The HEADBUG that permanently breaks a slot

[ModaFlanker 0]

I posted this deep in some other threads but am not sure that everyone who needed to see it noticed, so I am making this thread. I also had another experience with how exactly the headbug occurs, so wanted to share the clue with developers.

THE HEADBUG

Once a slot is headbugged, ANYONE who joins in that slot for the rest of the game will spawn with the headbug. You try hitting the numpad * key and tapping left alt twice but it does not fix it.

It's a nasty bug -- not very good for a first impression for a first time player.

HOW THE HEADBUG HAS OCCURED

Case 1:

A map has JUST started, so there are NO headbugs in any slots anywhere. This is how it was easy to recognize that I had just witnessed it happening.

I drive a humvee that has filled up with players out to a nearby town.

While I am driving, someone DISCONNECTS from the game. This turns the character riding in the humvee into an AI Slot Player.

This AI slot player does not ever get out of the humvee.

We clear out the town, and then I run back to the humvee to bring it closer to the Supply Depot.

Someone joins the game in the same slot as the AI Slot player that was riding in my humvee. This person is in the middle of loading the game and has not spawned yet.

I drive the humvee over a too-steep embankment and the front end crashes so hard that it catches on fire. I notice the game saying I killed someone else (Friendly Fire) which turns out to be the person in the middle of joining the game.

Usually when you spawn you start at where the HQ started at the very start of the map. Not this time. At the very spot where the humvee has burned, the human player that was connecting suddenly appears.

He walks around awkwardly for a moment, then finally complains about having a headbug. Thats when a light goes off in my head and I realize that it has just happened.

It appears the headbug is related to the script where dead people are placed at an island between North and South Sahrani before they respawn alive again.

If there is an unexpected action while the person is dead/in the respawn timer screen, the script breaks and the headbug starts.

FURTHER CLUES:

When I joined in an already bugged AI slot on a full 32/32 player server, I decided that I would best help my team by buying AI soldiers and defending the HQ.

When I used the "Return to Formation", a long time later when I realized the soldiers were still nowhere near me, I highlighted their markers and found they were running TO THE ISLAND WHERE WE ARE HELD AT WHILE DEAD. Not to me. I had to manually tell them where on the map to go to [in order to get them closer to me again].

Another clue;

I was not headbugged at all, riding in a UH60 someone else was flying. The pilot flies too close to a palm tree and crashes into the ground. I see the destroyed helicopter animation, but since it hasn't acted as if I was dead yet, I immediately selected "Eject" to see if I could hop out alive.

As it turned out, it was lag that prevented me from knowing that I was already irreversibly dead when I selected "Eject". However, since I was able to "Eject" before I saw the respawn countdown screen, it broke the respawn script and I spawned with the headbug. I rejoined in the slot and another person joined in the slot after me and it was confirmed this headbug was permanent [until the next map].

So...

Would the Evolution headbug fix work here, or would it have to be very different in order to deal with a different situation? The clues to be found are related to the death/respawn island.

Maybe the respawn script has to be made more robust so that it can doublecheck it has the person correctly [or can run a script every time that will flush out anyone who might have just developed this bug, so that simply clicking "Respawn" would fix it].

[Rocco 0]

i think its not the "true" headbug, if it happens to you next time, try double tabbing ALT key. this fixes it for me, usually happens after switching weapons, i.e. semi, auto, grenade...

[Rumsfield 1]

=- @ July 16 2008,14:49)]i think its not the "true" headbug, if it happens to you next time, try double tabbing ALT key. this fixes it for me, usually happens after switching weapons, i.e. semi, auto, grenade...

@Rocco: I have played plenty of MP warfare and I have come upon what I believe is the "headbug" a few times. At first I thought I accidentally turned free look on, so I double tapped left alt and also tried the number pad asterisk(*) key. Neither worked so I assumed it was the infamous headbug. What's more, I sometimes play MP warfare on a LAN with my friends, and they have also gotten the headbug occasionally.

[ModaFlanker 0]

=- @ July 16 2008,20:49)]i think its not the "true" headbug, if it happens to you next time, try double tabbing ALT key. this fixes it for me, usually happens after switching weapons, i.e. semi, auto, grenade...

As I said in the first post,

Quote[/b] ]"Once a slot is headbugged, ANYONE who joins in that slot for the rest of the game will spawn with the headbug. You try hitting the numpad * key and tapping left alt twice but it does not fix it."

Its definitely a headbug that breaks when something interrupts the respawn script.

[korax 4]

Is this running with or without addons? I've noticed it in SLX but never normal addonless games. Maybe I was just lucky

[Rommel 2]

Headbug will occur when there is a desyncronisation between server/client and simultaneous involement of entering/disembarking/(dying inside) a vehicle.

Nothing to do with warfare.

[ModaFlanker 0]

Korax, I don't play with addons and have seen it happen many times in warfare.

Rommel, are you saying that you've seen this same bug in other maps that permanently break a slot? In older Evolution maps that do not have a headbux fix script, you could also fix it by going to lobby and rejoining.

That does not work with Warfare, the slot remains bugged until a new map starts.