Re: Partial Connection
Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 7:16 pm
I think it is a fairly tricky problem, and I do not know what safeguards VG had to prevent exploits.
In original EQ, you could reconnect to a character already in the world after going linkdead. If you went LD, EQ would take over your character and attempt to play it like and NPC (very badly, I might add). However, NPCs in EQ could move through solid objects like walls. This led to an exploit in which someone could run at a wall, disconnect their ethernet cable, go LD, reconnect their cable, and find himself on the other side of the wall. To stop the exploit EQ changed to disallow reconnecting to a character in world after going LD.
In any case, the LD character would stay in the world for quite a while before being booted. This was to prevent someone from getting out of a sticky situation by forcing an LD. However, this created the situation in which you would be unable to log in to play because you already had an active character in the world. I think this would have been less annoying if there had been some kind of timer that would let you know how long you had to wait, but it was very frustrating to sit there and spam the "Play" button repeatedly trying to get back to your raid group.
VG did not try to play your character while you were LD, and I don't think VG mobs could move through walls at will anyway, so the original EQ exploit wasn't relevant to VG. If you went LD your character just stood there until you logged back in or got booted from the world. I'm not sure how long it took to get booted, but 30 seconds sounds right. It is possible it was closer to a minute.
As I said, I don't know if VG had any additional precautions against exploits, but you were generally dead when you came back if you went LD in combat (at least outside a group). You can't get out of a bad location, because you came back in the same loc as when you went LD. You couldn't get out of a bad crafting combine, as the game would fail your crafting session with the loss of all expendable materials (this happened to me multiple times). And I think if you went LD during diplo, it was the same as cancelling your diplo session. Anyway, I never heard of anyone using /quit or forced LD as a viable exploit in VG (though I am pretty naive about exploits; others might know more).
In original EQ, you could reconnect to a character already in the world after going linkdead. If you went LD, EQ would take over your character and attempt to play it like and NPC (very badly, I might add). However, NPCs in EQ could move through solid objects like walls. This led to an exploit in which someone could run at a wall, disconnect their ethernet cable, go LD, reconnect their cable, and find himself on the other side of the wall. To stop the exploit EQ changed to disallow reconnecting to a character in world after going LD.
In any case, the LD character would stay in the world for quite a while before being booted. This was to prevent someone from getting out of a sticky situation by forcing an LD. However, this created the situation in which you would be unable to log in to play because you already had an active character in the world. I think this would have been less annoying if there had been some kind of timer that would let you know how long you had to wait, but it was very frustrating to sit there and spam the "Play" button repeatedly trying to get back to your raid group.
VG did not try to play your character while you were LD, and I don't think VG mobs could move through walls at will anyway, so the original EQ exploit wasn't relevant to VG. If you went LD your character just stood there until you logged back in or got booted from the world. I'm not sure how long it took to get booted, but 30 seconds sounds right. It is possible it was closer to a minute.
As I said, I don't know if VG had any additional precautions against exploits, but you were generally dead when you came back if you went LD in combat (at least outside a group). You can't get out of a bad location, because you came back in the same loc as when you went LD. You couldn't get out of a bad crafting combine, as the game would fail your crafting session with the loss of all expendable materials (this happened to me multiple times). And I think if you went LD during diplo, it was the same as cancelling your diplo session. Anyway, I never heard of anyone using /quit or forced LD as a viable exploit in VG (though I am pretty naive about exploits; others might know more).