In the light of the latest events, seeing the changes on 1.4 servers, I suspect everyone is thinking 'OMG, they are ruining the game! Why they keep doing more mistakes?'
But I have a feeling we are not seeing the bigger picture.
They are finally addressing their nemesis: the net code.
From the beginning, this was the Achilles' heel of this game.
But first, we need to understand the role of this net code.
In single player, the server is installed on player's computer and everything is happening on the same computer. There is no net code.
In multiplayer, the server is in charge of all the events that take place in the game. A player needs to connect to the server as a client. There are all sorts of events that are passed from server to client and vice versa. This communication is taken care of by the net code.
So there you have it, this communication needs to be perfect. If not, all sorts of things are going to go wrong.
Let's say a player shoots his AT rocket. He is sending to the server this information and the server has the job to track the rocket to the target and afterwards to send back feedback about the hit (and of course, to instruct the target to take damage, in case of a hit). Now let's suppose we have a bad link somewhere. Let's say that the info sent by the player doesn't reach the server. What do we have? The rocket bug!
If we think about it, most if not all the bugs we have seen until now are due to this bad net code.
Another example: the medic bug. He is holding the med kit, so is able to heal around. Then he changes to his paddles. The server doesn't receive this info, he thinks the medic is still carrying the med kit, so he sent back commands to heal people around him. At the same time, the medic is able to revive people, which is a separate command and doesn't interfere with the healing process.
There are a lot of other examples I could give, but I'm sure you can figure them out for yourselves.
A perfect net code means no bugs. Is as simple as that.
Therefore we should be happy about what is happening.
Net code is changing. The usual information sent by a player (like prone, or firing a weapon) is not understand by the server anymore. We'll have to wait for a client beta 3, to be able to test the new server's net code.
I hope I'm not mistaken, again… :)
But I have a feeling we are not seeing the bigger picture.
They are finally addressing their nemesis: the net code.
From the beginning, this was the Achilles' heel of this game.
But first, we need to understand the role of this net code.
In single player, the server is installed on player's computer and everything is happening on the same computer. There is no net code.
In multiplayer, the server is in charge of all the events that take place in the game. A player needs to connect to the server as a client. There are all sorts of events that are passed from server to client and vice versa. This communication is taken care of by the net code.
So there you have it, this communication needs to be perfect. If not, all sorts of things are going to go wrong.
Let's say a player shoots his AT rocket. He is sending to the server this information and the server has the job to track the rocket to the target and afterwards to send back feedback about the hit (and of course, to instruct the target to take damage, in case of a hit). Now let's suppose we have a bad link somewhere. Let's say that the info sent by the player doesn't reach the server. What do we have? The rocket bug!
If we think about it, most if not all the bugs we have seen until now are due to this bad net code.
Another example: the medic bug. He is holding the med kit, so is able to heal around. Then he changes to his paddles. The server doesn't receive this info, he thinks the medic is still carrying the med kit, so he sent back commands to heal people around him. At the same time, the medic is able to revive people, which is a separate command and doesn't interfere with the healing process.
There are a lot of other examples I could give, but I'm sure you can figure them out for yourselves.
A perfect net code means no bugs. Is as simple as that.
Therefore we should be happy about what is happening.
Net code is changing. The usual information sent by a player (like prone, or firing a weapon) is not understand by the server anymore. We'll have to wait for a client beta 3, to be able to test the new server's net code.
I hope I'm not mistaken, again… :)
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