[2.1.7] Multiplayer ends after so many deaths.

Cutmanmike · Post by **Cutmanmike** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 5:03 pm

Hard to explain. Basicly, me and a friend were playing Neodoom with the Keep weapons DMFLAG off. After dying a few times, we notice that the start inventory is being stripped, including keys and pistol (sometimes fists too). After you lose them and you respawn, Zdoom either crashes or it jumps to the console with a "No player 2 start" error message.

Keep in mind that this has happened with both Neodoom and Demon Eclipse, which both have custom starting weapons and inventory (I think).

This bug totally ruins anyone's plans for coop in large maps.

Edit: Apparently this is nothing to do with the DMFLAGs

Electronic Samurai · Post by **Electronic Samurai** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 6:27 pm

I've been getting the same problem, but with bots instead of other players. After they die ~35 times, I get booted to the console with the message "No player X start", where X is anywhere from 2-4.

This is from a clean Zdoom 2.17 game, with no wads loaded and with the default settings.

Cutmanmike · Post by **Cutmanmike** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 9:51 am

Without custom weapons?

Electronic Samurai · Post by **Electronic Samurai** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:20 pm

That's right. I made sure that nothing unusual was loaded, and all the settings were set to default.

Cutmanmike · Post by **Cutmanmike** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:45 pm

I wonder if this happens on deathmatch

Cutmanmike · Post by **Cutmanmike** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 10:20 am

Any ideas guys? Need more info? I consider this a major bug so I won't stop groveling until it's fixed!

HotWax · Post by **HotWax** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 10:50 pm

I got this crash as well, playing CTC in deathmatch mode. My game (the host) booted me to the console with the error "No Player 2 Start", and my brother's (client) game crashed with a Very Fatal Error.

Electronic Samurai · Post by **Electronic Samurai** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 7:01 am

Interesting - I noticed something else that might help you guys track down this bug.

Removing all the bots from the map with 'removebots' seems to reset the kill-limit. I was nearing the ~35 mark, so I tried 'removebots' and added them back in one by one. That game, it took ~70 combined kills for the bug to occur.

Cutmanmike · Post by **Cutmanmike** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 8:15 am

I don't think it's the kill count since it happened to me on coop.

Electronic Samurai · Post by **Electronic Samurai** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 9:37 am

The crash seems to occur at the same number of kills each game, irregardless of the number of bots, the level, or any settings applied. It might just be coincidental, but I doubt it. It's worth mentioning, in any case.

HotWax · Post by **HotWax** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 10:05 am

Meaning what? The same number of kills on that particular map or the same number of kills overall? Does one player have to reach that number of kills (frag count) or is this a combined total of all players?

The crash I experienced occured on the fourth map of CTC in a two-player game. As CTC tends to have less kills than a normal deathmatch, we never got anywhere near 35 kills on any of the maps. I suppose it could have been 35 kills over the course of all the maps, but that doesn't seem to make any sense as the game state would be completely reset between maps.

Cutmanmike · Post by **Cutmanmike** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 10:08 am

Well here's a demo of it happening. You can clearly see the "No player 4 start" at the end of the demo.

Electronic Samurai · Post by **Electronic Samurai** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 11:16 am

HotWax wrote:Meaning what? The same number of kills on that particular map or the same number of kills overall? Does one player have to reach that number of kills (frag count) or is this a combined total of all players?

The crash I experienced occured on the fourth map of CTC in a two-player game. As CTC tends to have less kills than a normal deathmatch, we never got anywhere near 35 kills on any of the maps. I suppose it could have been 35 kills over the course of all the maps, but that doesn't seem to make any sense as the game state would be completely reset between maps.

For me at least, it's a combined total for all the players on the map. However, in one test where I left player 2 (a bot) hidden in a dark corner of the map so nothing could kill him, I didn't get the crash even after nearly a hundred deaths.

More interesting things happened in another test where I left player 1 dead and spectated player 2. I didn't get a crash there either, but player 2 occasionally spawned in the player 1 spawn spot.

I don't know how any of the code works, so all I can offer is objective reports based on my observations and hope that it benefits someone else.

JL_Harkster · Post by **JL_Harkster** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 5:39 pm

Slightly off topic:

Is there a reason that, at the beginning of the demo when the bots are added, it says "Bot tried to join, but there was no Player 5 Start" and the game continues, yet when this bug fraglimit is hit, the game terminates with "No Player 4 Start"? How is having no Player 4 start a fatal error, when having no Player 5 start is not one?

HotWax · Post by **HotWax** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 6:00 pm

The first case fails because (I'm assuming -- can't watch the demo until I get off work) there're only 4 player starts in the map. Because of that, a fourth bot is never spawned and the game continues. However, when the player 4 bot (who is already in the game) tries to respawn and fails, I'm assuming ZDoom doesn't know what to do with him and a crash results.

Since a player 4 start that was there at map start should continue to be there throughout the game, there's no good reason for why this should occur.