Simplify network ownership API

[Firebrand1 (Firebrand)]

As a Roblox developer, it is currently too hard to manage networking on physical game objects. We can only interface with network ownership via the limited API methods:

• CanSetNetworkOwnership
• GetNetworkOwner
• GetNetworkOwnershipAuto
• SetNetworkOwner
• SetNetworkOwnershipAuto

Pain points

1. Current API has inconsistent/ambiguous naming (Owner vs Ownership)
2. There is currently no signal to detect when the network owner or the auto behavior is changed. The only option is polling
3. It’s troublesome to have to call CanSetNetworkOwnership() until it returns true to set the network owner

Proposed Changes

1. New BasePart readonly property: AssemblyNetworkOwner - Player instance that updates whenever ownership changes

2. New BasePart readonly property: AssemblyNetworkBehavior - Enum that can switch between Automatic and Manual

3. New BasePart readonly property: Dynamic - Bool that is true while the part is a component of an unanchored assembly which is actively being simulated. This could fill use cases of both CanSetNetworkOwnership and IsGrounded

4. Deprecate CanSetNetworkOwnership, GetNetworkOwner, and GetNetworkOwnerShipAuto.

It would also be preferable to have a property interface for the Set methods as well, but I’m not sure how practical that would be as a BasePart property.

Thanks!

[SubtotalAnt8185]

I agree with this.

@Firebrand1

New BasePart readonly property: AssemblyNetworkOwner - Player instance that updates whenever ownership changes

This will be confusing if the network owner is nil.

[Judgy_Oreo (DisplayName)]

But it’s like that for all other Instance-value properties (ex: Player.Character is nil if it doesn’t exist, who would’ve guessed), plus it’s sort of like that right now, where you do Object:SetNetworkOwner(nil) to set the network owner to the server.

[nidbahn]

There is a list of numerous other issues with the network ownership system in this thread.

[coplox]

Related threads

Very old one with many replies:

Allow GetNetworkOwner() To Be Called On Client

I see no reason for GetNetworkOwner() to be inaccessible by the client and it can be very useful for checking on the client what parts the client has physical control over. [image]

Even older:

Event Part.NetworkOwnerChanged

I’m requesting an Event Part.NetworkOwnerChanged(Player newOwner, Player oldOwner) be added to the BasePart Class. Reason being, for a game of mine, I have the ownership of a vehicle set to a Player when it’s created so that they can control the vehicle smoothly with bodymovers. However, at some times when colliding with parts of the Track (at sharp angles), the ownership of the vehicle will randomly be given to the Server (nil), when this happens, my local scripts are unable to move the vehicle…

Mine, not many replies but a detailed proposal:

Events for when the current machine gains network ownership

This is inspired by Event Part.NetworkOwnerChanged, but that thread changed focus to diagnosing and fixing the OP’s problem specifically, So I’m making a new thread. As a Roblox developer, it is currently too hard to know when Roblox’s automatic NetworkOwner system assigns a part to your client. The available BasePart:GetNetworkOwner method is not accessible from the client. (see also Allow GetNetworkOwner() To Be Called On Client) I would like to use new events that fire when a part has its N…