## Summary
Many tests proved a specific change when it landed but don't need to run on every CI build forever. This removes **202 test methods and 9 files: 313 test cases, 2,247 → 1,934**. UOContent.Tests drops from about 14s to about 5s locally.
Removed:
- **Tautologies.** Asserting a constant, a constructor readback or a trivial getter, or testing BCL behavior.
- **Exact duplicates** of a surviving test on the same code path.
- **Obsolete regressions** whose failure can no longer be expressed.
- **Game-content values** shard owners customize (era drop rates, loot and skill tables, single-creature tuning). Each customization would otherwise force a test fix.
## How it was decided
1. Every test was classified, with a reason, by a per-shard sweep over all 287 test files.
2. Each proposed deletion was then checked by a second, adversarial reviewer against the surviving tests and the production code.
3. Anything that was the only coverage of a separate code path was **kept**, even where it looked like a duplicate. Examples: the unsigned `SpanReader`/`SpanWriter` methods, the at-location versus bounds enumerators, null-map enumerables, the security filters, archive-journal state transitions. About 130 proposed deletions were rejected this way.
Whole files removed:
- `FishingTests`, apart from 3 tests: the map-edge scan, serpent cleanup, and SOS chest consumption. The SOS test now stops at the first chest instead of measuring a catch rate. The multi-million-cast rate simulations are gone.
- `LordOaksTests` and `MeerEnragedTests` (single-creature tests).
- `AutoArchiveHelperTests`, `JsonDiscoverableTypeAttributeTests`, `DecimalSerializationTests` and `EnumConversionTests` (tautologies, or tests of their own local helpers).
- `NetworkStatsTests`.
- `MigratedDataLoadTests` (a subset of `AllSpawnFilesLoadTests`).
- `SpawnerFixtureCapture`: a capture tool, not a test, and its `version == 12` assert can no longer pass. The `.bin` fixtures it produced stay.
## Tests
- Server.Tests: 811 pass.
- UOContent.Tests: 1,123 pass.
A follow-up PR, stacked on this one, fixes how the remaining tests behave: shared state, CI-vacuous tests, harness duplication.
## Symptom
`[set TargetLocation (x, y)` (quoted or not) answers **"That is not properly formatted."**, and in `[props` the `>` next to `TargetLocation` does nothing when the value is null — which is its normal idle state (`BaseAI.cs:650` clears it).
This looked like a `Point3D` parsing regression from #2624/#2625, but `Point3D`/`Point2D`-typed properties (`Location`, etc.) were never affected. The only `[CommandProperty]` in the tree declared as an **interface** is `BaseCreature.TargetLocation : IPoint2D` (`BaseCreature.cs:1111`), and both code paths only knew the structs. `git log -S"IPoint"` over the parser and gump files hits nothing but the initial import — the gap is inherited from RunUO, not recent.
## Root cause
- **`[set`** — `Types.TryParse` has no branch for `IPoint2D`/`IPoint3D`. An interface has no static `Parse`, so `GetParseMethod` returns null and the value falls into `Convert.ChangeType("(x, y)", typeof(IPoint2D))`, which throws → "not properly formatted".
- **Props gump** — `PropsGump` routes on `obj?.GetType() ?? prop.PropertyType` (since #2180). With a null value the type is `IPoint2D`; `Point2D.IsAssignableFrom(IPoint2D)` is false, no branch matches, and the click is inert. It only worked when the slot already held a `Point2D`, because the runtime type is then the struct.
## Fix
- `Types.TryParse`: `IPoint3D`/`IPoint2D` targets resolve to the concrete struct — `Point3D` first, then `Point2D` for an `IPoint2D` target (a 3-tuple is a valid `IPoint2D`). `(-null-)` still clears; the existing null branch runs first.
- `PropsGump`: the interface types route to `SetPoint3DGump`/`SetPoint2DGump`. The entity branch stays ahead of them — `TargetLocation` legitimately holds a Mobile too (`ShepherdsCrook.cs:148`, herding toward the shepherd), and that case still opens `SetObjectGump`.
- `SetPoint2DGump`/`SetPoint3DGump`: seed the text entries from `value is IPoint2D/IPoint3D` rather than a hard cast, so a `Point3D` sitting in an `IPoint2D` slot cannot `InvalidCast`.
## Not covered
`[set TargetLocation 0x40001234` (assigning a mobile by serial) still reports "not properly formatted" — the entity branch keys on the *target* type being `IEntity`, which `IPoint2D` isn't. Real state, but niche; left out to keep this to the reported symptom.
## Testing
Five cases in `InterfacePointParseTests`, watched fail before the change (three returned the error string; two pin existing behaviour that must survive): tuple → `Point3D` for both interfaces, pair → `Point2D`, pair rejected for `IPoint3D`, `(-null-)` clears.
`dotnet build` 0 warnings. **1059 UOContent** and **891 Server** tests pass, 0 failures. The gump routing is a one-line branch with no automated test — needs an in-game check: `[props` a creature with a null `TargetLocation`, press `>`, expect the Point2D editor.
## Summary
Hardens the **Advanced Search** engine (`Projects/UOContent/Engines/Advanced Search/`) — the GM entity finder that fans searches across background worker threads. A code review surfaced 14 defects (A–N), including a shard-crasher reachable from a single admin typo and a path that silently disables autosave for the rest of the shard's uptime. Each behavioral fix ships with a test.
Full `UOContent.Tests` suite: **530/530 green** (21 new AdvancedSearch tests).
## Fixes
### Crash / data-loss
- **A — Shard crash on a malformed Property Test.** `AdvancedSearchThreadWorker.Execute` had no `try/catch` and the worker `Thread` is foreground, so a parse throw (`Hits>abc`, `Layer=onehanded` — `Enum.Parse` was case-sensitive, `Hits>1@` — empty sub-expression indexing) terminated the process. Now: `ParseValue`/`CompareValues` use `TryParse`/`Enum.TryParse(ignoreCase)` and return no-match instead of throwing; the per-entity filter is wrapped in `try/catch` (logs + skips); empty expressions are guarded.
- **C — Overlapping searches corrupt state + brick autosave.** `_threadWorkers`/`_threadId` were `static` but `DoSearch` is an instance method; a second search (double-click / two admins) stomped shared worker state and could leave a drain waiting forever on the shared `AutoResetEvent`, so `AutoSave.SavesEnabled` was never restored. Now: an `Interlocked` re-entrancy guard rejects concurrent searches.
- **G — Autosave restore not guaranteed.** The restore lived only in the success callback. Now it's in a `finally` (plus an outer `catch` covering the synchronous setup and a `catch` on the drain body), so autosave + the guard are always released.
### Wrong results
- **D — `@`/`|` operator precedence.** `a@b|c` evaluated as `a && (b || c)` instead of `(a && b) || c`. OR now binds looser than AND (`AdvancedSearchUtilities.EvaluateBoolean`, unit-tested).
- **E — Descending sort, partial last page rendered blank** (the index decreased in descending mode and the `break` early-out killed the loop). Now a bounded `VisibleCount`-driven loop renders the last page in both directions.
- **F — Deleted entities** were not skipped (ghost rows). Now `DoEntitySearch` skips `entity.Deleted`.
- **N — Reference-type comparisons** threw (`Comparer<T>.Default.Compare` on non-`IComparable`) and compared references to a string. Now equality is by value and ordering is guarded to `IComparable` (no throw).
### Worker perf / hardening
- **H** busy-spin → `Thread.Yield()` in the drain; **I** `GetProperties()` cached per `Type`; **J** `HandleValidInternal` moved behind the cheap map/range/region filters; **K** worker threads are `IsBackground` + `Exit()` tolerates an already-terminated worker; **L** `_filter == null` guard; **M** consistent `Volatile` access on `_pause`/`_exit`.
### Documented
- **B** — the residual worker/event-loop read race is documented on `AdvancedSearchThreadWorker`: workers read live entity state concurrently with the loop, so value-type reads may be stale-but-safe and getter exceptions are swallowed; fully eliminating it would require snapshotting entity fields on the main thread (deferred).
## Notes
- New test-only seams (`TryBeginSearch`/`EndSearch`/`IsSearchInProgress`/`VisibleCount`/`TryParseValue`/`EvaluateBoolean`) are `internal` via the existing `InternalsVisibleTo("UOContent.Tests")`.
- Dead `public ParseValue<T>` removed.
- `ConcurrentDictionary` for the reflection cache is intentional — these workers are genuinely parallel.
### Summary
- Moves starting city info from AccountHandler to CharacterCreation
- Simplifies the logic of determining the starting cities
- Adds support for Trammel & Felucca for non-young accounts
- Fixes fall through starting city for v6+ in UOR era.
- All staff are force-sent to GA.
Closes#1408
