Black Doors in missions, still

All these new mods are just a waste of time till the ridiculous server syinc problem in missions is sorted out.

Many other on-line games need a far better character location systems than anarchy requires, eg 1st person shooters where it is essential that person x knows where target y is in order to shoot at them and hit, Eg quake, unreal, BF1942 etc etc. None of these games seem to have problems keeping track of 50+ players simultaniously. AO doesn’t need this level of sophistication as we only have to select our target and hit the go button and the server does all the rest.

When you suddenly change velocity in a mission, ie go from sneak to run and then all the doors turn black and you get killed, things become very frustrating.

It seems the AO client is arguing with the server as to where your character actually is. This is stupid. Either the client tells the server where the character is (and forces an update) or the server should tell the client where the character is (and force an update). Either way there wouldn’t be this stupid black door bug that is an automatic death warrant to a character.

Perhaps part of the problem is the doors themselves. If you notice when you move through the mission how the little pink door dots unfold in front of you and disappear behind you, my guess is that the server doesn’t put in doors unless it has to so when you “slip out of syinc” you are in a place where doors haven yet been put into your map (or have been culled). Despite what I have been told by the arks this is NOT a VISUAL BUG. It is a design flaw. It has nothing to do with graphics issues.

Surly this bug is easy enough to fix, it’s not like it used to happen 4-5 patches ago. It is a problem that has been introduced into the game with some changes to missions. That being the case this “feature” could be undone.

It has to be more important to fix this issue than to keep rolling out new stuff, after all doing missions constitutes the vast majority of players time in the AO world, so logically the missions should be the most polished system in the game. Unfortunately despite 3 patches this is still not the case.

Kill this problem NOW.

Actually it's a very old problem. Most likely your character wasn't fast enough to cause it in the past. Ask any of the old Fixers. Or an Enforcer who's stacked Fixers run buffs with Rage to blitz missions. It's not a new bug, it's been around. The key is to catch it as soon as it happens and instantly begin to backtrack. You may still die if blitzing, but if it's happening under other circumstances then you should be ok. Just because you've noticed a problem recently doesn't mean it's a recent problem.

It’s not that old. I have been playing for just over a year and it certainly never existed before 13.2 having chatted with the people who were high lvl (120+) when I joined the game they all agree that it is no more than a few months old.

The problem is it can’t be caught if you change velocity in a mission. If you are an agent sneaking; the second you are spotted you immediately start to run. If you can’t reach the exit in 5-7 seconds you are shafted. It doesn’t matter how much you back track or what you do. The likelihood is you are dead.

The only real clue you get to the likelihood of it occurring is when you first enter the mission, if you immediately set of at sneak pace and you get magically transported back to the starting room you know you are potentially going to have problems. Sometimes this transportation bug takes 10+ seconds to happen ie you have cleared the main room and are entering one of the far doors.

IT NEEDS TO BE FIXED

Tiggy

played: 100days 2 hours 27mins

this problem has been around since beta, infact in beta it would pop up on a regular basis in missions. But really it only happens when your running to fast, you either have to pause every couple of seconds when you run or you have to force a client/server update(easiest way is to hit "U" then "Accept" IE skills system.)
this happens more and more with less bandwidth.
this is related to the invisible team mates bug also.

Ya old bug. I used to get this when I was a lvl 100ish soldier blitzing missions. This musta been like a year ago now.

Running through a mission, then the doors would go black and you wouldn't be able to leave the room, and you wouldn't see a mob but you could see yourself taking damage, and hear the mob hitting you.

Hasn't happend to me like that in ages tho. I have noticed lately doors that go black, but then all I do is turn away and wait 15 or 20 seconds and turn back and the door is back in place.

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Originally posted by Tiggy
It seems the AO client is arguing with the server as to where your character actually is. This is stupid. Either the client tells the server where the character is (and forces an update)...

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They do that, within one week you find cheating apps to teleport yourself around ;)

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It has to be more important to fix this issue than to keep rolling out new stuff, after all doing missions constitutes the vast majority of players time in the AO world, so logically the missions should be the most polished system in the game. Unfortunately despite 3 patches this is still not the case.

Kill this problem NOW.

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I strongly disagree here. The problem isn't that missions have bugs, the problem is that they should make it so that players have some incentive for playing outdoors. Missions have had their share of improvement already - whatever how much stuff you add in those, they still remain boring pseudo-random dungeons.
Missions shouldn't constitute the majority of playing time... If I wanted to play a game with stupid dungeons, I could as well play diablo.

Yup have existed for a long long time only that it is the fast movements that create the problems...

Usualy it is the uncontrollable movements .... I noticed with my brother when he play on my computer his char and mine is equal fast when it come to blitzing missions or moving fast ... the dif bet. us iswhen he run he run in the mission like well very uncontrollable and he get alot of black doors while me i dont get it unless there is some serius lag .. i did a litle test where i did the same thing i intentiualy moved myself in a very uncontrollable way when blitzing a couple of missions... and well i got a couple of black doors. But i noticed when i saw the grafics move strange i backed up very fast and it corrected itself on a couple of ocations but mostly it got totaly out of sync then. And at a couple of times the srmmgr did a low prio message on resources that came up in chat.

I sent in a report to FC two weeks ago regarding this .. because some of my org members got a litle :( over the fact that they crashed alot when blitzing missions.

There is also another thing that is a litle irritable and that is when you go to fast into a area where there is alot of chars .... they client crashes and char end up in a logon loop. Have happened 2 times l8tly for me ... first was on Johndoo's wedding and the second was on a Tara raid in the dongeon.

The fun thing here is if i took a alt char and walked slowly into the area the problem did not happen.. in my tests when i got this i managed to get 2 of my chars in logon loops and then finaly doing the slow walk it was no problem any more.

I bel these two problems are related in some way. Wouldnt surprice me if one get solved the other get fixed by that solution.

PS *me hope FC fixes this because it would also fix a couple of other problems when massiv movement is done fast ingame.

// Marlark, *Waves* to the audience.

I think it must be bandwidth related because I've only seen a black door once and that was with my slow engie long ago. I've got a 128 fixer and I run pretty dern fast and I've never had the problem.

Oh, and the time that it happened to my engie, I tried running through the black door and I went LD. When I logged back on all the mobs in the mission (that I had already killed) where back in place! I died quickly as you can well imagine.

Yeah. This problem must be fixed asap.

I get black doors/severe warping when i switch between sneak mode and running. Theese problems occur most when i switch between sneak and speed buffed run mode. The bigger the difference in run speed, the more likely to get server desync.

My other chars depends on my Agent to get them Equipment and Credits.

*bump*

The thing is im not all that fast 550ish (un-buffed which is usually how I sneak) and I have a nice fat 1mb ADSL connection.

If I just Blitz then 99% of the time there is no problem and as pointed out already if the doors do turn black while Blitzing usually you can back up and fix the problem. BUT if you CHANGE SPEED (drop out of sneak and start running) there is a massively increased chance (up to 4 in 5 missions) of getting black doors and when you do backing up DOES NOT work. I no longer wear armour while sneaking as it only prolongs the dieing process.

There is something fundamentally wrong with the code if the server is unable to tell the client where it is. These syncing problems don’t happen in games like quake and BF1942 (which are handling far more delicate and complex positioning problems than an AO mission) there is no excuse for them in Anarchy.

I haven’t added any IP’s to run for over 75 lvls yet the black door problem has defiantly got worse over the last few months.

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I strongly disagree here. The problem isn't that missions have bugs, the problem is that they should make it so that players have some incentive for playing outdoors. Missions have had their share of improvement already - whatever how much stuff you add in those, they still remain boring pseudo-random dungeons.

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With all due respect this problem IS more important than any other issue such as new content or the nerfing of LLTS which really does only affect a small amount of the people a small amount of the time. Being an agent I do a massive amount of sneaking to acquire stuff for guildies and friends, sometimes as many as 30 or 40 missions in a day, precisely because people don’t want to spend their time in missions getting this stuff for themselves, they want to go off and play in dyna camps or team for some nice safe BS xp. Sneaking is what I do well it is my professions speciality. There is nothing more annoying than being slowed down or held up when trying to get through a massive shopping list by this form of ridiculous death. When this happens to you in well over 50% of the missions you are sneaking, a 4 hour shopping spree becomes 6-8 hours and you become extremely irritable and frustrated. Missions always have and always will be the things people spend the vast amount of their time doing, not just for the xp, but for the items and equipment they need and desire. I suppose there is always the option of telling people to get their own damn stuff and they can struggle with black doors too but then what would be the point of being in a guild if the agents refused to get you stuff because they were fed up with getting killed in a tedious manor acquiring items for your benefit?

This problem needs to be fixed and fast.

Tiggy :(

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There is also another thing that is a litle irritable and that is when you go to fast into a area where there is alot of chars .... they client crashes and char end up in a logon loop. Have happened 2 times l8tly for me ... first was on Johndoo's wedding and the second was on a Tara raid in the dongeon.

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Apparently having a large friends list can contribute significantly to zoning and logging problems, particularly in busy areas (don’t you just hate people who send you a tell for a buff).