Info/Speculation/POV on the Xsyon Server Prelude

[l3lue]

Proposed Agenda
I decided instead of spamming chat everytime someone ask. I would group all my info into one editable post as I find info out and gather it all here. Feel free to comment, add in your speculation and I will edit it into the main post here complete with credit where credit is due . I will clean this up over time if it works in a nice neat fashion.

First,Please forgive any typo's, and wrongly typed information. My brain thinks faster than i can comprehend when i'm this tired. Find any errors? Post n leme know please

I'm with Freedom of information to try and best speculate whats going on with the game cause I feel everyone should know as we all paid for this prospect. At the same time I don't think it is correct to goto Jordi directly demanding his solutions, just not the order of business. In a sense we are virtual shareholders of a virtual company sortof and im not payed or in the board of directors neither is anyone else except maybe staff. My goal here is to provide some of my limited technical knowledge to try and feed whats going on to the shareholders in the most accurate and informative way that I can. While not going over people's heads that don't live and breath computers.

People speculating branches into tech savy people, the people that "think" they know how the server rolls, and angry people who want something to complain about...that is also only speculation My job I will take on is to filter all results here from what i read and find also what people post here.

Current State: Unknown, Speculation Stage

Current Discussed Issues

1. Possible Code Bug: Long tribe names?
2. Data Corruption
3. CPU Stress
4. Hardware
5. Weather System: Rain

Possible Server Packages

Single (1x) Core

Processor	                          Hard Disk	    Memory	       Bandwidth
1x Intel Celeron D 325 - 2.53 GHz	160 GB SATAII	1 GB DDR2	6,000 GB		
1x Intel Celeron D 325 - 2.53 GHz	250 GB SATAII	2 GB DDR2	6,000 GB		

Quad (4x) Core

Processor	                            Hard Disk	    Memory            	Bandwidth
1x Intel Xeon Lynnfield x3430 - 2.4 GHz	250 GB SATAII	2 GB DDR3 ECC	6,000 GB	
1x Intel Xeon Lynnfield x3460 - 2.8 GHz	500 GB SATAII	4 GB DDR3 ECC	6,000 GB	
1x Intel Xeon Nehalem e5520 - 2.26 GHz	500 GB SATAII	6 GB DDR3 ECC	6,000 GB	

Eight (8x) Core

Processor	                          Hard Disk	          Memory	          Bandwidth	
2x Intel Xeon Nehalem e5520 - 2.26GHz	500 GB SATAII	12 GB DDR3 ECC	6,000 GB	
2x Intel Xeon Nehalem e5520 - 2.26GHz	2 x 500 GB SATAII - RAID 1	12 GB DDR3 ECC	6,000 GB

Best one I found, others wouldn't work I don't think

Hardware Specifications

Dual CPU
Brand: Intel
Model: Xeon L5520
Speed: 2.26Ghz
Core: Quad Core
Total:  8 CPU Cores
Ram: 12GB
Harddrive: 250GB
Port Speed: 100 Mbps
Bandwidth: 5000GB Tier 1
IP's: 5
200+PLAYER RANGE

My starting Speculation topics, subject to change.



Latency, Bandwidth

Although the theoretical peak bandwidth of a network connection is fixed according to the technology used, the actual bandwidth you will obtain varies over time and is affected by high latencies. Excessive latency creates bottlenecks that prevent data from filling the network pipe, thus decreasing effective bandwidth. The impact of latency on network bandwidth can be temporary (lasting a few seconds) or persistent (constant) depending on the source of the delays.

Sounds interesting right? We are all getting delays and that stuff sounds good together. Cept if the ping rate is correct ingame as I see it when we all get the lag, i shift between 31ms which is instant then jumping from 100~1000 with as much as 8-15min delays between game actions. Not only are the ping levels slightly above average (I played WoW on a eastern server and got 100-400ms delays and everything was playable) but the math does not add up vs the time delay. If 31 for me is instant, and ive heard 60 or so is also average with instant results from others, why does it only goto 400-900 before it takes 15 mins between actions? Just does not fit IMO.

CPU

CPU load high = low/average ping, horrible performance.... layman example:

McDonalds best employee is by himself with noone else at 12PM, Load is high, Your sight to the building is fast, your smell of the burgers is instant...but the load on the 1 employee means instead of multiple people working to fix your food, you got 1. You have a worker latency issue and before he takes the money, processes the order, cooks the food, gives it to you, can expect to wait quite awhile for the people infront of you.

I know there is QoS type option for CPU which is labeled Priority in Windows, (may be different in linux, and I HOPE the server is linux), but how will that fix the problem here? There is people ingame and its correct to process task in the game based on the order received logically. So that's out.

Bigger better box, superfast multicore processor, loads of ram, multi threading built into the Xsyon host software if (if not already)...possibly could fix the issue, multi threading is a nightmare....at least for my poor attempts at it.

Code

Jordi knows, we don't unless he tells us...nuff said
Code rely's on the coder(s) writing it. There is little speculation to that problem obviously...All i will say is this, The McDonalds employees serving out the food is directed by the main boss, and depending on his code orders, can be faster, or slower, code optimization in a layman nutshell

Ending, Non-constructive short story

I have worked with servers for a electric corporation, I did not do the code, but I helped track down the source of the tx/rx halt/severe delay AKA "Lag" in the customer accounting software. Yea nothing impressive.

The customer base was over 800,000+ and there was about 2,000+ employees across the state with access to it all interlinked and connected through their intranet via VPN. Poof it dies suddenly...

I seen high dollar certificated experts come in, stand around with their hands on their chin, about 500 bux an hr. Then a indian programmer with a even more expensive price tag and extreeeeemly rare and hard to find people with the exclusive code knowledge of the specific guarded syntax that coded the software....i think only 8 in the world (also controls the hydroelectric system completely)

On top of that the COO was jumping the admin's case, and he was jumping our case ect.

After tearing apart the whole network of the central hub, digging through all the Ethernet cable in the switching room, 1 cable led back into the same switch....fixed it, no more issue, problem solved.

Problems aren't always simple but with simple patience it will all be sorted out eventually. Some people work on it, others speculate, some people rant and rage, others throw money at the problem to try and make it disappear faster.