Rubber Banding / Speed Hacking - A Special (Unplanned) DevChat - 10/14/09 2am EST

[Colt-556]

Well considering the devs appearently added rubberbanding at the request of the community, it's kind of hard to give them the benefit of the doubt in this instance. Since appearently they themselves didn't deem it a big priority until the community started *****ing.

[corbaer]

That is not the case to my knowledge... they added it because the felt that the exploitation was causing problems to the testing environment, and it was - both socially and problems like causing bugged lairs and spawns everywhere they went.

But the rumor mill on both sides of the debate got out of control, people read and heard what they wanted to read and hear... and no amount of misinformation management could quell it. MMO life, as it were.

[Colt-556]

Shame the Dev's didn't just do what you did right off the bat, woulda solved a lot of problems.

[corbaer]

They tried, repeatedly tbh. But once a mob is fired up, best to let the dust settle. Also, figuring out the right way to say the same thing you've said 45 times in a way that isn't misconstrued or over-analyzed or seen as "change" when it simply a dumbed down contortion of the same thing is frustrating, and frankly futile when the mob is frenzied.

I have the benefit of time and about 9001 conversations on the topic at this point.

Also... the mob is full of agenda. Certain people spread soooo much misinfo in all of this that karma will hit them eventually.

[Colt-556]

Still, I can't imagine it's that hard to go "We need to witness the rubberbanding in a laggy environment to fix it" :/ Oh well, neither here nor there, now that I know why it's being kept on (and know that it's for a legitiment reason), I'm done campaigning for it's removal lol Amazing what simply telling the facts can do :O

[elzilcho21]

I didn't read this whole post the whole way through just the IRC Dev Chat that went on so forgive me if this issue has been brought up but I didn't want to read through 16 more pages of stuff to see if my opinion was all ready stated.

I do and I don't like the rubberbanding, I will state why I do like it and then why I don't.

I'll start off by saying I'm deployed to Iraq and anyone with internet deployed and trying to play the EMU will be able to understand. Internet sucks here like hardcore and we are lucky enough to be able to play.
The reason I see the rubberbanding good is because while I'm lagging and can't talk to Joe the Mon Calimari Doctor to get my 4XXX doctor training I get rubber banded back to the bank where I started so I know I have a little bit of a good idea of how bad I'm lagging.

The Reason I hate the rubber banding is because there are some people like me, given the example above leave Mos Eisley to go to a "Sampling Hot Spot" as I like to call them and Action heal all the people getting mineral samples or whatever they may be doing out there. I finally end up able to train and I go see the Doctor Trainer click on him 4 or 5 time to converse with him and then get rubber banded back to the camp I was just at. I lagged so bad that once my position finally showed up to the server they said oh your speed hacking lets rubber band you back to the last known spot you were at.

Just my two cents

[Colt-556]

Rubberbanding is a *****, but as Cor explained (which I'll re-state, since you're totally justified in not wanting to read 16 pages of garbage), the rubberbanding has to be on the server so the devs can see how it reacts to the lag, seeing it working on a laggy, occupied server is the only way they calibrate it so it'll actually work properly. So, knowing that it may help ease the frustration of having to deal with this bull****, knowing that every second we suffer through it, it gets us one second closer to them making a perfect rubberbanding anti-hack.

[elzilcho21]

Yeah that makes sense and thanks for explaining what Cor had stated, I did happen to read your post just before mine and seeing as I only have 1 post to my name(Now two) I figured I'd help out a little bit on your statement of
"Still, I can't imagine it's that hard to go "We need to witness the rubberbanding in a laggy environment to fix it"

[Colt-556]

Yeah that makes sense and thanks for explaining what Cor had stated, I did happen to read your post just before mine and seeing as I only have 1 post to my name(Now two) I figured I'd help out a little bit on your statement of
"Still, I can't imagine it's that hard to go "We need to witness the rubberbanding in a laggy environment to fix it"

lol yeah, I'm just gonna post that in every thread about rubberbanding. I mean, I do kind of blame the devs for that one, cuz it really isn't that hard to explain, yet in all the threads about rubberbanding, they never explained it. But neither here nor there, atleast it's known so yeah.

[Emokho]

You know, it just strikes me as a very sad comment on humanity that we need this rule, this obviously rather annoying at the moment prevention system, and this descussion to start with. Especialy since there is nothing to win through cheating in this case except some bragging rights, which weren't earned anyway.

[Raavin]

You know, it just strikes me as a very sad comment on humanity that we need this rule, this obviously rather annoying at the moment prevention system, and this descussion to start with. Especialy since there is nothing to win through cheating in this case except some bragging rights, which weren't earned anyway.

Emokho wins.

[Naesen]

I've encountered a critical error when it comes to rubberbanding with this new patch. With the new patch, it seems that things on steeply gradiated terrain float at the highest point of that terrain, but stay in the xy coordinates of where they should be. This poses a problem for mission targets, but also if you log out on gradiated terrain, when you log back in you end up floating 100 or so meters in the air (that was due to the mountain I was on.) The game resets you to the ground (because that was built in in case something like this happened) but because my toon moved 100m in less than a second, the server naturally rubberbanded me back to my spot 100m in the air, keeping me stuck in a perpetual loop. (also, when you're in the air, you cannot move in any direction.)

**Upon logging out and logging in, I was stuck in the air still. However, the game used its reset ability and I was back on the ground. I closed my eyes and winced, but when I peeked back at the screen I was back on solid ground still, not looping with the rubberbanding. If anyone encounters the same problem I did my reccomendation is to log out and log back in if you find yourself in a critical rubber band loop.

[Hedley]

tried that, im still flying as of my last login

[Serpentkaa]

Hint: Go into IRC #swgemusupport. Request a GM summon you out of there.

[Hedley]

eh why bother, i cant stand playing in this lag anyway and the server will more then likely go down and reset before its playable which should fix it.

[Deadz]

Noob here.. anyone think that maybe the DEVS want people to hack, so they can fight against said hack while it's in beta..
just food for thought..

[Vlada]

Noob here.. anyone think that maybe the DEVS want people to hack, so they can fight against said hack while it's in beta..
just food for thought..

http://www.evercrest.com/images2/ext/forum-necromancy!.jpg

[Serpentkaa]

This is not punishment. This is a piece of code that is being worked on. This game is in alpha. It will not always be this way.

[busboybud]

How long is it going to take to collaborate? can we petition to get rid of this "anti-hack" strategy? It has so many false positives it hurts the community more than benefits it. My friend stopped playing because he was unaware of rb boxing and thought the game was just unbelievable laggy.
Almost everyday I log on I am boxed in and spend the majority of my time doing the shuttleport trick. Being a player who does not have a lot of time, this is very frustrating because I do not have 3 or 4 hours to spend playing, maybe an hour and 20 minutes of it is spent unboxing my characters...
I logged in a cave and logged in yesterday and not to my surprise, I was rubber band boxed! Its going to probably take 40 minutes for me to just get to the nearest shuttleport...
On the bright side there is one trick I don't think has been mentioned is hitting your auto-run key and then alt-tabbing out of the game. You can't see where you are going obviously but it seems to help me walk to a shuttleport faster.

[Labyrinth]

How long is it going to take to collaborate? can we petition to get rid of this "anti-hack" strategy? It has so many false positives it hurts the community more than benefits it. My friend stopped playing because he was unaware of rb boxing and thought the game was just unbelievable laggy.
Almost everyday I log on I am boxed in and spend the majority of my time doing the shuttleport trick. Being a player who does not have a lot of time, this is very frustrating because I do not have 3 or 4 hours to spend playing, maybe an hour and 20 minutes of it is spent unboxing my characters...
I logged in a cave and logged in yesterday and not to my surprise, I was rubber band boxed! Its going to probably take 40 minutes for me to just get to the nearest shuttleport...
On the bright side there is one trick I don't think has been mentioned is hitting your auto-run key and then alt-tabbing out of the game. You can't see where you are going obviously but it seems to help me walk to a shuttleport faster.
Obviously it's frustrating; no one's going to deny that. If you want to play though, that's what you have to deal with right now. It's pretty much that simple.

It might sound like a "Tough. Live with it." response, but there's nothing else anyone can give you. It's not really a matter of making petitions; we, as a community, just have to give the Devs time to sort through it all and if that takes longer than most can handle, then so be it - they can return when news comes that it is fixed.

Also, in the coming month, take note of this Bi-Weekly Update, especially the part about staff availability:

http://www.swgemu.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38088

"The staff wants to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season over the next month.

With the holidays looming, many staff will be taking time off to spend time with family and friends. Please be aware that staff will not be as available as we normally are during other months of the year. Responses to emails, postings and other issues may be slow."

But hey, also on the bright side, there's quite a lot we can do with the environment we've got, so make the best of it, eh. :)

[busboybud]

Yeah I am aware of the staff shortage over the next month :( a break they well deserve though. I'll just sit in my cave and prey for a server crash haha.

I suppose my main concern is over the past few months the project has gained a great amount of momentum and publicity... I would hate to see a common problem like the rubber band box discourage incoming players.

[Labyrinth]

Yeah I am aware of the staff shortage over the next month :( a break they well deserve though. I'll just sit in my cave and prey for a server crash haha.

I suppose my main concern is over the past few months the project has gained a great amount of momentum and publicity... I would hate to see a common problem like the rubber band box discourage incoming players.
Heh, yeah. :p

I wouldn't worry too much about new players, considering that there are so many potentially waiting for news of completion (or close to it). The problem seems to be more with a misconception that the server is a perfectly stable environment right now, than the server's problem's themselves. I'm not trying to blame anyone, but people should probably be warning their friends about what they're going to encounter.

[Pred]

Yeah I am aware of the staff shortage over the next month :( a break they well deserve though. I'll just sit in my cave and prey for a server crash haha.

I suppose my main concern is over the past few months the project has gained a great amount of momentum and publicity... I would hate to see a common problem like the rubber band box discourage incoming players.

I haven't logged on because of the rubberbanding issue. None the less the devs are doing a great job. I just hoped the next time i login I dont run into the same issue.

[Chayn]

I haven't logged on because of the rubberbanding issue. None the less the devs are doing a great job. I just hoped the next time i login I dont run into the same issue.

Yeah, I noticed cept on sat/sun we're not even reaching login cap... like now, unless the cap really fluxuates... but there hasnt been any "server full" whining for awhile anyway..

I hope they enjoy a little time away... they deserve it.. :)

[swisoi]

Yea, this his hit me so hard. Im looking at rubberbanding about 80% of the time I play. If I want to travel some where it takes me about 5 min to crawl from the ticket terminal to the droid.

[swisoi]

Yea, this his hit me so hard. Im looking at rubberbanding about 80% of the time I play. If I want to travel some where it takes me about 5 min to crawl from the ticket terminal to the droid.

CORRECTION: 10 min to crawl from terminal to droid.