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What's Wrong with Achievements?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 4:10 pm
by BCSWowbagger
I've received a message or two asking me to look into the Achievements system. I'm told it's broken. Maelwys has been super-busy of late, and he has given me some website access so I can assist a little (with the stern admonition, "Don't break it!"). Since Achievements are a big deal, I'm going to look into it.

Truth is, I don't pay attention to Achievements myself, so I don't know what's wrong. It's hard to fix a bug without a good bug report, so I am turning to you. Please tell me: what's wrong with Achievements?

The more detail, the better. Any information you've already reported elsewhere would be welcome here. Dates, specific achievement names, specific deck IDs, any other nitty-gritty you can give -- this is the information that lets me zero in on bugs. Assume I know nothing about Achievements beyond, "You get points for doing cool things." Because that's roughly accurate.

My work will probably take a while: I work about 1/10th as fast as Mael, so anything he couldn't fix quick is going to take me some time. Assuming I succeed at all! But I'm going to give it a try, and hopefully not screw anything up in the meantime like I did yesterday.

Re: What's Wrong with Achievements?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 5:43 pm
by Jono
Nearly all of the achievements that were added last May do not work. Why? I don't know. But any achievement that is visiable and no one has earned is likely a broken one.

The David Warner casting achievements are labeled wrongly as John Warner. They are also not in a David Warner subcategory folder like the other casting achievements. The Warner achievements are among the ones not working.

The 2016 Regionals and Comtinentals achievement badge images are missing completely. It may be the case for the 2016 Worlds badge, too - but I didn't go to that one so I don't know.

As a side note - the Unruly Haven and Harboring Fugitives 2E Maquis achievements should be closed down (i.e. They should be turned into timed achievements that can not be earned any longer) because you can't play non-Maquis icon Trewpachery a federation personnel to Athlos IV anymore.

As a second aside - it has been since at least November since anyone has mentioned achievements on the message boards - I have to ask, is it time for a new person to take over the Achievements? Lack of communication when a problem exists is not a good thing...

Re: What's Wrong with Achievements?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 5:53 pm
by Marquetry
Yes to ALL that Sean said - the entire group added last year has been broken since then.

Re: What's Wrong with Achievements?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 6:30 pm
by BCSWowbagger
Thanks, Jono! Thanks, Amber!
Jono wrote:Nearly all of the achievements that were added last May do not work. Why? I don't know. But any achievement that is visiable and no one has earned is likely a broken one.
Can you (or anyone) give me the name of a broken achievement and a specific deck that should have already earned it? More examples than that are welcome, too.

You say "nearly" all, and that's a very interesting caveat. Can you (or anyone) give me an example of an achievement from last May that is working?
As a side note - the Unruly Haven and Harboring Fugitives 2E Maquis achievements should be closed down (i.e. They should be turned into timed achievements that can not be earned any longer) because you can't play non-Maquis icon Trewpachery a federation personnel to Athlos IV anymore.
If I understand correctly, timed achievements are tied to particular dates. At what time was Athos IV changed so that these decks stopped working?
As a second aside - it has been since at least November since anyone has mentioned achievements on the message boards - I have to ask, is it time for a new person to take over the Achievements? Lack of communication when a problem exists is not a good thing...
Perfectly reasonable question, whose answer is way above my paygrade.

Re: What's Wrong with Achievements?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 7:12 pm
by Jono
All the broken achievements are in the DECK DESIGN category (they cover both 1E, 2E and Tribbles):

Empire
TOS Empire Player // Fear Will Keep Them In Line

Maquis
Ignored Jurisdiction // Defiant Reprisal

Photonic
Children of the Light

Card Tyoe
A Long Road // Reach Any Star

Theme Decks
Insert Undercover Agent // Issue Secret Orders
Replicant Player // Do Androids Dream Electric Tribbles?
Party Player // Let's Get This Party Started
Targeting Player // Spy vs. Spy

Casting
Good Casting: Warner // Great Casting: Warner
Good Casting: Warner (Gorkon) // Great Casting: Warner (Gorkon)
Good Casting: Warner (Madred) // Great Casting: Warner (Madred
Good Casting: Warner (St. John Talbot) // Great Casting: Warner (St. John Talbot)

Keyword
Just Like Old Times // Deep Roots

Re: What's Wrong with Achievements?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 7:17 pm
by Jono
Errata for Athos IV was effective April 29, 2016... so the "closing date" for Maquis achievements I mentioned should be April 28, 2016 (no one has tried to earn it after that date by playing an unplayable deck).

https://www.trekcc.org/articles/index.php?articleID=1776

Re: What's Wrong with Achievements?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 7:22 pm
by Jono
You may also want to read this article: https://www.trekcc.org/articles/index.php?articleID=1772

Re: What's Wrong with Achievements?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 7:29 pm
by BCSWowbagger
<3

Re: What's Wrong with Achievements?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 7:52 pm
by commdecker
Yeah, all of that.

One more problem, of much less importance, was introduced today. Achievements were awarded last night because of last night's numbers, which included your accidental double counting of 2016. Cumulative achievements such as ones that count how many Tribbles you've bred, or how high your rating has reached, or how many times you've played X, have been awarded if that double-count reached the threshold.

This may get automatically corrected tonight now that the numbers are back to normal, if there's any recalculation that would take achievements away.

Re: What's Wrong with Achievements?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 8:42 pm
by CrimsonRavage
As an example, this tribbles deck should be eligible for the Replicant achievement, but the deck builder doesn't recognize it as eligible.

These decks should be eligible for the Good Casting: Warner (St. John Talbot) achievement, but the deck builder doesn't recognize it as eligible.

Re: What's Wrong with Achievements?

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 4:53 pm
by BCSWowbagger
I can't promise daily updates, but I think Johnny Holeva has done a great job lifting the veil on his CC work and has been a model of transparency, so I will try to do the same. When I do things, I'll let you know about them. Also, when I break things, which I do constantly, you'll know how I got there.

1. The achievements system is a breathtaking piece of work behind the scenes that obviously involved a breathtaking amount of work to create and maintain. I'm amazed that Maelwys has borne this burden, apparently all on his own, for as many years as he has. Good gracious. I'm still stunned. However grateful you are to Maelwys already, it's not enough. Every time I peel back a layer of this website I find monumental amounts of hard work, but none moreso than the achievements system.

2. The problem, once I looked in the database for achievements that went into effect in May 2016, was pretty obvious: they're all in there, but the database queries they rely on to actually detect decks and victories were never written. As far as I can tell, that's the only problem here: the May Achievements are all missing a crucial component.

3. To test my theory, I am writing SQL for two achievements today: Replicant Player and Do Tribbles Dream of Electric Sheep? (which is the "win a tournament with" version of Replicant Player). If I am successful, everyone eligible for these achievements will receive them overnight. I chose this group partly because it's a very simple achievement, but mostly because CrimsonRavage was the only person to give me an actual deck ID to work with. Thanks, Crimson: enjoy your 5-point reward tonight. (Hopefully!)

4. If that works, we'll go forward from there. Slowly.

5. Matt, did the people who were improperly awarded achievements earlier this week have them revoked when the job ran last night? They should have been, if I read the code correctly, I wasn't able to find an example to check in time.

6. Due to a typo ("=" instead of "==") you were all achievement admins from midnight last night until 10 AM this morning. Thanks, edgeofhearing, for letting me know about it. Fixed now.

Re: What's Wrong with Achievements?

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 4:59 pm
by CrimsonRavage
Won't I need to reload the deck to show it is eligible for that achievement?

Re: What's Wrong with Achievements?

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 5:26 pm
by Armus
I take a back seat to no one in my appreciation and admiration of the work Mael has done to keep this site running and make it awesome-er over the years, but now that his talents are being used in a new career and he has less CC site maintenance time, I'm VERY appreciative of James filling in and making things go.

This site is crucial to any chance of continued success of these games, and competent Webmasters are a crucial component of a good site.

Thanks, Mael and James. Keep up the good work!

:cheersL: :cheersL: :cheersL:

Re: What's Wrong with Achievements?

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 5:33 pm
by BCSWowbagger
Won't I need to reload the deck to show it is eligible for that achievement?
No, I can force a deck check for the Replicant achievement, so everyone who needs it gets it.

...and just did. Should be all set, but fingers crossed! We'll find out tonight. :)

Re: What's Wrong with Achievements?

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 8:46 pm
by CrimsonRavage
BCSWowbagger wrote:
Won't I need to reload the deck to show it is eligible for that achievement?
No, I can force a deck check for the Replicant achievement, so everyone who needs it gets it.

...and just did. Should be all set, but fingers crossed! We'll find out tonight. :)
I see the deck is now eligible. :cross: :cross: