[Resolved] Very Strange Synchronization Behavior

Title : Strange Synchronization Behavior
Repro Rate: Unknown, happened by chance after fighting for a while

What happened:

We were in a party of 4 people in upper tears and finished a few rounds without incident.
We went to leave, except, to 3 of us in the party, it looked as if our 4th player was standing there afk at the rock. He was talking to us in chat (and discord), had not disconnected. On HIS screen, he had exited the cave but to the 3 of us, he was just standing there. According to discord chat, he was fighting alongside us, and his damage appears in logs, but his character was stood there motionless not doing anything. After that wave, we went to leave again, and this time he left the cave but still showed standing at the bottom to the rest of us. To him, he showed us standing at the bottom (we exchanged screenshot).

I went outside the cave and cast meteor shower on the ulfagas outside, which appeared to the player who 'saw' me standing inside at the rocks that my meteors were INSIDE the cave. The mobs were reacting to the presence of something, moving about and casting spells, but taking no damage from the spell effects (which weren't really there) and were doing no damage to me (as I wasn't really there.)

To clarify. I'm standing at the top of the cave, looking down I "see" a player down there, but he isn't down there, he's stood next to me. He "sees" my character down at bottom, but I'm not. Casting spells at our feet was showing them (to each other) at the bottom. Hope I've explained this. It was really weird.

Blocker: Um, kinda makes grouping impossible so going with yes.

 

I'm experiencing same sync issues leading to all kinds of weirdness.

 

Our group had to give up on the Owl's Head sewer fights because different players in our group were seeing mobs in different places. It seemed like the group leader could see mobs where they actually were but other players saw them in completely different areas. We had adds that wouldn't take damage and looked like they were full health and wouldn't take damage. It was generally a mess and we ultimately gave up and decided to go play another game until this gets sorted out. Very disappointing.

 

Agreed. This is a very bad bug. Makes playing in a group nearly impossible which is unfortunate if you're a new player.

 

Yep, and now we have arseholes who sit there in multi screwing over anyone else who would like to go there.

 

Please repost if you see this issue re-occur. Please note the scene/location, build number and the time when it occurred.

 

Happened to me in a 3 person group in Spectral Mines area just under the bridge heading to the mobs with the shock monkeys - before the mine tent area - we had at this point added another two members to our group, not sure if that caused it, but it only happened the once. The build ending in 9; had just Steam patched before this happened. The time was around 9 pm PDT.

 

We haven't seen this issue locally. We're still needing more information, or perhaps more cases of the problem. Videos of the problem as it is occurring (and just before it started) would be most helpful.

 

Yesterday, on build 869, I couldn't see another player I was partied with after he resurrected; we we're in Spectral Peaks Mines. I tried exiting to menu then reloading the map, which didn't work. He had to do the same for me to be able to see him again. Later on, the same thing happened when I died; he couldn't see me; I did the same so he could see me again. Later on, in a 5-person group, fighting Satyrs in Spectral Peaks, we had a player, who looked like he was down by the rock quarry, and we asked him "What are you doing, trying to fish?" He said he was standing right next to us. He had to leave the map and come back to fix it.

 

When I was in Spectral Peaks with another person in party mode, we went out of sync. His avatar's body was in the camp site, but he was actually following me. His water elemental continued to follow his... spirit form, so I knew where he was on his screen. His spirit form would (invisibly) skin the wolves and such successfully, but frequently wouldn't be able to damage the Satyrs. When the mobs respawned at the camp, they were able to damage him. To him, he was getting damaged from across the map from enemies he couldn't even see.

Obviously this killed our gaming session.

 

Was in SpectrlPeaks again today, and I was watching another player in-combat, but I couldn't see the mob that the player was fighting.

 

This is still occuring.
It seems to be okay for a while, fighting in a duo, then inexplicably, 1 or the other player will appear to "not be moving". However, often its is only a 1-sided thing.
This happened yesterday with Vero and I in the Rise, we were fighting side by side then all of a sudden, he couldn't see me. On my screen, I was right by his side fighting, my damage was hurting the mobs as normal, he could see my spell effects, but my avatar appeared to be standing off elsewhere back where we'd come.

When we got to the dragon, on my screen I was standing RIGHT ON TOP of the dragon but all of my attacks were showing out of range, even ranged attacks like stone arrow which have a significant range. I could not target him at all for healing (like, it wouldnt even let me select him, cause he was 'too far away').

Later, after several relogs/crashes (its very crashy this release) we fought for a while and had same thing occurred except this time I couldn't see -him-. I could see the big troll fighting 'something' and taking damage, but there was no one there - on my screen, he was miles away.

I've just experienced the same thing this morning fighting in Twins Foothills with Ameresta. Her avatar is still standing back by the mines entrance, and I'm across the zone. I see her spell effects and her damage registers on mobs near me, but she's not here. However, she was able to follow me / see my avatar as normal, for about 10 minutes. Now however my avatar is apparently stood on a rock even tho I'm not stood on that rock I'm still running around.

This makes group play absolutely impossible =/

There doesn't appear to be any sort of trigger, or lag, or anything - its just a sudden de-sync
It doesnt appear to matter who is scene master, as it goes both ways

 

I can't really do video of this, because its something that occurs so randomly and you can't really see anything happen until its happened and the person stops moving. And then there's nothing to see. they just aren't moving.
The state appears to persist for a while - once broken, it doesnt ever resolve itself. a good 10 mins after this was observed i tabbed out to post this and the situation with our characters being out of sync was unchanged.

Even after completely shutting game, I came back and Ameresta is still stood by this rock



She's casted an ice field, but she's NOT here



I can hear her playing player instrument music too, even tho on my screen she's nowhere near me but hte music is loud and on "her" screen she's standing right beside me.



If she summons a pet, Pet knows where she is and is stood next to her and follows her
she's able to lay fire/etc. at my feet, but on my screen...she's still nowhere near us.

In this scenario, she's fighting this wolf over by me
I see the spell effects over by me and her pet
but i see little damages coming off her head stood over there, nowhere near wolf

If she's chopping down a tree, i get no cursor on it because its in use, even tho I can't see her. But then I see tree fall down


Here's ameresta's pet, and amersta casting ice field and arrows and things, see her spell effects, see her damage, dont see her. If she TAKES damage, I see her healthbar move in party screen, but the actual numbers appear over her head waaay on other side of zone miles from combat

Hope this explains what we're seeing

While all this was going on, Ameresta on my screen is still stood by this rock

 

So she's leaving the scene.
She disappears from my scene as expected.



Upon rezone in, I can see her again. Yay!

Until it happens again...

 

Took 8 minutes for it to happen again.
She stopped moving here, we noticed the weird behavior again.

As a test, I asked her to summon her pet. You can see in screenshot the buff above her head at this position for pet summoning, but no pet appears. That's because shes "really" over on other side of the scene. She ran to me and I saw pet approaching on its own. If she casts dash, I can hear the sound effect, but she's not actually here.

If she JUMPS, I do see her 'stuck' avatar jump.

Very strange indeed.

 

As a final test, I left the scene and went to the world map then walked back in from the world map (chose entrance, etc.)
Ameresta is still in the same spot where I left her, except according to her, she's not there, she's on other side of the scene
So Even me zoning out and zoning back in did not fix this. HER zoning out and zoning back in did.

 

@kaeshiva Thank you for the posts. We're piecing together what might be going on. These are good clues. I'm hoping we'll get a patch out for this soon - either fixing it or including some logging info that will lead to a fix.

 

@Lord Subtleton , in Spectral Peaks yesterday I was partied and was up in the suspended bridges in the Satyr camp. I jumped down and started fighting a Faun. I was hitting nothing but Grey 0's and couldn't affect the mob at all. The player I was with still saw me up on the suspended bridges. So, not only were the player and I desynched, but the game appears to still think that I was out of range for fighting the faun.

 

Here's a thought. When you get into this de-synced state where you are moving, but the other player sees you standing in an old location: Use an emote. Does the other person see the emote?

 

I will give it a try. I did cast an Ice Field, which the player saw in the right area. I also used my Water Ele and went and stood next to player. The player said my Ele moved to the right spot.