Jeff, what I know definitely about the autocannon bug, as I call it:
- It doesn't happen in common local singleplayer, thus can't be connected to any tweaking of vehicles for AI.
So it looks like we're talking about an issue with FH2 in general, not with the Coop patch. I never play local singleplayer and I never play PvP (what you folks call 'multiplayer'), but that seems to be the consensus. Do you know if the main FH2 devs are aware of this issue? Do they agree that it's an issue with the mod in general? Are they working on a fix? Should I report this elsewhere in these forums?
- I know about this bug from my personal experience and reports by Djinn, Ksl and DJ Barney. In all these cases it was a dedicated coop server running on the same PC with the game client.
I can only draw on personal experience, which as I said is limited to a completely separate dedicated server. But I think it's safe to rule out 'client and server on same PC' as a factor in this.
- As comrade Korsakov said above, it happens in multiplayer too. TBH, personally I have only vague memories regarding that - maybe I've seen the bug in multiplayer, maybe not.
If it happens in 'multiplayer' as well, there's one more thing we can rule out: that it has anything to do with bots/AI. Again, this makes it look even more like it's a mod-wide issue. But I have a lot of trouble believing this happens in 'multiplayer', for one simple reason: in 'multiplayer', there are no bots. That means any 'autocannon' that occurs is being initiated by a human. In which case: how are they doing it? Holding down the fire button? Has anyone who has observed this on a 'multiplayer' server ever initiated it?
- Yes, only one of the shots actually bites.
Which helps, in the sense that the bots doing this don't gain any actual advantage. Still, it is distracting. Also, oddly awesome. But not at all realistic, which is kinda the point.
In other words, I don't know what can probably cause the bug and have to resort to blaming server setups, network issues or an unknown trait of BF2 dedicated server engine.
I suppose it's possible that server setup is involved. The only way to rule that out would be to compare setups between servers that have this issue and those that don't. Network issues may also be involved, but I don't think so: network issues would tend to manifest themselves in other ways as well, and I'm just not seeing that. As for it being an issue with the BF2 game engine: I very much doubt that; I've played tons of classic BF2 and never saw anything like this.
I think this is going to turn out to be a data problem with certain weapons in FH2. Then again, if these weapons aren't *actually* firing multiple times, and they only *appear* to be firing multiple times, then it could even be a problem at the client end. I'm going to start asking other players if they're seeing the same autocannon effects that I'm seeing, when I see them.
As for the ticket ratio: I was previously running the server at ratio 175, but was finding the rounds too long. I recently dropped it to 100 as a test, and I'm finding that the round lengths are much better...
Oh yeah, I forgot that a lot of maps still have outdated ticket bleeds. But at least on so called rebuilt maps the round should end quickly after the final objectives are taken.
Right. So far it's kind of a mixed bag. I may just tweak individual maps as I encounter ones that are too short. Meanwhile, it seems mostly fine at 100%.