The Dev Thread - Answers to your Concerns and Questions. | Forums

[MSV-Vextor]

Hello everyone.

In this thread, we aim to answer any currently asked questions, as well as alleviating any concerns you might have about Far Cry 3.
This thread will get updated on a need-to-be basis. Sometimes it can be several times a day, sometimes it can take a couple of days. Just check back whenever you see an update.
It will primarily deal with questions not relating to technical issues, as we already have such threads. Though you may see such answers from time to time.
Also keep in mind that any discussion regarding the answers should take place in the correct forum.
And last, but not least; This thread will be kept locked to keep it as clean as possible.

Regards.

[MSV-Vextor]

Why are there no Vehicles in MP? Why can't we add them ourselves?

The following is an excerpt from another thread on the forums where I addressed the question of vehicles in MP. I have chosen to leave most of the original post with quotations intact, as it's a snapshot of the conversation that was going on.

*snip*

My initial thought was the unlocking of vehicles, etc would come in the guise of some paid DLC. Which I expect alot would happily pay for. Then I had to think why have you chosen to leave it out. Then I see an interview with a Dev prior to launch saying it was left out for design capabilities as it takes away the teamplay element.

This I find shocking and frankly misleading which I think for alot of people has caused a reaction of how can this be case? Why would you leave them out for teamplay reasons it does not make sense.

Not satisfied with this as the reasoning, and through my own experiences testing previously led me to believe this was a tech or a capability issue. This is the only reason I can see for not allowing vehicles in public playlists. As you say you guys are not stupid you knew this wouldnt go down well and have probably tried everything to ensure the vehicles could be in but ran out of time to sort prior to launch, I can see no other reason to not include vehicles I expect it causes stability and performance issues.

*snip*

It's a bit of a tandem issue. See, in FarCry 3, Vehicles are mainly used for transport. There are a select few ones with the 50cal mounted on it, but they are in the minority. Rook Islands in Singleplayer are huge, and vehicles were needed for transportation around the island. Most, if not all combat, took place on foot.

FarCry 3 pushes heavily for co-operation between team-mates in battle, and transport-vehicles kind of mess up that formula. So in keeping with that, the design decision was made to leave vehicles out of Multiplayer. Also: If you want a map big enough for vehicles, they are not going to be small enough to traverse on foot, leaving huge swaths of nothingness, interrupted here and there by a building or two. That might work for a game that has 64 players in one game. FarCry 3 has less. So that's another way that vehicles mess up the idea we have for MP.

Now, those design decisions is taken early on in the process. There is still a long way to go before production of the game is finished. So what happens on the technical side?
Well it's quite simple: Since vehicles aren't intended for MP, we don't have to take them into consideration when programming. We can leave out so called "edge-cases" which cause bugs IF and ONLY IF a player is in a vehicle. No need to prioritise that, we don't have the vehicles in MP anyways.

Time passes, and a number of these Vehicle+MP bugs end up in the system (I don't have an exact number on this, there is less than a lot, but more than a few). The same thing goes for AI in some instances too. And weapons? That has less to do with bugs, but more with the idea of giving you a meta-game where you level up to unlock new weapons and new attachments. That meta-game is completely ruined by including a weapon rack at the start of each level.

But let's get back on vehicles:

So release day rolls around, now you are in a bind; You can't just change your mind on vehicles in MP!
-You could allow players to add them in their maps, but the only vehicles that are there are transport vehicles apart from one or two! That screws up combat on foot.
-You COULD add a new vehicle, a slowmoving jeep or some old WW2 APC thing which doesn't move so fast across the map, and only provides a gun platform and some armor. However; There are bugs relating to vehicles in MP! That means coding, testing, patching, verification and re-evaluation of design decision. That's not done in a single weekend.

And there it is. A true catch 22.

*snip*

You just explained that if we use '' MODs '' to play custom maps with vehicles, AIs, Animals et weapons it could override the actual playlist and **** the map central.....OK i can understand this BUT please anwser the most important question we all have.....

Because MODDERS did it we now all know it's possible to do it and could be extremly cool...... will Ubisoft make a special Patch or DLC to modify the multiplayer system and unlock the editor to let us creat and play great & cool all sizes custom maps without harming the stability of the multiplayer central.

Will Ubisoft make a official patch or DLC? Yes, or No?

Will Ubisoft make a patch to allow for a sort of "Everything goes" sandbox-area of Multiplayer?

There are two types of answers to a question like this: "I Can't Tell You" and "We Might."
See, neither of those answers is what you want to hear, and I totally understand. I have been a gamer for about... 20+ years now. And during that time I have heard my fair share of vague answers, and it has annoyed me to no end.

But here is the thing; Will we make some form of server-side or client-side patch for this? I can tell you that if it was just a case of flipping a switch, we would. Why not? It makes you, the players, happy, and it would spare us and you a lot of late-night head-scratching. So do we WANT to find a reasonable way of doing this? Yes.

BUT! It's not as easy as flipping a switch, is it? As a developer/publisher you also have to be prepared for the fact, that no matter what change you want to make, someone is gonna have to make a concession. Whether it's the person setting aside the budget for production, or the people implementing it. And last, but not least; It's enough that the change isn't exactly what the public had in mind, for the whole thing to start all over again.

For now; All I can say is this: It's led to a number of internal discussions. It's not been brushed aside. We are talking about what can be done, how and if so: When.
Nothing is set in stone, and I can not make any promises what so ever. All I can tell you is that we haven't crossed our arms and said "No way.". So my answer is, annoyingly enough; "We are looking into the matter."

[MSV-Vextor]

How does spawning in Multiplayer work exactly?

Team specific nodes are used only for initial spawn.

For the duration of the match the spawning algorithm will use neutral spawns. This is how the spawning works, in a extremely simplified version:

Domination:
• Will of course always take enemy proximity and line of sight into consideration – This has highest priority.
• Will spawn you at neutral spawn locations that are at close proximity to domination nodes that you own.
• If you own more than one domination node – the algorithm will check to see which spawn is the “least defended” (meaning it checks the amount of teammates close to the owned domination nodes). After this it will spawn you close to the domination node that is in most need of defense.
• In addition the spawning algorithm is always looking to spawn you close to teammates, it’s the “final calculation” done in the spawning process.

Team deathmatch
• Will of course always take enemy proximity and line of sight into consideration – This has highest priority
• Main attractor is the teammate proximity, there are no nodes like in domination that will attract player spawn.

Transmission
• Will of course always take enemy proximity and line of sight into consideration – This has highest priority.
• Will spawn close to owned transmission nodes – If two nodes are owned the algorithm will divide the team evenly between the two owned nodes so that they get equal defense
• Chooses nodes closest to teammates of course.
• If no node is owned, you will spawn at a certain distance from a node together with teammates.

Firestorm
• Will of course always take enemy proximity and line of sight into consideration – This has highest priority.
• One set of spawns for first stage:
• Spawning close to team owned firestorm nodes – The algorithm will divide the team evenly between the two owned nodes so that they have equal defense.
• If one node is burning, players will no longer spawn at this node but only in close proximity to the yet un-ignited node.
• Chooses spawns close to teammates as usual.
• Separate set of spawn locations for radio state:
• Both teams will be forced to spawn away from the radio – will spawn in groups of teammates to attack the radio.

[MSV-Vextor]

"The Camera/Rock Bug wasn't fixed on consoles in update 1.03!"

On 2013-01-18 we released the 1.03 update for XBOX360. It had already been out on Playstation 3 for a while.
Among the fixes in that update, was a fix for an issue where a player could lose their camera and rock from their inventory.

The bug had been identified, patched, and did resolve this problem for a number of players. However; Other players soon started to report that the problem was still present for them.
Thanks to the feedback we got from the players, we could soon figure out that there were two cases which could cause the bug. We had managed to patch one of them.

Players can easily test if the patch has helped them by entering and exiting a safe house. If the camera and rock re-appears in the inventory, their 'version' of the bug has been fixed.
If this doesn't help, fear not! We have located the other issue and we are working on a fix for it, slated to be released with the next patch. We do not have an exact date for when the next patch is coming out. But it is coming!

[MSV-Vextor]

"My profile is 'restricted', I can't join any Multiplayer games!"

Some players are receiving this message when trying to join a multiplayer game. Relax: Your profile is not restricted. The error message that you see is not 'correct'.

A simplified explanation is: The game tried to find you a match to join but failed. In certain cases, it throws up this message instead of doing what it normally does (try to find you a new match).

We are aware of what is causing it, and we are working on fixing this in a future patch. For now, just back out to the multiplayer menu and try joining a match again.

[MSV-Vextor]

How does host migration work?

What makes host migration trigger? There are two reasons:

1. The host quits the game. This triggers a migration immediately.

-or-

2. The client doesn't get a response from the host for a short duration - The connection times out basically. Or something has happened to the host's connection quality, which has impacted the game (packet loss for example).
When this happens, first the "Connection to host lost" message is shown. The game has been paused for all players at this stage. The host then has some additional time to respond. Else, the migration triggers.


Why does multiple migrations sometimes happen? Again, there are two reasons:

1. Several people leaving - When one migration triggers, someone might decide to disconnect. If that person happened to be the host, another migration triggers. When players see this, usually more and more people leave the game. This can trigger several consecutive migrations. This isn't caused by the game so much as people leaving. So the best thing is to stay in the game for as long as possible.

-or-

2. If there’s only players on one team after a migration. Each client will then trigger a new migration as the session closes.

[MSV-Vextor]

What should you do when you think someone is cheating?

With consoles, you have to have an un-altered console to play online. This means that you can't easily install any cheating software for FarCry 3. So on consoles the risk for people cheating in the game goes down drastically, if not completely.

On PC, FarCry 3 uses Punkbuster to protect against cheaters.
IF you see a user you think is cheating in the game, first report that player with the in-game report functionality. Secondly, if you find a supposed cheat for the game online, report it to research@evenbalance.com

[MSV-Vextor]

Console Patch 1.04 is out!

Please see this link.

[MSV-Vextor]

A few words about cheating in FarCry 3 Multiplayer.

Hi everyone.

Over the last few weeks we have received reports about players cheating while playing FarCry 3 Multiplayer.
These reports have ranged from people who have used programs to hack their game on the PC, as well as a few instances of players using glitches in the game to gain an advantage - such as trying to make yourself invisible.

To avoid any sort of confusion, here are a few simple rules:

1. You are not allowed to change the normal behaviour of the game in Multiplayer. Any deliberate use of bugs / cheat-tools to gain an advantage over other players may lead to your account being permanently suspended. Meaning you won't be able to play your copy of the game anymore.

2. Tracking down a cheater sometimes takes an extended amount of time, sometimes it is rather quick. When a report about a cheater comes in, several key things are looked at, to establish whether the player is cheating repeatedly and/or deliberately. It sometimes takes a while to establish these things, but rest assured, if the player is cheating, they will be found out.

3. If you find a program that allows you to cheat online, please send that information to research@evenbalance.com
To report a cheater, please send an email to this mailbox: fc3cheat <at> ubisoft <dot> com. Try to include name/date/time/score in your message. It helps a lot. Do not openly talk about who you think is cheating on the boards! (Also known as "Naming and Shaming") Such posts/threads will be removed.

4. Ubisoft won't comment openly about what actions have been taken in response to a report, but know that they will be read and followed up internally.

5. The decision to ban a player from the game is final and can not be overturned.

Kind Regards.