Multiplayer for MMMerge [beta 30.09.2024/1]

[Mercs]

What's the state of map reset on game loading / map change, is it still happening uncontrollably?

Not sure yet, haven't played that much yesterday. One thing I noticed is when I loaded one of my recent games in single-player mode, the location that I saved on had a correct state of no monsters, yet next location already had everyone respawned, even though we finished it like several game days before and went back to Sorpigal by suiciding on Misty Island. Not sure if bug at all (maybe enough time has passed for it to refill as designed? I don't remember what amount of time has to pass tho), and not sure if it will transfer to multiplayer tho.

Another thing to report that I forgot to include last time:
1) Guards in some cities we visited (first Misty Islands and later Sorpigal) dropped dead with no apparent reason, not fighting any monsters, and one of the guards also got hostile to us in Sorpigal. At that point I checked Reputation and it was negative -26, even though we made sure to not ever talk to any Baa Members (i.e. at the very start we ignored the guy in the tavern and went straight to the kind), never healed in any Baa temples or killed civilians. Maybe smb may have threatened some NPCs, idk, but it seems more likely to me those unexplained guard deaths were attributed to us by the populace of Enroth Maybe they had negative hp or smth?

[unknownone]

Wow, I never though this would be possible. Heartfelt congratulations for enabling multiplayer gaming! I wonder what Jon Caneghem would think of MM 6-7-8 Merge and Multiplayer mod, especially together.

[Alkapivo]

LOL, back in january 2023 I've decided to learn Lua, as an exercise I've imported lua.socket and send someJSONs between mockup server and might and magic VIII (with extension ofc), in order to test if its possible to add MMO to the best RPG in the world .

Rodril, you made an excellent use of lua.socket, you made my heart go boom boom, I wish you all the best and I will keep my fingers crossed.

[Mercs]

I think I forgot to report these previously, but let's add "unconfirmed":
1) Sometimes item thrown out of inventory would just disappear or at least become "invisible" for one user. One time this happened ring just vanished. The other time belt disappeared from screen of one player, but another player still saw it and identified it, and that made it visible again for the player who threw it out in the first place.
2) Also I think following the same procedure (throwing out and identifying/repairing) duped an item as a result once. At this point I was sure an item was duped, it had same everything - image, stats, enchant, but do not properly remember how I acquired it. Since monsters would often drop double items on death when killed (speaking of items that are not connected to corpse - wasp stings, ogre ears, wofl pelts, etc), I presume the same happened to that belt when we threw it out.

[rampage77t]

Try to apply today's files, and check if problem still persists, if so, send me the savegame file, that has this error, please.

https://mega.nz/file/TsxlUD5L#9mAYO2drY ... HVGMYQbu9o


The problem with the Temple of Tsantsa was fixed, there was an error in the last section of the dungeon since regna pirates were generated constantly until we loaded the game again, then they stopped appearing

[Rodril]

save link

Thanks. Reapply mod files, issue should be gone now. Though, console will pop up once more, and you'll have to repromote your character. I'm not changing the mod version, because there's no changes on multiplayer side compared to last archive.

[Mercs]

MM6, 31.05.23 ver:

1) when loading inside goblin fort, torches would sometimes have some other sprite instead of a torch sprite. like one time it was one of the players' sprites, another time it was sword sprite. clicking on torch to light it up and then turn it off again would fix it
2) had an issue where I could "talk" to monster puppet of one of the players - it had all the functionality of a hireable NPC from MM7 using the same sprite as player (female elf villager green sprite)
3) just noticed that not only other players make no sound when they attack, but also monsters make no sound when attacking other party members and not you. when they attack you specifically, they make sound.
4) (unconfirmed) abandoned temple feels like it should have had way more monsters? others as well, have you removed monsters from entrance rooms or is my memory just bad? also some monsters seemed to have spawned in void behind walls, but that also happened in base merge.
5) crash on spider queen monster (red spider in the end) in abandoned temple several times for clients but not host. were able to work around it by host killing her, getting the heart and then saving with it and rehosting the game for us. game crashed when she was near.
6) crash on trying to right-click merge-related letter in MM6 (I think it's called "Letter for YOU"), several times. back when playing MM8, that letter caused no issue. also it was the chest where 4 copies of that letter spawned (in Dragoon Caverns).
7) we continue losing reputation. we are thinking maybe it's because the Bounty Hunt quests or some kind of interaction between them and monsters - theory is rep is deducted for dead villagers killed by summoned bounty hunt monsters. not sure why guards attack us tho. are they programmed to at rep like -25-30?
8) not seeing any location respawning shenanigans in multiplayer sections. remember last time I told about next location from save location being full when loaded in single player? when in multiplayer it was properly empty. good stuff! much appreciated!

[Electro]

Bug report from version 31.05.23:

During the skeleton army encounter at the end of the Temple of Baa in MM6, approximately 2/3 of the skeletons spawned and immediately died. This included all but one or two of the skeleton lords, which made what should have been an epic fight for our lives kind of underwhelming.

[rampage77t]

Thanks. Reapply mod files, issue should be gone now. Though, console will pop up once more, and you'll have to repromote your character. I'm not changing the mod version, because there's no changes on multiplayer side compared to last archive.

No luck, the character's class became null, and he can't promote him, I try to fire him and get another similar one but the errors with the npc continue
I also comment on a couple of errors that occur during our game in Enroth.

-Casting the Bless spell next to the host restores all spell points as if it had cast Divine Intervention .
-It also happens when loading the game, my characters have maximum health and spell points when they were not like that when saving the game.
-It happens from previous versions but when leaving the map and returning all the exploration carried out is lost, including the points of the npc teachers.

For now, nothing that prevents us from advancing in the game, the effort that is made in this mod is greatly appreciated.

[Rodril]

I've updated files to 02.06.2023 version:
-- Bounty hunt is now properly synchronized: player, who gives in quest, gets both gold and reputation, other players gain reputation and receive notificaton of bounty hunt being complete on specific map;
-- Remote players UI now shows buffs/conditions of all members of remote party (previously shown only staus of first);
-- Pick corpse now have additional synchronization to avoid loot duplication, it can cause slight delay on picking up corpse, tell me if it will be noticeable;
-- Rest&Heal now affects unconscious players nearby.
-- I've changed a bit algorithm of monsters health synchronization, as it might have caused instant death of monsters on spawn, and when player enters the map, not sure that was the reason, tho, will look further.

There are also some little fixes, such as rest encounter chance calculation, accidental map npc assignment to player's puppet, appearance of secret button in Temple of the Sun, some changes been made to make characters less likely be tired after rest.
I could not reproduce crash with spider queen, have not checked reasons of potential objects desync (disappearence for some players), and have not checked crash with "Letter for YOU" yet, will give these more attention till next update.

Thanks for awesome reports!
If nothing critical will show up, i'll make cosmetical improvements for player - monster combat, i.e. sounds and blood splat synchronization, and i'm planning to adapt sword-swing mod for multiplayer.

[Mercs]

MM6, 31.05.23 ver

1) had monsters respawn when we loaded game and one of us used client save
2) later had monsters respawn in other cases where loading the game was involved (but no client saves), the map where you load save gets respawned entirely. one of the cases included one of party members travelling to other location and spending some time there, maybe travelling to other location / time going differently on two locations is involved?
3) crash on fire aura once with stuck UI, already reported it before, basically UI goes unresponsive and then game crashes. only happened once though, but because loading games is scary it's worse
4) stores sometimes empty, but not often, reported before
5) random peasants and summoned bounty quest monsters dropping dead immediatelly in some cases. each time a peasant dies reputation is deducted - confirmed. obviously if a summoned bounty monster is hostile to peasants, it kills a lot of them and a lot of rep is lost.

[Rodril]

1) had monsters respawn when we loaded game and one of us used client save

Seems, issue came back, when i returned torch light halo display. I've included hotfix into files. Once you'll be able to test it, tell me, whether map resetting gone or not. If it won't, i'll disable torch light again.

[Mercs]

Not sure if we used it. I am actually the only one with fire magic and I did not. But I will, thanks.

[Mercs]

02.06.23/2 ver:

1) so far no respawns on game load, thankfully
2) weather effects broken again, if weather effects are OFF, they still start showing when someone joins the map. to test, go to frozen highlands during snow, turn it off on your side, and let somebody else travel to the same location - it will start snowing again
3) once, loading the auto save created on enterind dungeon loaded the state of the dungeon from after we've actually went in and died (everybody chose host save option)
4) something that is VERY annoying but I forget to report all the time - spells disappear mid flight very often. it's as if they get stuck in monster puppet or something, animation starts and abruptly disappears almost at camera level. I believe will have a lot of episodes of it on video, it happened a lot in MM8, but in MM6 it's for some reason even more often, maybe some kind of desync causing it?
5) had issue when using rest - not showing any UI for other or SOME party members, once even killing a person right away even though he couldn't have possibly spend enough time waiting to die. often would lose health too.
6) I crashed. my char was still in the game after the crash. host saved the game. we loaded, I used host save. but host save did not include recent exp and items I earned before the crash, even though my character was still ingame when he saved.

[Rodril]

I've updated files to 04.06.2023 version:
-- Mostly rest screen fixes. I think, i've found root reason of remote characters being unable to rest properly;
-- Monsters should emit their sounds and leave blood splats properly now. No sword swings yet.
It is relatively small update, but i think rest screen fix is important.

Not sure if we used it. I am actually the only one with fire magic and I did not. But I will, thanks.

Sprites for torch light display are created internally on map load, thus they could cause error, even if they were not used.

2) weather effects broken again, if weather effects are OFF, they still start showing when someone joins the map. to test, go to frozen highlands during snow, turn it off on your side, and let somebody else travel to the same location - it will start snowing again

This was supposed to be intended behaivor: Frozen Highlands is single map, that shows snow despite the setting, untill you finish council-related quest for this map. Probably i'll disable it.

6) I crashed. my char was still in the game after the crash. host saved the game. we loaded, I used host save. but host save did not include recent exp and items I earned before the crash, even though my character was still ingame when he saved.

Host does not keep full remote players data all the time, thus if save made after player disconnected, it is impossible to receive state of remote party for future load. But i see the problem. I'm thinking to add periodic background autosave, to minimize progress loss, untill crashes are got rid off.

[Mercs]

On the topic of weather in general, kinda want to play with weather effects, but then I also totally hate how they look and block the entire screen.
I like the universal solution we have in GZDoom though: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=70432

[Rodril]

Hello. Files are updated to 06.06.2023 version:
-- Sword swing mod by Ivan Petrov adapted and included in;
-- Friendly fire is available now (details below);
-- Client data is auto saved every 30 seconds now;
-- Choose character UI (shown upon joining host) now puts most relevant save (least difference in save and host ingame time) on top of the list;
-- Spell effects (particle clouds around monster's sprite), applied by remote players, are having color dependent on spell school now;
There are also bunch of minor fixes, including some reputation loss adjustments.

Sword swing and friendly fire can be toggled / adjusted via multiplayer UI:


I am not aiming to add pvp in any form. On Merc's streams i've seen common tactic to use huge minotaur as meatshield in doorway, while shooting fireballs, rockblasts and dragon breath at his back, obliterating anything standing in front, i've added friendly fire now to spice up a bit this approach. It is still completely toggleable, tho. On the image above you can see "Friendly fire factor" option, set it to 0 to disable friendly fire. Every incoming damage from remote players is multiplied by this value. If factor is 1, dragon breath from behind will probably be fatal. Friendly fire affects only projectiles, melee hits won't do damage to remote player, neither will spells without projectile (like inferno and implosion). Friendly fire factor controlled by host, client's changes won't take effect, and UI value will be reverted to host's setting once reopen.

4) something that is VERY annoying but I forget to report all the time - spells disappear mid flight very often. it's as if they get stuck in monster puppet or something, animation starts and abruptly disappears almost at camera level. I believe will have a lot of episodes of it on video, it happened a lot in MM8, but in MM6 it's for some reason even more often, maybe some kind of desync causing it?

Could you send me timecode and link to the video, where it happens, so i'll se what exactly going on? Did not pay attention to it as viewer.

[Mercs]

MM6, 06.06.23 ver:

1) Council Members are messed up for all players. The guy who does not support us shows thumbs up on the house animation. The tho guys who do support us show thumbs down. We do not yet know if this is just visual bug or not, not far enough into the story.

Could you send me timecode and link to the video, where it happens, so i'll se what exactly going on? Did not pay attention to it as viewer.

I think there will be at least a few instances in the first MM6 video when I upload it. Later.

[rampage77t]

Since today's update I can't enter the host game via LAN connection, we tried via Internet connection and it works correctly. When we cast a spell together with another player a bug happens that the sound of the spell plays constantly until we move away or put the inventory, it almost drills your brain.

[Rodril]

I've messed up with friendly fire factor rounding upon sending/receivig from host, thus adding hotfix and changing version string to 06.06.2023/2, redownload files, please.

Since today's update I can't enter the host game via LAN connection, we tried via Internet connection and it works correctly. When we cast a spell together with another player a bug happens that the sound of the spell plays constantly until we move away or put the inventory, it almost drills your brain.

This is very strange, because i changed nothing in network code in this update. Some broken packet could prevent connection, but it would not work in internet mode either then. I'll look into it. Next time you will play - try to use LAN again and send me MMMergeLog.txt, if problem won't go.
About spells. Does some specific spell cause it or any? Only single target, only party buffs, or both? Does it happen, when you cast spells at same time, or indefinetely?