Twilight Forums

I get two or three of these a day. Basically, the report is that the links a the top of the game stop working--clicking on any of them takes the player to the same place. This often the main map, but occasionally it seems to be the fight page or something else.

I'm not changing anything with the header, and as the game continues to work properly for everyone else, I don't think it's an actual change. Usually it's fixed by either logging out/in or closing the browser entirely and restarting it. So it seems obvious that the symptom is on the player's end, but it happens often enough that I'm wondering if there is any indirect cause from the game?

Anyone who's decent with web stuff might be able to look at the urls of the links and see if they're actually changing I don't think they do but I want to make sure. For security's sake, if you post any links, please remove the "pwd=whatever" part of it.

Any insight would be appreciated. It happens too rarely for me to be able to test.

It happens to me, mainly when a combat fight finishes. Maybe you should check that. Ill check tomorrow the Url to see if there is actually something there or its just a piece of plain text.

I get this issue in Firefox 2.0.0.9

Clicking on the top links does nothing. By clicking on any other link (IE adventure again) I can use the top links again. This happens a couple of times a day (That I notice)

EDIT: The links are not changing. If all the other browsers experiencing this issue are FF, then it's probably a bug with how that browser handles frames. I will dig through latest bug reports and see if I can track anything down. Too drunk now!

As oeb says.

The top frame occasionally becomes 'dead'. This happens to me in KoL as well. Clicking anywhere in the main "adventure" frame makes everything warm and fuzzy again in either case. I didn't think it was a big deal, and always assumed it was a browser problem.

It's as if the main frame refreshes, and the browser goes "I don't know what to do with these other frames" or "As far as I'm concerned, there are no other frames".

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Jesus (#229) | Solitude (#257)

I have that happen in KoL and here as well. Clicking the main frame usually clears it up. Sometimes, the main frame dies to, but I usually just go to the left frame, right-click, and refresh that frame only.

I think it's a Firefox issue.

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The churches are empty / The priest has gone home / And we are left standing / Together alone
--October Project: "Dark Time"

Haven't seen it with KoL, but it feels like a javascript problem.
I get similar behaviour when a greasemonkey script is taking too damn long to get out of a function.

If I am correct, maybe a Javascript profiler could tell us where the webbrowser is getting bogged down.

The top pane is not generated with javascript. And it appears to be the only frame effected.

In my case, after some combats, all but the center (adventure) frame links are dead, including but not limited to the character link.

It's the same in KoL and I've had this bug even with firefox 1.5 and earlier.

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"The world of madness is a lot bigger than the world of sane."

Cornuthaum, #1234

Well, I'm relieved to find that it happens in KoL, too. I'd still be interested in learning if there's a way to manage this a little, as it gets reported frequently, but I feel better that it's not just me.

You could just move away from frames completely. Maybe leave the chat in a frame because it's easier. And just update the stats frame with a bit of javascript as discussed in an earlier thread. Would make this issue redundant.

I could, and I might if it comes down to it, but at the moment the frames aren't just an organizational benefit, they're really helping to organize the code as well. I'll add that to the "look into this someday" idea.

Do I smell thoughts of AJAX and DHTML ?
Or maybe into the other direction, of a frame-less interface?

I was able to play Urban Dead (zombie MMO) on the company blackberry while I was riding a bus. There's advantages to going lo-fi, very crack-pipe advantages.

If MMOs are nosecandy, MMOs on a celphone is definitely crack cocaine.

Some further details.

Right clicking on the frame also appears to reactivate it.

Oh, Ryme, thanks for starting this thread!

I'm also on Firefox, 2.whatever-the-latest-is, Mac G4. Agreed that URLs aren't being changed. I believe that it has something to do with the way FF handles JavaScript, and it *may* be because FF encountered an error on a previously visited site. (And yet, yours is the only site where I've encountered this problem.) My error console contains the same JS error each time this happens; I'll copy it next time it turns up. (Kept wondering if I should do that, hesitated to pester you again about this....)

Meanwhile, here are the rest of the gory details as I experience them:

When this happens to me, it's when I first log in to TH; it has never cropped up mid-session. Any link that is not a map location will not open; it returns me back to the main map. A header link that is also a map location either does the same thing, or opens in the entire window (no frames).

The image map still works. Therefore any link that's also on a location page can be accessed eventually.

In other words, when this glitch happens, I can't get to the Auction House from the header, but I would be able to click on "Downtown" on the main image map and eventually get to the Auction House that way. But if I want to change gear or rebuff before I go adventuring, I'm screwed: no way to access Skills or Use Items except from that header link. I might be able to access Somerset, for example, from the header, but it would open in the entire window, with no frames.

Sometimes extensive adventuring will clear this up, but as stated, that's not always an option. Closing the FF window and opening a new one will sometimes clear it up. Restarting FF, if I remember correctly, always clears things up.

Only recently created some multis; haven't yet checked to see if it always happens in exactly the same way across all accounts. Will check that next time this happens.

FWIW,

Dr W

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"I don't have enough time to do all the procrastinating I want to."--Littleghost, in chat

Happened to me randomly today and seemed to fix itself. I'm not sure if this is the same problem, but it seemed like it.

I was in combat (in the Fiendish Pit) and once the combat was over, I wanted to go to my inventory, but the top pane links wouldn't work, and neither would the side pane. I ended up pressing forward to the next patrol in the same area, and after a couple of refreshes, they were back in working order.

Using Firefox v.2.0.0.9 (latest) on WinXP.

The weirdest thing is that it happened, and then righted itself.

Okay, Ryme: it happened again, so I sent 4 accounts through their paces, and the problem is at least a little more defined. See if this helps out any. (And maybe someone else can fill in the bits that I just don't get.)

SUMMARY

It's not just in the header, and the problem isn't really the links themselves (which we figured). Among other things, Firefox appears to be “acking” on the following code



which appears in some TH pages. (My reasoning is spelled out below.) FF also seems to be choking up on frames for some reason, but I haven't figured out how or why. And I'm convinced that it only does this when it gets upset about something else entirely (but I don't know how to prove it).

(BTW, Shoudn't that code be



?)

Whenever this error happens, I always see an error in FF's Error Console that may be a cause or may be a symptom:


I've no clue what that means, and it would take me hours to sift through the file and figure that out; I'm a rookie when it comes to javascript.

(MOST OF) THE GORY DETAILS

Symptoms from User End

Scope
On the opening page after login, the navigation from select links in frames “header,” “nav,” and “footer” was affected. All frame “chat” links worked properly. The image map in frame “main” was not tested because it had appeared to work in the past.

What worked
All links that target new windows worked properly. As mentioned, all links that target frame “chat” worked properly, and the pop-up chat definition worked properly. The “Last Area Patrolled” link in frame “nav” worked properly, opening the last patrolled area inside frame “main”-- even though “Last Patrolled” was different for each of the four accounts. Logout links worked properly. After adventuring the “Last Patrolled” area, the “Main” links in frames “header” and “footer” each worked properly.

What didn't
Links to files in the folder “maps” opened full screen (no frames). “Bugreport.php” also opened full screen. All links not yet mentioned--various links from frame “header,” plus the character link in frame “nav”--seemed to route the user directly back to “main.php.”

All errors were duplicated in all four accounts. Chat links were no longer tested after the second account. Testing on links that target new windows stopped halfway through the third account.

The Reality from the Dev Side

The links that appeared to route to “main.php” did in fact visit their respective pages before re-routing. In all 4 accounts, clicking on sounos's Greasemonkey “Rest” link in the header caused the character to gain HP and PP and lose minutes, but the user was still routed back to “main.php.” (This link normally takes the user to "rest.php." See http://twilightheroes.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=148 for the script.) Careful observation (and a sporadically slow internet connection) revealed that all links were attempting to call their respective pages before being re-routed back to "main.php."

All pages that re-routed back to “main.php” contain the javascript noted above. None of the files from folder “maps” have this script, nor does “bugreport.php.” (These are the files that broke out of frames in order to work.)

“Fight.php” does contain this script, however, and links from frame “nav” to the combat area worked. Could this be due to a difference in quotation marks in the target attribute? FF hanging up on something else in the code that I just didn't see? Who knows?

Final Suggestion

Try tinkering with the javascript named in the summary and see if your bug reports go down. If so, do you start getting errors about the site breaking out of frames?

I wish I could be of more help, but maybe that'll narrow things down a little!

Edited twice for clarity, 11/25/07.-- Doc Whatsit.

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"I don't have enough time to do all the procrastinating I want to."--Littleghost, in chat

Whoops! Sorry about starting a new topic on this. I was really wasted last night.

Anyway, yeah, restarting the browser worked fine. I had logged off just before rollover and logged back on a little later without even closing the page. That may have been part of the trigger. I'm also using Sounos' Greasemonkey script for outfits, not sure if that will be a common thread to the problem.

We should have a villainous in-game reference to this phantom fiend. No Link to the Past, perhaps?

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-Exercising the freedom to conform since tomorrow