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Client vs Server Projectiles; Psychic Oilers

3 replies [Last post]
Mon, 03/17/2014 - 15:28
Whitechocolatechip's picture
Whitechocolatechip

Just posting some bug reports here. These are things that have lingered for some time and I haven't seen anyone post and haven't seen addressed, so hopefully I can shed some light and be helpful in some way. Historically speaking, I'm awful with understanding forum organization, so if this is in the wrong area, it'd be wonderful if someone could move it to the proper area.

Reported Bits:
-Server and client have large difference in how they sometimes perceive projectiles. As an alchemist I've had my fair share of shooting through greavers and whatnot and watching my rounds vanish but do no damage, but when it happens with power attacks, I see the shot split into the distance in its signature K shape spread, and have even had it happen a rare couple of times through solid walls (how that happens, I can't even begin to wonder, and I bet it's nearly impossible to replicate, but I've seen it happen, regardless.) This is something I was generally okay with, seeing how most times you can get the BOTD on the flip side that your shot "missed" but registered a hit, until I've started realizing that this happens with enemies' projectiles as well. I'm an alchemist infighter, so most times I've generally chalked this up to me straight up not noticing projectiles, but at this point I've managed to see a clear fistful of moments where despite massive empty space and clear screen, I randomly start dropping colored squares and lose health... but it's not random, really. I realize this is a difference between client and server once more, and I notice this happens quite often with polyp spines. Generally the super slow nature of the projectiles has been what's let me kill enemies on screen fast enough to clear up and still notice getting hit by invisible spines. I don't mind some mismatch with player projectiles, but getting hit by invisible shots and taking damage is rather unpolished and to some degree not fair to the players, even if it'll just annoy them instead of do serious damage most times.

-Oilers and maskerwraith cloaking do not mix. Oilers and Toxoils appear to have something in their AI routines that do not compensate for invisibility state. I'm not surprised really considering they have really unusual AI routines, but since they also drop blots of oil that sometimes ignite and cause damage, this can technically be registered as chasing and attacking players despite their invisible state. I was pretty alarmed this hasn't been reported yet to my knowledge, and hopefully this should be a relatively simple fix.

-Spontaneous combustion. This could very much be me not understanding the (potentially) complex system in place for ignition of oil blots, but I've seen a few too many situations where there has been no fire on screen for several seconds and (by murphey's law) the oil will spontaneously combust as I walk over it (and no, I'm not on fire to answer that common question) and quite often when I'm not walking over it. This may be less of a bug and more of a threshold issue, since this usually happens when fire was present a seemingly ridiculous period of time ago, so it actually does have a cause, it just SEEMS completely random.

This are also bugs I don't think bug report snapshots could accurately catch in action, as they are very brief and odd enough to where they could be shrugged off as misunderstanding of mechanics or coincidence. Hope this was helpful

Mon, 03/17/2014 - 18:14
#1
Zaffy-Laffy's picture
Zaffy-Laffy

The game runs fully server-sided, so everything you perceive is processed in the server. The "gap" between server and client you are experiencing is just ping issues.

Maskeriath cloaking has a problem with oilers, so yep.

I don't know about the third one, could it be ping issues as well?

Tue, 03/18/2014 - 22:44
#2
Whitechocolatechip's picture
Whitechocolatechip
Yes, the game's mechanics run

Yes, the game's mechanics run fully server side, this is clear. The issue is the inconsistency between what the server says the data is and how the data is fed to the client, producing a visual (and at some point, functional because of the way the projectile is destroyed client side) inconsistency, which is a form of function in itself. The way it disappears visually to the client but exists in solidity on the server is a mismatch. Also discovered bug report forums, I CALLED IT.

Wed, 03/19/2014 - 05:26
#3
Zaffy-Laffy's picture
Zaffy-Laffy

It's just latency. There's no bug or error there, what you perceive on your client is just a delayed projection of what the server process. There are a few client-sided visual aspects, mainly all character(yours only) animations are processed in the client and are immediately feedbacked to the user. Every other bit : Projectiles, sword hits, bomb hits are all server-sided and only feedbacked once they go to and fro the server. I don't see a problem here, pretty much every online game ever does this, some with different methods from others.

Unless you are suggesting a sudden bandwidth loss whereby many visual functions have suddenly stopped responding. To elaborate, you can suddenly stop receiving data from the server yet still send data to the server (so you get all the invisible damage, can still hit monsters but it doesn't show so). The server can also suddenly stop receiving data from the client, yet still send data to the client (when you can't move yet everything else is moving). These situations have happened before, and it is best to just restart the client to fix it.

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