Currently, oil will shrink away slowly from existence. The problem is that it's still active while doing so, and can catch fire or poison things if it's the poisonous variant. This can happen even if the oil has shrunk so small that it is no longer visible.
Oil should cease to exist the moment it starts shrinking. The effective lifespan doesn't necessarily have to shorten, but catching fire from something invisible is just shullbit.
You may be a victim of high latency like me.
While you saw on screen that you're walking on a shrinking oil patch next to not-shrinking ones:
[A][A][A]
[K][S][S]
[A][A][A]
[K]: Knight, moving from left to right
[A]: Active oil patch
[S]: Shrinking oil patch
You issued the command to move down (to align yourself with the [S] patches), then stop moving down, and start moving to the right. Your Spiral Knights client executed your command perfectly.
However the server wasn't on the same page as you. Your previous command to move down (to align yourself with the [S] patches) were still active, and your command to stop moving down arrived a little bit late. Server and client disagreed over your current location, and server overruled your client, and your knight was moved a little bit more south than you intended, stepping onto [A].
Happens to me more often that I would like, when I tried to move quickly around corners (e.g. FSC d26 wheel room). That's why I have to give all kinds of traps a wide berth.
This happens with four bars of connection, and it is no rare occurrence. Try standing on a patch of oil and holding up your shield; you'll still be taking hits long after the oil has faded away. They may have put some system in place where the chance of poisoning is reduced upon shrinking but it doesn't stop invisible tiles from frequently poisoning me. I've also noticed that sometimes oil that's on fire will shrink away from existence, and after this has happened an oiler I've put out with my Shivermist will splooge oil and suddenly catch fire again.
I've had it happen with no active oil patches nearby. Should I cook up a recording?
i think ur right Zeddy. i have tested oil in the advance training hall and even after u see the shrinking animation of it disapearing, it can still catch fire. i dont really understand why the timing is screwed up.
Does it? On the day of the fire poison danger room, I noticed I don't get poisoned the moment it starts to shrink, even if it still appears to be on screen.