1.3 pb2 Impressions

[Michael]

Believe me, I HATE to say this. . . .but pb2 is unplayable in strat.

Its like the game is under a constant resync. They look like they are blinking everywhere. The targeting reticules are not in sync with where you see the ship, and the hit box is not in sync with where you see the ship. Its like everything is out of sync with each other.

I host a few games on mwf 2 and I could not even predict where the ship was like you can in 1.2, its just randomly somewhere in the area. Its like 1.1 again.

I am not sure what happend between pb1 and pb2 but the lag/warp/sync/ or whatever issue it is, is worse to the point of unplayabilty. Even when I host and MPI I have trouble finding where the hit boxes are in teh ships.

I really want to play 1.3, and I enjoyed the pb1 patch, but I will not and cannot play with the pb2 patch until that syncing issue its fixed. I feel really bad, because I know how long and hard people have worked on it. I am sure they just want it to be done and over with. . .

In a post I heard that the private builds did not have this trouble. Maybe we got the wrong build?  Maybe I installed the patch wrong. . . I don't know. Any help would be appreciated if it is on my end, but I doubt it because others are having this trouble too.

[OvermindDL1]

Strat and MPI are all I've played in multi and they work perfect, unlike what you state.  You need to give details on your computer, connection, etc...  Not just stating problems.

[Michael]

Sure here are my specs

AMD 64 3000+
1gb ram
GForce 6800GS
soundblaster 512
Cable internet average 3mbit

As you can see my connection and computer are not the problem.

Perhaps it is the way I installed the game. I installed it over 1.3 pb1. Would it really make that much difference? Maybe it would.

[mrtwosheds]

I have also noticed that it is near imposible to hit moving enemy vehicles(human and ai) unless they are driving straight towards or away from you.
pentium 4 3ghz 0.99gb of ram (erk isnt that supposed to be 1.0)
gforce 6600 vid card.
dsl 512kbps

Still this does make it damn hard

[*GEL*Victorius[gm]]

Same here
A64 3000+@2.5ghz
X800pro
WinXP sp2
Asus A8v
1gb ram
con: 5mbps/192kbps

[Spawn]

Strat and MPI are all I've played in multi and they work perfect, unlike what you state.  You need to give details on your computer, connection, etc...  Not just stating problems.

Was there anyone else in the game?  It would be a multiworld bug, and without a joiner multiworld never turns itself on.  Might require nore then one person to cause some stress though, Im not really sure.

[Commando]

I get the same thing.  The bug started up in the first release candidate.  You can induce multiworld using /multiworld in your shortcut or using mm5.  Using /multiworld will also induce the same bug so it doesn't require more than one person.  You can see the bug in action using the /multiworld commandline.  I too agree this makes it completely uninjoyable to play since its purely guessing where ships.

[Red Devil]

You can also use game.multiworld in the console to toggle it.  I have faith that the "pros from Dover" will track it down and set it straight again.

[OvermindDL1]

Perhaps it is the way I installed the game. I installed it over 1.3 pb1. Would it really make that much difference? Maybe it would.

First of all, "Don't Do That!"  It says to install over a clean install, and that is recommended.  Probobly not be the cause of the issue though.

[Spawn]

It's not recommended, but it should work over any other bz2 install.

[deadscion]

Just because it ---should work--- does not mean you can expect the same results.

Because of stray files and other problems folks have had in the past, it has been a tried and true practice to always use fresh installs.

Start with the original CD or a copy of the original install folder and install the 1.3 patch to it.

Now then make a few copies of your 1.3 patch enhanced BZ2 game for checking out 1.3 MODS soon to be released.

NEVER MIX MODS!!  I don't care what anyone tells you different, the only way you can be sure a mod working right is if you install each mod to it's own copy of the game.

Mod manager does a nice job, but if a mod gives you trouble this has to be taken out of the way, before you can evaluate.

Like I said this is a tried and true practice learned the hard way by vets way before the concept of the 1.3 patch even existed.

[Huscar]

I believ many of the mods do an excellent job at switching themselves on and off with the 1.3 patch atm, but yes what DS sais is still true, you never know if a messy modder left something in addon or the like
or say you have Flesh Strom and something like "Forgotten Squirrels" and they both use FSpilots, FSsaved and FSaddon (FS probably uses folders named differently, but it's just an example)

[Red Devil]

Probably the best/cleanest way to do things is just have a bunch of Mod asset folders under the main root in one install and use the /config commandline switch and make a bunch of shortcuts.  Put all the assets in Pak files too for faster access.

[Ultraken]

I really do wish I had learned how DR2 organized their data files before BZ2 shipped.  They used file system streams in clever ways, and generally handled mission-specific assets and game mods better than BZ2.  Fundamentally reorganizing BZ2's asset structure would be a very bad idea at this point.  Sure, I could "just write a Perl script" (inside joke) and break the monolithic data.pak into smaller pieces, but that's something I don't want to inflict on anyone before 1.3 is done (and probably not afterwards, either).

[Red Devil]

Is there anything DR2-ish that we could use in BZ2?  Also, it would help if we had an explanation and range of values for each ODF entry.  Would you have that hanging around somewheres?