Linkshell Member online notifications.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

False.

The only thing it will do is streamline gameplay/communication for everyone, even the people who don't see (or wanna see) the benefits now.

It's will be an incredibly high amount of additional information across the entire server, constantly. Your "streamline" would slow the game down.

[Arcon]

It's will be an incredibly high amount of additional information across the entire server, constantly. Your "streamline" would slow the game down.

Stop posting your misinformed garbage all across the forums. You clearly have no idea about anything at all.

Here's the amount of information that it will send:
- Less than a byte when logging on.
- Less than a byte when logging off.

How is that "an incredibly high amount", and what do you mean "across the entire server"? If you mean it's getting sent to everyone who is connected that's bullshit. It will (logically) only be sent to your LS. It's the same "incredibly high amount of [..] information" as sending "/" to your LS chat (a lot less even, as I've heard FFXI chat is encoded using UTF-16, where even 1 bit would be enough for this, plus a header). So that's less than what would happen if people actually said "Hi" instead.

If you wanna argue, fine, go ahead and argue, but stop making shit up to bring your point across.

[Kristal]

It's will be an incredibly high amount of additional information across the entire server, constantly. Your "streamline" would slow the game down.

Stop posting your misinformed garbage all across the forums. You clearly have no idea about anything at all.

Here's the amount of information that it will send:
- Less than a byte when logging on.
- Less than a byte when logging off.

How is that "an incredibly high amount", and what do you mean "across the entire server"? If you mean it's getting sent to everyone who is connected that's bullshit. It will (logically) only be sent to your LS. It's the same "incredibly high amount of [..] information" as sending "/" to your LS chat (a lot less even, as I've heard FFXI chat is encoded using UTF-16, where even 1 bit would be enough for this, plus a header). So that's less than what would happen if people actually said "Hi" instead.

If you wanna argue, fine, go ahead and argue, but stop making shit up to bring your point across.

The only incorrect part was 'incredibly high'. This feature would indeed be causing a server load and sending data around non-stop, because people are logging in and out non-stop. Depending on the linkshell and friendlist size, you're looking at 64+100 messages per person (at max). Each of those 164 needs to looked up and checked for online status.

Those are not going to be 1-bit or byte messages, more like 100 bytes with headers and message content.

And no, that's not a lot, but with communications being limited by the PS2, every little byte adds up. For PC it's laughable, but with PS2 this needs carefull consideration.

When servers are brought down or up, or even just a provider deciding to block FFXI for w/e reason, this could cause a cascade of messages, crashing clients or even whole servers. Unlikely to see it actually happen, but it is something to consider with a feature like this running on ancient hardware like PS2. It's barely capable of keeping up with normal gameplay as it is...

[katz]

To what advantage is this a requirement? If I leave my char logged into the game 24/7 you still wont have the information you want?

[Arcon]

The only incorrect part was 'incredibly high'. This feature would indeed be causing a server load and sending data around non-stop, because people are logging in and out non-stop. Depending on the linkshell and friendlist size, you're looking at 64+100 messages per person (at max). Each of those 164 needs to looked up and checked for online status.

Even in that absurdly large case that's still nothing.

Those are not going to be 1-bit or byte messages, more like 100 bytes with headers and message content.

What message content? All that needs to be transmitted is the name of the person and an ID for the action, which is "logon" or "logoff" or "disconnect" or whatever else they can think of. The ID would be deciphered client side. That's how everything else works.

And no, that's not a lot, but with communications being limited by the PS2, every little byte adds up. For PC it's laughable, but with PS2 this needs carefull consideration.

Here I gave an example of a common VW battle and all associated data that is transmitted constantly:

To bring the point across I'll choose a common battle scenario, a VW battle with 18 participants. The following data is transmitted constantly, often several times within a few seconds, from the server:

• The entire alliance's HP, MP and TP. That's 18x3 numerical values.
• Every characters position within a ~50' radius around you. In crowded areas that can include over 100 characters. The x, y and z coordinates are transmitted, so 25x3 numerical values (assuming 18 people in the alliance, 1 VW mob and 6 random objects around, NQ mobs or clickable targets or whatever).
• Every character's percentual HP, as a numerical value. 25x1 values.
• Every character's movement speed, as a a floating point value. 25x1 values.
• Every character's current target, as a numerical ID. 25x1 value.
• Every status effect a character receives and loses, as a numerical ID. Depends on how many status effects change, which can be pretty variable. But considering VW, where buffs and debuffs happen all the time, including buffs that give or remove several status effects, we can reasonably assume it's always more than one, in the same time as the other events described here. Hence, 19x1 values (one for the mob).
• Every action performed and attack landed. This is probably the largest portion of all of the information, but as with status effects this is also very variable and hard to approximate. So let's floor this as well to 19x1 values.

That's 242 values that have to be sent to the client. Not once, but periodically, in a hectic battle several times within only a few seconds. I don't even think once a second is an exaggeration, but it's hard to say accurately and it is also highly variable. And note that this is still quite a conservative estimate, I could easily see this number doubled.

You're saying PS2 can handle all of that, but it can't handle people saying "hello" when they log on? (Note that this would even be a lot less than saying hello, as no message will have to be sent, which is the major part of the transmission.) This is also data that is constantly transmitted to everyone in range, so 242 values sent to 18 people. Sending one single (empty) value to 30 people (which is a much more realistic number) is completely negligible compared to that.

Also, the PS2 is not limited by network traffic any more than the PC. It's only lacking in the memory and processing department.

To what advantage is this a requirement? If I leave my char logged into the game 24/7 you still wont have the information you want?

I will, because I will know that you're always online. And I will also see it if you happen to d/c, for whatever reason.

[Mokatu]

I would like this feature... it would help solve those pesky anonymous flyby rogue pearlsacks who kick innocent people.