[ bzflag-Bugs-498337 ] CTF team flags return to base (b)

[<no...@so...>]

Bugs item #498337, was opened at 2002-01-01 11:43
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Category: BZFS
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Frank Thilo (chestal)
Assigned to: Tim Riker (timriker)
Summary: CTF team flags return to base (b)

Initial Comment:
Sometimes team flags in CTF style games return to the
home base miraculously. This occures when a player
carrying the team flag is shot. On rare occasions the
flag is not dropped in a regular way but returns to its
home base. I couldn't detect a pattern yet.

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>Comment By: Frank Thilo (chestal)
Date: 2002-01-28 09:02

Message:
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I guess I found a possible cause for this problem. Sadly, it
looks like not all occurences of the bug can be accounted to
this. However, here is a scenario which causes problems:

1) Player A drives over team flag, sends MsgGrabFlag request
to server. Due to A's lag this will take some time
2) MsgGrab request arrives at server (points 2 and 3 can be
swapped without making any difference). Servers send
confirmation to A.
3) Player A is hit by a shot. Client sends MsgKilled to
server. No MsgDrop is sent, as Player A doesn't own flag yet
from his point of view.
4) Server receives MsgKilled. Player A still has flag, so
the flag will be zapped and return to base.
5) Player receives MsgGrab confirmation, but A is already
dead. Don't know what happens exactly, probably Message will
be ignored.

Obviously this could happen whenever a player gets killed at
approx. the same time he grabs a flag. Probability of the
bug striking increases with greater lag.

I am quite sure, however that I have seen the flag bug occur
with tanks carrying the flag for some seconds already, so I
guess there must be another reason.

The above scenario could be fixed by not returning the flag
to the base but dropping it at the last known position, i.e.
the position where it was last picked up. For this special
case it would even be the correct posirtion as the tank
didn't get hold of the flag before it exploded. This would
also kind of fix the other flag bug when the player carrying
the flag just quits. The flag wouldn't land at the correct
position, but this position would at most times preferrable
to the base IMHO.

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Comment By: Frank Thilo (chestal)
Date: 2002-01-01 14:47

Message:
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user_id=48940

That it was related to dropping the flag near a pyramid was
my first guess also. But I think I've seen it on the open
battlefield. In Addition, my server is a patched 1.7e3. And
by taking a quick look at the code I think that the server
would position the flag in the center of the world.

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Comment By: Dave Brosius (dbrosius)
Date: 2002-01-01 13:11

Message:
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If a tank is destroyed over a building or pyramid, and 
it's pre 1.7e4, it probably goes back to base. I'm 
guessing that the pyramid math isn't good enough, and in 
some cases, if you get destroyed very near a pyramid, it 
thinks it would land on the pyramid and thus returns to 
base. --Just a guess--

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