Death Throes

Laranda - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I'm pretty sure it's not lag. My spells will hit monsters that my pets have already killed. I've had pets take damage from a monster after they leveled from killing it.

Technically, both of those can be explained by lag:

Example #1-
1) Pet lands killing blow, message sent to server
2) Killing blow message received at server, death message sent to client
3) Your attack spell goes off, message sent to server
4) Client receives death message, mob dies
5) Server gets attack spell message, replies to client
6) Client now shows damage on dead mob

The lag between events, 1, 2, and 4, means that other messages can slip in-between, and weird results appear. Other slight variations between the order of those steps I gave can produce the same results.

Example #2-
1) Pet lands killing blow, message sent to server
2) Server has mob attack pet, message sent to client
3) Killing blow message received at server, death message sent to client
4) Client receives death message, mob dies, pet levels
5) Client receives mob attack message, pet takes damage from dead mob

In this case lag on one message but not the other caused the messages to be received out of order, resulting in the damage by the dead mob. The client can't ignore that damage, since from the server's point of view, the mob attacked before it was killed, even if it didn't appear that way on the client.

Things like this are why it's really hard to write these kinds of games well. Messages can be received late, out of order, or not at all, and the client has to not only respond "intelligently", but in a way that makes it hard for the client to be ****. Things like these are why we have most rubberbanding problems and the like.

Laranda - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I've also seen what the op describes happen too.

I'm pretty sure the desync is in the code, not lag. Some of the death throes I've seen don't make sense otherwise...

The "death throes" seems to be a special attack feature that some mobs have. At least, that's how I interpret it.

Annoying, but it does keep you on your toes.

I always figured it is due to the way the game rolls hits.

I've noticed on a lag-free connection (this was a long time ago before tons of people joined, when there were fewer people playing on ALL of PWI than there are now on just Sanctuary), that after the mob dies, hits still get registered. Personal opinion... The dice were rolled, so to speak, hit totals calculated, and it's giving them to you.

So, you reduce a mob's life to 32 hp, the game rolls that the mob is going to do an attack on you that will hit for 150 damage. You kill the mob. The mob still takes it's turn, even though it's dead, because the silly devs don't know what else to do with those HP they've calculated.

Having 2, 3, or 5 attacks come from an obviously dead mob is evidence of massive lag. Usually, the client just holds until it gets data, but sometimes it tries to compensate by guessing what the server will do, and then you get weird disconnects like that, where you're fighting a dead mob. It's pretty sad, it takes the 'seamless' feeling out of the game, and makes it feel like fail.

I suspect the "it has no idea what to do with rolls" theory is pretty close because sometimes I'll shoot a dead mob after it's dead, or punch it. Doesn't effect casters, since they have channel that the server can interrupt. it'll also use arrows on my archer for those phantom shots, too.

Sangodoc wrote: »

Technically, both of those can be explained by lag:

I'd believe you except for one detail I did not mention. It happens so frequently that I'm almost certain it's reproducible on command and I have adjusted my playstyle around it to avoid burning up mp. This is with a Smooth connection and no other signs of lag.

I've never known lag to be that consistent.