Tech Talk Tuesday(s)

Greetings!

I had this crazy idea of "how" things work... SotA Style. So, I reached out, and this happened:

Spoiler: Issue #1

Breakdown:

• Issue #1
  • Introduction
  • Loot Math
  • Combat Math
  • Unity Assets
  • Polish / Performance
  • Hangout teaser!

Spoiler: Issue #2

• Issue #2
  • Aiming
    
  • Dodge
    
  • Network Packets vs Network Bandwidth vs FPS
    
  • Attunements, Armor, and Resistances
    
  • Skill Effectiveness

Spoiler: Issue #3

• Issue #3 - NOTE: due to a new streaming setup please go to 3m37s to hear @Chris start talking. This won't happen again in the future... sorry, and thanks!
  • Defined experience pools
  • How adventuring exp works
    • How to gain (killing/quests/etc - with math!)
    • How to apply (using skills - with explanation!)
    • How to lose (decay - with math!)
  • Revisit Issue #1 Combat Math to explain Crit a bit more detailed (with math!)

Spoiler: Issue #4

• Issue #4
  • Information Tracking
  • Localization
  • Chris has his own blog!!! see here: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/chris-daily-work-blog.85584
  • PvP vs PvE combat calculation / math
  • Decay
  • Cover

Spoiler: Issue #5

Spoiler: Questions for the Oracle - #6

Spoiler: Issue #7

Spoiler: Issue #8

• Deck Building / Heat System
• QA Server Status
• Q&A Time
  • skills
  • buffs
  • exp gains
  • & more!

I'm giving 5-15 ideas to Chris and letting him pick. I'm going to look for the "likes" on everyone's ideas. And the more likes you guys give each other the more likely I put it on the list for Chris. Then it's up to him if he answers it or not.

Also, stay tuned, Hangout of the Avatars may be back soon!

 

WAT? No Tacos?

 

Could you please talk about Manual Aiming vs. Target Selection Aiming for ranged combat... My concern is that the pendulum has swung a tiny bit too far in the direction of Target Selection Aiming (letting the computer decide who is the threat) and away from the manual player skill based aiming.

Specifically the seemingly wide angle of attack that the computer uses to determine my target when I don't obtain a "hard lock".

Thank you.

 

Stay tuned!!! thank you Violation and Chris.

 

Great watch...

 

Thank you Violation and Chris. That was fantastic.

 

I loved this! straight questions, straight answers and in excellent detail. I hope you're able to keep this up @Violation Clauth and @Chris

 

One of the best informative dev interviews i have seen...love the numbers...more please

 

Much enjoyed.

 

Thanks @Chris & @Violation Clauth.

 

I'd like Chris to explain why the longer I play the game and move through multiple scenes the more likely the game is to crash and how that might be improved in the future?

It seems like the more scenes a player moves through the more RAM gets used and eventually causes a crash of the client. I assume this is a memory leak that they will look to optimize and prevent eventually. I also assume that some scenes like Owl's Head increase your chance of crashing and I'd like to learn why that is.

 

If I could take the liberty... maybe I could ask the question:

• (subtitle: Memory/Caching) You mentioned in the last issue that you identified a memory leak to the tune of 1GB, could you explain how zone loading works, what caused that leak to grow so large, and how RAM/caching is handled in SotA?

 

The longer I play without restarting the client, the more severe the hitching is. I believe that it may be tied to garbage collection and memory fragmentation.

 

Yes, agreed. And that's essentially what I'm hoping Chris will talk to, and will explain that it will eventually be fixed.

My concern would be that it's a problem inherent with Unity and can not be fixed. I've seen this problem literally from R1 to now, with varying degrees of "challenge".

 

Some of this was slated for the last episode there is just way too much to get into and not enough time. I can say that Chris can speak to this way better than I can so I'm not even going to try; however, his comments to me have given me cause for relaxing and knowing they can make it better.

So... stay tuned?

 

Thankyou both!

 

Follow up questions for @Chris or maybe @Violation Clauth can ask next tech talk. If some of these were answered in the talk and I missed it, I apologize:

1. How are dodge, block and parry modifiers turned into a % chance?
2. Is there a maximum amount of critical hit chance % for physical attacks or spells for players? If so, what is it? Is there a max crit % chance for monsters? If so, what is it?
3. Is the 0-100 number picking process you described different in player vs player combat? Does it incorporate difference in adventurer level?
4. Is glancing blow included in the calculation when being hit with a spell?
5. If you have negative avoid % on your character sheet, does it just give you a 0% chance to glancing blow when it is calculating the ranges within 0-100, or does it increase chance of hitting/crit?

 

I really need a whiteboard in hangout or wall of text for digesting details!!

 

I have another question. This one is regarding desync issues as they relate to the following:

1. Players being on different versions of the game, causing some players not to be able to see other players.
2. Players zoning into the same scene but not being able to see players that are in their group.
3. Players appearing to be in one place but actually being somewhere else. For example, seeing a player on the ground but they're actually on top of a wall or inside of a tower on the top floor.

What I'd like to hear from Chris is an explanation of why this is happening and how good it can be in the future. To what degree will we always have to live with these types of issues? And maybe a follow-up question would be, will they start to force patching in the future? (please say yes)

 

Also, do skills that increase weapon speed do anything if you're not using auto-attack? If the answer is they don't do anything...could we have them do something (like increase the deck speed rate if you're holding the appropriate weapon or wearing the appropriate armor)?

 

If you're not using auto-attack then increasing weapon speed will decrease the charge time.