My lag lags the group!?

[loren9109]

I live far away from US, which is probably one of the causes of a lot of so-called "zone-out lags (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=337672)" I'm suffering. I love the gameplay of DDO however and I usually just grit my teeth, alt-F4 and reconnect whenever lag monster hits me. However lately the frequency of the lags is growing crazy. Sometimes I have to reconnect more than 3 times in an hour. What's worse, I suffered another lag in a raid fight and when I reconnect everyone in the party is dead. The leader blamed me for lagging them with my lag and caused the wipe.

I'm not an internet expert so could someone tell me if that's true? Anyone with similar experience like mine? I can endure my own lagging but if my lag makes others lag too... I really don't know how to join a raid now :(

(By the way I'm using 12M/sec broadband and all my graphic setting is pretty low if not lowest.)

[Raithe]

I'm not an internet expert so could someone tell me if that's true? Anyone with similar experience like mine? I can endure my own lagging but if my lag makes others lag too... I really don't know how to join a raid now :(


Well, if you were a healer then you disconnecting and having to log back in would definitely be a problem for most raid runs... :)

It's hard to say. One person's client latency shoudn't affect the gameplay of a different client, but there are currently issues that makes it clear that this is NOT the case in DDO. If you are d/c-ing in a challenge, for instance, the kobolds will usually become completely inert and won't gather crystals until you have been offically disconnected (grey name). This may be some sort of security condition to prevent people from farming challenges in exploitive ways, but its definitely very annoying and punitive for legitimate groups.

I have seen very little other evidence that other people's clients are affecting my game experience. Usually I can tell its my own system or connection, or that its a server-side issue that everyone in the group is experiencing similarly.

[FastTaco]

As a long time raider I am certain there is a bug that happens sometimes when a person disconnects, its far less noticable in regular quests.

Sometimes when a person DC's(in some certain way?) the game quits registering the hits from enemies for awhile right up until the exact moment the chat says "XXXX has lost connection", quite often this will be enough to destroy even 900 HP barbarians when fighting harry for example. Even if the healers continue to spam while they see no damage, when there should be... these heals do not help when this DC bug happens.

[Emili]

As a long time raider I am certain there is a bug that happens sometimes when a person disconnects, its far less noticable in regular quests.

Sometimes when a person DC's(in some certain way?) the game quits registering the hits from enemies for awhile right up until the exact moment the chat says "XXXX has lost connection", quite often this will be enough to destroy even 900 HP barbarians when fighting harry for example. Even if the healers continue to spam while they see no damage, when there should be... these heals do not help when this DC bug happens.

This is correct... I've notice that when people be DC'ing it slows response for the group many times.

I believe it is because the sever is attempting to keep all the clients in one instance sync'd with each other... on the same page, when you're in group information about your character is shared with others ... hp, etc... like the timers on your buffs for instance are shared between the server and every client in group.

When you're dcing the server does not know right away so takes time to send to your client and get an acknowlegement back... when your client does not respond it send it again ... and again ... because it's attempting to sync it sends those retries to every client on the list (group) in the instance until the TTL (time to live) expires.

[FastTaco]

This is correct... I've notice that when people be DC'ing it slows response for the group many times.

I believe it is because the sever is attempting to keep all the clients in one instance sync'd with each other... on the same page, when you're in group information about your character is shared with others ... hp, etc... like the timers on your buffs for instance are shared between the server and every client in group.

When you're dcing the server does not know right away so takes time to send to your client and get an acknowlegement back... when your client does not respond it send it again ... and again ... because it's attempting to sync it sends those retries to every client on the list (group) in the instance until the TTL (time to live) expires.



Yup, I'm willing to bet also that if there is 1 person with high packet loss or unusually high latency this also affects the entire group... though thats much harder to judge, but it seems if DC's cause this then so should packet loss/high latency.

[gerardIII]

When you're dcing the server does not know right away so takes time to send to your client and get an acknowlegement back... when your client does not respond it send it again ... and again ... because it's attempting to sync it sends those retries to every client on the list (group) in the instance until the TTL (time to live) expires.

SYN/ACK is from TCP.
TTL is from IP and is not the maximum number of retries.

How do you know they are using TCP anyway? TCP is heavy and in my opinion not suited for games where latency is important.

[loren9109]

http://www.decalbin.com/catalog/images/sad_panda.png

[Flavilandile]

As a long time raider I am certain there is a bug that happens sometimes when a person disconnects, its far less noticable in regular quests.

Sometimes when a person DC's(in some certain way?) the game quits registering the hits from enemies for awhile right up until the exact moment the chat says "XXXX has lost connection", quite often this will be enough to destroy even 900 HP barbarians when fighting harry for example. Even if the healers continue to spam while they see no damage, when there should be... these heals do not help when this DC bug happens.

This is a well known side effect of an impromptu disconnect at the wrong time.

Basically everybody stops moving for a second or two, every hits stops registering for a second or two...
Well consider that a localized Timestop Spell.
The only problem is that it doesn't affect the monsters, it only affect the characters... and when you're facing an Epic Queen, somebody DCing usually means a wipe.