Hello misfire bug, my old friend…

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Hello everyone,

two or three days ago, I was trying out some settings in World of Tanks and was playing the (loved by some, hated by others) Komarin map, when I became the victim of the infamous misfire bug. I am pretty sure it happened to many of you as well (at least judging by the amount of screenshots and videos with this bug).

Basically, what happens: the aiming reticle you generally see in the game is a client-side reticle and I am quite sure 99,9 percent of players use that option (before you say “not true” – consider that people who read (and comment) on FTR are the players, who know most about World of Tanks). There is an option to turn on the server aim circle – while the usual aim circle is based on what is on your client, the serverside transfers the data “what the server sees” to your client at the price of higher traffic (according to some older statement from one of the developers, this cannot be turned on en-masse, because it would cause too much issues/traffic/extra work/whatever).

Sometimes, the client aim circle is drastically different from the server aim circle and the following happens:

shot_013

shot_012

As you can see, the shot goes way beyond the boundaries of the aim circle, despite the (client) aim circle being firmly locked at the enemy target. The replay can be downloaded here (happens at 2:22 left).

This bug occurs when you quickly move your turret or hull or the aim shift changes from close object to a distant one – at least that’s the theory. A strong desynchronization occurs between the two aiming circles. I am not aware of any official Wargaming stance towards this bug (whether it actually is considered a bug at all), but this is possibly one of the most annoying bugs in the game. Technically, the game does exactly what it should – fires the round within the (server) aim circle. The fact the circle is so big however remains hidden to most players, who then see such weird effects and misfires.

I sure hope this issue gets fixed. No idea how though.

75 thoughts on “Hello misfire bug, my old friend…”

  1. This is one of my prime sources of frustration in this game. Server recticle doesn’t help either.

    • it does help, where it aims is where the shot will go.

      i always use both(there are mods) because if you only use server reticle only its hard to aim but if you use client one you cant prevent lag spikes and things like this.

      during the january lag fest sometimes the server turned the turret in one direction and the client in the other, and its something you wouldnt know if you dont have both reticles.

        • Or you can just do this! When getting out of a corner just lock the turret and unlock your turret when you got out of the corner and then aim. Its better then aiming half a second longer!

          • That works, or, as I do, you can autoaim on a target as you go round the corner, then if need be make your final adjustments and fire, works well for me :)

            • Or just use the mod and make it easier on yourself >_>

              I’m just trying to help you guys out, nothing else…

              • The thing is that the mod cant help you! You still need to aim half a second longer!

                • You have to wait no matter what. Your locking turret still takes 2/10`s of a sec from ur action, and the input time to server.

                  Turret locking doesn’t really speed anything up TBH, it just makes the Server update the position manually.

                  If you put server side on and do the locking trick youll see the reticule jumps but is still behind.

                  Server side allows me to “Lead” my target accounting for lag, so I dont have to wait.

              • Or they could just fix their game, imagine this thing happening on CoD or BF.

                • Funny that you mention BF. It’s actually a worse issue in BF4 currently because of the fast pace of the game and the functionality of the server-client interaction. In BF the game actually considers the client reticle while using a delay to reduce the benefit of lower pings which results in trade-kills that shouldn’t happen, deaths behind corners, etc. (and not to forget about the cheating factor when having things like this client side).

        • sorry, I’ve tried that version and it isn’t anywhere near as good as Killatomate’s mod http://forum.worldof…ide-crosshairs/

          Killatomate’s version gives a serverside elipse in top down arty mode that works just like the client side.

          Your version (whoever made it) has the sniper style cross dancing around the elipse and getting hung up in odd spots.

          It’s better than nothing but I’d rather have Killatomate’s version working, all I need for it is a working control_modes.pyc file updated to work with 9.0, I have one that works with 8.11.

    • You should stop snapshotting and actually wait a second or two.

  2. SS, I suffer moslty when going around the corner – peek a boo around a building, and my shells flies behind me or into the sky :P So annoying in medium tanks/lights.

    • Yup, coincidentally I had it yesterday in Ensk. Peek-a-Boo’d around a corner, gun aimed straight at the rear of a tank, shot went in the wall next to me.

      • see this Video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sie_U8MEerA

        Skip to 30 sec in then you will understand why your shot went foul ball.
        The blue target is the server aiming circle and the green the client side one.
        The server circle always does that when you poke around a corner. Unless you keep the right mouse bouton down.

  4. It can be really frustrating at times. But if you slowly move around corners you should be fine, or even just aim for half a second more, giving time to the server to sync properly.
    I don’t see any other solution server side.

  5. BTW SS, I wouldn’t call it “misfire bug”, it’s just misleading. It’s simply a lag because of how the server and clients communicate and how the reticle works. You can choose between the way it is in WOT and lots of working aimbots with 100% accuracy and 1ms reaction speed like in FPS games where everything is clientside.

  7. This is not a “bug” ; the design of the game conditions this kind of problem. It could be worse or better because it all depends on the netcode (frequency on which the statut of the client, the map and the other players is refreshed by the WG server) and the latency (ping) of YOUR client (well, your internet connection actually) and of WG’s server.

    To be more clear : when you play a battle, this battle actually takes place twice. 1 battle on the clients of the 30 people who are playing against eachother, and another one on WG server. In perfect (dream) conditions these 2 battles would take place at the exact same time, but for physical and technical reasons this isn’t possible.

    • +1
      Best explanation. And the server reticle doesn’t even look different from the client one, I don’t even notice I’m using it anymore. It just lags behind the actual gun barrel a bit, but I like to think it’s the slow gunner catching up ;)

  8. Just use server-side reticle, it is always correct. Also the difference between the clientside and serverside crosshairs can be so big, that when you do a quick 180° turn with the turret(camera), sometimes the turret rotates into the opposide direction on the server as it does on the client(can be seen with a client+server crosshair mod).

    • I killed a guy that way. my turret was facing foreward but I saw the serverreticule behind me so I thought: Why not? Took a shot and it killed him.

  9. The name is misleading, as misfire is a kind of shot that “failed to fire”. Eg you pull the trigger but nothing happens.

  10. Addendum to my comment : WG made this design choice in order to avoid mostly game-breaking cheats (like teleportations, magic bullets, noclip etc…), as nearly everything is calculated on WG server (displacements, physics, shots, angles etc…)

  11. http://i.imgur.com/7jDsBku.png

    actually this is not an aiming reticle spread issue, this is issue that shell is fired from the end of the gun (which allows unrealistic mechanics of shell spreading 60° from the gun) not from the barell (like in arma), yea i know that this is pure arcade but it annoys me anyway :)

  12. I hate this bug too. Once on Himmle I was last of my team and there was only last one of their team too, we were chasing each other around a building and this happend to me 3 times!!! in row. I lost that round and that last enemy just said “outplayed noob”. Ragequit.

    • It’s not a bug and it can’t be fixed. Oh no wait it can, if you get infinitely fast internet. Since that’s impossible turn on server-side reticle and enjoy your game.

  13. I experienced this sht many times, but sometimes it helped me – I tried to follow a quick moving LT with the turret, fired, but I thought that would go well behind the target … instead: target destroyed

  14. Just use server aim. It solves all your ghost shot issues.

    Infact, there were occasions where the server aim was ahead of the gun and was fully aimed before the turret has finished rotating. Quite useful in brawls.

  15. Server reticle is so annoying looking and it’s so slow and all that so I use the server side for the placebo effect of thinking I’m gonna hit the targets.

    • “Server reticle is so annoying looking and it’s so slow and all that so I use the server reticle”
      Wait what? You probably meant the you use the client reticle.
      In any way, server reticle isn’t any slower than the client reticle, it’s just usually a bit behind it, since it takes 60 miliseconds to transfer the data there and back. For me at least, if you’re playing with 300 ping it takes three seconds for the server reticle to catch up, but then the game is unplayable as it also takes tanks three seconds to start moving (and stop).

      • Nice try.
        1ms = 1/1000 of a second. So how could 300 ms be 3 seconds (it’s 0.3 s)? Oh, that’s right – it can’t. Get your shit straight, son.

        • yep
          We are not CYBORG,we should not notice that in 0.1 sec(100ms).

          If we can do that in 0.07 sec(70ms),we can try to avoid the bullet just like movie MATRIX.

  16. Best way is to have servercross mod that shows two reticles at the same time. Sometimes you could see wonders, like in arty mode where server cross defocuses while the client-side one stays fully aimed. And this happens often randomly for no apparent reason. This is probably the reason for shells flying-outside-of-reticle bug (the other one is the bugged westfield map).

  17. This is one of reasons why you need to play quite a lot (if you don’t have some random extraordinary ping issues) to be able to get a good feel on how server reticle works (where shells fly, if you don’t use server reticle).

  18. I think at the moment this is the most evil bug in the game. My own experience is that it occurs when you’re looking at an object very close to you, and moving for example forward, and you suddenly aim a bit farer, if you shoot instantly, it usually hits the close object. So this time, i usually wait a bit before shooting.

  19. Pretty common feature (NOT BUG!). I believe the server reticle has more delay, as it happens a lot to me and I usually have less than 30ms ping – if I’m right, this means that the server recticle should be 30ms behind yours, in reality it is sometimes even half a second or even more, which makes a huge difference.

    Enabling server reticle helps, but I never liked it, as it lags really hard. Solution is to install some mod, which enables both server and client reticle – this way you use your standard client-side reticle, but if you see the server side one aiming totally somewhere else, you wait a bit. I personally use MeltyMap’s MathMod, but others include this feature as well.

    • Exacly, not a bug but a (fking annoying and retarded, but still) feature.

      The MM with BalCalcMod are two single mods that made the real difference for me.
      Stronk shooting on invisible targets + always shooting where i actually aim <3

  20. Thing is, I never had this issues before 8.9 or something. I have been playing since the start of the server and this misfire bug has only happened since a few patches ago.

  23. Same to me yesterday, 2 times in the same game. And both I hit an ally ¬¬

  24. Yea coming from the corner sucks in this game how many times did i see this in previous patches now in this patch it’s very often and i play with my friend and he said that he see this too many times lately.
    And one day i got on himmelsdorf and was coming from the corner and i say i will shot 1-2sec later that the shell won’t go in the wall and still it goes to the wall it’s pretty annoying.

  25. SS i this is not a bug… Your turret is moving much slower than your aim reticle and if you press fire the gun will fire where the barrel is pointing at the moment, not where your reticle is. I get WoT is an arcade game, but this is completely normal.

  26. It’s not a bug… You can’t fix this because information HAS to take some time to travel from client to server and from server to client. You need to get a feel when to shoot. Im used to this and even when I’m using client reticle (I can’t stand this laggy server reticle) I don’t have situations like this. I just wait few miliseconds to be sure the server reticle catched up with client. When ping is a little higher, I just wait a litle more.

  28. Dont try to tell me that it’s not a bug again.

    1000 ms sec = 1 sec, We should not have this bug when PING is low.
    (How could I notice that in 0.1 sec(100ms)? We are not the airplane pilot or cyborg ,ok?)
    If i have internet issue,I should notice the PING status,because I could found this in 0.1 sec,right?

    Dont try to tell me that it’s not a bug again and I have this bug SO MANY TIMES after version 8.9

    • Have you ever played an FPS? Difference between 5 ms and 30 ms is noticeable and usually decides who wins. Also how about processing times? PING is a nominal value, you have another ~ 100 ms at WGs server, another 100 ms at your computer until it ends up on your screen. Now we are at what, half a second?
      Just turn on serverside reticle. Seriously why is this such an issue? It’s even implemented in game… And no this is not a bug. It’s absolutely intended. You can only have faster client reticle if the client receives more information on enemies and all, but that opens up whole lot of opportunity for cheaters.

      • The problem is “why we have less bug(or issue) before 8.9″ ?

        We have the same computer,PING value and ISP. and now you want us to enable the server reticle to solve the “new problem”?

        Maybe next time(next update!?),we need to enable some “options” to solve the “new problem” again.
        Again and again……..

  30. You can have a really good grasp of desync and packet loss when you play arty with both reticles enabled (server-side and client): while moving slowly to make your final corrections before shooting a desyncronisation occurs between client and server, and the effect can be that even if your client aiming reticle is almost fully closed, the server one blows up as if you moved violently your mouse. Luckily even the contrary can happen: fast but short movements can trick the server to separate the movement from the reticle enlargement, so even if your client reticle is fully blown, you can still shoot without missing just because the server missed the information that the movement was fast.

    I’m rather sure this is WG’s fault: I mean, both my computer (i5, GTX 670, both overclocked) and internet connection (fibre optic) are more than enough to avoid this kind of problems.

    The bottom line is: there is no solution other than modding the game.

  31. This is exactly why I ONLY use my custom server side crosshair (part of “MS” cross scripts…)

  32. Sometimes I noticed when I rotate my turret quickly, where the barrel points is NOT where the reticle is…

    …Thank you SS. Now I am aware on what kind of quirk is this

  34. As some people have explained, this is not a bug but a network problem. The server lags behind the client by an infinitesimal amount of time, but that is enough for you to misfire.

    There is nothing that WG can do to prevent this, unless they decide to change the game architecture and go with a server based solution that has its own set of problems.

  35. Really shitty to drive out from cover and make a clear shot on a target just to see the shell hit the wall you just cleared… And then getting shot in return… Seen it multiple times

  37. This bug has not bothered me at all for about a year, pretty much until 9.0.
    Now, it happens EVERY DAY.

    • yep,me too.
      I have THE SAME computer,ISP and PING value.
      I think there are some problems in WOT server,and they dont admit it.

  38. Well, sometimes (especialy when quickly moving a camera / turret around) aiming point behaves like it’s “sticking” for a short while to some objects. Of cuorse reticle becomes enermously big then… you can shoot some birds in the sky instead of your enemy :)

  39. Using server reticle since 4k battles ago. Best decision ever, I don’t get it why people are so “hurr durr servar reticle moves slo and looks behd, better suffer this glitchy client crusshair and then whine on forums hurr durr”

  41. Garbage like this happens in WOT because the game is Garbage. Can’t wait for something better to come along. This game is just a joke. Not historical not arcade it’s whatever suits them in whatever argument. Crap RNG all the time, garbage telia servers. Ping plotter shows them which servers have problems. yet nothing ever gets done. Garbage customer service. Game is a steaming pile of we all know what.

    All sizzle no steak. Fail Fail Fail.

  42. I guess it has something to do with clogged or overloaded connection at the moment. I experienced such misfires max. five times in my WoT career (3 years, 17k battles).

  43. I use server side reticle 100% of the time and I get this a lot!

    Something must be wrong!

  44. Waiting a second or two doesn’t prevent me from firing three shots into the wall next to me in widepark when aiming forward.