[Freeciv-Dev] timeout abuse / timeout unilaterally going to 0 (PR#883)

[Reinier Post <rp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

  I don't know if this has been answered already, but ...

> Full_Name: Jacky Mallett
> Version: 1.11.10 & prev
> Distribution: Don't know
> Client: Both (or N/A)
> OS: linux
> 
> On three different games i've played, the timeout value has been set to 0,
> during the game
> resulting in various accusations about who was responsible. I've also heard
> rumours
> from other people that they've experienced the same thing.

Are you sure the value is 0, not 1?  0 means 'no timeout' and
is important to have.  But someone is the timeout to 1, which
sabotages the game.

This probably refers to games hosted on civserver.freeciv.org.
Offenders should note that abuse can be traced in the logs.
About a year ago, a user (actually, a whole IP range) was
denied access due to repeated abuse.

> On one
> game i attempted to reset it, but it immediately went back to 0. In todays
> game we endyeared - looking in the message log, there was no acknowledgementt
> to any set timeout command at the time this happened. I'm increasingly 
> suspicious that this is actually a bug, rather than somebody doing it
> deliberately.

Please report any future incidents - if possible with the game number
or the exact time.

> In any case, it might be an idea to put a lower limit on timeout changes
> after the game has started - thereby resolving the all ai game problem.

A patch has been installed to set the minimum timeout to 40,
but 0 is still allowed.  I can't see any 'timeout wars' in the logs,
but they are only kept for a few days.

-- 
Reinier