4 sec server lag every 2 minutes

[MaDezzie]

Another thing I forgot to mention in my previous post was this..

Ever since patch 14.4 I get random screen freezes. My screen just hangs there for about 5-10 seconds, looks like I'm about to LD, then suddenly snaps back to life. Anyone else getting this? Happens only in missions. ALL the lag issues happen only in missions for me. Even in the center of trade during peak hours, the worst I get is reduced frame-rate, but throw me in a mission and the game goes nuts.

Still no official reply about this..

-Dez

[Docmax]

I played about 10 missions over the weekend and the server lag was very bad.

FunCom? any comment? Can you please fix this?

[Shyenia]

Originally posted by Dezzie
Another thing I forgot to mention in my previous post was this..

Ever since patch 14.4 I get random screen freezes. My screen just hangs there for about 5-10 seconds, looks like I'm about to LD, then suddenly snaps back to life. Anyone else getting this? Happens only in missions. ALL the lag issues happen only in missions for me. Even in the center of trade during peak hours, the worst I get is reduced frame-rate, but throw me in a mission and the game goes nuts.

Still no official reply about this..

-Dez

This one is simple. When in a mission you only load the surrounding rooms. Everytime you go into one of these rooms your client is receiving information from the server to load the rest of the rooms. Now if you don't have a fast enough connection to update the mobs pathing your client is going to freeze for a moment while it updates the other mobs. Only way I have found to fix this is to log off drop your graphics down and log back in.

[thresholdrpg]

The last few days (July 20-23) I have experienced:

1) Inability o cast nano programs: basically, for a while, I hit the button to cast, and it says "Running such and such", but nothing happens.

2) I kill a monster, get the exp, get the +% chance for token, and it keeps dishing out damage.

3) Monsters doing melee damage to me from 4 rooms away.

4) My wife has died TWICE while zoning (and she started zoning once with full health, once with 3/4 health).

5) Phantom Damage. Everything is going along fine, then I get 15 lines of "You are hit for 34 points of damage." My wife has experienced this as well. It can be fatal or nearly fatal.

6) Frequent server dumps: The game just dumps you and you have to relog.

I play AO from a dedicated T1 that is only used by myself and my wife. The problems are 100% on Funcom's end.

[Shyenia]

Of course the problem is on FunCom's end an official FC GM went to the edge of admitting that they have constant server issues.

"We are always looking to improve our server/client stability, but rely on petitions to alert us to such things."

Well I am reading inbetween the lines but I feel that was as close to an admission we will ever get.

[Docmax]

They want us to petition them?

should we /petition them everytime we see the server lag issue?

Are they sure they want 30 petitions/hour from each player?

FunCom, please respond. The servers are unplayable.

[Docmax]

I had blindly hoped the server restart yesterday would help resolve the server lag and ghost dmg, but it didn't.

The problem is getting worse and worse.

Now, (maybe related, maybe not), AnarchyOnline.com web servers are going down a lot, too.

FunCom, do you even know about the server lag issue?

[Docmax]

From fanatikman's post in this thread

http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=33620510

it sounds like FunCom thinks it's not their servers

so we all need to /petition when we see server lag

[Docmax]

I didn't play too much over the weekend with my doc, but with my fixer.

My fixer doesn't cast continuously so it was harder to notice the server lag. My wife was playing an adverturer and healing me and she kept noticing the server lag.

You only really notice it if you cast continuously, but it is there and makes the servers foul to play on.

[Docmax]

has anyone tried some /petitions?

everytime I log on I forget because the problem is so obvious it's hard for me to believe FunCom doesn't know about it

[Docmax]

is the server lag still there after last night's emergency fix?

[Docmax]

I played another mission last night with my doc and the lag is still there.

What are we on? Week 8 now of server lag?

[Shyenia]

Originally posted by Beaker
I played another mission last night with my doc and the lag is still there.

What are we on? Week 8 now of server lag?

Yep, and everyone who wants to try a funny way to make sure its FunCom's server:

1. Go to a newbie holoworld (starting area)
2. Kill a Reet of Paradise
3. If after you achieve 0% HP and the bird for about half a second does nothing then you get the message "A reet of paradise tried to hit you but missed" then the server is getting lag.

Three new toons I rolled only to see this happen all the time. Kill a reet and then die myself due to ghost damage. Really its all the time try it you'll be amazed at it. If I were the guy in charge of employees I would tape a lovely pink slip in the IT depts lockers at FunCom. This is stupid.

[Docmax]

Yes, the server lock-up is still there.

I played a mission this weekend and the server locked up many times for serveral seconds.

[Docmax]

I played a couple missions last night with my L 18 fixer. My wife played with me with her L 18 Adventurer. I only noticed the lag on my wife's end because she was doing a lot of healing and I was just letting my gun shoot.

Which just points out that not everyone will know, unless they know what to look for, but the lag was horrendous last night.

Did a router go bad at FunCom's ISP 10 weeks ago?

[Docmax]

I played some more missions over the weekend and (this should not suprise anyone) but the server lockup/lag is still there.

Would be nice to get an official statement from FunCom that they know about this issue (or even an unofficial one).

Do they know it's on their end?

[Theotus]

Originally posted by Karine "Shyenia" Ganes
2 points I would like to make:

1. If your getting lag pop up your browser, if you play in windowed mode, and log onto yahoo or google. If the page pops up in less than 3 or 4 seconds. Your connection is good and it is FUNCOM's servers that are to blame.

2. In all my 5 years of playing games online our ISP is less than 5% at fault. It is always either heavy internet traffic, a relay post somewhere in tin-buck-too just died, or the server at your destination just died.

So the next time an ARK or GM tries to claim ISP tell em to shove it. It's just an excuse to get you off their petition board.

Ok sorry, I have to reply to the very first part of your post. Before I reply let me make 1 thing perfectly clear. I am not excusing funcom for some of the mistakes they make, or their bad server performance. My argument is with this stupid and badly thought out post.

To address point 1 of your post.

This is possibly the worst test I have EVER heard of.

There is a concept on the Internet known as routing, just because you can fire up a web browser and get to google or yahoo does not mean you can route to Funcoms servers.

Isp's "peer" with each other in order to create a Internet back bone, some isp's peer with more than 1 other isp. So, depending exactly where you are going to on the Internet, your route to that server (and therefore the networks you pass through) will be different. It’s even common for you to take different routes to the same server from one min to the next.

An easy way of demonstrating this is to open up a dos prompt and use the "tracert" command.

This will show you what routers you pass through on the way to your destination. For instance try doing "tracert www.microsoft.com" and then "Tracert www.google.com" you will see what I mean.

There are hundreds of other variables you can also take in to account in terms of internet performance, such as packet loss, ISP's with badly configured ACLs etc... Bare in mind it is not beyond the realms of possibility that an ISP between you and funcoms could be having any of the above issues or just simple network saturation..

Another thing to bare in mind is that HTTP (IE Web browsing) is a stateless protocol this mean that you request some thing off the server it just transfers you a load of data. Then the connection is closed until you want the next web page (i.e. click on another link). Gaming connections are generally statefull and require much more effort than a protocol like HTTP. Also HTTP in general transfers little data. Its txt and pictures, that’s it! So if an ISP between say you and google is having intermittent issues, then its quite possible you will get the first page but the second one would fail.

I am not saying that it is your isp that is causing the issue, nor am I trying to give funcom excuses for bad server performance. What I AM saying is your post is possibly the most inaccurate post regarding these technologies I have ever seen. It is your willingness to comment on subjects that you clearly know nothing about that has enraged me.

One of the main problems with this sort of game from an implementation point of view is all the variables involved. Lets say you do have bad server performance, but couple that with networking issues (that CAN NOT be controlled by funcom)... users get unhappy.

If you want to get on your high horse to a GM or an ARK then how about using a control (test) that is not complete and utter crap. (How about tracert'ing to funcoms servers and checking out what is really going on).

Now I am going to address point 2, given that point 1 was totally inaccurate, what basis do you have for diagnosing point 2???

Err…….. none me thinks. I believe the word I am looking for is "CLUELESS".

Solo

Theotus - Rubi-ka1 - lvl 71 agent
SoloSANso - Rubi-ka1 -lvl 25 - MA

Ps- Yes I am aware that I can't spell or punctuate.

[Aqua]

tracert is a valid test?
can we say load balancing?
tracert isn't a good toubleshooting device for lag issues only dead paths. Just because your trace route takes one path doesn't mean every packet sent to the server from the same machine takes the same path. His test is just as good as yours. the only true test is one where the server side is also activly recording turn around times through a direct monitoring circuit, which of course is unrealistic so some assumptions have to be made.

I to am seeing a lot of battle lag problems and I to do not believe it is my ISP

~aqua

*edited to clarify an issue

[Theotus]

Originally posted by Aqua
tracert is a valid test?
can we say load balancing?
tracert isn't a good toubleshooting device for lag issues only dead paths. Just because your trace route takes one path doesn't mean every packet sent to the server from the same machine takes the same path. His test is just as good as yours. the only true test is one where the server side is also activly recording turn around times through a direct monitoring circuit, which of course is unrealistic so some assumptions have to be made.

I to am seeing a lot of battle lag problems and I to do not believe it is my ISP

~aqua

*edited to clarify an issue

Seen as you seem to have a clue i will elaborate.

Tracert is not a great test but its a hell of a lot better than firing up a web browser, for one you will get the time it takes to journey between your hops. (and generate packets with the correct source and destination, thats always helps )

IE its a good way of ruling out your path to the server. and puting the blame soley on funcoms door (ok packet loss can't be detected easily with this method... but hey )

its not great but better than seeing if you can route to google.
So i fail to see your point.

I did say in my post that your packets could take a different route every time so whats your point ? (so you would have to perform the test lots in order to get a good reading... some major back bones statically route rather than dynamically).

and also like i said, i am not saying its not funcom issue. its just his test was compleate rubish.

Solo.
- Ps - you are quite correct about the only true test. and quite correct that it is unrealistic. so how about gather a little data rather than assuming all ?

when you assume ... you make a ASS out of U and ME

[Aqua]

well since lag is mainly caused but packet loss or delay, I just don't think tracert is the right animal for the job. I would have to say that if his other stuff is working fine along with all the others posting the exact same problems from various areas of the world that would at least point more to the funcom side of the circuit and somthing they should be investigating.

~aqua

PS. when you are working blindly one on end of a circuit you have to assume to get anywhere.

..edited to add PS to answer other PS