In light of the recent events we have identified the need for more robust options for delegates to keep the network alive without software changes. I am going to work with the team today to provide some new features including:
1) Manual Addition of Checkpoints - this will help delegates get on the proper fork if there is a fork.
2) Manual override on the maximum number of transactions to include per block, this would allow delegates to at the very least produce empty blocks or blocks with just 1 transaction at a time until issues can be resolved. This would have allowed the delegates to resolve the most recent bug without dev team intervention.
3) Manual override on various other params such as: block size, block production time, pending transaction queue size, etc.
4) Manual flagging of transactions as invalid for block production
5) Manual filtering of some transaction types (in case a bug is found with them).
With these features delegates should be able to respond quicker and there will be more work around options. Hopefully we will never need them, but like a spare tire it is good to have just in case.
If you can think of any other features delegates would need to have greater control over block production let me know.