Mercenary bug IS an MXL thing

[Captcha]

This whole topic is kind of pointless, don't you think? D2R is written with entirely new code with a 3D engine. Whatever bugs were present due to gfx or 3D limitations in d2 won't be present in d2r at all... you do realize that, don't you? Now if the issue you are describing is mod related, then that makes sense, but comparing MXL to d2r is pretty ridiculous.

But it isn't. The devs have said that they kept the old d2 code but the graphics have been redeveloped.


Your assumption that the freezing is purely a graphics issue is rather strange - I'm guessing you've never done any development work. The most likely reason for this is that when the bug occurs, it causes the engine to fail to issue commands to the merc. If it were purely a display issue there's a high chance of different symptoms, it would probably catch up at least some of the time, possibly on some hardware but not others, or the game might behave as if the merc were there even though he doesn't seem to be etc etc.

When you can go and stand next to him in a quiet place, even after taking a wp to an unpopulated area and he does nothing... under any circumstances... that's not likely to be a display issue.

I do understand what you are saying, but I also disagree because even if they kept *most* of the origin code, all the gfx code was rewritten for a 3D engine from what I understand. It may look 2d and isometric, but it is not. If the issue is not present in d2r, but is present in vanilla, then I would argue the issue is exactly this. However, I don't pay too much attention to my Merc and I have never noticed my Merc freeze in place before, so I may not he the best judge of this behavior.

Based on what you've written, I'm not sure that you do understand what I'm saying.


(1) I don't believe that it is or ever has been present in vanilla, that's what I've been saying.

(2) As I tried to explain to you, you are talking about graphics-related code but you seem unable to understand that the bug is almost certainly nothing to do with graphics code - it's about engine code (since it's about a merc DOING nothing, not APPEARING to do nothing).

[Taem]

This whole topic is kind of pointless, don't you think? D2R is written with entirely new code with a 3D engine. Whatever bugs were present due to gfx or 3D limitations in d2 won't be present in d2r at all... you do realize that, don't you? Now if the issue you are describing is mod related, then that makes sense, but comparing MXL to d2r is pretty ridiculous.

But it isn't. The devs have said that they kept the old d2 code but the graphics have been redeveloped.


Your assumption that the freezing is purely a graphics issue is rather strange - I'm guessing you've never done any development work. The most likely reason for this is that when the bug occurs, it causes the engine to fail to issue commands to the merc. If it were purely a display issue there's a high chance of different symptoms, it would probably catch up at least some of the time, possibly on some hardware but not others, or the game might behave as if the merc were there even though he doesn't seem to be etc etc.

When you can go and stand next to him in a quiet place, even after taking a wp to an unpopulated area and he does nothing... under any circumstances... that's not likely to be a display issue.

I do understand what you are saying, but I also disagree because even if they kept *most* of the origin code, all the gfx code was rewritten for a 3D engine from what I understand. It may look 2d and isometric, but it is not. If the issue is not present in d2r, but is present in vanilla, then I would argue the issue is exactly this. However, I don't pay too much attention to my Merc and I have never noticed my Merc freeze in place before, so I may not he the best judge of this behavior.

Based on what you've written, I'm not sure that you do understand what I'm saying.


(1) I don't believe that it is or ever has been present in vanilla, that's what I've been saying.

(2) As I tried to explain to you, you are talking about graphics-related code but you seem unable to understand that the bug is almost certainly nothing to do with graphics code - it's about engine code (since it's about a merc DOING nothing, not APPEARING to do nothing).

Strange. You could be right. I thought, based on the OP post, what was being discussed was when the merc disappears and is no longer fighting next to you. This is very common, but was common for me in vanilla also. As for the merc literally freezing in place, I've never seen that one before. I hope you find the cause so it can be addressed. Good luck.

[Prime_Evil]

Mercs in D2 have always been really stupid, especially A2 Mercs. Their pathfinding is really bad, just count how many times youre on Rocky Wastes and he'll just run against rock formations doing nothing else, plus some doors they just wont open and will hang back.

There used to be a very weird exploit that only worked on A2 Merc tho, you'd have to go to inner cloister, lock him behind those huge doors leading to the cathedral (he cant open those) then walk up a few screens, when he spawned near you he'd be untargetable by enemies. That's been fixed with 1.13 iirc, but it happened for a while on D2R as well before blizz kinda made mercs ok'ish in a D2R patch.

They are still pretty dumb tho.

[DontDoDotDonut]

That's been fixed with 1.13 iirc
Not sure if you mean 1.13 median xl patch, or D2. About median xl i don't have that knowdlege. But about d2, It has not been fixed, it still works in d2

[PitStains]

This whole topic is kind of pointless, don't you think? D2R is written with entirely new code with a 3D engine. Whatever bugs were present due to gfx or 3D limitations in d2 won't be present in d2r at all... you do realize that, don't you? Now if the issue you are describing is mod related, then that makes sense, but comparing MXL to d2r is pretty ridiculous.

That's 100% false. D2R is not a new engine at all. It's just a reskin, which is why it lets you flip back and forth from Remastered and Classic graphics.

[Taem]

This whole topic is kind of pointless, don't you think? D2R is written with entirely new code with a 3D engine. Whatever bugs were present due to gfx or 3D limitations in d2 won't be present in d2r at all... you do realize that, don't you? Now if the issue you are describing is mod related, then that makes sense, but comparing MXL to d2r is pretty ridiculous.

That's 100% false. D2R is not a new engine at all. It's just a reskin, which is why it lets you flip back and forth from Remastered and Classic graphics.

Then I imagine playing with sound would still freeze PCs up who experience that issue in classic. Tell me, has anyone with the problem of their PC freezing in vanilla due to sound tried it with d2r to see if their PC still freezes? If it uses the old game code, it should still freeze up, however my guess is it won't since the sound engine was redesigned for 3d audio and surround sound. But wait, wouldn't that mean d2r is more than just an overlay wrapper... Did it not occur to you that even if the old code were used, that is was edited and may infact be changed and/or bugs fixed?! Anyway, last I heard d2r was supposed to use a 3d engine, but apparently it's only a wrapper with some fancy code edits to the original source? If that is in fact true, it would be wonderful to one day see MXL on d2r!

[Kotli]

The disappearing/broken merc bug only happens when walking because if you run the merc will normally teleport to you and fixes the problem before the bug triggers and teleport ports everything to you. This is why you only really notice it in Median XL because the changes to the game make you walk a lot more than D2 and D2R do.
An other thing that makes it rarer in D2R is patch 2.3 that includes a bunch of fixes to mercs one of which a change to when they warp to the player.

BTW the act 2 invincible merc bug/exploit is an alternate version of this bug where you get the distance exactly right so instead of vanishing the merc becomes invincible instead.