Fixed Please fix this run/walk/follow bug!

Discussion in 'Resolved' started by Herf, Jun 2, 2021.

  1. Herf Augur

    This has been happening for a long time but it's maddening enough I'm finally filing a bug report.

    When I have several toons following each other (truebox environment) and the lead toon is slower than the rest, the followers will automatically toggle the 'Run' button to 'Walk', and back, rapidly. But when they zone they zone in in walk mode and do not toggle to Run when put back on follow. So every time they zone (say, in Time) I have to re-follow and reset to run on all toons.

    I believe the way this should work is this:

    - the player should control toggle'ing of the button, not the game. When I say "run" I'm saying "move as fast as you can up to but not passing in speed anyone you may be following."

    - when zoning, do not reset or otherwise change the Run/Walk button. If a toon was on Run before it should be on Run after.

    They may be other situations where run/walk auto toggles but I am not positive yet
    yepmetoo, CatsPaws, Tropi and 6 others like this.
  2. Stymie Pendragon

    "This has been happening for a long time"

    Yes it has, and it's very annoying.
    Herf likes this.
  3. Soulbanshee Augur

    Because if a character was always following on run, they would constantly be running past the leader as the leader stopped. So what they do is when you follow someone you are set to walk so you slowly accelerate as the leader starts moving. Then with sufficient velocity run is toggled on to keep up with the leader. When the leader slows down or stops, walk is toggled on so the following characters slowly decelerates behind the leader until they stop.

    Because follow is like the pull toy on a string, they can only have very rudimentary controls to make sure the following characters aren't jumping all around and getting in the way or shooting off and breaking follow. I've not had an issue where Run is off if I follow someone into a zone line. When you re-follow yeah it's going to be in walk but thats normal, the character will run when it gets fast enough. The only time I have an issue is when the leader or the follower zones without first breaking follow, then I have to turn run back on.

    Any overhaul to the system is either not likely to be able to be done, or the return is not worth all the time they would have to put into it.
  4. Cragzop Cranky Wizard


    This is not at all how the game behaves on Live servers (no idea about TLPs, but I cannot imagine two sets of code for /follow).

    Regardless of the run/walk status of a character, once that character is put on /follow to someone else, the character will toggle walk/run as needed to "keep up". It has worked that way for at least as long as I can remember and continues to work that way.

    Yes, you do have to /follow after zoning. But walk/run status does not matter for the characters using /follow.

    If your characters do not behave this way, then something is wrong with your installation/characters/etc.
    Velisaris_MS, Yinla and Skuz like this.
  5. Conq Augur

    This is exactly how my /autofollow behaves. My issue is that once they lose autofollow, they're generally left on /walk, not /run. I have to manually reset each toon to /run - every time.
    Conq
    Niskin, Stymie and Herf like this.
  6. Fenthen aka Rath

    This has been a "bug" since 1999. It will probably never be fixed.
  7. Niskin Clockwork Arguer

    It would be wonderful if when you break auto-follow, it just put you back on RUN. This is the default setting when you make a character, and would almost never be changed by anybody, so it should be what it resets back to. This would resolve 99% of the problem, with the 1% being somebody who was actually using WALK for something before they auto-followed.

    Obviously this wouldn't address the issue of zoning, but if you were following into a zone line, you probably will be following on the other side again. Then when you reach your destination you will break follow and be back on RUN. Please consider this fix if it can be done easily-ish.
    Stymie and Herf like this.
  8. Niskin Clockwork Arguer


    I just cancelled auto-follow on my alt a moment ago and literally watched the setting flip from Walk to Run. So I apologize, it already does this. I just need to stop camping without cancelling auto-follow. MIND BLOWN!
  9. Herf Augur


    How did you cancel? By moving the follower away using arrow keys, or typing the command?
  10. Niskin Clockwork Arguer


    I believe I hit one of the left or right directional keys. I will test it again when I get a chance.
  11. Thash Zoner

    In my experience it can be either way when follow is cancelled. Usually left on walk but as stated, it toggles while running and leaves off wherever.

    I've never considered it a bug, it's just something you have to check when you decide to drive an alt.

    Autofollow really needs to be taken care of. Years ago, dev excuse was that they don't want to encourage boxing. So, instead we drive people to bot. You can find them easily, they're the ones whose 'toons follow neatly around corners. At that point, they're using seq as well, and "trying" not to bot, or warp around, too obviously.

    It is absurd that zero development work goes into fixing various age old problems driving people to cheat in a most disgusting and advantageous manner.
  12. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    A very long time ago one of the former devs I chatted to was quite enamoured with boxing & was quite open to being able to control several characters from one UI on a single character.
    Obviously that never happened but with how much boxing realistically takes place I do wonder how the current team actually view it - do they really not want to support boxing at all or do they think "fixing" autofollow would be a waste of effort?

    Anyone playing this game knows how well 3rd party programs can make boxing better with a much better follow command and I would be at the back of a very long queue to suggest the staff do something similar but folllow is easily the biggest boxing annoyance right after the oddball NPC pathing of some zones / some places in zones that also affects mercenaries.

    I always wondered why none the team ever had a project to make an "official" boxing program that the company controlled, lack of support from higher ups maybe.
    Stymie and Wyre Wintermute like this.
  13. Tropi Elder

    make a social for /run set it to your forward key
  14. Herf Augur


    Right...so that's different from manually resetting boxed toons how?
  15. Tropi Elder

    alright so you mentioned truebox . so in my experience with this bug setting them to follow again they work fine , the only thing that drove me nuts is when you go to move them after being on follow they would be on walk , since your on true box I'm assuming you have to reset follow every time any way the social was for when you need to move them you don't have to think about setting them back to run
    Herf likes this.
  16. Niskin Clockwork Arguer

    The most common way that I disable auto-follow is by getting stuck on a tree, druid-ring structure, wall, rock, bridge, wizard spire, door-frame, building, or some slightly raised geometric edge. Not sure what happens in that situation. I will test if I can get it to happen again. :D
    Herf likes this.
  17. Niskin Clockwork Arguer

    The rock at the first intersection in Gorge of King Xorbb provided a good testing option, unintentionally, but still useful if one is paying attention, which I was after the 3rd or 4th time I wasn't. Anyway, yes, it does seem to reset back to RUN when you drop follow due to being out of range of who you were following.

    The main issue I run into is that I don't break follow in these ways very often, despite thinking I did. The two main ways I break follow, running into a zoneline, or gate/origin, do not reset back to RUN. To be fair, I can understand why they don't, it's just annoying.

    The primary issue is the design flaw of ever using WALK for auto-follow. Maybe it was necessary, maybe it was easier, who knows. WALK could be removed from the game completely and nobody would miss it, still not sure why it ever existed. Maybe for scary winding cliffs or something?

    I'm sure removing it would break stuff, and I don't see a good solution other than resetting to RUN anytime you enter a zone by any means. But at least we know now it can be avoided manually if needed. Not that I'm going to break follow before running into a zoneline, but I can certainly do it before gate/origin.
    Herf likes this.
  18. Meeko Developer(Code)

    This has been fixed internally. Run mode should be turned back on when the player you're following zones.
    Nniki, Skuz, Thunderkiks and 8 others like this.
  19. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    Never had much problem with the run issue on my auto follows and zoning for years so was lucky it did not affect me.

    However today they will not stay in run mode at all.

    Now it switches to walk when you get too far away. And I am getting that bug that switches it to walk when you zone.

    And what is really bad is I did not have this issue until this last week. I feel for all you players who complained about this in the past.

    EDIT: now they are flipping to walk any darn time they want to.
  20. Velisaris_MS Augur

    Since the patch, I've had a few instances where both the toon leading and the toon on follow are stopped, the leading toon gates out, and the following toon that stays behind will stay on "walk" and not switch to "run", even if they also gate out. I have to switch it to "run" in the new zone.