1.3.4 List of Bugs

Playing v1.3.4 under Mac OS 9.2.2

I have noted the following:

All LAN systems which I have tried cannot actually be navigated/compromised. To obviate (i.e., to render unnecessary) a few ubiquitous questions:

YES, I have read the LAN section of the Modlink Guide. Additionally, I have read the LAN-specific guide which can be downloaded from Ambrosia's FTP. I have carefully followed the instructions in these.

YES, I am attempting to infiltrate these LAN systems using v3.0 of Scan, Probe and Spoof.

I have yet to find a LAN system on any server which will actually behave "as advertised" in either guide mentioned above. Hence, the missions involving LAN infiltration are all non-starters for me. Others have posted this problem (also pre-confirming that they have read guides and have the highest LAN-cracking softwares installed).

Just in case there remain any doubts that I simply do not understand how to infiltrate a LAN system:

Connect to the target server. Disable/bypass any Monitor/Proxy/Firewall.

Open the HUD LAN display. Scan the LAN to reveal its components.

Click on the Router and rund Probe to reveal its connections to components further down the line (probably a Hub).

Problem is, those connections are NOT shown (i.e., no connecting lines appear).

Clicking the "Connect" button for any LAN component does nothing. Running Spoof on a component reports "Spoofed" but changes nothing: the supposedly now-Spoofed component still has a red box around it.

Another bug which has persisted since the advent of Uplink Mac (don't know if Windows versions also exhibit this):

1. Go to the Mission Server.
2. Demand full payment up front for a job.
(assumes the client agrees to this)
3. Accept the job (note the increase in your bank balance - you were paid).
4. Log off your Gateway.
5. Log in again.
6. Complete the job for which you have already been paid.
7. Check you bank balance, and you will find that you have been paid in full a second time.

It's a nice little bug to exploit at the beginning of the game to get some quick cashflow, but it really should be fixed, especially as this was reported (the message seems to have gone missing) about two years ago. I should know, since I am the one who reported it.

Next, not a "bug" per se, but what I consider to be a major cosmetic gaffe with the presentation of the connections map. The following three items

1. Connection points (i.e., the squares that you click on to establish a link).
2. Names of links.
3. Link lines.

These are all the same colour, controlled by the same bits in a theme file. It really would make better sense to have these three map visual cues in different colours, at least the link lines.

Another user interface paradigm gaffe:

Within the game, you cannot select, copy and paste text. If this was done intentionally to slow down player response time (for instance, when racing against a trace), there are other ways to do this which will not lead to repetitive motion stress ailments. I personally don't believe that slowing down the player was the intent - which leaves sloppy programming as the explanation.

This post has been edited by mrxak : 15 February 2007 - 02:54 AM

Hopefully the latest patch for Windows will be ported across to Mac, with Intel support too.

Hah, yes, sloppy programming is the key thing there. Chris Delay's original Uplink code was so badly written and buggy that we nicknamed it 'Chris++' - his own special version of C++ that's so obfuscated you need to wear protective goggles to look at it. It seems to have been cleaned up a little by this point on the Windows version (patch 1.5) though.