Lag monster on hardcore server needs to be fixed

[Dark_Lord_Mary]

Greetings everyone - Mary here - Hardcore League Season II is underway - lots of success, lots of death thus far.

I've been asked to post here by many people on the server to address the lag and lag deaths.

Recently Death Smile suffered some very unfortunate level 30 player deaths specifically to lag - the server freezing - over the weekend we lost 3 to the outage that took down DDO, LOTRO, and the forums. Yesterday and today random freezes (not client lag, the freeze that you ask in the party 'is everyone froze? can anyone move?' and they all reply 'I'm frozen, I cannot move') only to come back in, be able to move and find yourself almost dead or dead.

According to the Terms of Service and our user agreement with SSG the burden is on us, the players. But I have been asked to write this to point out that if SSG wishes to provide us with a Hardcore League event the server it is hosted on should be one that is hardened against lag - whatever that means - perhaps this means a daily restart for the server? Perhaps it means that a 5 or 10-second delay is broadcast by the server to force synchronicity - perhaps the SSG dev team has some other suggestions.

When you have players, spending money on tomes and gear, spending 50 hours preparing to run reaper to go after the leaderboard and the reaper rewards, only to be taken out due to lag, it leaves a very bad taste in the mouth of anyone who has to live through it and is beyond frustrating.

There presently is no support on the hardcore server either, so no tickets or in-game help can be asked for. This too seems to be something that needs to be changed. SSG - if Hardcore League is the busiest server - it should have a dedicated GM on the server to help.

Players in the community please support this post if you agree with it - lag does not belong in Hardcore League. Whatever can be done to diminish it or fix it should be prioritized and done, or else this event should be postponed until such time that the lag issues are fixed.

Many dozens of more players died - likely hundreds of deaths are attributed to lag - please help us out SSG and come back at us with some sort of assist that can assuage the grief dying to lag causes.

[xTethx]

It’s hard to get behind this because everyone knows the risks running over there. There is nothing to keep you from not spending money over there (minus the required VIP sub). It’s just one of those crappy situations, but anyone running over there 100% knows the risks vs rewards.

[Ein]

I agree 100% with you Mary. Hardcore has become a huge money generating server so it should get some more attention from the company. If not people will not come back.

[Hallstatt]

For me, HCL1 was almost a lag-free experience.

For me, HCL2 is a lag-ridden experience.

Something is definitely different this time around, and it probably has something to do with increasing profit.

[Gniewomir]

Players in the community please support this post if you agree with it - lag does not belong in Hardcore League.

Are you trying to imply that lag does belong to normal servers and you dont care about those not playing on hc?

[Valerianus]

and this is why i never ever played and i will never ever play hardcore.

i hope ssg is getting cash and players are having fun. both wonderful things.

but i say thanks but no thanks.

[niknight]

Greetings everyone - Mary here - Hardcore League Season II is underway - lots of success, lots of death thus far.

I've been asked to post here by many people on the server to address the lag and lag deaths.

Recently Death Smile suffered some very unfortunate level 30 player deaths specifically to lag - the server freezing - over the weekend we lost 3 to the outage that took down DDO, LOTRO, and the forums. Yesterday and today random freezes (not client lag, the freeze that you ask in the party 'is everyone froze? can anyone move?' and they all reply 'I'm frozen, I cannot move') only to come back in, be able to move and find yourself almost dead or dead.



I'm completely with you only in regards to the data center outage that occured over the weekend. With most lag deaths, I would imagine that a GM would be unable to identify if the cause was server lag, client lag or a player who wasn't paying attention claiming lag. The outage is an event that can easily be placed 100% on SSG's side, with timestamps to accurately determine which characters were affected. They should be made whole again.




Are you trying to imply that lag does belong to normal servers and you dont care about those not playing on hc?
False dichotomy. Lag is a problem on all servers, it's just that the HC server is the only one that applies a significant penalty for being affected.

[Dark_Lord_Mary]

Every MMO has some bit of lag, for whatever reason. I believe SSG is great and are doing everything they can for the players.

This lag I am specifically talking about is not a client-side thing, or even a connectivity thing where you notice packet loss - it is a freeze, the server literally freezes - for whatever reason - in voice coms you can ask ' are you frozen? ' and people in group will all agree ' yes, I am completely frozen ' - we are all playing on different rigs with different connections in different parts of the world and yet the server just freezes.

But it does not freeze the game -

the game continues -

so when it unfreezes and everyone can move again you find people are almost dead or dead.

This is fine on a normal DDO server - not that it is acceptable - but it is fine in the sense that the normal servers are not perma-death.

On the hardcore league, where you have one shot, and you invested, and you're doing all you can to survive and then the server freezes - there is no potion or button you can click ' grant me 100000 hit points to survive the server freeze '

I'm not even advocating there should be such a button -

I'm only asking that we the community reach out and recommend to SSG that they pay extra care to the HCL server - restart it more often or implement something to mitigate the freezes so people who invest time and money feel like it is a worthy investment of those things.

[Gniewomir]

False dichotomy. Lag is a problem on all servers, it's just that the HC server is the only one that applies a significant penalty for being affected.

And thats what you agreed on by playing hc. Everyone knows **** can happen, lags are nothing new in ddo, it's your choice if you'll decide to participate in hc and you'll have to deal with potential consequences.

Personally i find it funny. I already met one player who few months ago was claiming there's no lag in ddo and mocking people who had different opinion (like: the only problem is your 20yo computer and 3rd world country internet connection). Now the same person claims ddo is lagfest and ssg should give him back money he spend on hc.

[Hallstatt]

I gave a general statement earlier, so I will give a little more detail this time.

I played HCL1 from Day 1 until mid-October. During that time, I experienced two notable lag spikes; however, both were minor hiccups. They were notable b/c they were the only ones I experienced. I played more cautious than usual because I expected the normal amount of lag, but I was pleasantly surprised to find none.

The start of HCL2 caught me by surprise because there was no announcement of its start date, or at least none that I saw. Therefore, I was not prepared for it - meaning scheduling extra time for it around work/wife/kids b/c I take quests slower on HC. I think it started 1-3 months too soon; however, I understand that it makes money, so the more it's active, the more money it makes.

Anyway, going into HCL2, I expected to encounter the same amount of smooth gameplay as HCL1 and experience little lag. Well, that is not the case. I encounter lag in almost every quest. The lag ranges from minor hiccups to completely frozen for several seconds. I still play more cautious; however, mobs gotta die, and lag seems to always hit after the fight starts. My level 30 died from lag the Tuesday after HCL2 started. I laughed it off and rolled another toon. I got what I wanted out of that toon and had a lot of fun. For me, it was time well spent.

I know lag is a part of blah blah blah. However, based on my experiences in HCL1 and HCL2, I feel like HCL1 was given extra attention and care to hook players on it and then given an inferior product for HCL2. The ole bait and switch. Honestly, it does not bother me b/c I am not paying extra for HC. I sub all year long anyway. I would just like some transparency. A 2 week notice of the open date of HC and a statement warning that there may be more lag this season b/c it's being hosted by the Mars Rover, lol.

I would pay extra for HCL if it would mean getting the HCL1 server performance.

Despite the lag, I am having a great time with HCL2 because of the community. All the top gear in the game does not compare to good times with new friends. If I die again to lag, I will probably roll up another toon and keep the fun going.

FYI, my HC toons so far were/are: Elderfall and Greysidous.

[jsavorn]

I'm completely with you only in regards to the data center outage that occured over the weekend. With most lag deaths, I would imagine that a GM would be unable to identify if the cause was server lag, client lag or a player who wasn't paying attention claiming lag. The outage is an event that can easily be placed 100% on SSG's side, with timestamps to accurately determine which characters were affected. They should be made whole again.




False dichotomy. Lag is a problem on all servers, it's just that the HC server is the only one that applies a significant penalty for being affected.

Well said on both counts

[jsavorn]

And thats what you agreed on by playing hc. Everyone knows **** can happen, lags are nothing new in ddo, it's your choice if you'll decide to participate in hc and you'll have to deal with potential consequences.

Personally i find it funny. I already met one player who few months ago was claiming there's no lag in ddo and mocking people who had different opinion (like: the only problem is your 20yo computer and 3rd world country internet connection). Now the same person claims ddo is lagfest and ssg should give him back money he spend on hc.

GO AWAY PLEASE - your opinion is not only not helpful but rather annoying.

[jsavorn]

Players in the community please support this post if you agree with it - lag does not belong in Hardcore League. Whatever can be done to diminish it or fix it should be prioritized and done, or else this event should be postponed until such time that the lag issues are fixed.

Many dozens of more players died - likely hundreds of deaths are attributed to lag - please help us out SSG and come back at us with some sort of assist that can assuage the grief dying to lag causes.

Well said Mary!

A few points of emphasis:

1) The lag experienced here is only on the player side and not the server-side (I've personally have NEVER experienced this type of lag on live servers over the past 11 years of playing).

2) Not dying is the entire point of the game and when the game/ provider's actions results in customer/player deaths there is a breach in CONTRACT; anyone who understands how customer/provider agreements work knows that when this occurs there are legal ramifications/ arbitration.

3) If SSG were to provide GM's to assist in compensating their customers/players (on the HARDCORE server) this would act as a temporary stopgap measure until the game is fixed

4) SSG needs to recognize and fix their current product/ revert back to HC1 and provide a quality product for their customers

[Gniewomir]

GO AWAY PLEASE - your opinion is not only not helpful but rather annoying.

If lags in ddo, including hc, are a big surprise for you - then i'm 100% sure my opinion might be a help for you to realize whats the ddo reality.

[AlmGhandi]

The lag in HC2 is much worse than I am seeing on live, or how it was on HC1.


Well said Mary!

2) Not dying is the entire point of the game and when the game/ provider's actions results in customer/player deaths there is a breach in CONTRACT; anyone who understands how customer/provider agreements work knows that when this occurs there are legal ramifications/ arbitration.


Not sure how there could be legal ramifications from dying from lag on DDO.

[Gniewomir]

Not sure how there could be legal ramifications from dying from lag on DDO.

And im pretty sure it's said in terms of use that they do not take responsibility for stuff like that and everyone had to sign it before playing ddo.

[AlmGhandi]

And im pretty sure it's said in terms of use that they do not take responsibility for stuff like that and everyone had to sign it before playing ddo.

Exactly. HC was also advertised as "play at your own risk"... and no one can claim that they were surprised that DDO gets laggy sometimes.

But HC1 was tons better than HC2 is being with respect to lag atm.
Between the HCs I switched to the 64 Bit client... but my guildy still using the old one is getting as much lag as I am.... so no real differences there.

[Mofus]

I agree, lag is worse this season, they have to get this under control before doing another season, cant just take the money and give a broken product.

[OohSaucy]

I'd love to play HC for the extra challenge but the numerous recent threads talking about dying to lag has me not joining back up and not buying a subscription - unfortunate

[Dark_Lord_Mary]

let's hope patch 45.3.2 addresses some of the lag/freezing issues and helps HCL season II players not die lag/freezing deaths.