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Thread: NPC ships act like hummingbirds on speed!

JamesHighwest
Sat Mar 19, 2005 8:44 pm
#1

Okay, I can't fight in space anymore. Anything I try to kill whips around in random directs like hummingbirds on speed. I only hit them if I get a lucky shot off. I read somewhere that deleting the profile directory fixes this, but it didn't work for me. Anyone else have any good suggestions?


BTW, I'm on a DSL connection with a ping time of less that 100ms, so it's not my connection.



…

Tuyen Highwest
Server: Kettemoor
Last Ditch Desperado


Neghtasro
Sat Mar 19, 2005 9:19 pm
#2

Deleting the... profile directory? I hope you did a repair. That won't do much except mess up launchpad.

Anyway, Even though you have broadband, it could still be your connection. I have 4 Mbps Cable and still have lag problems in space combat.It's a scale 16km x 16km area, plus all of the ships, effects, stats, etc. makes one heck of a load to squeeze through any connection slower than around 7 Mbps.









Neghtasro Flywalker- The oldest newbie on Starsider.
Emise Flywalker- Whiniest person on Starsider (Just ask Serifin)
BadChef
Sun Mar 20, 2005 2:14 am
#3

I get the same thing, but I've been a horrible pilot on every game. In Battlefield Vietnam I killed many a friendly with a misplaced turn or landing. Remember that NPC's can perform every motion at once where your mind has to cycle through each one in turn for the most part. Plus, unlike other games, there's realy not that much for them to crash into, so they can continue to whip around however they're programed to react. That, and the matter of your speed nearing their speed you close the distance sometimes faster then you can think.


So, like on one of the guides I've seen on here, learn to work your throttle and guess their path so you can think a few steps ahead of them. If it is just your system or connection, then you and me both are screwed cuz I'm on basic cable with a 1.6 processor.




xfire name: thachef
__________
BadChef: Smuggler
JeebusCrisp
Sun Mar 20, 2005 3:22 am
#4

Bear in mind that SWG's ping display is not the most accurate.

You can actually show a low ping and still have high-latency. You say you're on DSL, are you perhaps using a wireless connection?
You might want to try a new router/modem and see if that changes anything.



If a poisonous snake is dropped on top of you from a gyrocopter, don’t freak out and shoot your own driver with your arrow gun, making the vehicle lose control and blow up. Its probably just as scared as you are.
Washell
Sun Mar 20, 2005 6:45 pm
#5

Ping freezes a lot ctrl-shift-g shows another stat window with a ping that never freezes.


In addition, there's graphic/memory lag. If I've been playing a long time, I need to reboot my pc orI'll have this problem too in space.

Sifer2
Sun Mar 20, 2005 7:17 pm
#6

Maybe im just a good Pilot but I dont find any of the enemy AI to be that good. Half the time they could so easily get on my tail but choose to just fire off a single shot an turn in another direction instead. As far as actually hitting them its really as simple as keeping the blue target inside the green one an holding down the mouse button. The only NPC I have found challenging in the game so far is TIER 5 Rebel A-Wings. For some reason the target system does'nt seem to work too well on them an they fly around so fast you will get dizzy if your not careful. But even those guys are not all that tough with a fast firing gun to spam. Its possible you could be lagging or it could also be your computer. Make sure you have the minimum system requirments an consider upgrading.





-Sifer Two-
Master Pistoleer/Teras Kasi Artist/Smuggler

Imperial Inquisition Ace Pilot

Jedi Padawan

padren
Sun Mar 20, 2005 7:47 pm
#7

I read somewhere on these forums people with nforce2 chipset have the drunken bee problem, and something about it being more common with asus boards - but I really have no idea why either would be possible factors. I just read a thread where lots of people said they all had the same boards and that when one got a new board the problem went away.

As for the NPC AI, I am not positive but I suspect that while hits are determined server side that the AI flightpaths may be client side distributed, and the AI could be cut short in its thinking depth to preserve framerate if the processor is slow. I have no idea if that is true - its just a theory and I suspect the AI weight on the server to run all enemy fighter AIs there would be intense.

If you search for drunken bees you'll find lots of threads on this problem, the only thing I can do when this happens is break my lock, and change targets, and hope one doesn't do this. If they all are I fly defensively for a few minutes and usually it passes.

My own suspicion on the cause of the bee nature, is that it appears to happen when you point straight at an enemy, (have it in your gun sights) and what I think is happening, is there must be an AI routine that determines best way to react based on how you are aiming at it. If you favor the front, it prefers to do one thing, behind, another etc, and if you are right on it, it chooses something random to do out of all the equal options, but the random thing doesn't get it out of that tight test box and thus it does a series of random things that make no sense. It could be a low-cpu AI fail-over routine that kicks in when its normal AI can't get deep enough per second and involve bad math formulas that break down with small numbers (small numbers being intercept vectors that lead you or your guns to 'miss' intersection by fractions instead of whole numbers of some factor).

Message Edited by padren on 03-20-2005 06:47 PM





Padren Talisan - Starsider pilot
Padrig Talsani - Corbantis
JamesHighwest
Mon Mar 21, 2005 7:44 am
#8






padren wrote:
I read somewhere on these forums people with nforce2 chipset have the drunken bee problem, and something about it being more common with asus boards - but I really have no idea why either would be possible factors. I just read a thread where lots of people said they all had the same boards and that when one got a new board the problem went away.



This is my setup! I have the nForce2 chipset on an ASUS motherboard. I will go looking for "drunken bee" topics as that is a great description of the problem I'm having. Thanks, padren!!




…

Tuyen Highwest
Server: Kettemoor
Last Ditch Desperado


DonPriestt
Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:55 pm
#9

I hated that drunken bee stuff.I usually will log out on the ground reboot and come bak.



E'lektra Elder Defence Stacker
Melpomenes Elder Combat Medic/Doctor
Levinoss Just a Darn Elder

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