When a match gets corrupted, symptoms range from not being able to throw, not dying, dying when you are still alive, not dying to the void, not dying to spikes or lava, dying when the match starts or soon after, having two bodies, having two countdowns, having a chat box displayed above another body (usually a clone body), having multiple active clones, having players in control of other players (usually the under the same color and alias only excluding their ability to chat), having a head suspended in the middle of the map with double-sided weapons, having players that consistently vibrate chaotically on un-rendered entities or ice blocks, having two maps displayed over each other, having players on different maps at the same time (usually the map each player is on is un-rendered from other players' perspectives), having parts of or an entire map fully disappearing, having a lobby room which spawns weapons, having many players not using the same account spontaneously leave at the same time, having players that never load into a match, having players not being able to chat despite chat being active, having invisible players or ghostly attacks, having the audio mute (usually for all apps outside of Stick Fight as well as itself), having more than four players in one match, and among many more, likely niche and undiscovered.

Then there's desync. Desync is one of the most common issues faced by the majority of players. If you are experiencing a high amount of desync you may notice: a higher chance or prevalence of bugs (like map disappearance), thrown objects seeming to not harm other players, thrown objects hitting you despite your hit-box not being near, others seeming to have much a longer range when fist fighting, shot by invisible bullets or being attacked by invisible fists, seemingly persistent player jittering, many instances of player teleportation, many instances of phasing through barriers or through gaps, and likely many more. Desync tends to be caused by a long list of things including but not limited to: too many characters posted in chat, too many physics entities, a general issue with Stick Fight or Steam, a relatively high geographic distance between players, a slow internet speed, an unstable internet connection, or a usage of processing power spent on nonessential apps or browsers.

When too many things go on at once, or information is mismanaged, the match can become corrupted. Note that what differentiates a "hung" game and "crashed" game is that one which is hung is "stuck" but the app doesn't quit itself whereas a crashed game usually quits itself. When someone spams the chat with too many characters, it can overload the chat buffer and can hang the game for everyone in the match. When too many players join or leave a match in quick succession, the game has to manage a ton of data, if there is too much to manage, the match may end up getting corrupted sometimes to the point of hanging. With bad connection, I assume that the computer is straining to connect with another device. When its connection is poor, the oncoming data is either too much or misplaced causing corruption and perhaps a hung match. As it would seem, this corruption does not influence the game itself, only the one match in particular. Given enough time, these bugs will build up in a match until it becomes undesirable or unplayable.

Regarding physics-caused corruption, it rarely happen but often spontaneously hang the game when they do. The pumpkin gun on the map "Halloween 10" shoots a projectile that, if it hits a corner just right, instantly hangs the game. Another physics edge case occurs with time bubbles. They can cause ice fragments, snakes, and crates (although not big or long crates) into appearing in all levels after the initial one they came from. This currently goes without explanation, some believe it's the Box God, but if you're not part of "The Box Worshippers" it's the subject of great confusion. And then there's the glue gun which makes glue beads that can stick onto basically anything. When these beads sticks onto objects, usually movable objects, it may hit a physics edge case that causes the game to hang instantly. For example, a gun was stuck onto a glue bead and was persistently pulled down by gravity. It kept trying to fall, faster and faster, but the glue held on until the game suddenly hung. It doesn't even have to be projectiles either, thrown swords and spears can cause edge case collisions between most non-ground objects. Ice fragments, although not much of an issue themselves, are the perfect angular surface for snakes, glue, and time bubbles to bug out with. Much like the aforementioned, the player hit-box is also subject, although not as prevalently, to creating as collisions that corrupt of hang the game. All I can say is that, perhaps, high velocities lead to a collision interaction that forces the game into a "multiple surfaces, one frame" kind of problem. Note that, although physics bugs tend to hang the game quickly, they can occasionally only lead to a bit of corruption instead.

If I'm correct, Vsync adjusts the fps so that it matches the refresh rate. Which at least for me, has prevented most of the desync-related symptoms. ([press esc] > Options > VSync > On)


Think of Anti-Aliasing as what blurs sharp edges to appear more smooth. This uses extra processing power that widens the desync gap. It does take some getting used to. ([press esc] > Options > Anti-Aliasing > Off)


If I'm correct, they pile on more work for the computer, meaning it takes longer for it to process incoming data, thus your desync in the game increases. Thus, closing non-essential apps would in your best interest for reducing desync and the bugs that are correlated with it.


Instead of jumping into the "Quick Match" box, jump into the "Host Match" box. There will be a lever on the left, push it over to the right. This allows random players to join, although it takes a bit. You can keep the lever situated on the left so that no random players can join and send remote play invites to friends for a private match. Moreover, you can push it right for a few players to join then left so that no one else will join, which prevents the game from corrupting from new players joining. Also, hosting a match is streamed from your device, so your ping relative to your own device is effectively 0—hence the name "host advantage" (host adv).


Since Stick Fight's data management system can be as delicate as a hair thin space elevator made of decaying balsa wood and wet tissue paper in a type 5 hurricane, too many entities (whether weapons or their projectiles) can end up corrupting a match. Thus, if one does not desire a latency-heavy match and/or bugs, and if they're the host, they may consider going into Game Options and into Weapons to click off some of the problematic weapons. The Snake Minigun, [Snake] Grenade, [Snake] Shotgun, Time Bubble, Glue Gun, Black Hole, Sword, and Spear cause issues it varying degrees.


If your friend is distant relative to your location, their ping will be quite high (on the order of about 120 - 200 ms depending). After all, ping increases with distance. If you're hosting, you effectively have 0 ping thus, host adv is only made worse with distance. So, if someone hosted in-between the two of you, and didn't interfere, neither one of you would have the host advantage, and both signals would have to travel about the same distance to the host and back, making a less one-sided fight.


If you have multiple WiFi networks, try playing with each to see which feels the best to pay on. The most fast and stable network further combats processing time and efficacy so desync and affiliated bugs tend to be reduced as well. Note that even if you use a space-grade computer and the best WiFi network in the world, you are still subject to the laws of physics, thus someone with the host adv can seem to somehow have "better internet."



More router and computer settings related stuff is listed below:
https://us.norton.com/blog/how-to/how-to-lower-ping (Windows 10 Specific)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK2PHpKI9M4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLcCbhuPrg4

See if you've accepted the Steam Subscriber Agreement (SSA), if you haven't already
It’s basically the “Yes I’m a sensible human” agreement and gives you the ability to upload content among other things (if I’m correct).

Steam Browser or Steam Overlay > Profile (click the image in the top-right corner) > Workshop Items (on the right) > View Legal Agreement (on the right) > Accept (click the green button)

Zilotron lists a few steps to potentially fix the issue if you've already accepted the SSA:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/674940/discussions/0/2798377891051773592/


If your account hasn't spent at least 5 USD, its capabilities will be limited, including not being able to publicize 3rd party content like your own.


Press 'esc' > Keybindings > Throw (left click --> (whichever key))


[more will be added here]



Generally, if SFTG is clearly having issues beyond 'desync' or 'bugs,' try/check these:
(Note that some of these may not be necessary, but it’s good to check anyway)


Steam Browser > Library > Stick Fight: The Game (right click on the bar with the game icon and name) > Properties… (on the bottom) > Local Files > Verify Integrity of Game Files
^ Making sure there’s not a problem with the game


Steam Browser > Library > Stick Fight: The Game (right click on the bar with the game icon and name) > Manage > Uninstall > Popup [Click Uninstall] > Blue Button [Click Install] > Popup [Click Next & Finish] (Wait)
This doesn’t remove achievements, playtime, or any other form of in-game progress.
^ Really making sure there's not a problem with game


'Steam' > Preferences… or Settings (depends on OS it seems) > Downloads > Library Folders > [your folder] (right click) > Repair Library Folders > Pop-up (click yes) "Steam will run a checksum against all the games in your library to ensure none of the games are corrupted/modded. Then it makes repairs to the files if possible.”
^ Making sure there's not a problem with your library


'Steam' > Preferences… or Settings (depends on OS it seems) > Downloads > Clear Downloads Cache
“This will not affect your already installed games or saved games.”
“All it does is clear [anything] you are currently downloading. Everything else is untouched.”
^ Making sure there's not a problem with the download(s)


https://landfall.se/troubleshooting



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NI6yIh1pak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgfWpGSw8pc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qCUh9x-8R8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-nu5dI5XXs (both Verify Game Files and Repair Library Folders are covered ^)

"Unfortunately some of these bugs are due to desync and low ping of the players. Stick Fight is a side project by a few devs - most making other things now. A few years ago we brought another studio on board to try and fix the desync issues, they managed to fix a few but determined that in order to fix some of them a whole rework would have to be made (essentially reworking the game from scratch) and that wasn’t really an option."
> Botten Hanna

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/674940/discussions/0/3275815186865938244/


When it comes to a game like Stick Fight, data transmission and data management are an integral part of its function. In fact, to change the data system for Stick Fight is to effectively remake Stick Fight. So most bugs and desync defects are probably here to stay. Most problems seem to be caused by Steam, the data system, or the physics engine, and while the devs have definitely tried to fix the issues, they're either too fundamental and too expensive to change. I personally think that if I made a pet project and its players told me everyday about the same issues for 4 years, that I can't change, and that I've "abandoned the game," I would send them this guide.

Sincerely,

Kaitahuri



Interested in Stick Fight and want to learn more? I have just the thing:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2821046017