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puppytaste · (This post was last modified: 09-16-2020, 03:39 AM by puppytaste.)

====================
Type: 'Ghost' POBs
Bug: POB may be visible to some players but not others in the vicinity
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Yesterday my wing wan could see all 3 lab reactors while i couldn't. I even flew straight through one. He fired a cd to test and managed to get all 3 of the shields on with one shot, i saw nothing except attack messages for all three bases. Today I head that one of the 3 lab reactors had vanished for a player. Logging out and back in seems to fix it to some degree, I can also confirm that NOT ALL POB's ghost for the effected player. When I could not see the Lab Reactors for example, I could see Delta Mining Corp. where I had just disembarked from.

puppytaste · 09-16-2020, 03:38 AM,

Update: Just took a crusie through Delta. Lab Reactor HQ, Delta Mining Corp. & Scorpious Stations are all missing. Logging out/in had no effect. Seems more players then myself cant see them either.

Kazinsal · 09-16-2020, 03:53 AM,

Sometimes packet loss causes FLPACKET_CREATESOLAR packets to be missed by a client, which sucks, and is regrettably unfixable. You should be able to see those stations at the next server restart.

Retired, permanently.

puppytaste · 09-16-2020, 04:01 AM,

(09-16-2020, 03:53 AM)Kazinsal Wrote: Sometimes packet loss causes FLPACKET_CREATESOLAR packets to be missed by a client, which sucks, and is regrettably unfixable. You should be able to see those stations at the next server restart.

So was there a server crash in the last 6 hours? I was filling my base before work and came back to this. I've been playing for years and never saw this. Also, I am studying IT and majoring in Network Admin, is there no conformation of packets delivered before server relaunch? I literally had a class on that very topic this Monday so it just seems like a weird bug.

Hawksmoor · 09-16-2020, 05:23 AM,

Is this going to be an ongoing issue? this has happened before. The bases i'm taking care of need supplies, if in the future they disappear again it would be great if the bases stopped consuming supplies.

Kazinsal · 09-16-2020, 05:43 AM,

The bases aren't "disappearing". They're there, they're just not showing up to you because your client missed the packet from the server telling you that it was there. I recommend seeing if a friend or faction member can top up your base if this occurs, or keep more than 24 hours' worth of supplies on it at any given time.

I cannot fix this without completely rewriting how Freelancer and FLServer handle dynamically-generated server-side solars, and that is so entangled in the random mission system that I would sooner shave my head and move to Tibet to become a monk.

e: Freelancer is entirely UDP-based and uses DirectPlay at the session layer. It does not use the optional reliability functions of DirectPlay, which means that no, there's no packet acknowledgement or retransmission. There is also no way to force this on. I am a network engineer. Welcome to the field, reality is all about taking best practice and flaunting it openly. Our job is simply to minimize the impact wherever possible.

Retired, permanently.

puppytaste · (This post was last modified: 09-16-2020, 06:51 AM by puppytaste.)

Fair enough @Kazinsal. I'm in my first year and this is an intriguing problem I will probably be discussing in my next networking class. It is very odd still to me that this seems to be happening more often the last week or so. I've been running my POB for a month and it was there every day until the last major update. Same for the other POBs at least in Delta but it seems elsewhere too and seemingly random. I am having the same issues as players all over the world. I'm in Canada and Lab Reactors admins in England. Ive had players in Russia say they cant see the bases either. Are we really all sharing the same client? I really don't know the answer to that. Year One ^^. After my base got moved it seems to be effected by this issue every other day (or server restart). I have to contend that there is still some unknown 'bug' that got implemented with the update.

You said it had something to do with the Solars? I heard that Delta was in essance a copy/paste job from 4.87. Could that code have bugged solars? Just a thought.

:e: I just read your edit at the end of your last comment Kaz, thank you for the explanation. UDP can be very unreliable with packets.

Busy Miner · 09-16-2020, 06:24 AM,

This usually happens when you undock from a POB that has been destroyed, all other POBs are invisible till you log out and in again (or maybe launcher restart?).

St.Denis · 09-16-2020, 07:28 AM,

Having looked at the Forum POB List, I can see that there are a few Bases missing off of it.

I am unable to look for the problem as I am heading to work.

Maybe one of the other GMS will do so.

'I would like to be half as clever as some people like to believe they are'
Life is full of disappointments, it is how we handle them that helps to define us, as a person

puppytaste · (This post was last modified: 09-16-2020, 10:47 PM by puppytaste.)

They did return today at least in Delta. But the fact that they were not even visible on the POB list makes me think its something other then packet issue. Not to say that is not necessarily the issue or part of it. Kaz your making me study lol.

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