It has to be server-side. If a skill requires you to be w/in a range of 5 from the target, and that could be processed client-side (i.e. manipulated by the client) that would open up pandoras box for cheating. Seeing StamBlades use their execute 28 meters away...

Logic that has to be verified really needs to happen server-side.

zaria wrote: »

Kadoin wrote: »

Daffen wrote: »

Are range checks server side or client side?

If server side, would changing it to make the client check ranges instead drastically improve server performance as it doesnt have to do a calculation for every skill casted?

Server side, and no to the bold because:

a. the client itself is buggy and prone to positioning and range errors that are only sometimes reflected in the server-side calculations, this keeps buggy behavior down, and

b. with the current scheme the lagger is at a disadvantage vs. the player not lagging. If they changed things to client-side it can result in players abusing lag or manipulating ping to find what threshhold the server considers to be valid to apply damage and effects in an advantageous way -- in other words it will be more exploitable on live. The live server gives priority to the players with less lag and numbers in most cases.

I've only seen the server let me "win" against a faction stack once during a laggy faction stack on keep door when I activated a nova 3 seconds before the other players were to kill me when I was blocking and outhealing them. The other players should have died but the game ignored my nova synergy. Want to know what happened next? The server reversed time and positions and then said I used nova and killed all the enemies and let me live. Only ONCE.

If your suggestion stands, the game will have to either do as stated above with nova more often or ignore it, at that point, I cannot see how an improvement in performance would be had OR the benefit or improved performance.

Now if you pan over targets using an single target skill it light out or go dark if you have targets in range.
Pretty sure this part is client side. Now casting itself its server side as you say to make sure target is in range. Because of lag target could not be out of range for one easy with an sorcerer with streak.

Yes, what you see could be entirely client side, but the reality is that the server also keeping track of player position, the radius of AoE skills, and whether a player should or should not be affected and how. The server also ultimately decides what is valid damage or skill activation or not, which is why players sometimes see effects not go off, esp. when laggy -- the server simply dropped their action for whatever reason.

Let's take Ritual of Retribution, as much as I hate it getting its heal gutted, it is a huge offender because it has:

a. huge radius
b. does damage to enemies
c. heals allies

On the surface it seems like three operations, but then you have to consider that the skill:

1. Has to determine all players in the radius

2. Has to group players into allies and enemies, if not already done with a global option

3. Has to determine what players to heal, this means it has to determine the players initial position and final positions during the heal ticks, has to determine the current lowest health players among them, has to determine how much to heal for with healing done and recieved, crit healing, keep distance, etc. -- at least 3 checks over an entire group just for the heal

4. Has to damage players in an area, so has to also determine what players to damage, player damage reduction modifiers (resistance, crit resist, protection buffs, shields, enchants, other players damage reduction effects (sets), etc.)

All of that is done server side, and while you can say not all of those situations will be present at any given time, that doesn't mean that the server won't be checking for them, and they are all present in ball groups. And that's just one AoE skill, and one instance of Ritual of Retribution. It's why they want to limit AoEs to test if its the problem.

Now, what's the relation to client side?

Say that the game handled this client side and a player lagged. Right now the game does not actually operate in real-time, but seems to operate based on priority. I would say the priority is as followed in this order, but maybe someone from ZOS can correct me since this is based on observation and testing many skills during lag and other situations (yeah my skill bar gets determined by this priority list by the way):

1. HoTs @ top priority
2. DoTs, including Direct Damage with DoTs
3. Light attack, excluding 2H light attack if you have splash damage passive
4. Direct Damage, including ranged attacks with secondary effect/DoT, also including 2H light attack if you have splash damage passive
5. Shields
6. Other Buffs
7. Direct Heals
8. Direct heals with checks
9. Cast time Ultimates and Synergies

If ZOS does not change that priority, then changing effects to client-side would actually make the game work in a percieved worse state because players have differing levels of lag, and instead of things being dropped according to the priority list, we would see "ghost effects" happen.

Like when player A has 500 ping and on his screen kills someone, but actually died to another player B long before, then player B would drop dead instantly at some random point in the future. While this does happen on live, it is currently kept to a minimum because the game prioritizes certain actions over others. In this sense, it is keeping the game "fair" in a way, while also preventing cheating or abuse of lag.

However, knowledge of the priority of actions in the game give an immense advantage over others in PvP when you make your build optimized to take advantage of it, so keep it quiet plz.