Trying to play multiplayer in Ylands......

[kimbuck 746]

And very trying it is!   We tried for  4  hours today, and  spent over three of them watching a blue  screen to return us to the  log in screen and tell us:

a) why we were being  licked out

b) what progress we were at in  rejoining...    often stopping at recalling buildings  100%  for  sometimes   15 minutes .. and half the  time  kicking us  back to the log in  screen.

We spent  what little  time  we were successful at getting in  in trying to rescue other players  who were dumped  somewhere, and  needed re-uniting  with their   boat, base  or  belonging..or  in some  cases ...found!  If these   logouts and  deaths were caused by predator   skirmishes , well that is  part of the game,  but to suddenly  get a blue  screen and everything hang  for   5 minutes before  getting back to the log in screen, its  pathetic  and frustrating ...so frustrating   that several players  gave up and  played other games they knew worked. The only  reason why we didn't go away and play  Sims 4  was because half of  us  hadn't  downloaded it yet.

What was all the drama..? well  a  collection of  MP glitches... some  we knew about,  some  not yet  resolved and some  new ones.

Here is how  it  unfolded  (data log   supplied)

Players   were stranded by  blue screens and  "death  by  glitch" ..so we  tried  rescue missions to return lost ships  possessions and  find the players and return them  to their base.

Start off, when taking ship helm .. the view jumps to a high altitude one and  zooms in  on you at the ships  helm ...when i see that i  know  there's not  going to be good  following!

reversing  ship  from dock  and  everything freezes except the  sounds....   after a few stutters    resumes but by now  you way out of the dock and your  base  just in view and still  going backwards!

Travelling in convoy  to return a ship ...  it seems if two ships   are in the same   ocean tile,  ylands  has a  fit or  something...  both ships  disappear for a second  and you see the   helmsman skimming over the water until the  ships re appear... usually when on ship moves onto a different ocean tile ..it was  so  quick a screenshot  was impossible.

Stuttering and lag .. it looked as though i was watching  a 1920 Charlie  Chaplin  film on a  hand  projector  operated by a  fatigued  projectionist!

Then  the  sharks...  2  conjoined   sharks  attacked the front of the ship and  got  stuck there ..and   the  ship stopped  dead! I could not  release the  helm or  access any of the  controls  for the ship  ..it   just  stood there   wobbling  with the  sharks  movements, and  camera view  stuck   straight  ahead  and  stuttering.  An attempt  was made to push the  ship   with another one , but the  pushing ship  seemed to get caught in lag   caused by the shark/ship collision...and  no help.   Te only solution that worked was to kill the sharks, but  by that time  i had  starved to death at the helm.  Fortunately  i  respawned  nearby was able to return and with the   help of  the other players locate and retrieve my  stuff.

With the  sharks  terminated,  ship control  was again possible!

So we gave up   on our  expedition  and tried to return..   and  again the blue screen  of    " y;lands has  given up" resulting in a  total log out and restart of  steam  and  re  join...fortunately   still at the helm of my ship  at  full speed  some 10  minutes later  ..and fortunately   running into  my  intended  destination  by sheer luck!

Ok so  got off the  ship and met the other players who had also  made it back  despite they too  getting the  "ylands  had  a spasm" blue  screen .. but  two of us  had  glitched  avatars .. our heads were missing and   so was  any identification as to  who was  who ..and  we were dressed in  black undies!  A long and painful  rejoin  fixed it   but then we  had  given up playing the game for the rest of  this day

We  hope, pray,  everything... that when  0.8  is released the game  is    playable ..but  to be honest,  we are not  confident.

perhaps   The  Devs  should  spend less time  introducing " shiny   oooh ahh "  things  and  concentrate on gettting the base  game  working.  As much as i don't like playing "the  Sims", it  might be the only  stress  less  alternative  where  all my friends  will go...

the  screenshot  is of the  sharks     apparently  affecting  boat control 

output_log.txt

output_log_clean.txt

Edited March 10, 2018 by kimbuck

[Energritz_ 107]

As far as i know EA (Early Access) i supposed to be the MP testing and fixing phase.. sure 0.7 hasn't been the best patch (probably the worst so far for mp),  but hopefully by 1.0 this will be a non issue.

I also have my doubts at this rate that everything will be fleshed out by 1.0 ... the game seems soo... SP focused... more bias for SP.... even though SP is technically done.

[kimbuck 746]

I hope that  from the  logs i supplied that  they can see what the issues are that need fixing....

[Baz Foobar 102]

Ylands team - let me know who to share the MP save file with and I'll provide a Google Drive link.  The file is just over 51MB now.  The server log files are around 20MB each from last night - around 12 hours of uptime perhaps, so it looks like there were some errors that were spamming repeatedly.  Hopefully this can be of value - I'll package it up and provide a link, just let me know who to share it with.

Edited March 10, 2018 by Baz Foobar

[Onedown 28]

1 hour ago, Energritz_ said:

I also have my doubts at this rate that everything will be fleshed out by 1.0 ... the game seems soo... SP focused... more bias for SP.... even though SP is technically done.

Trust me,  single player is not technically done and if it is my review on steam will turn incredibly critical.  I feel the exact opposite of you right now because I have not been able to fully explore the game in SP explore mode before it becomes unplayable and I have stayed out of MP because of what I read about the problems.  Hopefully they will be able to make all modes of the game work in time but it's not going to be instant for anyone.  My biggest criticism is about them selling the game in this state.

[bojo2736 1016]

I just spent more than 15 minutes trying to get back in after my boat glitched and I got dumped out.  MP is mostly unplayable.  Please please address this.

 

 

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[kimbuck 746]

here is a hint  as to the  shark / ship issue... if the ship is navigating shallow  water but the  water is still deep enough to sail over, and the  sharks   attack...if there's  multiple  sharks they  act as part of the ships  hull and    the ship thinks its  run aground.   solution?   jump in and  dig out the ground under the  sharks(  not advisable!  ) or  get someone  nearby  to  kill the  sharks ..or   if possible    gun the  engines and try to force the  ship  ahead into deeper water... but  do not count on that!  the  more sharks   the  harder it is to move...

other   alternative... kill yourself or   log out  and hope the  ship hasn't sailed away   in the  lag time it takes to rejoin. ------ after you wait  for ages  for the   menu screen to appear..

 

[StaticCarbon 4]

Have you got ride of the body's you have been gathering in the cave?

[kimbuck 746]

who  what  when    where... which cave?

[bojo2736 1016]

@Baz Foobar says that the sharks are attracted by fish in your inventory or stored on the ship.

[kimbuck 746]

That could   be so , but this post was no about  attracting sharks, but what was happening here was the sharks  have interfered with the collision  physics of the ship, and  with the  sharks   "attached" to the hull, the ship acts like its  run aground. Control is returned to the helmsman only when the  sharks  are removed, either  by  fortuitous  maneuvers, or  terminated by a weapon from another   nearby person. While the sharks  have the  boat caught up, the   player  has no way of  controlling the boat or  releasing the helm or  moving the camera,  and it only happens when the  water is  shallow enough for the   shark/hull combination to  touch the ocean floor.

[Baz Foobar 102]

6 hours ago, StaticCarbon said:

Have you got ride of the body's you have been gathering in the cave?

We have a proper graveyard now with a 7-day corpse retention policy.

[bojo2736 1016]

I think I have figured out at least a part of my boat glitching. I generally steer in first person because it's easier to see the birds. I think the first person cam fubars the boat. Also, I dont built the front helm piece because it impedes firsy person view. So now I have been trying to do just third person cam, and it's somewhat better.

[kimbuck 746]

I agree BB... my notorious  first boat " the flying chicken"  had no  fore  or  aft part,  just a platform built on the hull   and  as you saw, it was an uncontrollable  glitch-y beast with half  a mind of its own and the other half of a demon. Its  been deconstructed and rebuilt and the successor still has   some issues, but the known ones.

Currently   the only issue is  moving around  deck where  you can get  thrown overboard ...i  constructed  high  side railings   as a test,  but theres more to it...   something  else  to be discovered..