Author Topic: Paragon Chat minor bugs and suggestions  (Read 2920 times)

Mageman

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Paragon Chat minor bugs and suggestions
« on: August 15, 2016, 02:25:15 AM »
I found a couple of problems/annoyances in Paragon Chat while visiting the "dead world.

1) My vidiotmaps don't function. I tried re-installing the last one (I22) that I have, and still they don't work.
2) Exploring Breakout, I couldn't find the exploration badge. Either I missed it, or it's placed somewhere you can't see it (like in a wall or in the ceiling/floor).
3) In Breakout, you used to click on the ship to exit to Mercy Island. Clicking on the Arachnos Soldier and/or the ship don't teleport you to Mercy Island.
4) You can clear the "haze" from the maps, but when you leave then return to a zone, it returns. I haven't tried maps that were totally black (I think they were "hazard zones"). This is probably something you'll fix in a later patch.
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FloatingFatMan

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Re: Paragon Chat minor bugs and suggestions
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2016, 06:37:23 PM »
Paragon Chat is not a functional replacement for CoH. Almost nothing works, including badges, npc's, mapping, or 3rd party addons like Vidiotmaps. They all require a functional server, and we don't have one.

None of these items are bugs.

Codewalker

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Re: Paragon Chat minor bugs and suggestions
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2016, 07:55:04 PM »
Vidiotmaps should work, but if it comes with an installer it probably won't put the files into the right place for Paragon Chat. You'll have to manually move them to the right place. Click on the folder icon in the main PC window, then navigate into Client, then Data. Texture overrides need to go there instead of where COH is installed.

I seem to remember the badge marker in Breakout not being visible. It's probably there, just embedded in the floor. Not a bug in Paragon Chat since that's part of the map itself.

I have noticed that the fog of war doesn't save, which is a little odd because that's something that was saved clientside. It used to be saved serverside long ago, but got moved into client files under local appdata at some point, probably to save storage space on the servers. The client might not be getting the unique character ID it would normally use to identify what files to save under.

You won't find any "black map" fog in hazard zones in PC. It doesn't send the bit or command or whatever flips the map to opaque mode.

Mageman

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Re: Paragon Chat minor bugs and suggestions
« Reply #3 on: August 16, 2016, 01:19:55 AM »
Thanks for the information Codewalker. I will try moving those files to see what happens.

I have noticed that what you call "fog of war" isn't saving even in the same session. You can start in Atlas Park, run up to the monorail and go to Kings Row. Then take the monorail back to AP and the fog has returned covering everything that you uncovered earlier.

As for the marker in Breakout, I seem to recall it was visible on the floor next to the drain. I didn't see it when I looked for it, although I found the two most common - one on top of Atlas's sphere and the other next to the flag on top of city hall in AP.

After the starter areas were redesigned - removing Outbreak and Breakout - the only way to get to Breakout was through Ourboures. Before that time, you clicked on the ship to go to Mercy Island (when CoV was first released, there was only one contact - then they added a second so you would choose when you left Breakout). I forget what happened after. Maybe you could make it so clicking on the door of the ship teleports you to Mercy Island. I assume you had to do something like that to get all the other modes of transportation working.
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Mageman

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Re: Paragon Chat minor bugs and suggestions
« Reply #4 on: August 16, 2016, 01:46:02 AM »
Galaxy City ( /mapmove 29 ) bug(s):

It's not listed as Echo Galaxy City, just Galaxy City

You can take the monorail to Galaxy City (I tried it from AP and KR), but not out (the monorail doesn't even show up on the map and you can't use the monorail in GC). When you go there, you're dropped at the tunnel from Kings row (and taking that tunnel  takes you to the monorail station in Kings row). However, the tunnel from Kings Row to Galaxy City is blocked off. If you can take the tunnel to Perez Park (it drops you in the middle of PP), but the tunnel to GC from PP is also blocked off.
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Codewalker

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Re: Paragon Chat minor bugs and suggestions
« Reply #5 on: August 16, 2016, 04:44:48 AM »
I have noticed that what you call "fog of war" isn't saving even in the same session. You can start in Atlas Park, run up to the monorail and go to Kings Row. Then take the monorail back to AP and the fog has returned covering everything that you uncovered earlier.

Yeah, that's expected. The client only has a single global map state, so it resets every time you change maps. The fog is either saved/loaded to a VisitedMaps file (for static zones), or sent by the server for a mission map. Everything in Paragon Chat is a static zone, so it's up to the client to persist the fog state.

As for the marker in Breakout, I seem to recall it was visible on the floor next to the drain. I didn't see it when I looked for it, although I found the two most common - one on top of Atlas's sphere and the other next to the flag on top of city hall in AP.

I took a look and it's actually flipped upside down and embedded in the ceiling in the corner; and not visible from inside the cell. That's probably because the volume that triggers badges being awarded (a large cube) is attached to the marker, and that was the only way to keep it from overlapping the adjacent cell.

It's possible the version of Breakout from the Ouroboros flashback mission - which uses a different map - had a second copy of the marker geometry placed manually in the cell. PC uses the original from the tutorial, however.

Maybe you could make it so clicking on the door of the ship teleports you to Mercy Island. I assume you had to do something like that to get all the other modes of transportation working.

All of the direct transport links already existed in the map files; Paragon Chat just reads them and processes the instructions contained in them. I didn't manually assign each one. IIRC, the flier door never took you to Mercy; it was the pilot NPC standing next to it who teleported you there after completing the mission, similar to Coyote.

Galaxy City ( /mapmove 29 ) bug(s):

It's not listed as Echo Galaxy City, just Galaxy City

That's intentional. Galaxy City was one of the biggest roleplay spots in the game, especially for EU players. And since the primary use of a chat client that doesn't have combat or missions is RP, it made sense to restore it as a primary zone. However, there's still some known issues with it.

Also, the map that PC uses is not the Echo: Galaxy City map, it's the actual Galaxy City map. When the Echo was created, a copy was made of the zone for it. Among other things, the arena doors were disabled (you'll notice they work in Paragon Chat). The actual Galaxy City zone had its major NPCs deleted, but was otherwise left intact so that characters who had logged out there would not be trapped, unable to log in. They put in an instant teleport field so that any character who logged in to Galaxy City would be teleported to Atlas.

At some point, the teleport field broke or was removed. After that, there were several ways to get to the real Galaxy City, which was separate from the Echo.

1. Have an old character who had been parked there and not yet logged back in
2. Have an old character who had been parked in Outbreak since before the new tutorial. Complete the old tutorial and select Galaxy City as your starting zone - you would be sent to the real one, not the Echo.
3. In an SG base, the arcane teleport beacon for Galaxy City was overlooked and still pointed to the old one (the tech beacon had been changed to go to the echo). This was eventually fixed, but for quite a while this was the easiest way to get to Galaxy.
4. Use the Long Range Teleport exploit to teleport directly there using the mapmove number for it.

You can take the monorail to Galaxy City (I tried it from AP and KR), but not out (the monorail doesn't even show up on the map and you can't use the monorail in GC). When you go there, you're dropped at the tunnel from Kings row (and taking that tunnel  takes you to the monorail station in Kings row). However, the tunnel from Kings Row to Galaxy City is blocked off. If you can take the tunnel to Perez Park (it drops you in the middle of PP), but the tunnel to GC from PP is also blocked off.

All known issues due to the devs deleting the destination beacons (and the door beacon that makes the monorail work) from the Galaxy City map when they disabled it. It's on my wish list to restore those beacons, as well as the missing NPCs, from an old copy of the map in order to undo the damage, but it's deferred until there is a cleaner way to patch it in.