature in the postgame chat of a gunboat match without switching back to classic view.

[kestasjk]

Hmm.. when I do it with my old games I just click the button in the bottom left and the press pops up, what happens for you?

[2ndWhiteLine]

I can select and view the press window but I'm not able to actually type in the text box.

[gimix]

Issue with game #556878 (Modern) in staging: the game page shows, I can see the preview and the large map, even go to the order history page; but it's stuck with "Loading orders...".

Also, a small detail: the staging environment is not linked to the forum, so the "If you have any new issues please post them here" link in the banner doesn't work (error 404) - the link itself is correct, once you remove the "staging." part

[bonjovi]

I can select and view the press window but I'm not ablemapquest to actually type in the text box.

What is this engine?

[lilycollinslim]

Yes, I volunteer. I will forward all death threats to you, is that OK?

I appreciate your willingness to help!