Placeholder Clues
Posted by Pax on 06/03/19
SO, there appears to be a bug in the investigation code.
As background, the code /should/ give us a list each week of the clues that, based on rolls, are popping during the weekly cron. When things get locked down for the weekend (so we know that no one is going to add resources or another helper, and thus change the roll such that a clue might appear), we can go make sure there's none of the auto-generated 'PLACEHOLDER' clues that an investigation generates when a new clue is needed. We write those, there's no placeholders, everyone gets a clue, yay!
However, it appears that sometimes, the code is not /telling/ us when a clue is going to pop that week, and so a placeholder clue pops and we are unawware; it never shows up on the generated list of clues we need to write, and once it's popped, it never /will/ (because its no longer pending).
I have found that there are /several/ of these out there, and will be going back to try to retroactively fill them in, while investigating... well, what's wrong with investigation.
To anyone who's had a placeholder clue and wondered why it's a placeholder and never seemed to grow up into a real clue... well, that would be why! *mutters irritably at the code*
As background, the code /should/ give us a list each week of the clues that, based on rolls, are popping during the weekly cron. When things get locked down for the weekend (so we know that no one is going to add resources or another helper, and thus change the roll such that a clue might appear), we can go make sure there's none of the auto-generated 'PLACEHOLDER' clues that an investigation generates when a new clue is needed. We write those, there's no placeholders, everyone gets a clue, yay!
However, it appears that sometimes, the code is not /telling/ us when a clue is going to pop that week, and so a placeholder clue pops and we are unawware; it never shows up on the generated list of clues we need to write, and once it's popped, it never /will/ (because its no longer pending).
I have found that there are /several/ of these out there, and will be going back to try to retroactively fill them in, while investigating... well, what's wrong with investigation.
To anyone who's had a placeholder clue and wondered why it's a placeholder and never seemed to grow up into a real clue... well, that would be why! *mutters irritably at the code*