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View Full Version : Proximity and Location Glitching in Butcherblock, Steamfont on Unrest server


Luevien
01-03-2011, 04:21 PM
<p>My partner Gwyrdd and I are experiencing similar bugs; he noticed the issue in Steamfont, and I noticed it in Butcherblock. I've tried to find other reports of these glitches without success. If there is a discussion happening elsewhere and I couldn't find it, I apologize for creating a new thread.In certain areas of the zones, and always the same areas, mobs and collectibles are suddenly reported as too far away to interact with, even when you're right on top of them, and pets start acting strangely as to how closely they follow or if they follow at all, or where they stand waiting even though they're in auto-follow mode, or where they go to engage a mob when you send them in to fight one.I first noticed this while trying to work on the Eitholli quest, which I can't complete because the eggs aren't appearing. That's almost certainly irrelevant, though, since Gwyrdd was able to complete that quest before all this started happening. He and I both first noticed these glitches after Najena merged into Unrest (we were from Najena.) We had both been to at least some of these areas before, and hadn't experienced these problems. (And there's absolutely no way we could have missed them if they had existed; they're pretty blatant.)One last note before I start getting into the details; he and I have different computers, different operating systems on those computers (he's XP and I'm Win 7), and even different internet connections, so it seems unlikely to me that the problem is on our end.Now, in the spirit of "more detail leads to faster solutions" I'll share first my experiences, then Gwyrdd's.In Butcherblock, the problem starts very shortly after climbing up the wall to Kragploom Roost. At 593.71, 371.17, -362.27 everything seems to be normal; pets are following closely. Taking out the group of mobs at 538.89, 372.02, -330.59 again, everything is normal. Starting just a step or two north of that latter position, the pets stop following; they stay put right there. Just a few steps further than that, at 552.58, 373.14, -376.87 there's another group of three mobs. I ride right up to them, literally in contact with one. I select him, and my buttons are all full-colored, showing him as in range. But when I go to cast an offensive spell, I get the message "Too far away." Same thing happens when I try to engage melee attack. (I should note here that the buttons for pet-based powers that require proximity to the pet are all red, indicating that it's properly detecting my pet's distance from me.) From this point, I send my pet in to attack, and things get really weird. He comes charging over from where he's standing, the mobs all turn to face him-- and then they disappear. One reappears, and I see its health falling, but there are no combat animations from either the mob or from my pet. I hear the sound of the two invisible ones dying, and then the visible one also dies, but again, there wasn't a single bit of combat animation. At the conclusion of the battle, there are no visible corpses on the ground, and my pet sheaths his weapon and runs back to the place where he'd been standing before.A few steps further north of that, my pet also runs a few steps closer, but still maintains the relative distance. From that point on, he seems to stay put, and our relative distance increases as I move away.In this area where things are glitched, I find a shiny. I stand right on top of it; I get the hand cursor (with color, not grayed out) but when I click, I get the "You are too far away to interact with that." message in Main.(I don't know whether this is relevant or not, but there are also some strange things happening with decorative objects. For example, at 499.52, 362.42, -534.97 there a plate of fish floating in the air, high enough that my dark elf character can just barely walk right underneath it. It looks like it's supposed to be sitting on something, perhaps a tree trunk, but whatever that object is, it's almost entirely invisible. When the area it's in is in full sunlight, it's only detectable by the fact that, looking through it, it makes shadows behind it disappear. In partial light, as the shadows are changing, one can mostly see its transparent silhouette. When the spot it's on is in full shadow, it's completely invisible. This was happening with both Shader 1.0 and Shader 3.0.)Climbing up the ramps to the nests, all of this strangeness continues, and my pet remains parked back where he left off in the southern section of the Roost. I go past the first hut and further up to the second, with the cave entrance in the back of it, 572.45, 413.48, -547.19 . I walk back into the cave, and as I enter it, my pet suddenly appears at my side. I fight the mobs in the cave, and everything is normal. I walk back out of the cave, and once I'm in the hut, my pet stops at the cave mouth-- except this time, he becomes invisible. (I have him selected, I see his name tag, but there's nothing there.) Going back and forth, this repeats; when he first stops moving at the cave mouth (599.91, 414.51, -569.63 is the spot he's stopped as I'm writing this) there's briefly a transparent silhouette of him, and then after a few moments he goes completely invisible, nothing visible at all.Now, as to Gwyrdd's issues in Steamfont; they sound pretty much exactly the same, but I'll offer them as well in case there's a crucial piece of detail in there."My problem occurs in Steamfont Mountains, near the Steamfont Wetlands andin Gnomeland Security. I first noticed it on my first trip by theWetlands, but have had numerous normal interactions with Gnomeland NPCsbefore this (before the Najena->Unrest server merge if that is relevant?).First, information on Gnomeland. Trying to turn in quests to FinbertLintzig, the red book "quest turn-in" icon was visible on the map, but hewas nowhere to be seen (other NPCs in his area were visible). Clicking tointeract with other NPCs yielded "you are too far to interact with that"messages, even when I was standing such that my sprite was superimposedwith theirs. I camped, came back in, Finbert was there and I turned in myfirst quest. Then he disappeared. I camped, came back in, and turned inthe second quest and he disappeared. Subsequent returns for the thirdquest, he was visible but "too far away to interact with that." Campingresolved it one time only again. Testing with other Gnomeland NPCs, I getone chance to interact with one person, then the bug kicks in. Campingfixes it.Now, in the Steamfont Wetlands. There is a clear boundary where theproblem starts, and ends. Within the affected area, all mobs are invisible(except for their overhead name badges). I can target the mobs by clickingthe name badge. Attempts to perform actions yield (alternately, apparentlyat random) "you are too far away to interact with that" or "cannot seetarget." If I get engaged in a combat in the affected area, my deity petand fluff pet are usually a long way away from my current apparentlocation, sometimes at the edge of visual range. The hostile mob ispositioned near them. I receive "too far away" or "cannot see" noticeswhen trying to fight back, even if I run across the screen to the locationwhere my pets are visible.There is a distinct boundary. Mobs are visible before crossing it,disappear except names the instant I walk across. Two boundary points arethese locs: (normal) -701.90, 78.91, 1415.44  (affected) -701.02, 78.87,1,428.89. Second loc: (normal) -614.76, 77.12, 1,426.73  (affected)-617.60, 76.95, 1,430.99  Note that when I was testing locs for thissecond set, I actually crossed back and forth over the "disappear line"while still technically within the same "normal" coord, right on theboundary. This boundary essentially forms a straight line across the area.If I back up about 9 steps from the boundary line, I can pull mobs fromthe other side and fight them normally. If I cross the boundary whileengaged in combat, the problem kicks in immediately.Standing on top of a collectible node in the affected area, with the"hand" icon yellow (instead of grey) yields "you are too far to interactwith that." Because of the /camp success in Gnomeland, I tried that whilestanding on the node. I returned to game, and was able to startcollecting. Nearby mobs attacked, I had to back out of the affected areato fight back. Returning to the node, I had "too far away" again. Camped asecond time, returned, collected the node, but one next to it was "too faraway."The problem persists in the exact same area since it started. (Waitinguntil the next couple days doesn't change anything.)"To which he adds the addendum: "Forgot to mention in my notes: my druid portals are invisible and not interactable in Gnomeland. If I go down the cliff, they work fine."So, that's the problem. Sorry for the lack of brevity, but these are tricky issues to describe, and I thought in this case wordiness was preferable to vagueness.</p><p>-Luevien</p>

TalisX1
01-03-2011, 05:30 PM
<p>This is probably related to the mobs in the air bug. Which started a few months back. They fixed one problem area in sf but there are several others. One that I can point to off the top of my head is the guards in thundermist village in ts. They all float in the air.</p><p>I do not work for SoE so don't know that this is the case but the timing coincided with when they said they were going to dome the old zones to allow for the flying mounts in the next expansion. Just based on appearances it seems like some mobs were not given actual z coordinates when they were placed; they were just given relational ones and changing the zone height moved them up. This is pure speculation on my part but seems very likely.</p><p>EQ2 has always had z axis issues evidenced by targeting problems,mobs popping up to the top of trees, or under hills and this could be the issue you are having but based on your detailed description I would think that it is the new problem not the old.</p><p>Silat</p>

Gwyrdd
01-15-2011, 09:57 PM
<p>OK, this is definitely out of control.</p><p>Couple updates to the information Luevien posted for both of us. One - he went to Gnomeland Security formed up with an alt of mine, and both experienced exactly the same problem in the exact same places.</p><p>I went independently to Butcherblock (not formed, hadn't visited there with him) and got exactly the same problem in the same places.</p><p>Now, it turns out that another afflicted region is Somborn Cemetary in Loping Plains. My pets stop at the gate and stare as I run in. Nothing but the static environment loads (sepulchres, tombstones, yes - nothing else). Or if it does, it's not visible. To make things worst, while we've just worked around and not gone to those areas, this is directly preventing me from being able to progress on the Bixie Distraction quest in the Artisan Epic series.</p><p>We got one reply in 12 days so far - seriously, nobody has any ideas or insights?</p><p>*dispirited*</p><p>  Gwyrdd</p>

TSR-JoshuaM
01-15-2011, 11:30 PM
<p>Hi there!</p><p>I've recently been assigned to assist on these forums and want to apologize for the delay in getting to your thread.  I wanted to let you know that I've taken notes on your issue and will try to reproduce it.  For the time being submitting an actual bug report may help it get resolved quicker.  If you need assistance in doing so I have a included a link to a Knowledge Base article that can assist you.</p><p><a href="https://help.station.sony.com/cgi-bin/soe.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=10706" target="_blank">[EQ2] Submitting a Bug Report</a></p>

Gwyrdd
01-16-2011, 01:07 PM
<p>Thank you for looking into it!</p><p>I failed to mention - there's another afflicted patch right at the zone boundary from Kylong Plains to Jarsath Wastes. There's a cockatrice that flickers in and out of existence, and I walk right through the zone-out trigger to the end of the dead end valley and back.</p><p>Gwyrdd</p>

TSR-JoshuaM
01-16-2011, 05:59 PM
<p>Thank you, remember to bug report them as soon as you experience any new issues while in-game as well!</p>

Gwyrdd
01-17-2011, 12:13 AM
<p>I did submit an in-game "/bug" report while standing in Somborn Cemetery, thank you. I didn't go through and /bug in every afflicted area, although I found another one today. ;-(</p><p>[Text responses from support staff removed. The problem-solving process, for others having the same problems, includes trying a deletion of cache files and generating pathping logs to test server connectivity. Submitting in-game /bug reports in the locations the problem occurs was very much recommended. It is a known issue, and we can sincerely hope that the patch notes will give those of us with problems some good news in the future.]</p><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td bgcolor="#c6d3ba"> </td><td align="right" bgcolor="#c6d3ba"></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"></td></tr> <tr><td bgcolor="#c6d3ba"></td><td align="right" bgcolor="#c6d3ba"></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"></td></tr></tbody></table>

TSR-JoshuaM
01-17-2011, 07:22 PM
<p>I did speak briefly with the GM to get all of their notes as well.  I assure you that this is being looked in to but please continue to /bug any other problematic areas you come across.</p>

Gwyrdd
01-24-2011, 08:44 PM
<p>I thought I should submit a final update for the sake of anyone else experiencing this bug. It seems to be a known issue, that they're trying to resolve. Luevien and I have submitted in-game /bug reports in every location affected, and we've been encouraged to ask anyone else who runs into them to do the same. Here are the final replies to my /petition. Let's hope it can be pinned down sooner rather than later. I give serious kudos to the support team for their swift and attentive response, and for their candor. I appreciate both!</p><p>[Edit - My apologies for transgression. My only intent in posting text from support staff was to inform others who may experience the same issues and steps to try in resolving them. Text removed. ]</p><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td bgcolor="#c6d3ba"></td><td align="right" bgcolor="#c6d3ba"></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"></td></tr></tbody></table>

TSR-JoshuaM
01-24-2011, 08:53 PM
<p>Please do not post correspondence with our support staff here, it is against the forum rules.  I appreciate the sentiment I just wouldn't want you getting a warning or having your informative posts deleted as a result.</p><p>If you have a moment, please edit them out or our moderator may delete the post.</p>

Gwyrdd
02-03-2011, 02:42 PM
<p>We have found a work-around to this issue. This worked on all systems affected.</p><p>If we run the patcher through the original SOE launcher (not the streaming launcher), and subsequently update all files by launching EQ2.exe directly, there is a brief hitch in-game and then the problem does not occur.</p><p>For the other people experiencing this issue on various servers, referenced in response to my support ticket, I'd suggest giving this a try.</p><p>For the support team, I hope that info helps you identify why some users aren't receiving all files correctly. (I still find it very strange that the problem crept in, affecting areas that were previously completely playable, but hey - it works, and we're back to enjoying the game.)</p>