Grapple on London server

Ann0ying · 2023-01-15T16:56:51+00:00

Have you guys noticed that grapple is most of the times not available right after respawn on London server? It takes sometimes like 2 or 3 seconds (feels li...

Grapple on London server

Ooper

That bug might not even exist just a theory I've had for a while, might just be gibs causing it to retract.

snowguy

Yeah definitely could be the gibs, doesn't seem to happen when there aren't a lot of players. Will see if I can find anything just in case.

jerc

I have same problem but I'm sure its 100 ping related. 2on2 Crates I start firing grapple at crate lid or catwalk roof as soon as i spawn and it takes 2 or 3 tries to make it fire but sometimes it works so 50/50. I've just accepted it.

Ooper

2on2 Crates is the worse for it, which makes sense because most of the spawns are in an enclosed area trapping the gibs. Making the grapple ignore gibs could be a nice quality of life improvement on the server.

Ann0ying

Heyy @snowguy could Ooper suggestion be achieved?

snowguy

Ann0ying

I'm still not sure what is causing this problem. Back when we talked about this previously, I spent some time trying to narrow the issue down but didn't find the culprit yet. I don't remember this always being an issue on the server, so I'm inclined to think it is an incompatibility between the grapple and something else that was added later on. I disabled the prime suspects for a day but the problem persisted. I will need to return to this at some point to narrow it down to a definitive cause so a proper solution can be found.

jerc

Yes trying to grapple after spawn on crates is the worst.

jerc

sorry i was really high didn't notice how old this thread was.

PepsiCola

Thanks to this thread, I've been reminded of a similar grapple hook problem I experience since several days I think:
I experience the opposite of the bug you reported: sometimes my ComboShock Rifle switches to GrappleHook by itself, where I've not pressed anything. I'm not sure whether it's my mouse malfunctioning and doing weird clicks or whether it's another issue related to the server.

Ooper

That sounds more like your mouse/keyboard is being a pain in the arse, fi you already haven't try rebinding the grapple keybind see if it helps.

If you want to full reset a key just in case there is double keybinds with some other mod or something else.

For example I use the Q key as my grapple key:

type set input q in the console to remove all keybinds for that key
Then do mutate offhand q to set the grapple keybind again.

PepsiCola

Ooper For example I use the Q key as my grapple key:

Curious, is the Q just a random example or you really use Q as your GrappleHook key?
In the case you use Q as a GrappleHook key, then I see that most likely you use "WSAD" as arrows.
Interesting, as for me, I use just regular arrows, and my GraapleHook is binded to my middle mouse's button (a wheel which is clickable as a button): MiddleMouse=HOOKOFFHANDFIRE

Ooper That sounds more like your mouse/keyboard is being a pain in the arse

Might be true, because my mouse and keyboard are very old (many years) and are in a very bad state, for example:

in my mouse sometimes clicks not working (then my opponent killing me), other time it clicks two times instead of one (then my ShockRifle is auto firing after respawn)
in my keyboard sometimes some keys not working, other time they are like pressed X times in a row, for example: after pressing a single time: "a":, the result in notepad is "aaaaa"

But when I hit the keyboard with all my strength, it fixes itself for a while 😃

UTNL

Just out of curiosity, as a related question, is it the same reason why sometimes when you're playing grapple doesn't work at all? Sometimes I will respawn, grapple will not work the entire respawn, and the next time I die, sometimes it comes back and sometimes it doesn't. I just always thought maybe it was lag or the server unable to process my own request.

snowguy

UTNL Just out of curiosity, as a related question, is it the same reason why sometimes when you're playing grapple doesn't work at all? Sometimes I will respawn, grapple will not work the entire respawn, and the next time I die, sometimes it comes back and sometimes it doesn't. I just always thought maybe it was lag or the server unable to process my own request.

I originally felt this was a separate bug and I remember this complete lack of grapple happening on other servers too. I usually would just suicide when it happened and most of the time the grapple would come back on the next spawn. Now that you bring it up here, it makes me think it could be related in some way to the delayed grapple when spawning issue. Thanks for the reminder this might be a clue to hopefully solving both issues.

Ooper

I've used a few keyboards over the years and I always end up back to my trusty Logitech K120, I do have a gaming one with extra media buttons and what not, but left shift + 4 stops working after a while(weeks or months after using it, both left shift and 4 work but not at the same time) and I use the dollar sigh quite often while coding.

K120 takes up a lot less space as well compared to the "gaming" one.

Kurogane

Yes sometimes Grapple takes time to "load" after spawn. It sucks if you're trying to return flag or cover FC.

jerc

its literally just a second but it feels like forever especially if you grapple to crate lid for momentum out of spawn. It does promote improvisational skills though lol.

player_0

does anyone know of such behavior, or rather lack of reaction, when you want to dodge but your character doesn't do it? This is only possible after respawning or when you feign death. This usually happens when there are a lot of players on the server. Maybe the bug with grapple is a similar bug to this one?

PepsiCola

In addition to my previous comments about my issue with Grapple Hook most likely caused by my dying mouse: HERE and HERE , apart of that, I also noticed that my ShockRifle sometimes starts auto-firing a primary weapon on it's own and it won't stop until I press my mouse buttons randomly several times, wow, so funny.

Ann0ying

hey @snowguy any chance to take a look into this on your valuable free time?

TL;DR: It takes sometimes like 2 or 3 seconds (feels like an eternity) to be able to shoot the grapple after respawn

snowguy

Ann0ying

I'm still not sure of the cause of this issue. I do remember it not always being a problem and believe it started happening sometime in 2020.

I did remove everything that was added to the server since then one by one for a day or more until the problem was confirmed to still exist. The only changes other than those packages, since that time, were ACE 1.2 and v469. I might still try disabling ACE for a day or so to rule it out. I will post when I do that so we can see if the issue still exists.

I don't think the gibs are the issue for two reasons: As others have said, it happens on more than just tight quarters maps. I distinctly recall it happening on Fragwhore also, which is pretty open. Additionally, if it was the gibs it would at least happen sometime when you are in congested areas and haven't just spawned. It seems this issue only happens immediately after spawning.

When I looked at the code previously I was concentrating on the player spawning and receiving the weapon which is done like this at every spawn in GrapMut.uc:

function ModifyPlayer(Pawn Other)
{
	local Weapon Grap;
	if(Other.IsA('PlayerPawn') && !Other.IsA('Spectator'))
	{
	Grap=Spawn(class'NDgrap49c.Grappling', Other);
	Grap.GiveTo(Other);
	}
	
if ( NextMutator != None )
	NextMutator.ModifyPlayer(Other);
}

But everything there seems to be okay except for maybe a check to see if Grap is not None before the call to GiveTo? Unless this Grappling spawn is somehow delayed it shouldn't cause any problems that I can see.

This time, I looked closer into Grappling.uc and found that all the functions that are needed to use the grapple (JumpRel, HookFire, HookOffHandFire) are done through client to server replication.

replication
{
    reliable if( Role < ROLE_Authority )
    JumpRel, HookFire, HookOffhandFire;
    reliable if(Role == ROLE_Authority)
    HookSpeed, FlySpeed, FFlySpeed, Range, SpeedFactor, bFlagFly, HookKillMode, bFlagNoAttach, bFlagTeamTravel;
}

So, my theory is that something is delaying this replication over the network immediately upon the player spawning but seemingly only when there are either lots of players, greater than 10, or lots of spawning going on. Maybe some replication constraints were introduced in v469 that I'm unaware of?

There currently isn't a way to interact with the grapple on the client-side only and I'm not sure if it would even work if the functions for client-side firing of the grapple were set to call the altfiring function etc.

I've put the grapple hook code on github in case anyone wants to take a look and possibly provide some insight. I can't find an author or license given in any of the NDgrap releases so I figured it was okay to extract the source and upload it. https://github.com/negruler/NDgrap49c

Maybe we can devise some changes to the grapple that will help debug the issue.

Ooper

Because it can't spawn in/near gibs, shockballs?, ect like when you stand too close to a wall, and players. Even if you disable them on your client they still exist on the server which is also why our shockballs can hit nothing if you're unlucky, you could add an audio/text event on failed to spawn like when your grapple goes too far and retracts.

Ann0ying

Ooper no.

the grapple does not even shoots out... it's not that it does not stick... it simply does not shoot.. it does not matter if under spam or not... it's random (or it appears to be so)