Improve HS weird player detection when cast

Hey!

I've recently seem to struggle to apply HS while actively playing in a party in GS2, at first I thought it was solely a range issue, but even when standing on top of them, it seems to sometimes not apply.

From looking into it a little bit, it seems these cases can cause HS to miss even if within the expected range:

• Recent teleporting of the caster or the party member.

It seems that if teleporting and casting, it sometimes applies at your previous location, or only where you are. This doesn't only apply when casting Mage's Teleport, but also using map teleporters.

• Slight elevation difference between party member and caster.

This is mostly noticeable when a player is knocked up, as even that slight elevation can randomly cause it not to hit. Still standing elevation differences seems to affect this less, such as stair cases. The case of still standing elevation could be more related to teleportation or actual range, however it is fairly consistently failing to hit players who have been knocked back(even if very close).

I want to emphasize that I do not think Holy Symbol NEEDS to be buffed in any way, and these QOL is very clear buffs. However I find the frustration of it warrant at least a thought. I know there has been a similar suggestion before (https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/slight-increase-to-holy-symbol-range.23876/), however this only addresses range, and while the range is annoying, it isn't my issue with the skill in this case, as the range should be sufficient to hit in these cases.

I won't go in depth of my opinion on bishops(and priests), but this type of suggestion would normally go against what I think the class needs, but I hope that perhaps an overhaul should be considered eventually for it, and hopefully a change like this could fit into the class then.

 

Right, I can see Lag playing a major part when it comes to teleporting.
Although, I find it weird that I can cast two skills in order, and they return to the server in another order so consistently(I get that the protocol doesn't care about sequence). Not that it doesn't change the point in this case, and I understand it isn't something that can be improved.

However, it still doesn't quite address the hitbox when knocked into the air, which I know is an issue for other things as well, but it shouldn't be related to lag. I'm unsure if this is even something that can be changed, although it is an issue with several abilities, and might be worth looking into.

 

All good guesses, client side vs server side as well as queues could add up to different orders. My guess is probably some combination of UDP and several queues causing some actions to happen before others, as well as some client side vs server side stuff. I could imagine it is just that your server side coordination is before you teleported, and the location it uses for HS is cast based on the exact time, but it hasn't "recorded" your new location, so it applies the HS based on your coordinate at the previous time. I doubt it is directly a race condition in the code, where technically the coordinate is updated but the function that is called to cast HS has an old copy of the coordinates, as it would require some extremely slow code to matter more than once in a hundred casts. It is probably just "lag", or alike to that.

Now when it comes to the elevation issue, it seems a bit weird because if someone is slightly elevated but standing still, it usually hits. However, if knocked up it often misses. I would assume this is some issue of unable to accurately calculate their position for the cast, however I am far from knowledgeable about Maplestory's(and their private servers) code for calculating these things. I believe it has a chunk of stuff being calculated on client side and then synced up to the server to save processing power, as you can from client dictate a lot of behavior of things that normally they shouldn't, so I wonder if this plays into this.

 

I'll see if I get a recording of it next time I am grinding with someone. I do understand not every skill would benefit from a change either.