5 replies to this topic

[MadHornet]

When you get stuck on terrain, you 'mech maintains it's velocity, but doesn't change position on the map. In that case...

Why isn't there a system that checks the velocity and direction of supposed movement, and compare that with the position of the 'mech?

That way, the game can tell when a 'mech is not actually moving despite maintaining and even increasing velocity that should make it move 'x' amount of units in a certain direction over a period of time. After say, a couple seconds, it ejects the player from the area where they were clipping.

I mean, I could be oversimplifying this as I'm no wiz at programming, but it doesn't seem like a difficult problem.

And if anyone's wondering why I'm not filing this as a bug complaint in another forum, let's not forget the last 4 years people have been doing that for this exact issue. Perhaps I've done this for nothing.

[vibrant]

It always intrigues me when people come up with these kinds of questions. And I can understand not seeing why it's hard.

Computers don't think the way we do. When your mech gets snagged on a tree root... the computer can't see any difference to it than, for example, a building -- there is something blocking your path in both scenarios. The engine doesn't see a step, or a building, or a cliff. it merely sees something that you can collide with. Depending on the game engine being used, you may not have a lot of ability to change the physics/movements system, and may be reduced to putting in hacks that may introduce other unforeseen problems -- particularly when dealing with netcode.

I can't speak for cryengine, but we do know it's an old version and already highly modified. We also know that the current PGI devs have little understanding of how the core game works anymore -- which is why there have been virtually no new mechanics in years (only tweaking variables in the current mechanics).

But for this example, you could say that the difference between a tree root and a building is the height of those objects... and that might sound sensible. However, at what does does a 'step' because an obstacle? If you increase the height you can step up, suddenly terrain that should block movement forward (like a steep cliff) suddenly can become climbable.

The other thing I'd point out, is this isn't a bug. The system is doing exactly what it should be doing. You're being blocked by terrain. The fact that terrain like tree roots on the ground /shouldn't/ be blocking you, is a map design issue.

Regarding clipping on objects when shooting around corners and over hills... this is a performance consideration. The more accurate the colliders on objects, the less performant the game becomes, and it's already incredibly awful where performance is concerned. :/ Not a bug, but also not great.

[MadHornet]

It may not be a bug (excuse that mistake), but to be more precise, I'm talking about players getting trapped on walls, rocks and other features when colliding with them. It suspends their 'mech for a while or even indefinitely (almost the equivalent of softlocking in single player games). It takes the appearance of falling but never actually moving, which brings me to something else interesting about terrain; it seems reject the player. At times when I'm approaching a short wall or an object and jumpjet at it, my legs can clip the terrain and will throw my 'mech most commonly skyward a fair distance. This makes me wonder if it is unable to do the same when a player descends on those areas, like letting off the jumpjets while climbing or walking off a cliff. Could it be in that situation, the game cannot overcome the rate of which the player should be descending and gets them stuck, as no amount of force is able to propel them against their own descent to escape the terrain?

[Coolant]

MadHornet, on 11 August 2017 - 08:22 PM, said:

I mean, I could be oversimplifying this as I'm no wiz at programming, but it doesn't seem like a difficult problem.

I'm pretty sure you are waaaaayy oversimplifying it. And, since you admit to not being great at programming then how do you justify your criticism?

[MadHornet]

Coolant, on 12 August 2017 - 07:23 AM, said:

I'm pretty sure you are waaaaayy oversimplifying it. And, since you admit to not being great at programming then how do you justify your criticism?

The word "seems". And no, I'm offering the perspective of a player and outlining what I think can help.

Edited by MadHornet, 12 August 2017 - 07:29 AM.

[Dr Hobo]

vibrant, on 11 August 2017 - 10:04 PM, said:

It always intrigues me when people come up with these kinds of questions. And I can understand not seeing why it's hard.

Computers don't think the way we do. When your mech gets snagged on a tree root... the computer can't see any difference to it than, for example, a building -- there is something blocking your path in both scenarios. The engine doesn't see a step, or a building, or a cliff. it merely sees something that you can collide with. Depending on the game engine being used, you may not have a lot of ability to change the physics/movements system, and may be reduced to putting in hacks that may introduce other unforeseen problems -- particularly when dealing with netcode.

I can't speak for cryengine, but we do know it's an old version and already highly modified. We also know that the current PGI devs have little understanding of how the core game works anymore -- which is why there have been virtually no new mechanics in years (only tweaking variables in the current mechanics).

But for this example, you could say that the difference between a tree root and a building is the height of those objects... and that might sound sensible. However, at what does does a 'step' because an obstacle? If you increase the height you can step up, suddenly terrain that should block movement forward (like a steep cliff) suddenly can become climbable.

The other thing I'd point out, is this isn't a bug. The system is doing exactly what it should be doing. You're being blocked by terrain. The fact that terrain like tree roots on the ground /shouldn't/ be blocking you, is a map design issue.

Regarding clipping on objects when shooting around corners and over hills... this is a performance consideration. The more accurate the colliders on objects, the less performant the game becomes, and it's already incredibly awful where performance is concerned. :/ Not a bug, but also not great.

Don't forget that PGI was warned way back in the early Founders days DON"T use Cryteks Cryengine because of how janky it was. They were warned to use UE3,but at the time, Crytek hadn't had a successful game since Crysis,then

Over the years we saw various downgrades in how the games looked and performed. The various map fixes are slow because PGI has honestly no clue what they are doing since the core group of people who modified this version of Cryengine,honestly,I don't think work for PGI anymore.

Honestly,I don't think anyone other than Alex really are left from the early days when MWO both looked good and played good(even with it's janky mechanics and crappy things such as ultimate cheese builds)