Disappearing Snowmen during the "Snowball Fight!"

where2r1 · December 2017

I saw quite a few Snowmen "come alive" along the edges of the race course......then promptly disappear.
That was just this morning while running the "Fastest Game on Ice" during the instance wide "Snowball Fight!"

It seems the animation of the Snowmen appearing is working....
but the animation of the Snowmen starting the chase is gone, not sure if they are throwing snowballs.

Since, I was running the race, I was not targeted and I did not stick around to see what happened at the next "Snowball Fight!" Actually, I have not been back on STO since....sorry, busy this Sunday with Holiday decorating.

Of course, I have had two crashes of STO program since the patch where Force Verify quit working.
I am not sure I can get this to clear up without one.

where2r1 · December 2017

I was in a different instance of "Snowball Fight!" today....and the snowmen are working fine.
Were the snowmen animation changed just for players who are running the "Fastest Game on Ice"????

So....looks like more some more observations are necessary to figure out how to replicate this issue. Intermittent TRIBBLE...what a p.i.t.a.

I thought it was corrupt files...but it seems to be "something" else. Now, I am not sure a Force Verify would make a difference.

frtoaster · December 2017

I haven't seen this myself, but I may have been too busy shooting snowmen to notice. A few other people have also reported disappearing snowmen. See the quotes below.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/7izrxg/anyone_else_miss_the_time_when_the_snowball_fight/dr33it1/

FrankObolobolopoulos wrote:

At the risk of hijacking the thread, has anyone noticed an uptick in "phantom spawns" of snowmen during the snowball fight?

"Phantom" spawns as in, you hear them spawn, you see them spawn but they immediately despawn.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/7izrxg/anyone_else_miss_the_time_when_the_snowball_fight/dr35zek/

NeilZod wrote:

Over the weekend, I would see the map repopulate with many red dots. Most of them would exist only for an instant, but the dots that remained correctly located snowmen.

http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/comment/13304947/#Comment_13304947

fleetcaptain5#1134 wrote: »

Why are you assuming that the snowball fight was nerfed?

To me it seems like the same old bug, where enemies spawned below the snow or something, has returned. If you look at the mini-map, you can see that enemies do appear shortly, and then they disappear. That's probably not intended.

I guess they're just falling through the map again like in previous years.

where2r1 · December 2017

Hmmm... I wonder if it depends on location on the WW map.

When I was seeing the snowmen...I was going to and from the Gazebo and the Gingerbread Village (turning in a recipe to Neelix).

When I was not seeing snowmen...I was on the other side (running on the race course). There are, also, more hills and valleys on the race course side.

Hopefully, there more bug hunters with their eyes on it...and they have a way to get the "Snowball Fight!" to trigger more often.

frtoaster · December 2017

Last night, I tried to pay more attention during the Snowball Fight. I didn't see any snowmen disappear right in front of me, but I did see red dots appear and disappear on the minimap, as NeilZod said.

where2r1 wrote: »

Hopefully, there more bug hunters with their eyes on it...and they have a way to get the "Snowball Fight!" to trigger more often.

I don't see how they can possibly trigger it more often, unless the devs have given them a special server to test on.

where2r1 · December 2017

This evening. I deliberately stayed in the area close to the race course to see if I could figure it out....

I saw a few snowmen do this disappearing act....but there were other snowmen that were just fine.

I have no idea how one is going to find all these broken snowmen. The "Snowball Fight!" game does not happen often enough, someone is going to have to run this several times in a row to watch these snowmen. LOL!!

anodynes · December 2017

I have been all over the map during the Snowball Fight and everything I've seen tells me that those that are already out but motionless the rest of the time work just fine. They turn to living enemies during the fight and respawn after a time with no issues. The ones that pop up out of the ground where there is no stationary snowman the rest of the time immediately despawn after the snow eruption animation plays. They're there for an instant, and then gone, as evidenced by their red dots on the map rapidly appearing and then disappearing.

It's a good thing that the ones that are already there and come to life respawn relatively quickly, since there aren't 100 of them total to kill to get the Snow Overlord to spawn.

echatty · December 2017

I didn't see any disappearing snowmen during fight, but I only log on to race since that's about all I can do until I get my desktop back.

And I did get pummeled a bit during my Fastest Game on Ice today. The snowball fight was going on and I got hit several times. Not enough to be immobilized, but since I didn't have an opponent at the time I wasn't too worried about that.

where2r1 · December 2017

Yeah, I am whittling down all the Holiday chores...still unpacking decorations and doing a few returns, etc. I am almost to the point I can spend more time in the game and catch a few runs of "Snowball Fight!" and take a closer look at what is going on with the snowmen.

@anodynes good fault isolation there. Now, we just need someone to collaborate it so they know it is being reproduced, regularly.

anodynes · December 2017

It's also worth noting that the total is back down to 100 snowmen to get the Overlord to spawn. From looking at old videos, it was 100 at first in 2012, but changed about a week later to 150 and had been 150 every year since until now. Maybe they knew about the pop-up snowman problem and just reduced the number needed to compensate. Either that or the reversion to 100 is another bug.

rosvik · December 2017

I see this happening all the time. The snowmen appear for a brief second, then despawn. If the map is up, I will see a large number of red dots appear for a moment, then go away. There are a few places where snowmen respawn and remain, but it makes getting the 100 snowmen a pain. Usually, you kill the 6 or 8 by the lake, then kill the ones near the snowman army, then hang around for the army to respawn to get to 100. Not as fun as it used to be when they spawned all over the map.

frtoaster · December 2017

anodynes wrote: »

I have been all over the map during the Snowball Fight and everything I've seen tells me that those that are already out but motionless the rest of the time work just fine. They turn to living enemies during the fight and respawn after a time with no issues. The ones that pop up out of the ground where there is no stationary snowman the rest of the time immediately despawn after the snow eruption animation plays. They're there for an instant, and then gone, as evidenced by their red dots on the map rapidly appearing and then disappearing.

I just want to confirm that the snowmen are indeed missing after the "pop up out of the snow" animation. I've seen this several times now; it's not just red dots appearing and disappearing on the minimap.

anodynes · December 2017

Oh, they're definitely there when those red dots for them come up. If you're close enough, you can even fire off a single shot at them. It isn't just their markers, but actual physical snowmen.

Disappearing Snowmen during the "Snowball Fight!"

Comments