[Feedback] Generals jumping forward and getting intercepted

[Ra_V_en]

Believe me, I've used blocking tactic in almost each adventure and can't imagine now playing otherwise, but since its so fragile to connection stability, people should realize its their risk, nobody else.
If someone create a ticked based on that then this only proves that he somehow failed to read all the warnings about it and now want to blame someone, thats pathetic.
You can't live with losses related with the risk, then don't do it this way!

Also I can't realize what lvl 50 cap and connection lag has to do with this topic. Its about jumping general which obviously is temporary game bug and is already being resolved as stated in BB response... also not intentional which I do believe.
I'm just saying if we start a which hunt about blocking they doesn't have to be such patient in future and can resolve this for good and thats probably something nobody wants to see.

For now we need to adapt to the situation and be more careful until some solution is provided.


Btw, I've used "cheating" word tho show the irony here, I'm not gonna try to resolve is it or not in fact cheating, so please stop dragging topic there, its pointless. (google methaphor)

[Ducks-R-Us]

Many thanks to Icegirl for pointing out that workaround for the problem with the teleporting generals. I'll pass that on to our guildies via a guild message, I know one guy in particular who'll be pleased to know about it as he keeps falling foul of the problem and losing Cavs.
Sure there are advantages in the teleporting for people who have nothing better to do than spend the time working out how they can use it to their advantage, but they are in a minority as far more people either have jobs to do, aren't experienced enough, or both, so they follow the [excellent] guides that other people have produced. They are in the majority, and they are the ones who are losing out.

As far as the lag issue is concerned in general [no pun intended] I think it is appalling that it is taking BB so long to sort it out. They have been "working on it" for almost as long as I have been playing the game, which is about 9 months, and still it persists.

I do wonder if a part of the current problem though is that there have been two updates to Flash Player recently which coincided with the start of the teleporting, but I don't want to give BB an easy getout by mentioning that.

[nikovchi]

I have noticed that the general accelerates while blocking gen. is fighting. So far I haven't had a failed block, and I've played Outlaws even when very laggy. It just speeds up the whole process I remember this bug from test server about a month and a half ago, also block worked on BK. To tell you the truth I'm not sure it's a bug, maybe devs are experimenting for some future game feature.

[Tage]

The post by LostSoul913 in the thread on the US forum (linked to by Iolanthe) pretty much sums up how this bug/feature works:

it appears to me that a general starts 'jumping' like seen in sanii's videos when he is in the aggro zone of a camp currently being attacked, but not in the aggro zone of his targeted camp. in the 2nd video, 'outlaws middle leader block', the general blocking the camp on the left enters the aggro zone of the middle camp, and starts skipping ahead till he reaches the aggro zone of the camp on the left, the camp he has been sent to, at which point he starts walking normally. as such he reaches his camp long before the vet leader attack is anywhere near the left camp's aggro zone (shoulda been right on top of it when battle in left camp started).

i might've been mistaken, but it appears the general is about 2 spaces into a camp's aggro zone before he starts skipping. he then appears to skip from 1 space in between his pathing markers to the next, effectively halving his travel time accross that aggro zone. perhaps this can be used to our advantage for the time being to make some blocks possible that were previously impossible. this will make some blocks undoable, or have to be redone to adjust for timing. this of course will require some extra work to figure it all out, but if this was intended rather than being a bug, i see opportunity here

To visualise it a little further, I'll show why the block against camps 10-12 in Victor the Vicious fails in most guides.
The pathing in the images below are based on my own guide.



The first image shows the second blocking general heading for camp 11:


All guides with blocks have the first general A heading for camp 10 (left-most enemy camp in the image above),
and that block should have started to fight before the second blocking general B reaches position A above.

When general B has reached that position (or rather a few seconds after it),
he has entered the aggro zone of camp 10, and starts to jump.

However, as soon as he reaches position B, he enters the aggro zone of his own target.
After this he will stop jumping and revert back to his normal marching speed.



At the same time, fast general C, heading for the leader camp 12, is approaching the same area:


When general C reaches position A (the aggro zone of camp 10), general B heading for camp 11 is still far from his target.
Normally general B should reach camp 11 shortly before general C reaches position B above
(which is where he enters the aggro zone of camp 11).

However, general C will start jumping a few seconds after reaching position A,
and he will keep jumping all the way from there on.
His target, leader camp 12, does not have an aggro zone, and thus he will be jumping all the way till he reaches camp 12,
since he will never leave the aggro zone of camp 10.

This causes him to reach his position B long before general B has reached camp 11.
Remember, general B has reverted back to his normal marching speed at this stage,
and thus general C will be intercepted by camp 11...



FYI, I have updated my VtV guide to allow for these jumping generals...

[nikovchi]

Nice work Tage. Good thing this new feature has a reliable pattern.

[Cheetahke]

I've been playing Secluded Experiments since this morning, doing blocks on several camps. They went well until this evening. I did a block, and my second general got intercepted. I didn't see it, and I didn't get a message that the general was intercepted. So I lost a lot of elite soldiers.
Anybody has an idea why I didn't get a message of interception?

[Mystic]

Also I can't realize what lvl 50 cap and connection lag has to do with this topic. Its about jumping general which obviously is temporary game bug and is already being resolved as stated in BB response... also not intentional which I do believe.
I'm just saying if we start a which hunt about blocking they doesn't have to be such patient in future and can resolve this for good and thats probably something nobody wants to see.

We had our game being shutdown for half an day, I think that was plenty of time to put this bugfix into the live servers. And don't tell me that they can't fix small problems during an extended maintaince as they did it with the guild-lights also. I am rather surprised and unhappy at the way BB is handling bugfixes. If an issue is resolved (after testing it ofcourse) pass it on the live servers and don't keep it pending untill they feel its the right time. Whenever that is.

[Tage]

I've been playing Secluded Experiments since this morning, doing blocks on several camps. They went well until this evening. I did a block, and my second general got intercepted. I didn't see it, and I didn't get a message that the general was intercepted. So I lost a lot of elite soldiers.
Anybody has an idea why I didn't get a message of interception?

Could that be a case of your general being intecepted within friendly territory?
We had a discussion about that starting here. That post also includes a link to Driller7's similar problem in SE.

[FolquetTheGreat]

I've been playing Secluded Experiments since this morning, doing blocks on several camps. They went well until this evening. I did a block, and my second general got intercepted. I didn't see it, and I didn't get a message that the general was intercepted. So I lost a lot of elite soldiers.
Anybody has an idea why I didn't get a message of interception?

This happened to me as well, on Motherly Love. I don't know (in answer to Tage's question) whether one is close enough to 'friendly' territory to have that account for it, but the notification issue is important, imo. I was watching as well, and was neither notified by message nor could visually see the interception (it appeared that my general was in the camp he was 'supposed' to be in).

[Tage]

This happened to me as well, on Motherly Love. I don't know (in answer to Tage's question) whether one is close enough to 'friendly' territory to have that account for it, but the notification issue is important, imo. I was watching as well, and was neither notified by message nor could visually see the interception (it appeared that my general was in the camp he was 'supposed' to be in).

The lack of notification very well matches what I've seen about generals being intercepted within friendly territory.
And I've seen it myself in EotW, DP, DB plus I've heard about it in SE and probably BN.