Delay in Item Condition Updating

[MistahYebba 68]

I'll try to make this as technically jargon-less as possible, so that those of you who are only casual gamers can also understand and add your own input.

 

The only reason I'm posting this is because I used to be a coder, and I believe the information I've compiled will greatly help the developers in knocking this issue out of the water, and also because I believe that fixing this issue will make for a better engine foundation altogether. So here we go.

 

Many of you wonder why when you spray-paint a gun (for example), it moves it to a different quick-slot and grays itself out on the one you previously had set. 

 

This is because to the game engine, every item is seen as a number which is located within another number (either specific 3D coordinates; or inside of a container (which is also a number). 

 

In other words... (the numbers used below are for examples only and do not represent the actual item IDs in the game.)

 

Item#441 (Green Spray-Paint Can) is located at X555 Y123 Z1 (to the game engine).

 

Your character is constantly changing coordinates when you move, so at one point, you could be at X545 Y123 Z1; let's just say 10 steps later you're at the exact location of the spray paint can, X555 Y123 Z656. (notice how the numbers for Y and Z never changed, that's because you're only moving along the X axis. Y is represting North and South, so you must have run in a straight line for it to not change. Z in this case would be representing height. Maybe Z15 would represent the second floor of a building. Remember, JUST EXAMPLE.

 

On your character you have the following:

 

Head Item#1114 (Santa Hat)

Gloves Item#32 (Black Working Gloves)

Weapon Item#41 (Mosin)

 

See the pattern? All the engine knows is that you're wearing numbered items and it knows where on your body to put those items because that's what the coders told the engine to do.

 

When you walk up to that spray-paint can and drag it on to your Mosin, this is probably pretty close to what the engine sees:

 

PlayerID#MistahYebba combine Item#441 with Item#41 

Item #41 become Item#42

Auto-Equip PlayerID#MistahYebba with Item#42 in slot "PrimaryWeapon"

Auto-Place Item#42 on next available quick-slot.

 

So pretend you had your Mosin originally set on the first quick-slot, so when you hit 1 on your keyboard (by default), you'd pull out your Mosin.

Well here's the thing.. When you hit, it would tell the game to take out Item#41. You don't have that item anymore. 

 

Item#41 is the brown, default Mosin. Item#42 is the green, spray-painted Mosin. When you hit 1 on your keyboard to pull out Item#41, nothing happens because it's not there anymore. (Hence why it becomes grayed out).

 

So now you've got an idea of how Item IDs work.. let me try to explain the REAL issue here.

 

When you use a repair kit, for example a Weapon Cleaning Kit of Sewing Kit (the only two in the game so far..), I've noticed a problem with this whole Item ID system.

 

Just like every other item in the game, sewing kits (both kinds) have item IDs. I believe that after 2 uses (it could be random), a sewing kit degrades to the next level.

 

Let's say I'm wearing a DAMAGED Red Down Jacket. I use a PRISTINE Sewing Kit on it (which is located inside of my Red Down Jacket). Let's say I use it a single time.

"You have successfully mended Red Down Jacket"

 

You look and notice that nothing has changed, right? This is the bug.. and I think I've solved it.

 

Many of you will simply use the sewing kit another time and realize "Oh wow, I guess it just requires 2 patches!" WRONG.

 

Here's what's happening. The second time you use it is actually the time that degrades your sewing kit. It's your sewing kit degrading that is actually UPDATING (refreshing) your inventory.

 

How do I explain this..

 

Okay... I believe that actions such as sewing up clothes are CLIENT side.. In other words, when you sew your Red Down Jacket, it NEVER contacts the server about it. It just does it. 

 

but when your sewing kit degrades, it DOES contact the server and cause it to "update" your inventory to kind of refresh what you're seeing.

 

So the first time you used your sewing kit on your Red Down Jacket, it actually DID fix it, but it never contacted the server to "refresh" your inventory and show you the newly-fixed Red Down Jacket. You're still seeing the old one. How do you fix this?? All you've got to do is do something that contacts the server! Move an item in your inventory to another slot! Eat some food! You need to do anything that contacts the server and requests an updated version of your inventory. 

 

The same thing happens when you take fall damage for example. Everything in your pants should become damaged when you take significant fall damage.

 

In the current state of the game, however, I've noticed that the item condition of your pants and stuff inside doesn't update until you send a server request, basically.

 

Okay, I feel like I didn't explain it as good as I've wanted to... but hopefully someone with a better choice of words can read this thoroughly and give some feedback.

 

P.S. If you're suffering from hypothermia, eating/drinking food is instantaneous.