Game Mechanics: Melee Range almost impossible to hit people running

[Crenshinabon]

That picture is deceiving. Dwarves are small and make the range look bigger than it is!

[mitic]

even an 100% increase wouldnt be enough since the current hitbox is almost non existant... i do even have a hard time to hit crawling mobs once they start to run. whats up with this? thought we get the blue p99 code on this server on basic mechanics? the hitbox on red is not the same as on blue right now imo

besides that lets not forget that casters have the upper hand in classic so this makes it even more "unbalanced" vs meles

[Yinikren]

I spent 35 minutes running around the entirety of butcherblock trying to kill a naked wood elf on my 8 rogue. I could not hit her reliably until she decided to go for three seperate swims (100% -67%, 100% to 55%, and 82% to dead - she regened to full twice). I could not touch her on land because the melee range is tiny and the ghosting while strafing.

[Rogean]

The reason that it seems much different is due to the way the eqlive servers processed a player moving vs the way we do. As your client moves in a direction, it sends packets every x milliseconds to the server letting it know your position as well as your heading and animation (to determine if you are running). Our server stores that every time it receives it and does all calculations based on those locations.

EQLive on the other hand has code in place to determine exactly where you "should" be based on your last update and the amount of time passed since then. Although the packets are still sent multiple times a second, that can make a difference when the server decides if you are close enough to be attacked.

This is also the reason it seems like mobs are able to outrun you or catch up to you while you are fleeing.

No emulator server has even attempted to tackle the implementation of this system, as it would require a major overhaul.

The best we can do is compensate for it. I can either statically increase the melee range, or I can make it that any client that is moving increases the range they can be attacked by by a certain percentage.

For reference, this is the combat range calculation formula from the client's point of view. I'm still figuring out the formula but I haven't spent much time on it yet.

double __cdecl get_melee_range(int a1, int a2)
{
  double result; // st7@3
  float v3; // ST04_4@7
  float v4; // ST00_4@7
  float v5; // [sp+Ch] [bp-10h]@7
  float v6; // [sp+10h] [bp-Ch]@4
  float v7; // [sp+14h] [bp-8h]@9
  float v8; // [sp+18h] [bp-4h]@4
  float v9; // [sp+18h] [bp-4h]@7
  signed int v10; // [sp+20h] [bp+4h]@5

  if ( a1 && a2 )
  {
    v8 = sub_517AF0(a1);
    v6 = sub_517AF0(a2);
    if ( dword_9B98EC == 1737909971 )
    {
      dword_9B95F0 = v10;
      if ( v10 > (signed int)((char *)sub_70435F + 4) )
        LOBYTE(dword_7738ED) = 0;
    }
    v3 = PlayerBase::GetSpriteOffsetHeight(a1);
    v4 = v3 - PlayerBase::GetSpriteOffsetHeight(a2);
    v5 = fabsf(v4);
    v9 = (v8 + v6) * 0.75;
    if ( v9 < 14.0 )
      v9 = 14.0;
    v7 = v9 + 2.0 + v5;
    if ( v7 > 75.0 )
      v7 = 75.0;
    result = v7;
  }
  else
  {
    result = 14.0;
  }
  return result;
}

[tmoneynegro]

Yea, hit boxes need to be 50-100% larger. Also, you should be able to swing at people if you're chasing them from behind and your collision box is maximum pressed up against theirs. You're not supposed to have to run in front of them.