Are You Seeing Zoning Or Camera Issues?

We have a couple recent reports of issues experienced by people using the addon fastfollow.

They are experiencing that after crossing a zone line they get stuck zoning over and over or get the message "You could not enter the next area.", and some are also reporting odd camera position and being unable to move the camera.

If you or someone you know is experiencing these symptoms I would like to know the version of fast follow (or whatever addon you might be using for following a character) and your lua core and hook versions.

Nice to have information would be when you first notice the problem occur and if you recall anything recently changing with your setup.

First reported occurrence was 1/6/2026

I haven't used FF in years but I recall it occationally would "pos hack" you into a odd position on the map. Other than that I haven't seen camera or stuck in zoning errors.

If you screw with the timings where everyone zones at the same time it will put some characters in the middle of the map. My guess is this is happening very rarely without screwing with the timings.

I saw this once on Ashita when a VPN was acting up. No fast follow or forced zoning packets involved, just a bot trying to run from port windurst to west saruta. Character would get "You could not enter the next area." and be reset in port windurst facing away from the zoneline. Bot would run back in, get "You could not enter the next area." again. I do not use pos, speed, or anything like that. I have no idea what caused it, but I'm assuming faulty traffic was involved.

Probably not a ton of help in chasing down your issue, but it's a unique enough problem that there is some chance when a cause comes together my scenario may help validate it. I'd guess that fast follow was similarly retriggering the same 'you could not enter the next area' after a failed zone, just in a slightly different way.

I have a different problem and as a result I try to always disable FastFollow before zoning, although sometimes I still accidentally zone before I'm able to disable it. If I zone my characters using FastFollow, whether crossing from one overworld zone to another or just entering the Mog House, most of the time at least one character will get a black screen and I have to force-quit POL and log the character back in. I've used FastFollow for about a year and a half and this has always happened during that entire time, so I've assumed that it isn't wise to use FastFollow on zoning. Are most people using FastFollow able to zone without problems? Is there some way to avoid the black screen consistently? I have my characters follow me at a 0.7 distance, I don't know if the distance matters.

There were also a couple times many months ago where a character ended up in a different zone than the others, but I don't remember exactly when.

From my experience, FF's black screen on zone occurs if the followers walk into the zone line while FF is active. FF won't actually have your followers walk into the zone line, they'll stop just short of it and kind of "warp" into it (easily seen when entering your mog house in Ru'Lude Gardens). If they do end up walking into the zone-line while FF is active, they'll still try to execute their "warping" which will usually end up causing the black screen on my end. Forgive my poor eloquence.

Heavy lag, FF and zoning will 100% soft lock and POS hack the following characters.

Easy way to trigger is in besieged and the Al Zahbi zone to Wajaom.

There are some not public versions of FF kicking about that move the characters by running instead of injecting a zone packet which fixes that.

That sounds like a much better way to do it. Is there any chance this could be made public or merged into the main version?

I've been having this issue for several months now using version 1.2.1. It doesn't happen often at all but seems to be related to rapid zoning or zoning while inventory is loading. Or as others have said, lag. I wasn't able to pinpoint a trend that would reliably cause it.

When the softlock happens I use another character to D2 which resolves the issue. But when that character zones they appear at their homepoint zone's default loading area which IS NOT a regular homepoint. This accompanies the message "You could not enter the next area". But this weird zoning location isn't always accompanied by the softlock.

My most comical was a zone into Sauromugue Champaign S from Rolanberry S and one of my characters loaded near the Meripataud Mountains S zone. Another one zoning from Lower Jeuno to Port and 1 character loaded at the other end by the exit to Sauromugue.

I'm typically running 5~6 instances.

Depends if the repo owner is still around and can accept a pull request.

The solution is mentioned here (I assume its the one Dodik was referring to)

https://github.com/DiscipleOfEris/Windower4Addons/issues/5

That's not what I use, but similar yes. The changes in that issue do not look safe. Target.x when zoning will change and the following character will start running a random looking direction rather than towards the zone line.

I've edited my own version myself but has changes from other people too so can't release it.

_addon.version = '1.2.3'

I was having issues remmebering how I fix the issues with the sparks addon where I am stuck "still buying last item" so I ran my 4 characters to S Gustaberg from B markets. One character soft locked at the zone line getting to Gustaberg, the second was dropped about the middle of the map and could not return to bastok markets via the entrance due to "You could not enter the next area" error. Warp ring fixed 2nd character issue. Neither of these were the character being followed. 3rd/4th character had no issues. I believe this was 1/4 morning because I spend my sparks last minute. I assumed this was due to the sparks addon.

I never understand people using this.

It's so obvious to everyone else around you that you're using it, it's undeniable. I'll risk getting half my characters stuck on a corner ery day before I risk losing all of the accounts cause a GM saw me using something so obvious like this.

People already don't like multiboxing, why would you give them a stick to hit you with.

Which part? Using follow or that FF have weird behavior unintentionally?

Being followed doesn't mean anything nor is it detectable. You can easily claim you had the others on /follow which is built in.

Doubt many people can spot the difference between the two by looking at it.

I don't know what 'many people' can spot, but in my opinion it's pretty easy to see.

People with fast follow or multisend or any other tool that bypasses server latency don't have a clear leader and follower structure. It's an amalgation of characters on top of each other where the leader changes based on who sent the most recent position update packet. The lack of collision looks odd in itself, since even without JA0 the fact you don't see the other character's real position before you run to it lets you bunch up weirdly. Using vanilla follow without JAzero doesn't bunch up your characters nearly as closely and you can clearly identify which is the leader.

I don't think a GM is particularly likely to care, but if the concern is whether people know you're using it.. yea, they know.

Even without jazero characters will bunch up. The game turns off collision detection if the character remains within a certain distance for a while.

It's at least plausibly deniable that you're using in game /follow.

A GM would have to show evidence of something, and just being followed is not evidence. Maybe you have a magnetic personality.

Now getting a character POS hacked because of a bad zone packet injection, *that* is very detectable and bannable.

There is a very clear difference between fastfollow and /follow.

/follow actually follows behind, especially while moving
with fastfollow everyone stays pinned to the leading char

/follow just using the game systems has a delay and it's a proper follow. Which is why they get stuck on corners etc.

Fastfollow does not, it's instant and they all move as one. At least all the ones I see using it move that way, it's cringe how obvious it is.

Minimum and max distance for following can be adjusted per char with FF.

They still move instantly the moment the lead character moves. It has nothing to do with min/max distance.

If you cant tell the difference between a group using /follow and a group using fastfollow, you're either ignorant or feigning ignorance.

There is a visible difference for sure. Is that evidence enough to be banned? Probably not.

If you see GM Dave soloing Fafnir, test it out.

I can't recall last time I saw a legit /follow or use of third-party tools/addons to be fair. I just assume its addons when I see a multiboxer, lol.