Yes, lags are common in some zones. I also experience this. One point might be that I am far away from the game server, I live in Europe/Germany.

As far as I know (but I could be wrong, please anybody correct me then) the number of shadow building pieces has also a huge influence on the lags. I get massive lags when I approach the zone where e.g. Valorinak Republic is located. Of course, huge tribes with tons of building pieces also reduce the performance.

I am unsure about the number of trees. If one tree is cut down, you will then have (Aspen trees) 3 or more logs at the same place. I assume that the number of logs in a zone also reduce performance, especially when the logs are short ones.

I play with resolution 1366 x 768, with no shadows and low graphic settings. This way the game is playable for me, but I still have lags.