Game Killing Lag is Back

[Bridger]

I admit I was a little skeptical of the devs reassurance that this lag wasn't hardware related because they had sufficient hardware to service the needs of the current subscriber base. I too have observed the too-predictable-to-be-coincidence relationship between peak play time and the appearance of the lag.

But then, earlier this morning with a fairly modest population in game, and an occasional lag spike, another possibility occurred to me:

What if it's not the number of people who are using the server capacity itself that is the cause of the lag? What if it's the number of people who are doing... well, doing what ever it is that causes the game code to gag? And as the number of people playing the game increases, the subset of people doing the 'whatever-it-is' is likewise increasing?

[randomt]

What if it's not the number of people who are using the server capacity itself that is the cause of the lag? What if it's the number of people who are doing... well, doing what ever it is that causes the game code to gag? And as the number of people playing the game increases, the subset of people doing the 'whatever-it-is' is likewise increasing?

That would be the most logical assumption, in my books.

Something somewhere is causing a minor memory leak, or a run-away process, or some such thing that's minor on it's own, but as more and more people do it, the effect stacks up until the server hits max-performance capacity and starts chugging, building up a backlog in server-event queues, causing the "lag" we feel.

Eventually everyone leaves or at least stops trying to do anything, and the server finally is able to get caught up, and the lag is gone..

Makes sense?

[Captain_Kirk]

Fix the lag first then make people pay for gametime.

[Hazard]

Yeah it was odd last night, wasn't acting like the usual wall of lag. I too was at 300-600ms for most of it, but chat etc were instant and actions only slightly sluggish at times.

Same thing happened to me last night too....Wish it was happening this morning, but with less lag....

[jumpshot]

Fix the lag first then make people pay for gametime.

Ya it's dumb we only get a month of included game time with our purchase.

Oh wait....

[darkbladed]

Basically what the Devs are saying is that there servers can handle [5X amount of people doing something that isn't tied to broken code] but that the server cannot handle [x amount of people doing something broken]

The problem is right now they don't know what is broken; When there are 30 people doing that broken action it resolves itself before it becomes a problem, but when 500 people are on the server gets gummed up and cannot resolve it and turns into snowballing lag.

Hopefully they can track down the bits of broken code and get it all fixed up

[Aethaeryn]

Ya it's dumb we only get a month of included game time with our purchase.

Oh wait....

I tend to agree with you often but I am going to disagree with this assuming I understand how you meant it. It doesn't matter how much is included. If I buy a minivan with a extra seat I expect to have it. I wouldn't say. . oh well . . most cars only have room for 5 anyway. I don't think the launch. . if it is that. . is horrific by any means but when people start saying stuff like "well it is better than crap launch A. . or crap launch B" it makes me want to start an MMO company on my own. . by the time I develop the game people will be happy to just get a direct download on time and get a start up screen.

It is why government gets away with so much crap.

Regardless. It isn't how bad it is now that matters. . it is how bad it is in a week or two.

[Longshank]

Game worked great after everyone logged off just now.

[jumpshot]

I tend to agree with you often but I am going to disagree with this assuming I understand how you meant it. It doesn't matter how much is included. If I buy a minivan with a extra seat I expect to have it. I wouldn't say. . oh well . . most cars only have room for 5 anyway. I don't think the launch. . if it is that. . is horrific by any means but when people start saying stuff like "well it is better than crap launch A. . or crap launch B" it makes me want to start an MMO company on my own. . by the time I develop the game people will be happy to just get a direct download on time and get a start up screen.

It is why government gets away with so much crap.

Regardless. It isn't how bad it is now that matters. . it is how bad it is in a week or two.

I guess I was just tryign to say that guy wanted to not be charged until the game was fixed, and they have already addressed that by giving us bonus time since the game is not fixed. I suppose they could not start counting the 2.5 months until it's tip top... but c'mon... 2.5 months? By then most of us will of either cancelled or be happy with it and happy to pay. Regardless of what happens in the next few days.

[teriyaki]

That would be the most logical assumption, in my books.

Something somewhere is causing a minor memory leak, or a run-away process, or some such thing that's minor on it's own, but as more and more people do it, the effect stacks up until the server hits max-performance capacity and starts chugging, building up a backlog in server-event queues, causing the "lag" we feel.

Eventually everyone leaves or at least stops trying to do anything, and the server finally is able to get caught up, and the lag is gone..

Makes sense?

Yeah, it definitely feels like a server CPU issue rather just plain lag. It's not that we're rubberbanding around so much but that the game engine sputters. It reminds me of openinig those gates in WoW where the servers overloaded because of too many people in the same spot rather than just plain logged in the game. In any case, I'd say its server coding issue - and very probably some memory leak that is not being cleaned fast enough.