Runes of Magic US / AU

TITLE:

Line of Sight checks bugged throughout game. This breaks the level 29 quest "Dangerous Mission" in Coast of Opportunity, and probably breaks or greatly interferes with other quests as well.


DESCRIPTION:

As the title indicates, line of sight checks are bugged throughout the game. This is particularly problematic with low-profile targets (such as newts for example) and in rough terrain. It is also extremely apparent and problematic in the level 29 Coast of Opportunity quest "Dangerous Mission" as indicated in the screenshot. The basic problem is that even when you can see your target perfectly well, and even if you zoom in to first-person view and can still see the target perfectly well, if there is even the slightest obstacle between your character's *feet* and the target's *feet*, then you will get the error message stating that there is an obstacle in your way. This is seriously problematic for caster classes and scouts.

In most cases it can be managed through careful positioning of your character, but it shouldn't be necessary. Line of sight checks should check from the caster's attack level (i.e. shoulder level for scouts and chest level for pretty much everyone else) compared to the target's most critical area (i.e. chest for tall creatures and back for low-profile creatures). Additionally, the target's other body parts should not interfere with the line of sight check but should be regarded as non-obstacles.

More particularly with respect to the quest "Dangerous Mission", the "Crack" target should be physically larger than the stone pillar, so that the stone pillar itself does not act as an obstacle for line of sight checks.


SERVER:

Osha


VERSION:

Every version I've played (English, US) from Chapter 3 to the current game version of 4.0.10.2522.en


SCREENSHOT:

index.php?page=Attachment&attachmentID=4418

Quoted from "MegaMouseSEC;528073"

Kinda makes you think the mobs go by a different set of rules.

This is common and typical in games like this. Not only in MMOs, but in any game with a PvE componant. To a large extent it is intended to prevent players (who generally are more intelligent than MOB AI scripts) from exploiting the line of sight system to gain an undue advantage. It is annoying at times to have MOBs break basic laws of physics in such a way, but in most cases I think it beats the alternative.

The issue with line of sight checks for PCs being so completely inaccurate, however, is not just an issue of annoyance or double-standards. It breaks aspects of the game, including the quest I mentioned.

I understand not wanting to take differences of character height into account for player characters, or even for different sized MOBs, but it shouldn't be that difficult to set the system up to use checks for player characters that are based on a standard height that is above feet level by at least a reasonable amount, such as +X height units where X is equal to the in-game scale equivalent of 1 meter. That's still low enough to be reasonable for the smallest characters, but is high enough to eliminate a large number of the line of sight issues currently present.

Of course such a change/fix would not fix the issue with the "Dangerous Mission" quest, because in that case it is an issue of an actual obstacle truly being in the way, but where there should be no obstacle. The only real way to fix that quest will be to shrink the collision bounding perimeter of the object, the stone pillar, and/or increase the bounding perimeter for the "crack" target so that the pillar itself can no longer interfere with line of sight checks for attacks made against the "crack".

So in short, this is really two bugs... first, the line of sight system that needs to be adjusted to be more functional, and second, the related issue of the broken "Dangerous Mission" quest.