Part of the latest update (2017.04.08) that was coded way back in late July of 2016 was meant to clean up the combat logs so players who are not involved in combat don't have to click done. Sounds quite simple, right? Well, it was simple, but also too effective. It even prevented combat in regions where there were no defending units.

Martin brought the bug to our attention late Sunday night. Brian figured out the extent of the problem and even identified the line of code causing the problem. As I was falling asleep I pseudo coded an IF statement on my phone for Brian. Of course, it was garbage as most code I do late at night. lol But, I was on the right track.

Monday, I then went a completely different direction and crafted an elegantly looking database query that solved the problem with minimal code. But, it was rather CPU hungry as it cherry picked though some of our largest database tables. Brian realized we had already gotten all the data we need from the database (just hidden in arrays crafted by loops earlier in the function meant for other checks) and crafted a clever CPU friendly IF / IF ELSE statement to keep your games running smoothly.

Mind you, this is just a bit more added on top of all the last minute bug fixing Brian does right before an update as we go through a long list of test cases to try out all the new code. ...In addition to some live fixes Brian does when the server automatically updates jquery which suddenly no longer supports a function we use to make the very pretty and mesmerizing mouseover region highlighting. (Does anyone else sometimes just roll the mouse over the map in figure 8's and lose all focus while staring at it?)

• Ruling: Playing cards during the Draw phase is allowed and are considered to be played during that turn.

• UI: Various forum improvements:
• Unread notifications!
• Personal preference option for # of posts per page
• Now indicates the last post timestamp for each section in the list of forum sections.
• Table column widths adjusted.
• UI: Easily view the various card types available. There is a "Cards" link at the bottom of the left column menu of the Dashboard.
• UI: Can now cancel the production of a Conventional unit (Production phase only).
• UI: KIA'd units now marked in the territory view.
• UI: Improved the faction view formatting.
• UI: Added # of capitals & number of factories to faction view.
• UI: Indicate upgraded 'mech units will be strength 4.
• UI: Indicate how the Regional Improvement card works when selecting a target.
• UI: Highlight the region when selecting a Regional Improvement target.
• UI: Indicate what phase a card can be played in if not currently playable.
• UI: Indicate # of jumps taken when selecting a Fast Recharge card target.
• UI: Made loading units easier:
• Can now transfer units to another jumpship if they haven't been moved.
• Indicate if unit has been moved and don't display a link to LOAD the unit.
• Display a link to RELOAD a unit that has been moved by that jumpship that turn.
• UI: Cleaned up the MFC view, especially for when it is not your own production phase.
• UI: Indicate "Factions" instead of "Players" in the menu bar (to differentiate from "Users").
• UI: Consolidated technology roll game log message die roll with result.
• UI: Now indicates if a jumpship is under construction in the territory view.
• UI: Now indicates the cost for playing a Reinforcements card when choosing a target.
• UI: Highlight the region a unit is in when choosing a Reinforcements target.
• UI: favicon!  We now have an icon for bookmarks, tabs, etc.

• OOB: Added Conventionals and Elementals to place-able and pre-positioned units.

• GO: Game Owner can now set the game phase back to Setup (and cleaned up related errors).
• GO/Bug: Game owner can no longer access the Game Tools until the game is built.

• Bug: Fast Recharge card now only adds 1 additional jump, it doesn't reset it's movement.
• Bug: Bribed leaders can no longer break an infinite number of unit combinations.
• Correctly limited to their military skill.
• Bug: Can no longer make purchases while a periphery terrotory is up for bid.
• Bug: Can no longer scuttle jumpships if you are eliminated.
• Bug: Fixed a Spy & Steal bug regarding valid target.
• Bug: Fixed some log errors for spectators.
• Bug: Added another check to prevent combat triggering in a region where there is no actual combat.
• Bug: Adding a leader is fixed.

• Admin: Tools for Game Owner voting
• Admin: Preserve dashboard message in input box to make updating it easier.
• Admin: Null 'merc bids created for all players for admin tools to work with.
• Admin: Combat logs automatically generated when Admin toggles the region as being contested.
• Admin: Ability to delete periphery bids to clear periphery bidding.
• Admin: Button to easily set OOB as DRAFT or RELEASED.
• Admin/Bug: Fixed a bug with periphery bidding admin delete tool.

• UI/GO/Admin: Now differentiates between the GO or an admin when Tech, CBills, or House interdict is modified using the GO Tools.

• Code Base Update: Code updated for new versions of Code Igniter, jQuery, TinyMCE, and more... 676 files affected! I just want to point out that this would have been impossible without numerous code fixes thanks to Brian!
• Database Update: Database queries updated for new version of MySQL.

• Ruling: House Interdicts can be played to "reset" the count down on an existing House Interdict to a longer count down, but does not stack with any existing House Interdict
• Feature: Alternate victory conditions!
• Multiple victory conditions can be used and each one customized.
• Victory conditions are only checked at the beginnning of each player's turn.
• Capital: Control at least X House Capitals for Y turns
• Regional: Control at least X Regional Capitals for Y turns
• Military: Control a military strenght of at leat X for y turns
• Technology: Maintain a technology of at least X for Y turns
• Industrial: Control at least X MFCs for Y turns
• Leaders: Control at least X 
• (The following AWC's are planned, but not quite working yet)
• Economic: Maintain a regional income of at least X for Y turns
• Survival: Survive for X turns
• Territorial: Control at least X regions for Y turns
• Feature: Expanded Jumpship capacities of 7, 9, & 12 can be turned on in OOB and game options
• Feature: Cancel a combat unit build in Factory view while still in the Production phase
• Feature: Ability to change your password in your Preferences.  Never share your password with ANYONE.
• New Card: Fast Recharge
• UI: Contract Ends now requires an initial bid from the player playing the card
• UI: OOB table sorting and new styling
• UI: View all games by a user
• UI: Added bug list for a user
• UI: Improved various text descriptions / titles
• UI: No longer show units as options for combining if they have had their combo broken by enemy leader
• Bug, UI: Fixed issue with MC construction error message when you can't afford it
• Bug: Fixed PM email bug
• Bug: Fixed forum links bug
• Bug: Blog fixes for single post view
• Bug: Fixed air raid and bombardment not being able to target a lone territory owned by the playing player
• Bug: Added more error handling for Undo Move
• Bug: Added comstar to territory owner change
• Bug: Fixed forum post errors
• Bug: Fixed broken jumpship error messages
• Code bug: PHP compatibility error in combat helper
• Code: Clean up sql files
• Code: Added extra debug messages
• Admin: Pathing tool to automatically generate most jumps for a map
• Admin: Manual jump pathing tool for maps now 1-way and 2-way
• Admin: 'Merc bid value admin editor now allows it to be set to unsubmitted instead of requiring a bid value

The 4th Succession War Advanced scenario is now available for play!

The five Great Houses of the Inner Sphere stand poised for war but from what side will the first strike come? Will the path of history be followed or will a new destiny be carved out for the Inner Sphere?

Utilising a massive map five times larger than the original, relive the epic battles of the 4th Succession War on a grand strategic scale.

I'm very happy to announce the released of the Star League: Requiem scenario! The first public scenario to take advantage of the new giant map, this game features 508 regions and includes over 1,100 combat units! Take the throne of one of the greatest nations of the Inner Sphere in a time where the light of the Star League has faded and battle to create a new vision for the Inner Sphere!

---------------------------------------------------

The follow-up scenario to Star League: Genesis begins after the conquest of Terra by the forces of Stefan Amaris and the SLDF surround Terra throughout the Hegemony. The Star League itself is in a state of collapse and the House Lords sit upon their thrones, contemplating how to respond to this shocking turn of events. Will they avenge the fallen Star League or will they take advantage of the chaos and look to consolidate their own power and seek to finally overthrow the age old enemies that surround them.

Meanwhile, in the Periphery, the fetters placed on the Territorial States have shattered with the Terran coup and the leaders of these minor powers have come together to seek out their own destiny.

Nothing is certain in the Inner Sphere any more now that the Star League is gone. Only one truth can be relied upon.... war will come.

Operation: Revival - wormhole edition

In isolation for more than two hundred years, the Clans of Founder Nicholas Kerensky had split into two different political camps.

One group, the self-styled Crusaders, believed Kerensky’s words meant the Clans were to one day return to the Inner Sphere in conquest, after the fires of war had burned out the Successor States. Spearheaded by Clans Smoke Jaguar and Jade Falcon, the Crusader movement believed they were meant to reestablish the vaunted Star League and rekindle the spark that had led to one of the greatest periods of technological and economical renaissance in all of human history.

The opposing party, however, called themselves Wardens. The Warden Clans interpreted the Hidden Hope not as a license for conquest but as an extension of the original SLDF’s initial purpose: defense and peacekeeping of the Inner Sphere. According to them, Kerensky had meant for the Clans to stand watch over the beleaguered peoples of the Inner Sphere and protect them from something that would threaten the very existence of humanity itself. At the head of the Warden voting bloc stood Clan Wolf, Nicholas Kerensky’s chosen Clan

The Inner Sphere stands unaware of the potential for invasion. Bitter rivalries, existing long before the fall of the Star League, continue to divide the Great Houses and the currency of these States is the blood that their mighty armies spill from their enemies.

The time has come for the Clans to return and the Inner Sphere will never be the same again…

5th SW, OP Scorpion (AU-I 3052)

Alternate Universe - 1

ComStar will attempt to unify the Great Houses by force upon learning of the existence of the Clans after a chance encounter. ComStar hopes to present a unified front against the militaristic enemy.Dubbed Operation Scorpion, this military adventure will set off a chain of events that ultimately will change the balance of power in the Inner Sphere. In preparation for its own invasion, ComStar will subvert a number of Periphery States and accelerate its militarisation of pirate bands (see Jolly Roger affair) to support its efforts. Many on the First Circuit will harbor doubts about Operation Scorpion but none will speak against Primus Myndo Waterly while the Clan threat looms. The Primus, using preparations for Operation Scorpion as cover, will strengthen the Word of Blake (WoB) movement, allowing it to gain strength and come to the fore.

The Fifth Succession War is about to begin...

• Feature: Draw Phase implemented!
• Feature: Undo one jumpship movement!
• UI: Reformatted game and chat logs for consistency.
• UI: Leader spectator view fix
• UI: Jumpship spectator view fix
• UI: Cleanup trade cbills
• UI: Added territory names to factory damage game messages
• UI: Don't display finished games on the Dashboard
• UI: Map model display order
• UI: Added a '*' for combat units and leaders in lists
• UI: Forum edit and delete
• UI: Private message email shows sender's name
• Bug: Using Production Phase only cards may now only be used during your own Production Phase.
• Bug: Elemental selection bug fix
• Bug: Garrison unit handling error fixed
• Bug: Blog view post bug
• Bug: View leader error handling
• Bug: Assorted cleanup and error fixes
• Bug: Bombardment on Comstar units fixed
• Bug: Multi unit 'Merc bidding fix.  The final one?
• Bug: Ghost unit repair code added to combat
• Admin: We now have 5 Admins including Ellis(Saxywolf) & Brian.  Jimmy the Tulip, Ogra_Chief, and Jim Sampson.  Thanks so much for the help!
• Admin: Admins can now change ownership of a territory
• Admin: Quick tool to check for games spilling into other games. (Still needs some more check cases though.)
• Code: Code base switched from Assembla to BitBucket
• Code: Database cleanup
• Code: Various logging added/removed for bug checking

The Draw Phase was added for multiple reasons.  It prevents a player from giving a less useful (or useless given the situation) card to another player right before their turn to prevent them from drawing a card draw.  It allows the first player to play cards before their initial turn draw just like all the other players (it should be an advantage to go first).  It allows a player to discard cards they were holding onto just-in-case without encourageing a player to delay combat in the prior turn to do so.  I think there were other reasons, but those are the major ones.  And it does not increase the turn time as the current player is the only one that needs to hit Done for the Draw phase.  This does decrease the effectiveness of a Spy/Steal card, however it also prevents such a player from purposefully delaying combat in the turn prior.

While it may not have been apparent unless you were very unlucky with your timing, the ScrapYardArmory website (to include the main blog and Succession Wars) experienced a sustained hacking attempt over the last few days.

Hackers managed to exploit a WordPress vulnerability to insert several back doors onto my server and then proceeded to flood several directories with spam code.

Most of my first attempts to clean up the mess failed as the back door exploits would simply replace anything I tried to delete as well as each other.  Luckily I had backups.  We have had one previous scare over the years and a backup saved my bacon when I needed it most.  The years of work I've put into the blog and the Succession Wars site is too much value to not have backed up and safely stored away for when the shit hits the fan.

After much head scratching, tools, guides, and blocked IPs later I am showing a clear radar.  I'm going to keep a close eye on things over the next few days but I am hopefully optimistic that things are restored to a sense of normalcy.

Honestly I'd rather be spending my time developing for the site than fending off hacking attempts.  

Cheers and happy gaming!

• Rule Clarification: Create 'Merc card may be played ANY name.
• Nuke Rule Changes:
• Lose 1 tech for a Nuke damaged MFC
• Roll strength 3 attack against all friendly units in the region
• Map Upgrades!!!
• House & Regional Capital icons
• Manufacturing Center and damaged MFC icons
• Borders are lined up better
• Region highlight/shadow
• Player option to leave a game.  This will open the spot for another to join.
• New Card: Regional Improvement
• UI: Link in the faction view to view their Military Unit List.
• UI: Mark which cards were traded when viewing your hand.
• UI: An email will no longer be sent to the current player when they initiate combat.
• UI: Dark square over corner of Robinson should be used correctly.  New OOBs may been to be fixed.
• UI: You will no longer get an email if you were the one to trigger combat.  Others still will get the notification email.
• UI: Everyone in the game will get an email notification when a game is started and/or resumed.
• Bug: You can now recapture leaders and jumpships back from Comstar.
• Bug: Prevent giving a 5th card to a player.
• Bug: Retreated units will auto-drop (should fix not being able to load them later).
• Bug: Random picking of the 'Merc for the Mercenary Phase is now actually random.
• Bug: A faction should no longer have Terra Interdict removed when another house captures yet another house.
• Bug: Leader bonuses are no longer removed if they retreat while you have 25 tech.
• Bug: You can no longer give or play cards to/on an eliminated player.
• Bug: Air Raid and Bombard cards no longer give you choices of units marked KIA.
• OOB Bug: Added the neutral option when editing a region.
• OOB Bug: Added Capitals to win to OOB form.
• OOB Bug: Capitals to win no longer defaults to 0.
• Upgrades to help system.
• Additional Admin tools

The following updates have been applied to the server.

• Mercenary bidding code cleaned up with additional error checking
• OOB creation and editing enhancements
• Combat view error checking
• Last Action timer, shows players when the last action took place
• Notify the active player when mercs have been placed when using the Mercenary phase
• Additional trade cbills action error handling
• Code cleanup and error checking when bribing leaders
• Misc code cleanup and improvements

Happy gaming!