Tractor and Zoning

[Camate]

Hello,

There have been quite a few requests in the past to make it so Tractor does not force you to change areas upon acceptance, and we are continuing to see them now, particularly for Wildskeeper Reives. Below is an update on this topic from Producer Akihiko Matsui.



Matsui here.

Sorry to keep you all waiting. This is a response in regards to the request to make it so Tractor does not involve an area change.

To start with the conclusion, it is difficult to change the specifications of core aspects.

Specifically, as a result of testing, we found multiple bugs cropping up. Additionally, the affected scope of changing these specs is large, and the problem is that it is so large that it is difficult to accurately estimate testing costs.

With that said though, we've been considering if we can make this happen by limiting the testing scope, for example making it so Tractor does not involve an area change during Wildskeeper Reives only, and we've decided to continue our discussions and testing.

As the testing volume for the August 6th version update and the end of August version update is very large, this won't be possible right away; however, we are aiming to get this done for the version update to follow.

To start out we are first exploring whether we can make what we are thinking about happen or not, so once I have some information I will be sure to make a follow-up post. Thank you.

[Karah]

Another 5 years too late fix! "Better late than never". Can't even remember the last time I was tractored... or needed to be tractored.

We're all clambering to be tractored past the rubble in sky to fight byakko guys!

(if you need to be tractored in a WKR /doinitwrong.)

[Malthar]

Hello SE,

Disclaimer: I play on XBox so I don't really know about these third-party tools, except that people should not use them.

I've heard /say /tell about a third-party tool that emulates tractor without zoning. From what I've heard on forums, they say that it changes the character's position client-side and gives the effect of tractor without zoning.

I just want to stress again that I do not advocate or encourage the use of 3-rd party tools. I play on XBox and XBox cannot use them. It is unfair for others to have an artificial advantage over my XBox play.

The reason I bring up third-party tools giving the effect of tractor without zoning is that why can't SE implement the same? How different is the code on the XBox, PC, and PS2? Could you just re-code tractor to update the character's position client-side and be done with it?

[Mokeil]

Can't even remember the last time I was tractored... or needed to be tractored.


I think the biggest reason no one really thinks to use tractor anymore is because of the "Oh, so sorry, but you 'zoned' so you're getting kicked out now!" problem. There's no telling when it will and won't work properly, so no one risks it.

Still, I find myself scratching my head a little bit on this. We've already got two systems in place that seem to allow for us to move around a zone without actually having to change areas: Abyssea Confluxes and Adoulin Waypoints. Assuming I haven't misunderstood how these two systems work, I've always wondered why their method of movement can't just be applied to Tractor, too.

[FrankReynolds]

Hello SE,

Disclaimer: I play on XBox so I don't really know about these third-party tools, except that people should not use them.

I've heard /say /tell about a third-party tool that emulates tractor without zoning. From what I've heard on forums, they say that it changes the character's position client-side and gives the effect of tractor without zoning.

I just want to stress again that I do not advocate or encourage the use of 3-rd party tools. I play on XBox and XBox cannot use them. It is unfair for others to have an artificial advantage over my XBox play.

The reason I bring up third-party tools giving the effect of tractor without zoning is that why can't SE implement the same? How different is the code on the XBox, PC, and PS2? Could you just re-code tractor to update the character's position client-side and be done with it?

this is code:

With that said though, we've been considering if we can make this happen by limiting the testing scope, for example making it so Tractor does not involve an area change during Wildskeeper Reives only, and we've decided to continue our discussions and testing.

What he really means is "we know how to do it, we just don't want to make it work like that anywhere but WKRs".

They already do it with fluxes, nyzul etc.

[Genoxd]

Hello,

There have been quite a few requests in the past to make it so Tractor does not force you to change areas upon acceptance, and we are continuing to see them now, particularly for Wildskeeper Reives. Below is an update on this topic from Producer Akihiko Matsui.

How is it that monsters have been doing this since basically forever yet when you try to add the exact same functionality to players bugs start "cropping up"?

Just change the effect of Tractor to single target draw-in...Honestly it's not that hard......How badly is FFXI coded? The private servers have a function that lets you set a players xyz position and I know there are 3rd party tools that can change a players position and allow for movement while dead. Why is it you are unable to code such a simple feature.

Honestly give me access to that section of the source code for 20min and I'll code it for you. Free of charge.
Hell you don't even have to give me the source code....Do you use LUA for spells? Just tell me the spell interface and player/class interface and I'll do it for you.

Edit: If I remember correctly isn't this function in the GM manual...? I'm fairly certain GMs can move characters even when they're dead. I've never had it done to me so maybe that forces a zone too? If not..then copy paste the code..

[Kraggy]

Can't even remember the last time I was tractored... or needed to be tractored.
Ignoring the 'need', there are still many, many times when Tractor would be very useful, but of course you can't remember the last time .. it's because every BLM was told STOP TRACTORING because of the pain it caused in, say, Besieged back in the day when you'd lose all accumulated 'credit', as one example that springs to mind due to a very painful rant from some when I did it when I was a TOAU noob.

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, we don't see Tractor now because it's broken, so no need to fix because no one uses it now .. ad nauseum.

[OmnysValefor]

Could you just make it so that raises, within these special zones, like WK reives, made you invincible and immune to agro for 15 seconds? That should be long enough for the raise-animation, move, and get somewhere safe.

I'm not asking for immunity in Delve or anywhere else, but special mass havoc battles.

[Trumpy]

or could make a new spell. have it move someone dead without the zoning and delete the old. Also I was doin some stuff in Sea and even tho it is old i was like "Sure would be neat if some of these portals i have to go thru didnt zone me" would be cool to not lose my tp and items lotted when i go through them. Was wishing there was a way to go back and change them to be more like confluxes. (also 3 min ??? repops prease)

[Umichi]

Another 5 years too late fix! "Better late than never". Can't even remember the last time I was tractored... or needed to be tractored.

We're all clambering to be tractored past the rubble in sky to fight byakko guys!

(if you need to be tractored in a WKR /doinitwrong.)

IDK about you but my group uses tractor occasionally when we traverse yorcia weald. it's useful not only travelling inbetween bivouacs but also during rieves for better resets if we wipe.

[Twille]

Tractor should never have made you zone if the first place. But what's done is done. Moving forward tho, we know it's quite possible to move players around an area without forcing them to zone, this functionality needs to be added to Tractor, not just in Reives, but server-wide.

[Demon6324236]

I wonder if now that we brought up our points on why it can be done if anything will change, probably not, they probably just didn't want to do it in the first place but thought we wouldn't like that answer so gave us a BS excuse, which we called them on. Who knows, I hope it changes for everywhere, not only a single area, it should not cause any problems, at all... We have seen it done many times, by many things, both in game & outside of it, from NMs to GMs, no reason it should not be possible to change Tractor to this...

[FrankReynolds]

I wonder if now that we brought up our points on why it can be done if anything will change, probably not, they probably just didn't want to do it in the first place but thought we wouldn't like that answer so gave us a BS excuse, which we called them on. Who knows, I hope it changes for everywhere, not only a single area, it should not cause any problems, at all... We have seen it done many times, by many things, both in game & outside of it, from NMs to GMs, no reason it should not be possible to change Tractor to this...

One of the first responses in the JP thread said something along the lines of "Third party tools already do this". I don't know who they thought they were fooling.