Pet names do not reflect updates to names about rocket

[cthulahoops]

Thank you!

Yeah, this is a bit tricky - but I think I can do something that mostly works. So long as the pet server doesn't restart then the next time there's an event related to a user I can update all the pet names. So, if the user is active on Virtual RC there's no problem, I can update the pets.

The problem is that if user doesn't visit Virtual RC before the pet server restarts then on restart the pets won't recognise their owner. (There's a related problem if we have two Recursers with the same name.) This is just a limitation of the design, and I'd need to add server state to fix it.

I don't think polling helps, because I don't think the API tells us anything about offline users.

Have all the pets been abandoned already, or are there any I should rename manually? (Due to a quirk of Virtual RC, the abandonment message is only visible to anyone who's online at the time, anyone who joins later can't see it because the sender no longer exists.)

[ntietz]

Ahh sorry for the faulty suggestion of polling! That’s what I get for guessing without understanding the code haha.

Thanks for looking into this!

I already abandoned the old pets, on a lookout for a new penguin and crab haha.

[cthulahoops]

Looking into code it looks like it's better than I remembered! Ownership is tracked based on bot_json["message"]["mentioned_entity_ids"][0], so there's no trouble tracking owners across name changes and restarts! It still won't update until the next time the owner visits Virtual RC, but that's not too bad I think.

I hope the genie is kind to you!

[cthulahoops]

Okay, this should work. Now, I wonder if there's any way to try it without changing my name! 😬

Do you know how long name changes take to propagate through? Can I reasonably change my name on RC and back again without confusing too many people?

[ntietz]

I’m not sure! I think it was pretty near instantaneous for me. If you want a minimally confusing name change, putting an extra “l” in your last name may be not really noticed.

[cthulahoops]

Good suggestion! Though, I do feel there's some sort of "testing is my middle name" joke to made. 😀

Have handled some more edge cases, and think I'm ready to go live with this. Thank you for the bug report, and sorry about the bad name handling.