@Torven in the second link you posted (https://thesafehouse.org/forums/forum/everquest-wing/training-studios/7195-corpse-dragging) it seems you have implemented the GoD era bugginess perfectly, well done.
just done some real world testing for myself. spamming with run 3 = noticed no difference to pre patch FoE = spammed as normal definitely dropped the corpse a few times but no where near as bad as being made out from my expierence bard speed i did not test but i can imagine it being hell based on foe dropping. i think a good compromise could be some leeway added when player is moving, or/and an increase in the range. my usual drag method is a single line of /corpse in my insta click spot and spamming the keyboard as fast as i can when dragging. apologies for jumping in the thread before doing proper testing for myself
I made some changes to this for next patch to make it more forgiving when spamming /corpse while moving fast.
*update* just tested with selos and im sorry but this is 100% incorrect behaviour currently cannot move the corpse more than 1 drag update even with walk on. its like the client thinks the corpse should be moving, then the server picks up on next update saying NOPE. i think the position updates need to be send 2-3 times more often and the range increased slightly. i also was with someone based in NA, i could drag with foe with the odd drop, they could not, so seems to be another factor at play here
Wasn't the corpse distance change based on there being a patch in 2004 to increase it to 100, and then guessing that 50 was the range before that? That safehouse post makes it sound like Corpse Range was changed with the GoD release, and then I would guess that 2004 patch (to increase to 100) was to fix what was broken with that release? Trying to understand why the solution to resolve the corpse drags with SoW/Selos/Etc is anything other than just restoring the range to what it was before by reverting that part of the change.
I think trying to change server update intervals and other areas of code to fix it, in lieu of a simple range increase, may lead to other unintended consequences
I think the argument is that 50 is akkurate, but it was 100 here for the entirety of the TAKP server so people got used to it being functional. The 50 range exposed an issue revolving around the client registering where the player is when the corse command is submitted. Now we’re stuck with a more unsavory gameplay. The point I was trying to make earlier on this post was.. there are plenty of inakkuracies on this server (perma pac, kite limits, no shakerpage etc) so if the argument is akkuracy vs player enjoyability I’d personally rather we ere on the side of enjoyability.
This should be a really simple thing, and it is, on the technical side. The issue that is unresolved is that some players are claiming that they were able to drag corpses on AK with selos and presumably 50 range limit. I spent a lot of time trying to find a way for this to be true with this game client which is the same game client that was used to play on the old server, and it doesn't seem possible to me. So, something is wrong, either the 50 range, people's memories/claims, another issue that hasn't been discovered? Anyway, look at the video I posted, it will be possible to drag corpses while running full speed after the next patch. I don't think that's how it worked on AK, and if we ever find more evidence of how to do it right we can remove this, but this should make it a lot less annoying for players at the next update and addresses the concerns here, I hope.
Thank you for your attention to this. I can say with absolute certainty that it was possible to drag corpses at full Selos' speed while slamming the /corpse button while running in a straight line back on Al'Kabor of old. Turning and stopping, and zig-zagging, was never a thing. It sounds like we'll be returned to Akkuracy with the next patch. Much appreciated. <3
I don't have much to add here, other than that I don't recall issues spam-dragging corpses on AK with FoE or on Live in era with SoW. I do feel - very vaguely - like I had to be a little careful dragging with Selo if I was a little laggy. But it's also been a million years and my TAKP experience tends to overwrite my AK/Live memories, so who knows. Going back to Y2K or whatever, I always used a five-line hotkey with four lines of /corpse and one line of /loc (so logs had the last body position if I LD'd or got gnwned while dragging). Do most folks use multi-line drag hotkeys, or just spam a key with one /corpse line? I have no idea how this stuff is communicated between the client and server, but I could see it helping under some conditions to send one packet with 4-5 lines of /corpse in it, vs. repeatedly sending single-line /corpse packets.
Just because selos dragging was possible doesn't mean it was reliable. It's not hard to find drags in logs where corpses ended up out of range. Also https://web.archive.org/web/20050221215417/http://www.eqdiva.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=21848
This post (probably the Usenet reference mentioned before) is from early 2004 - mid 2004 was the patch note that /corpse range was increased. https://alt.games.everquest.narkive.com/CSqqgNPK/drag-corpse#post5 (scroll to top post to see the 50 range as a quote) "./baldio/patch/20040616.html:<p>We have increased the range of the /corpse command *</p>" However, I am personally not a fan of how many fan projects are quite selective in the re-interpretations of old (anything that makes it too easy is removed for balance reasons - "it wasn't widely known/abused, so it's unfair to be available in our environment 2 decades later" (paraphrased) - while excitedly adding features that hurt the environment. I've been away from TAKP for a couple months, but not being able to reliably /corpse would be a bummer - especially considering the other QOL features TAKP has allowed to be present (beastlord MGB among others).
I would frequently /corpse up the pit in the mide of Crystal Caverns on AK. For sure. But I don't know how high that is in EQ units.
Is it possible it was handled like area cloth exclusions (however that's handled) and not handled as a Z check at all? Perhaps it's Sol's chamber irself that can't be /corpsed into? I don't know things so maybe that's a silly idea.
@Torven if that was directed at me - I didn't intend to offend, this thread was an interesting read and it seemed almost all non-staff commenters were adding a citation/link, or anecdotal data, followed by a quick 2c / personal opinion, so having found (what I believe) to be the usenet post in question, wanted to share as well. I think the project is awesome (even if I can criticize), if I were playing any mmorpg at the moment, it'd be takp It's obviously a labor of love from the staff, but I assumed based on past server customizations, not a 100% purist effort.
It isn't just Selo's dragging though, you easily lose corpses when spamming as hard as possible while Sneak + FoE right now, for example.
I've only been on TAKP about a year, but from my interactions with the people on the server - the community seems to be focused on two pillars. 1. Accurately capturing the original everquest experience as it was on the Al'Kabor server, including the difficulty and idiosyncrasies that entails and 2. Fostering a community of cooperation, including rotation of raid targets to make things less cutthroat and reduce the amount of poopsocking, FTE culture, etc that plagues many other servers. I can respect the Z axis restrictions since I understand the feeling that it can trivialize and circumvent the difficulty in getting to certain locations and executing on some encounters. It always feels better when you need to put effort into gaining something, killing a boss, etc. The corpse dragging range issues on the other hand don't really seem like they increase the difficulty of any raid encounter, it just makes people's lives harder and things more frustrating. I am all for making fights hard, but it feels bad when general non-raid stuff is made more painful for what feels like very minimal, if any, gains in the verisimilitude as it relates to feeling like original Al'Kabor. If it was such a glaring shock to the feeling of realness, I think that the change would have been made much earlier in the lifecycle of the server. It has been many years without corpse distance changes being required or raised as an issue.
Yes, Torven would have certainly loved to come across this information years ago. However we do not get to decide when information becomes available. If we could have had SOE send us the Al`kabor source in 2015 that would have been fantastic.
