Pet Pathing

I was going to post this in another thread, but decided to create a new one due to this being a little long-winded...

Everyone thinks they have a seperate solution to pet pathing, everybody voices an opinion on what/how/who/etc. it should be done. The reality of it is, it's NOT the actual pet pathing code. In fact, the pets pathing is only broken at all now to compensate for other bad portions of code. I'm sorry to say I'm not sitting in front of a compiler at the moment with the entire source code of AO in front of me (and if I was, nobody would see me again until I ended up fixing it all...) but it's BLATANTLY obvious that the problem lies in the NETWORKING CODE. I'd imagine 100% of AO'ers would suddenly agree with me on these points. Pay close attention to how pets act. Ever noticed them run the opposite direction, then suddenly jerk back? Or seem to "lock up" some place, then suddenly appear where you are? Think back to ANY classes missions... ever rubberbanded? Anyone seen the "Desynch" bug where the client thinks it's in one place, and is showing that place but is in reality in another? Do I even have to mention the poor, defenseless Omni's that suddenly whompa'ed into Tir just a few days ago? You know, I think I've made my point pretty clearly now.

FIX THE NETWORKING CODE FUNCOM!!

and don't just give us a mediocre compensation patch to "help" it. If you have to, REWRITE THE ENTIRE THING. I 100% guaruntee you THOUSANDS of bugs will be fixed, or "helped" to the point where they're no longer annoyances.

P.S. Please, anyone that agrees with me drop a 1-liner in here.

Bump for pathing fixes :D

The funny thing is the network code seems to get worse and worse every patch (which is why I'm guessing pet classes complain that pathing gets worse every patch also). Black doors? Mobs hitting after they're dead? Lifebar/damage error (double your life gets taken away as its supposed to)? Then they come up with a quick patch to "fix" (ie. cover-up) the problem. Black doors still exist, they just go away after a few seconds or simply rubberband you (maybe that was a semi-Fixer nerf since Fixer is synonymous with blitzing). The mob-hit from beyond the grave was covered up by delaying the XP recieved message. The lifebar error is still in effect.

I play an ENG and Fixer, by the way. I used to play MA too, but... you all know how that goes.

You can go on for hours about network related bugs. I just mentioned a small handful that warrant investing 100% development time into fixing the networking code. "Patches" anymore seem to just be coverups for bad code. There's just simply no way around it, portions of it need to be rewritten. The current code could potentially be saved I'm sure, but the amount of time investment clearly wouldn't be worth it, as they've tried and tried to "fix" it with little to no results.

What do you think? 2 months, complete re-write of the network code. Now, sure in the beginning it may even seem more buggy as old code will conflict with the new. Modify or re-write that code, another month or so? 3 months, 80% of AO's bugs removed. Players 80% more happy. You do the math.

P.S. I'm sorry about your MA, I never really cared for them due to the over-saturation of MA's in-game but when you see MA's using weapons, it makes me want to break down and cry at that point.

Yes 'desynch' is one aspect of the problem, certainly.
Ive played engineer so much I can confirm that.

But have you seen a pet fold back into the previous room, and take -lets say left- to the room wall to wall with the one that got a mob?
Well I have - way to many times.
That seems to me being one of those patch attampts at work -since I cannot remember the pet doing such things originally.

Attempted sulution that worsened the problem.

And ive seens quite some - sad to say, been around since the day when you could see guys that came with a strut pointing out from the rear of their heads.

Ooops, sorry its still there.
Some NPC like in Foremans office still got it.

But the bottom line:

There are several suggestions for fixing the pet pathing problems...
....since there several ways you could do it in.

The pet warp would be nice as a temporary patch - it would fix the desync problem which in turn would minimize the stress on the poor ARK's.
This until they have gotten the time for the permanent solution - which even I are realistic nuff to admit will take a few months.

There is obviously more to the pathing problem than just network desync.

I can't begin to understand why they didn't think about desync problem right from the start (at desgin time). Ofc, a better handling of sync (e.g. with packet numbers and an handler to decide which "late" packets should be applied and which should not) would increase the CPU/Network load on the server a bit but that is only a small price to pay.

Now for pathing, I think there is no half-decent algorithm there and that is absolutly unacceptable when pathing (and equivalent problems) is such a well known and documented problem with many algorithms available to the dedicated.

Have you ever seen a pet try to run through a wall when there is a door just 2 inches to its right ? I have, over and over again.


While I'm at it, why does my pet, supposedly following me (at least that was my order) repeatedly try to run through the locked door in front of me ??? Same question about unlocked doors because I hate it when my pet goes ahead of me and gets me in monsters line of sight :-(

I totally agree with the pet pathing comments. I am tired of repositioning my lv 60 mp back and forth into rooms while fitting a
mob. First the pets are with me then they are stuck in another
room so i have to go that room! Sometimes i get thru it ok but other times(like todays mission i met the reclaim!). Then theres
the stupid warp effect -i dont mind this as much as the pathing.