Revert to V7

[Skilly]

I would like to propose a suggestion, which is reverting the code base/game to V7.

V7 had perfectly working code, and has lasted for years.
V8 has had its issues for about 1.5 year now, and it's starting to get really annoying, especially now with all the FPS issues and crashes (which quite literally, make it unplayable).

All that it would take to revert to V7 would be the following:
-> Refund coins for reg. donation items that have been purchased.
-> Add the new luckybox items, and cosmetics.
-> Disable/modify V7 room tags to work like on V8.
-> Port over the GUI/interface

The way I see FGunZ right now (and I imagine many other people do as well), is that with each update it is getting more and more broken. I understand that there is a lack of developers working on the source, which is why I think that putting aside this trial & error cycle of trying to fix the broken code would be pretty beneficial; you could start a new project, grabbing a copy of the V7 source, and working it up to be compatible with the current server (which honestly wouldn't take that long, and wouldn't give nowhere near as much of a headache as trying to fix the current broken stuff (which let's be honest, is basically everything at this point in time)).

The biggest issue in all this is that you have access to perfectly working code (V7) - that you could literally copy and paste over - but continously manage to break more and more things.
I deeply care for FG, and it is the only server I ever stuck to, but these issues are getting old now...

[Paragon]

Honestly, can't relate. Still average ~700 dmg/round in TDMs with no issues.

[McSic]

V7 was far from perfectly working code and so broken, a lot of broken code. Oh I remember people complained much, about Anti-Lead too.

[Skilly]

V7 was far from perfectly working code and so broken, a lot of broken code. Oh I remember people complained much, about Anti-Lead too.

Yeah, but not at such scale.
Point is that you would have a much better base to improve on.
Whatever way you guys fix these issues, I'll be happy.
Just giving you an alternative path in doing so

[McSic]

Errrr no. Exactly at such scale. V7 is not a good base. It was no good base. V7 is not even a base at all. A lot of issues were fixed from V7 to V8. There's issues left from V7 which we still have to deal with even now.
Anyhow near the end of V7 the player count would average to about the same as it is now (maybe just a little bit higher) but one cannot ignore that the GunZ scene has gotten much smaller over the years, the same happens with all games, it's an unstoppable trend.

Going back to V7 is not an option and wouldn't do anything for the game. It would be much better to actually start with a good base with clean code.

[Skilly]

Maybe the backend code wasn't as clean in V7 as in V8, but speaking from a players POV, gameplay felt a lot more consistent, and that's shown by the fact of how long V7 lasted and how well it did.
I understand why you might not want to switch back to an older version of the client though.

[McSic]

Can't ignore that V7 didnt have a damage counter on screen so if the anti-lead was off/no damage you wouldn't instantly notice it like you do now. I think that's a big difference. And people still complained about Anti-Lead in V7, that's why S1lent rewrote it from scratch. I hear players actually say that FGunZ gameplay always felt a little bit different, for V7 and V8. I don't think that's a new thing.

I can't reproduce the crashes / delay / lag / game stutter some people are complaining about, so I don't really know what's up with that yet, but it could be the added protection. But you see, we need the protection as lately there were a lot more hackers/hacks coming up. Gonna fix the delay / lag / crashes once Anti-Lead is fixed tho.

[Skilly]

Perhaps compare the current server with older commits to see if anything pops up.

I know that the reflection effect option causes FPS drops and makes the game very unstable at times in maps like garden, but I don't know if that has been fixed with the most recent patch.

I know debugging issues like these is a pain, perhaps have an option to make the client print out some useful things, like memory usage and CPU usage, that could give a good idea of what the issue might be. I don't know what the developer client prints out, as I haven't tried it, but maybe port that into the live client too?

[McSic]

As I said I think (actually: I'm very sure now) it's the added protection. I will fix it once Anti-Lead is fixed.

[Skilly]

Great to hear.
Your dedication and work is appreciated :]