Hercules Elf Bot - Mar 5, 2012 9:35
Originally posted by [b]Mr. No One[/b]
Hello everyone!
When players use skills that hides them (hiding, cloaking, etc), their position will still be sent to nearby clients, although they are not visually shown in game. This enables everyone who uses some kind of packet monitoring software to know their presence or even make them visible.
I know that for some actions it's needed (for example emotions). I don't really know how much trouble would it cause to change the current system, but it sounds possible to do so. For emotions, the server could send a dummy id, and only when they are used by the player. But that's just an idea.
Also, the new permission system could include an option for that so GMs could still see everyone.
This problem is very old, and last time I reported it at the eA board, nobody really cared. I hope you guys do share my point of view of this being 'not good' this way.
Hercules Elf Bot - Mar 5, 2012 10:49
Originally posted by [b]Wildcard[/b]
Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I recall, the client crashes if a character on screen that it does not know about unhides.. So I believe making this change work would involve removing the unhide/uncloak animation and replacing it with the warp-in one, which is just not too pretty. It is also not possible to "just use a dummy", since the client can only display emoticons on units it knows about. The same goes for items/skills used. I remember someone writing a rather lengthy patch that sort of adressed the issue, but it come with a catch as well.
This post has been edited by
Wildcard
on Mar 5, 2012 11:03
Hercules Elf Bot - Mar 5, 2012 11:11
Originally posted by [b]Mr. No One[/b]
Unfortunately I don't know much about this and can't really test it since I'm not that familiar with the rA source and coding in c. In theory everything looks much easier than in practice, I know, but wouldn't that solve this issue if the server sends the player's position just before, together with the unhide packet?
The player must enter the screen from the side? Can't the same happen directly at a specified position? Or if it can't.. Virtually moving the character to position is not possible either? Not necessarily moving, just sending another position to the actual place. I have no idea how these events are handled by the client, but if it doesn't break the fluent gameplay nor does make any visual/non-visual glitch it could be used.
Hercules Elf Bot - Mar 5, 2012 11:20
Originally posted by [b]Angezerus[/b]
I don't think the client will crash. It doesen't crash when a gm unhides from perfect hide (in perfect hide no position is sent to the clients). The only problem is that when someone comes out from perfect hide, other players won't see the player, until they have a screen refresh or the gm moves out of range and comes back.
This post has been edited by
Angezerus
on Mar 5, 2012 11:22
Hercules Elf Bot - Mar 5, 2012 11:34
Originally posted by [b]Wildcard[/b]
RO has no equivalent to a "this unit is at these x,y coordinates" packet. Units either warp in, or enter the screen as you move/they move. From that time until they leave the screen, they are updated with "walk" packets. For a unit to do anything, the client must know about it. There is a range of things hidden/cloaked characters can do (use items, emoticons, grimtooth). Thus trying to supply coordinates for a unit "on demand" just does nto work well. It will always involve weird visual glitches.
Perfect hide/@hide works differently. Try grimtoothing someone from it. They will just take the damage, since there is no source the client knows about to display the grimtooth originating from.
There is also the issue of permanent/intermittent intravision effet (maya purple/box of sunlight)
Using box of sunlight, it is possible to shift+right-click on a target and auto-follow them even after the effect wears off (and this is official, as far as I know)
So in conclusion, this is not what official servers do, and I can thus not justify it being on rAthena. If you are concerned about abuses on your server, please refer to the patch I mentioned, which can be found on either these forums or the eA ones.
Hercules Elf Bot - Mar 5, 2012 12:30
Originally posted by [b]Mr. No One[/b]
Then it looks like I have to accept that there's no good workaround. Thanks for dealing with the case anyway.