Hello Development, since you are all keen to make improvements on the game and fix stuff that has been broken for 20 years could you please consider rewriting the auto follow algorithm? I believe there were some improvements made but it is still terrible watching toons run in circles around and around. Thanks, The remaining Everquest population
It isnt too bad, but the feedback loop is tied to your frame rate, so if you drop frames it will become unstable. If anything, the best enhancement would be to let auto follow pitch up or down to look up or down at the leader when while levitating or swimming so the z axis is tracked.
There are many of us who do not have an issue with auto follow. Quite a stretch to call it "The remaining Everquest population" Since I got my SSD and split EQ and Windows my guys don't run in circles. Also there are ways to use AF which will enhance the procedure. Yeah the climbing hills and all that could be better but that's why I made the little pocket mage (coh ya know).
id rather they just remove autofollow all together. would solve alot of the massive boxing problem if people had to actually move all their characters individually. of course then youd have to actually police the amount of people that use outside programs to stick their characters together~
It should be fixed. But it's a very low priority to fix something that can be worked around. I would love to see AF be improved. But I do not believe we'll ever see it happen.
Not sure if you only play one or two toons but when you stack on more than 3 and are on a TLP server not using 3rd party software the autofollow is pretty terrible. Even on higher end PC's with great framerate its awesome watching them just run in a circle lol. Every single machine I own runs on a NVME or traditional SSD so it makes no difference. Any elevation change causes issues typically and so does more than 3 toons as I stated above.
But sure if you play on live and use 3rd party software not to name any names they have multiple variations of follow that have 0 issues.
This issue has been in the issue tracker for a cpl years vote it up and they will look at it. more votes it gets the sooner it will get done https://dgcissuetracker.com/browse/EQ-1691?jql=project = EQ AND issuetype = Improvement AND text ~ "auto follow" while ur at it vote for this too https://dgcissuetracker.com/projects/EQ/issues/EQ-2316?filter=allopenissues would make Gina alot nicer and other parsers
It's definitely way better than it used to be but, as others have mentioned, a few flaws remain: Characters running in circles, seemingly unable to find the character they are following. This happens most often on my low-powered laptop so framerate and/or CPU seem to be a factor. Characters still get stuck behind geometry WAY too often. Dumb stuff, too, like the little supports in hallways (Anquish stairs as an example). Less annoying but still real: With Selo's on, when the lead character stops, the following characters often run past and then turn around. These are exacerbated by having Selo's song or AA on the group (which I almost always do).
None of the people with the armies are using /follow. They are using other methods to stick their characters to the driver. Removing /follow would just piss normal players off
That is utterly false. It's ignorant to think any boxer must be cheating. I true box six and rely on /follow. It's almost an art trying to get that crappy system to do what you want. It's great when half your guys fall in water or lava. Removing it would make me quit, though. So, they're not wrong that it would affect some boxers.
I run 4 with zero issue on a TLP and two are on platter disks and one is a surface pro. I don’t know why you brought this up as only being a TLP issue though. Like the software client and zones are different from live in some way.
like i said, if DBG then actually policed the servers, it would be glaringly obvious who was using cheat programs if they removed autofollow, as the only way to get your characters to follow each other around would be by using these cheat programs as someone who boxes 2 to 3 characters at times, id gladly give up autofollow IF they then actually did something against the people cheating.
I do not play on the TLP servers. I would have to play more than one toon to use auto follow. "Not sure if you only play one" This is on live with 3 or 4 characters depending on what I am doing. No special programs just logical application of the limits of the game. I don't expect it to do more than it can. One thing that affects the circle issue is the speed people try to go with AF. If you slow down you will have less of that. Please don't assume or infer/accuse someone of using 3rd party programs because they are better at something than others. There is a difference in 50 mages camping a spot and knowing how to auto follow. After all if Suineg and I can do it so can others.
Typically a lot of customers on the Live servers do use 3rd party software or other variations that include their own follow algo's yes. Does that claim say that you or Suineg do? No it does not there may be the randoms that do not but that is irrelevant based off the topic of this conversation and the point I was making. I can literally run around live with some recording software to prove this but would only validate what I already know from my experience on live. Back to the point of this. I shall provide an example which has 0 to do with the run speed of my character because I took off all of his run speed for this test and I shall provide a basis of my FPS at the time of this test since the topic has referenced FPS playing a part several times. I am sitting in plane of tranquility based off my current FPS from my video card's software I am at 119fps and I simply type this /follow with my target selected once I do this mind you my fps are pretty high my toon then proceeds to run in a circle around and around moving outward from my target not inward (now mind you I deliberately turned the character away from my target so it is facing the opposite direction for this test and sometimes it will face my target and go directly to them but not in this instance it did not). This is an example of this feature not working properly as it could and should have faced the direction of the character targeted and proceeded straight to that character (not run around and around trying to find the character). Please address this? Sure I have seen weird behavior when using Selo's etc and running fast but an overall improvement would be appreciated for this feature that has been offered since I can remember. I am not the only one looking for this and its long overdue. Also make it follow elevation changes when using levitate etc.
Yea I know what you mean with that run in circle thing, and you are forced to mouse look towards your target to kill the loop.
Maybe they should use that /stick cheat from those programs that I see in videos people using to keep their boxes organized on the move.
It should be embarrassing that 3rd party software has done autofollow better than the "real" version for 15+ years. Edit -- especially since the software is open source and easily copied!
