Project Jerkstop: The Final Solution

That's about the same distance from the Welcome Wench that I've seen the problem when I approach from the north, south, and west (trying to hug the stream). The one thing I haven't tried yet is elminating the group at the Wench, then fighting at the Grove.

 

OK, I've just tested this by fighting the gang right outside the defense building, then the Welcome Wench, then The Druids Grove, then All of The Exits except the north one.

I had absolutely NO "jerkstop" until I approached the Church and could see the bad guys.

I had the same "click and move a few inches" like before until you just can't move at all.

I initiated combat by having an archer do a "full attack" but the game hung at the end of her attack.

I was able to continue the battle by accessing her inventory, but that only prolonged the inevitable freeze up.

On a side note; I was facing 27 bad guys, was this plus my 5 man party to many actors on the stage?

 

Jerkstop always reminded me of when in Vanilla the party would forward at the Moathouse and the movement would terminate, but combat with the Giant Frogs didn't initiate.

 

Please keep in mind Gaear, that when I attacked the Wench first it went smoothly.

It seems to me as if something is building up and when it reaches a certain level we get jerkstop.

I wonder if there is a way to completely remove one of the large battles, (temporarily) and see if the map is doable, then add that combat back in and remove another and so on until we have removed each of the big battles.

What I mean is;
Remove the Welcome Wench battle and test.
Put the Welcome Wench battle back and remove the Druid's Grove and test.
Put the Druid's Grove back and remove the Church and test.
And so on.

This way we would know if it's a certain part of the map, or an accumulation of something else and it doesn't show itself until a certain criteria is reached.

I have a funny feeling that where the jerkstop starts has a great deal to do with which battle is first.

 

I have a theory. In all of my previous games, I lagged at the fire node a bit and the fire temple. However, this is the first time I have ever experienced Jerkstop in level 2 not in the fire temple. I have been considering what is new about this time, and I think I know.

Normally, when I play, I have 1 save file for 'Good Campaign' and another for 'Good Battle'. I would overwrite the files as appropriate. However, this time I got lazy and just kept saving entirely new files whenever I wanted to. I probably have 50+ save files. I do not know why it might matter, but to those of you who get jerkstop often do you have a few save files or tons?

The fact that jerkstop occurs later in the game, when a player would have a lot of save files, might add weight to this theory. I have no idea why the number of save files would matter, but ToEE is strange for a lot of reasons.

Edit: In fact, I have always lagged before. Now I understand what jerkstop is.

 

I am speaking of jerkstop in Homlette.

 

I must have lag then. My apologizes.

 

I probably should have given the name more thought. I was just tired of of saying "That thing where..." back when no one was paying attention.

 

Once you defined jerkstop, I no longer believe I am experiencing it. I am experiencing lag worse this play through than I have on any other play through. Just ignore my comments.

 

Help me to understand this please.

The total amount of "actors" at any given time cannot exceed 32 including the party and npc's?

When a spot opens then the game calls on the next "actor" in the que?

How does it know which one to call? Is a list of "tags" generated at the start of the battle.

Or do the que'd actors continuously attempt to enter the battle and are rejected until a spot opens?

I'm wondering if there is a chance for a never ending loop of an "actor" looking for a spot that's not open yet.

Granted this may be a mute point, but my experience is based on a different game engine, (NWN2) and it does bog down when too many "actors" are waiting.

In the past I have used an unseen virtual staging area for the game, (different engine) to call on them from in order to prevent this hit on the game's performance.

 

During the time I was playing through the Moathouse Ambush that had eight versions of everything. (8 Torukos, etc), the main problem was CTD's. The game seemed to have no problem choosing the next mob to add to the queue. (There's a pisture of the fight in the courtyard somewhere.)

I was a able to manage the size of the fight by the number of unconcious mobs I didn't coupe.

The more active mobs there were, the unstable the game was. I'm not sure if the multiple copies of the same mob was a factor or not.