Requesting multiplayer feedback

[keith.lamothe]

So, we're coming up on an official release soon.  Obviously any big singleplayer bugs/problems are critical for us to know about, but since multiplayer was in alpha so long and only relatively recently into beta, it occurs to me that people may think "oh they already know about xyz critical MP bug".  Which we might, but repetition is fine at this stage to help stability.

So:

Those of you who play Multiplayer: how does it feel?  What critical issues remain?  What not-critical-but-still-please-please-don't-let-1.0-still-have-this issues remain?  Link mantis issues if they exist.  Thanks!


Those of you who don't play Multiplayer: if you wouldn't mind giving it a whirl at some point (Toll's server is up more often than not, it seems) and letting me know if you run into any bad bugs, I would appreciate it

[Hyfrydle]

I have been having alot of issues on Tolls server and been hopeful that these will be ironed out as updates became available. I'm not sure if it's a server problem as I haven't been able to try any other servers. I will play tonight and put any issues I find in Mantis.

[Toll]

I'll try to keep my server as available as humanly possible during the next week or two for the upcoming 1.0 release, although updates might be slow if they come when I'm asleep. As far as my own (relatively limited) MP experiences, I haven't come across anything big (nor anything small that I can think of right now) aside from the Ilari stone malfunctions, but that should be fixed by now, apparently (I haven't tested myself).

[keith.lamothe]

I have been having alot of issues on Tolls server and been hopeful that these will be ironed out as updates became available. I'm not sure if it's a server problem as I haven't been able to try any other servers. I will play tonight and put any issues I find in Mantis.

What issues, specifically?

[Hyfrydle]

Getting stuck in chunks, spells not causing damage to enemies, Invisible enemies and character death not recognised until I abandoned character. Are others having issues with MP?

I think if possible a good number of people should join a server so it can really be tested. I always seem to be the only one on Tolls server.

[keith.lamothe]

Getting stuck in chunks, spells not causing damage to enemies, Invisible enemies and character death not recognised until I abandoned character.

Good grief   Are there mantis issues where I can see more details on these, and (if possible) how to reproduce them?

[x4000]

Getting stuck in chunks were just issues not related to MP and something that should be generally fixed in the last few versions.  The invincible skelebots bug I am aware of.

The invisible dust storms was fixed a while ago, not sure if you're referring to that (but it was not MP-specific).

The others are news to me: if nobody reports bugs, we don't know about them unless we happen to happen upon them.

There's also the very real risk with an ongoing server like Toll's that after it starts getting any errors at all, that it will be in a buggy state from thereafter until it is restarted.  Meaning lots of downstream issues that aren't really bugs themselves, but rather are just secondary effects caused by the real bugs.

[Hyfrydle]

The invisible issue seems to be affecting most enemy types but not in all rooms. I haven't played much MP as I prefer the SP side of the game especially as no one seems to join the servers. I'm having a good long go tonight and will report all errors I find.

The issue with a server that has been running as long as Tolls is true as it has been going since before the power coding etc so a fresh server may well be much better.

[Toll]

If anyone notices any bugs like that, a server restart is only a PM away. It's far better to PM than chat, since I get a mail whenever someone sends me a PM, while chats are likely to go ignored for long periods of time.

EDIT: And unless I misunderstood Chris post, it's not the age of the world itself that causes the problems, but rather the uptime of the server (for instance, a bug that is triggered in hour one of the server might still cause problems in hour ten, unless it's been restarted).

[keith.lamothe]

The issue with a server that has been running as long as Tolls is true as it has been going since before the power coding etc so a fresh server may well be much better.

I think Chris meant that after an error then weird stuff can happen until the server is restarted; not that it makes the world file permanently wonky in some way (that is also possible, but much less likely, and we'd really want to know about one of those).

Thanks for the testing

[x4000]

Yep, that's what I meant.  A world as old as Tolls might have some odd terrain and stuff on older continents, but that's about the worst thing that would happen from world age.

[Hyfrydle]

I've just started a server of my own in a recent world to see if I have any of these issues just as a comparison.

[Toll]

Just as a note when playing an MP game locally: Some bugs might not be noticable since you're bypassing the whole delay aspect of networking and possibility of packetloss etc. So you not noticing the bugs on a local MP server might not always mean they don't exist.

That being said, it might still provide some valuable information!

[Hyfrydle]

Toll have you updated to the latest update? If so I'll jump back on and see how it goes.

[Toll]

Just did, yeah.