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Wisp Cat 22 Jul @ 5:38am
Mystery of the Disappearing Mana Pickups
So... for some time now I have been noticing that mana pickups will often vanish when I run over them, without giving me any mana.

After studying this, I think I understand it:

I think there's a limit on how many mana pickups the game will allow to exist. So, when there's a lot and new pickups appear, I think that the oldest pickups vanish. This would explain why this only happens in combat and how the pickups tend to stay after combat is over.

This mechanism would almost perfect for someone like Viessa - the pickups would tend to appear right where she is fighting and the pickups disappearing from elsewhere presumably would not matter all that much.

However, for someone like Freyna, it's a very different story. A contagion Freyna with decent range would often not see mana pickups until combat is almost over.

Assuming I am correct, this might be fairly easy to fix (for example, when deleting mana pickups, instead of deleting the oldest, check the two oldest and delete the one which is furthest from the descendant).

That said... maybe I have overlooked some important aspect of this issue?

Have other people been experiencing this? If so, does my description above fit with your experiences?
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Showing 1-15 of 30 comments
Tachikoma-kun 22 Jul @ 5:47am 
Mechanics like that exist in plenty of games where you have potentially huge numbers of collectables, I don't know if they'd go for your fix though, the game is "supposed" to be based around mobility so someone like Bunny would be hindered by this fix as she needs them spaced out to keep up her speed skills.
#1
vectorViridian 22 Jul @ 5:49am 
I've noticed this too, for HP and Mana. It's quite strange. It doesn't always occur though.
#2
ChickenBalls 22 Jul @ 5:53am 
its not only mana pickups but also hp, ammo and pretty sure also gold and kupier shards.
When it comes to mana you could always use components that regenerate mana which I use for all of my skill casters
Last edited by ChickenBalls; 22 Jul @ 5:53am
#3
Wisp Cat 22 Jul @ 5:58am 
Originally posted by ChickenBalls:
its not only mana pickups but also hp, ammo and pretty sure also gold and kupier shards.
When it comes to mana you could always use components that regenerate mana which I use for all of my skill casters

Yes, mana recovery on components is almost a must have.

But I think this is just an old implementation decision which they have not revisited.

Also, I have seen kuiper shard pickups stay where the mana and health pickups have vanished. So I think it's only the recovery pickups which have this issue.
#4
RiseM 22 Jul @ 6:29am 
For people that don’t know physics, world is full of magic…
#5
Kou 22 Jul @ 7:04am 
This is very annoying in any DEF mission, don't have a time to pick up any mp&hp&ammo. Like seriously.
#6
Vatzfu 22 Jul @ 7:30am 
Originally posted by Wisp Cat:
So... for some time now I have been noticing that mana pickups will often vanish when I run over them, without giving me any mana.

After studying this, I think I understand it:

I think there's a limit on how many mana pickups the game will allow to exist. So, when there's a lot and new pickups appear, I think that the oldest pickups vanish. This would explain why this only happens in combat and how the pickups tend to stay after combat is over.

This mechanism would almost perfect for someone like Viessa - the pickups would tend to appear right where she is fighting and the pickups disappearing from elsewhere presumably would not matter all that much.

However, for someone like Freyna, it's a very different story. A contagion Freyna with decent range would often not see mana pickups until combat is almost over.

Assuming I am correct, this might be fairly easy to fix (for example, when deleting mana pickups, instead of deleting the oldest, check the two oldest and delete the one which is furthest from the descendant).

That said... maybe I have overlooked some important aspect of this issue?

Have other people been experiencing this? If so, does my description above fit with your experiences?
Freyna player here and yes, this is annoying.
As I've read in other topics, the game has a limit of how much stuff you can have on the ground before they are removed (2000 I think), and the situation gets worse if you run a full group, where that small limit will be shared, and give you 1/4 of it, making it happen way sooner. What makes this system way worse is that consumables would only "despawn" or be processed as such if a player gets close to it.
#7
Wisp Cat 22 Jul @ 9:31am 
Originally posted by Vatzfu:
What makes this system way worse is that consumables would only "despawn" or be processed as such if a player gets close to it.

It seems to me that despawning does happen when I get close.

I thought that maybe this was just because I mostly notice things happening close to me.

But if it's really that being close makes it happen then my theory about the mechanism was wrong.
#8
Vatzfu 22 Jul @ 9:35am 
Originally posted by Wisp Cat:
Originally posted by Vatzfu:
What makes this system way worse is that consumables would only "despawn" or be processed as such if a player gets close to it.

It seems to me that despawning does happen when I get close.

I thought that maybe this was just because I mostly notice things happening close to me.

But if it's really that being close makes it happen then my theory about the mechanism was wrong.
I was running a defense mission once, used Freyna and kept her in the center of the map while the dog did the looting and have I seen a huge number of mana pickups left behind... only for me to run on each of them and see that they despawn like 10 meters from me.
I wish the dogs could pick those up but leave the ammo behind, such an annoyance.
Last edited by Vatzfu; 22 Jul @ 9:35am
#9
Shaidon 22 Jul @ 12:44pm 
It can be very frustrating when a boost disappear right next to you, because the game self-cleaning mechanics, probably to improve performance.
It should at least create a despawning safe zone around your character, or at least make the cleaning delay, something configurable client side.
#10
Vatzfu 22 Jul @ 6:01pm 
Originally posted by Shaidon:
It can be very frustrating when a boost disappear right next to you, because the game self-cleaning mechanics, probably to improve performance.
It should at least create a despawning safe zone around your character, or at least make the cleaning delay, something configurable client side.
We lack info on that but I do think it has to do with performance, not only frames on your end but to reduce load on the server/channel you are playing.
#11
Wisp Cat 22 Jul @ 7:55pm 
Originally posted by Vatzfu:
Originally posted by Shaidon:
It can be very frustrating when a boost disappear right next to you, because the game self-cleaning mechanics, probably to improve performance.
It should at least create a despawning safe zone around your character, or at least make the cleaning delay, something configurable client side.
We lack info on that but I do think it has to do with performance, not only frames on your end but to reduce load on the server/channel you are playing.

What kind of load would a mana potion put on the server that the server would not already have to deal with?
#12
Fake 22 Jul @ 8:04pm 
Originally posted by Wisp Cat:
Originally posted by Vatzfu:
We lack info on that but I do think it has to do with performance, not only frames on your end but to reduce load on the server/channel you are playing.

What kind of load would a mana potion put on the server that the server would not already have to deal with?
It might not be the server. Unreal Engine 5 already puts a strain on hardware, imagine it trying to render thousands of drops while struggling with Ines and Freyna spams.
#13
Vatzfu 22 Jul @ 8:28pm 
Originally posted by Fake:
Originally posted by Wisp Cat:

What kind of load would a mana potion put on the server that the server would not already have to deal with?
It might not be the server. Unreal Engine 5 already puts a strain on hardware, imagine it trying to render thousands of drops while struggling with Ines and Freyna spams.
This plus the spawns on a 400% mission needs some horsepower to deal with, afterall there is a reason corpses disappear after a time.
Last edited by Vatzfu; 22 Jul @ 8:28pm
#14
Wisp Cat 22 Jul @ 9:24pm 
Originally posted by Vatzfu:
Originally posted by Fake:
It might not be the server. Unreal Engine 5 already puts a strain on hardware, imagine it trying to render thousands of drops while struggling with Ines and Freyna spams.
This plus the spawns on a 400% mission needs some horsepower to deal with, afterall there is a reason corpses disappear after a time.

Sure, client side load can be a real issue.

But this implementation - where the pickups stay on screen until you get close enough to pick them up where they vanish (like they already would have, for a normal pickup), without giving you their benefit... well...

I do not think this current implementation meaningfully reduces client load.
#15
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Date Posted: 22 Jul @ 5:38am
Posts: 30

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