FWIW I've dealt with that by checking for error codes.

If you try to send from an inactive link, it tells you RCL not enough or whatever that error is.

If you try to send to an inactive link, it tells you invalid target.

As the cost of isActive() is significant, I never actually call it.  I just look at the error codes and mark them as internally inactive the first time I get an error trying to use one.  Worst case you have 1 error returned when you try to do something, and in any case you never waste extra CPU polling isActive.

There are well documented cases where the Screeps server gets overloaded or otherwise locked up, and it starts telling you that you are using too much CPU.

There are other well documented cases where again the Screeps server is overloaded, and it starts charging you 5 CPU for a move (or other API) command instead of 0.2 CPU.

There is nothing you can do about it.  It is a problem with the server.  All you can do is ask the devs to fix it.  

I also use Chrome, and I paste in truly massive JS snippets into the console to run adhoc reports.  Never had an issue with it.

I do notice that Screeps breaks miserably on Edge, so it's possible there are similar problems with Firefox.

@Crusher48 you may already know this, but you should not ever use look()

Basically look() calls lookFor() 8 different times, one for every possibly LOOK_* constant, and merges the results for you.  This is an insane waste of CPU since you likely only need a small subset of the results.

TL;DR don't use look().  Use lookFor() instead.

In this room https://screeps.com/a/#!/room/E73N48

It used to be owned by a player named sleukeleire and he had placed an extractor construction site on the H node.  It was not built, it was just a construction site.

I claimed the room and destroyed his extractor along with all the other buildings.

Then I unclaimed the room.

The player sleukeleire was able to RE-PLACE his extractor construction site on the mineral.

I am unable to place extractors anywhere unless I have claimed the room and have upgraded its controller.

It seems there is a bug that is allowing sleukeleire to continue to rebuild the extractor even though he no longer owns this room?

EDIT: I have since started reserving the room myself again, and his construction site remains.  There is no way for me to remove it without reclaiming it again which I cannot do until my GCL increases.

Looks like you're on the right track.  That entire structure has an X value too small and a Y value too big.  Maybe adding an offset to the Y instead of the X in one of the calcs?

I'm working on similar code myself.

I've found that using the RoomVisuals system is amazing for debugging code like this.

Without reading through your code looking for errors, and since you didn't say what kind of help you want except that apparently the code isn't doing what you think it should - my advice is to add some debug code to draw circles/squares/polygons/etc on the screen when your code detects collisions or when it thinks it has found a nice spot to put structures down.

I imagine once you can visualize its calculations you'll find your issues fairly easily.

Good luck!  

@Atavus I understand what you mean.

If tunnels were implemented, I'd see them sort of like links.  Not available until your room is a higher level, so you still have to deal with the complexity of random room designs.

However, just like links, tunnel implementation could save (in some cases considerable) CPU for mining and remote mining operations, once the user has reached a high enough RCL/GCL.

If done right it would add to the game complexity and help reduce CPU usage, rather than simplifying the game which seems to be your concern.

Interesting idea.  Some rooms have SO many terrain walls that it takes 100s of ticks to move just a few tiles away.  A tunneling system would definitely be interesting in those cases.

Great idea, I'd love to see this implemented.  As it stands I'm wondering if I should implement my own caching, which would use potentially a lot of CPU/RAM, as I'm using visuals to see the results of very intense calculations (automatic room layout, etc).  It is not feasible to run those every tick to keep the visuals on screen - if there was a client-side way to keep the visuals it would be really handy.