Player-owned ships: bug list and comments

[Danth]

First, the important stuff--bugs:

Player positions do not always update properly when a ship moves--or especially when a ship crosses a chunk line. Players may appear normally, they may appear to be in the incorrect place (for example, floating in the air 10 yards off to the side of the vessel), or they might be entirely invisible. Running around the ship usually, but not always, clears this up temporarily.

When disembarking a ship, the player position may stop updating and leave the player appear to be 'frozen' in midair some distance from the ship. This can be prevented entirely if you de-summon the ship before getting off, and it can also usually be cleared up if the affected player swims around for a bit.

Crossing chunks can (and very frequently does) cause slower-loading players to wind up being dumped into the water and left behind. This can be mitigated to some extent by stopping each time a chunk line is crossed, but that's hardly a desirable situation and isn't foolproof.

Mobs (NPC's) attacking a player who is on a ship will frequently appear below the ship on the ocean floor.

(Art) Thestran Caravel does not have a sail animation--the only standard player ship missing such an animation. It's also missing the line running between the bowsprit and the top of the mast.

After operating a vessel, my character frequently (more often than not) becomes stuck in an animation loop that can best be described as an occasional bobing motion. Re-logging clears this, and I am not sure how badly it affects other players.

After crossing a chunk line with 3D sound enabled, sounds sometimes appear as though the player is submerged. Taking a swim can clear this up.

Occasionally, both the driver and passengers will cross a chunk line and suffer from a severe graphics issue best described as a black screen. Relogging or crossing another chunk line clears this. This happens occasionally on land as well, so isn't necessarily *caused* by ships, but in my experience it happens far more often onboard ship (likely due to crossing chunk lines more often, if nothing else).

Ships don't always float properly. Sometimes they appear to be sinking (too low in the water), and occasionally they fall through the water completely and wind up resting on the seabed (this happened to me several times a row in the lake around River Palace). Fully sinking can also cause immediate player death--I'm not sure how, but it killed my wife's Cleric a couple times.


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Information request--this might be working as intended, or it may be a bug: Ship speeds vary depending on *how* the player accelerates. In particular, using AUTORUN results in distinctly faster speed at full sail than merely cycling up through the speeds manually.

Comment: Ocean zones are currently locked. Is there any ETA on when they may be opened up?

Ships and sailing are among my favorite things in Vanguard. Here's to making a good thing, better.


Danth