Updated below with a statement from Amazon on November 1, 2021
New World has had a bit of a rough go of it over the past several weeks since launch. Whether it was extensive server queues, executing HTML code from the chat window, or a broken auction house, Amazon has been adamant that for every issue, there will be a fix. In a recent forum post, New World community manager Luxendra addressed how the Server/Client authority works, to clear up perceptions of a recent issue players experienced.
According to community manager Luxendra, the player invulnerability bug that some players experienced earlier this month was due to a client/server authority issue, where a weapon effect that allows for brief invulnerability could be extended by making the client unresponsive. Here is an excerpt from the forum post, explaining the bug in its entirety:
“We did have a bug, in which given certain circumstances we were waiting server side on input from a client before processing through to outcomes. Combined with an intentional weapon effect that allows for brief invulnerability, this created a situation where players could reach an invulnerable state and prolong it by making the client unresponsive, even though the client has no say in damage (both damage the player creates and damage taken by the player are computed server side based on the results of physics simulation plus game rules). This was a particularly bad bug given our server based simulation, and we apologize for that.”
– Luxendra, Community Manager, New World
Luxendra goes on to say that there are other bugs listed on their to do list, dealing with rate limiting, and action control which addresses the stability of framerates during a battle. Essentially, the purpose of the post is to lay to rest fears that somehow the game clients are making the decisions in game. Essentially, if a player experiences a visual freeze, that would be entirely client-side as the game would continue on the server side. The post was meant to lay to rest any contrary thoughts that somehow the clients are responsible for what happens in game, like physics and game rules. Despite a generally positive early reception from critics, New World still has a long way to go to fix bugs and make the game viable for an extensive long-term experience.
UPDATE: We received the following statement from Amazon, confirming the bug has been fixed and damage is calculated serverside:
New World is not client authoritative - from a simulation standpoint New World is entirely server based. At a high level the model is this: clients dispatch controller inputs to the server, and the server then checks that input for limits that might invalidate it, then if accepted uses it as an input to a character ("actor" is our internal name) within server memory. Physics and game rules are then run (entirely server side), and the outcome is sent back to the original client. Clients will then draw the outcome determined by the server. We did have a bug, in which given certain circumstances we were waiting server side on input from a client before processing through to outcomes. Combined with an intentional weapon effect that allows for brief invulnerability, this created a situation where players could reach an invulnerable state and prolong it by making the client unresponsive, even though the client has no say in damage (both damage the player creates and damage taken by the player are computed server side based on the results of physics simulation plus game rules). This was a particularly bad bug given we have server based simulation, and we apologize for that. We corrected the bug in code the same day we learned about it, then tested to make sure nothing unintended came out of those changes, and published the fix immediately after that
