I thought I would create a topic where people could share their observations and ideas on unconscious and dead NPC’s falling through the mesh.
On the Official PvE server that I am playing on unconscious NPC’s will untether themselves from being tied up while a player is dragging them. I have lost 3 NPC’s on this server already and almost lost a 4th. Fortunately she regained consciousness while me and my thrall were looking for her invisible body and agro’d on the thrall. So we were able to knock her out again. Only this time I saw her fall right through the mesh.
I left the area twice and came back to the area she dove into the mesh. The 1st time obviously I didn’t see any signs of her. So maybe I didn’t go far enough away. The 2nd time I got lucky and saw only her hairdo on the ground. When I retethered her she teleported to the top of the incline from the bottom.
This also happened to me in the past with Freya. She was knocked unconscious at the mountain side where she spawns. There was no sign of her at the bottom of the incline. Again, I left and went back only to find her now where she had been knocked off the mountain. And like the thrall tonight when I tethered her she magically teleported back to the top of the mountain.
It may just be coincidence but I am beginning to think the NPC’s disappearing into the mesh has to do with a combination of when they get knocked out and where the game physics send the body. Although this doesn’t really account for the bodies that just drop to the ground in place.
If I were a Funcom programmer trying to solve this issue, this is where I would look (knockout/death point of NPC and the interaction with the physics routines). I am not a programmer though and could be very wrong/off.
Anyone else that feels the need to add feedback on the NPC mesh issue please feel free to add to this topic.
This ‘falling through the mesh’ thing has been happening since launch back in 2017.
Running out of render range or relogging usually fixes it (but not always). Used to be they’d sometimes end up at the world origin iirc where there’d be a pile of bodies.
I don’t think I’ve ever had one slip its leash if I do manage to snag them though (unless I caused it by climbing or unequipping the rope).
So I go to the mounds of the dead a lot to get Berserkers but did not build a wheel there as it has been overrun after 3.0 with huge base builders. I use one of the maprooms after I knock them out, and after transporting, it shows nothing on my tether, but the thrall is still there. I simply run to my Wheel and put them in. The issue with dead thralls disappearing into the mesh is old, and happens frequently. Running out of render distance and coming back usually resolves this issue.
I wasn’t certain that they were slipping the tether so I asked the server and got confirmation. I thought I was losing my mind and not remembering climbing something or the tether breaking.
The first few times I was confused, and thought I had lost them after using the maproom, but then I decided to just run them to the wheel and see, and sure enough, they were there. As long as you do not stop holding the chain/rope etc, I think they will stay on it.
Yes the tethered thrall sometimes goes all over the place, far in the air or through the ground, especially when jumping down or using map rooms but technically the thrall has still always been attached when I arrived at the wheel. Appears this is a different issue?
For me it got WAAAY worse than before. Honestly, before 3.0 I have never seen a KO’d thrall sink into ground, only once.
But now, if I KO a thrall and I unbound for any reason (climb up on a building to get the chest on top), it disappears. It is less than 3 meters away from me, but as soon as I turn the character away, it disappears. Multiple teleporting away and back helps only. IF it helps - a lot of times it is under the mesh, so I have to ghost under, or the NPC is there somewhere, but invisible.
Same if I drag 2 at the time. Grab one, drag 10 meters, release, go back for the other one (10 meters!), and it is not there… Run back to the released one, it is also disappeared.
I think it is different, it is present on my game since I use maprooms (years now), or capture thralls in the Volcano. Most of the time the rope stretches veeery long, but some times it seems it is curled up fully in my hands, but as soon as I interact with the WoP, the game puts the human into the wheel. So if you grabbed a thrall, NEVER put your rope away, even when it seems empty! (I learned it in the hard way at first.)
Yes. This is a different issue than the map room issue.
I thought I just didn’t remember things clearly the 1st time my unconscious NPC untethered. The second time I was certain I hadn’t climbed onto a rock or anything. I just happened to notice my tether had gone slack.
As I said earlier, I asked the server community if anyone else had this issue. Only one person responded but confirmed that they too had NPC’s become untethered. So it’s not super solid evidence but it is more than just me which seems to indicate that I am not the only one that has lost a potential thrall this way.
I really hope that Funcom figures the mesh issue out. It really sucks to lose a potential thrall. It’s like doing all the work and not getting credit for it.
This is one that is usually walking around. You can see in the photo the dead goat. I or my thrall did not kill this goat. The rocknose in question did manage to find it’s way to the surface eventually. Not like the one’s that hide in the ground though.
EDIT: In fact it was moving around under the ground at the level shown in the pic. lol
I know this area well, most likely the rocknose killed the goat, as I constantly hear them fighting.
I honestly think that a lot of issues with undermesh have to do with graphics and visual acuity.
I have noticed since the 3.0 update that the issue has compounded itself, and sometimes as I am standing by a workstation, I will slip down through the mesh a bit.
Personally, I just move on when I lose a thrall that falls thru the mesh, but I am at a hardcap of 125 and as I upgrade my thralls ( mostly to Berserkers and RHTS ) I have to kill off an older thrall, so it just does not matter as much to me.
