My rare "attention dev's" post...

[bsquishwizzy]

Ok, so, I’m not one of those guys who goes to notify devs, or direct comments to devs (outside of my great Ghostbaning comments), but I thought I’d post something about an issue I’m having with the game.

For a while now, I’ve been having issues when I transition from one area to the next. Say, for example, I’m running quests in Gianthold. I transition from the Marketplace to Gianthold just fine. I transition from the public area to the private area just fine. Then, I go to step in a quest, I get the status screen, and then…nothing. I just close off the program (I run in windowed mode), and re-log. When this happens, I end up in the area that was my destination. So in the example above, I would be in the beginning of the quest that I entered. This seems to be random. It doesn’t always happen at the same time, or the same transitions. There has been nothing to really hang my hat on when it comes to seeing a pattern.

If I were to sit on that transition screen, the connection would eventually time out and I’d get booted from the game. I tested this in the past.

I’ve been wondering for a while now what it was that was causing the problem. I tried re-installing. I tried switching to a different wireless router. The only thing I haven’t done was connecting via wired Ethernet which I haven’t done for various reasons. The problem is annoying its worst.

So, last Friday I’m running with some guildies and friends. Sure enough, I had to re-log three different times over something like 5 quests. However, two other people in the group had the same EXACT problem, with the same EXACT transitions. One of them was going from the Gianthold wilderness area to Maze of Madness.

Three people. Three “lock-ups” on the same three transitions…all in a row. That’s TOO much of a coincidence.

Anyhow, I know there are people out there experiencing the same thing. I thought I’d throw this post out there to see if any of the devs are interested in possibly resolving this. But what I have determined is that this pretty much rules out the client machines as being a source of the problem. I’d also rule out the actual game client, given the conditions needed to create this same issue client-side.

[hp1055cm]

I HAD a similar problem after update 26 was released where my screen would randomly freeze during a transition and I would have to relog to continue playing but it doesn't happen anymore. I want to say it cleared up after update 27 was released but I can't say exactly when it stopped being a problem.
At the time it was highly annoying and would happen maybe once and hour or two randomly when changing areas. I did some minor troubleshooting like cleaning my HD and registry and being more aware of anything else running (like AV scans) but just gave up on it until one day I just realized it had not happened in awhile. Nowadays it may happen once a week - which is within normal tolerance I would think.
I can't really say what caused the problem (other than speculate) but yeah I feel your frustration.

[dunklezhan]

I HAD a similar problem after update 26 was released where my screen would randomly freeze during a transition and I would have to relog to continue playing but it doesn't happen anymore. I want to say it cleared up after update 27 was released but I can't say exactly when it stopped being a problem.
At the time it was highly annoying and would happen maybe once and hour or two randomly when changing areas. I did some minor troubleshooting like cleaning my HD and registry and being more aware of anything else running (like AV scans) but just gave up on it until one day I just realized it had not happened in awhile. Nowadays it may happen once a week - which is within normal tolerance I would think.
I can't really say what caused the problem (other than speculate) but yeah I feel your frustration.

Been happening to me in Sands again recently, specifically going into and recalling from the explorer area. Have also had it (rarely) at quest entrances throughout the game, couldnt' say it was one particular culprit.

of course, when it happens you're usually keeping others waiting, so I haven't put in a bug report. I wouldn't even know how to report something like that, it's not like I could give them any reliable repro steps.

[Franghasea]

I also seem to have this happen immediately following an Update or Patch release. It seems to stop occurring at some point, significantly after the release. Then the next release occurs and it begins again. I have not had it happen to anyone else in the same party at the same time as it occurs to me.

[bartharok]

It has happened to me as well, though rarely, for about 6 months now.

[Darkmits]

Time out happens because when you transition into an area, the game is coded to first log you in that area, then starts loading, and doesn't send packages to and from the server until all loading has happened from your hard drive. If it takes more than 20seconds or so, the game considers you disconnected due to lack of data exchange between you and the server. So:

Does the loading bar load at all, or is it stuck at some point (even in the start)?
When loading other areas and quests of the game, how many seconds does it take you on average?
Have you enabled pre-caching from the launcher?
Do you have the game installed on an old ATA drive?
Do you have other programs running on your pc that may use your hard-drive at the same time, or your cpu?

The most obvious solution would be for Turbine to allow the game to communicate with the server even during loading sessions just to give the ok not to disconnect you.

[AbyssalMage]

Ok, so, I’m not one of those guys who goes to notify devs, or direct comments to devs (outside of my great Ghostbaning comments), but I thought I’d post something about an issue I’m having with the game.

For a while now, I’ve been having issues when I transition from one area to the next. Say, for example, I’m running quests in Gianthold. I transition from the Marketplace to Gianthold just fine. I transition from the public area to the private area just fine. Then, I go to step in a quest, I get the status screen, and then…nothing. I just close off the program (I run in windowed mode), and re-log. When this happens, I end up in the area that was my destination. So in the example above, I would be in the beginning of the quest that I entered. This seems to be random. It doesn’t always happen at the same time, or the same transitions. There has been nothing to really hang my hat on when it comes to seeing a pattern.

If I were to sit on that transition screen, the connection would eventually time out and I’d get booted from the game. I tested this in the past.

I’ve been wondering for a while now what it was that was causing the problem. I tried re-installing. I tried switching to a different wireless router. The only thing I haven’t done was connecting via wired Ethernet which I haven’t done for various reasons. The problem is annoying its worst.

So, last Friday I’m running with some guildies and friends. Sure enough, I had to re-log three different times over something like 5 quests. However, two other people in the group had the same EXACT problem, with the same EXACT transitions. One of them was going from the Gianthold wilderness area to Maze of Madness.

Three people. Three “lock-ups” on the same three transitions…all in a row. That’s TOO much of a coincidence.

Anyhow, I know there are people out there experiencing the same thing. I thought I’d throw this post out there to see if any of the devs are interested in possibly resolving this. But what I have determined is that this pretty much rules out the client machines as being a source of the problem. I’d also rule out the actual game client, given the conditions needed to create this same issue client-side.

I have had the same trouble but I know that most of the problems are on my side (graphics card) and ISP Connection (Bad Ethernet Card in MB, I think, or its Win 8.1 ). Hopefully once I get a new graphics card in my main computer the problem goes away although this doesn't sound promising.

[Nonesuch2008]

I can't pin down an exact timeframe or frequency, but this does happen to me infrequently as well.

In my case, I have had it happen in quest entrances and also in public spots. House P and the Market come to mind as the most recent ones. I always see the loading screen, but the progress bar never advances. It remains empty until the game eventually times out and d-c's me, or I give up and re-log it myself.

[bsquishwizzy]

Time out happens because when you transition into an area, the game is coded to first log you in that area, then starts loading, and doesn't send packages to and from the server until all loading has happened from your hard drive. If it takes more than 20seconds or so, the game considers you disconnected due to lack of data exchange between you and the server. So:

Does the loading bar load at all, or is it stuck at some point (even in the start)?
When loading other areas and quests of the game, how many seconds does it take you on average?
Have you enabled pre-caching from the launcher?
Do you have the game installed on an old ATA drive?
Do you have other programs running on your pc that may use your hard-drive at the same time, or your cpu?

The most obvious solution would be for Turbine to allow the game to communicate with the server even during loading sessions just to give the ok not to disconnect you.

None of that applies here, with the exception of maybe the loading bar. The loading bar never fills in from the “zero” position. I checked with them.

Three people getting the exact same issue at the same time in different locations with different PCs and different connections virtually rules out local problems. In fact, what turned me on to this is the fact that both people told me that had to re-log because they were “hung” only a moment before I stepped into the same quest (using the same area transition as them).

If it was a local PC thing, the re-logs would be staggered.