The latest on lag and game performance improvements

[Cordovan]

Hello! Our original thread has grown fairly large, so I wanted to start over with a new thread to track the results of the work starting today to improve game performance and reduce lag. Today's patch included several optimizations that we believe will improve game performance, along with fixes to several issues with barbarian enhancements that were causing them to decrease game performance for both them and anyone in the same instance as them.

We're continuing to work on improvements. For example, this afternoon we identified an improvement we will be making to our monitoring tools to lessen their impact on game performance, and will be working to bring that out to the game worlds in the relatively near future.

In the meantime, tell us about your experience as of, say, Noon Eastern on Thursday, April 14th. Please consider the following information:

1. Server
2. Approximate time
3. General class makeup and group composition
4. Size of party/raid group
5. Quest or raid run
6. General experience

We no longer need trace route information from players, although we'll let you know if it's helpful to provide that information in the future.

[Duana]

We're continuing to work on improvements. For example, this afternoon we identified an improvement we will be making to our monitoring tools to lessen their impact on game performance, and will be working to bring that out to the game worlds in the relatively near future.

I knew it! Lag is caused by the NSA!

Work is a ***** today. I look forward to logging on this evening and seeing how things sit currently. Thanks for the info.

[PsychoBlonde]

Ran on Thelanis with groups of various sizes from around noon until about 1630 zerging through low-level quests (which means lots and lots and LOTS of loading screens) No noticeable lag at any point, I think only one slow loading screen the entire time. Was nice. I know we had a warlock, a bear druid, a fighter, a bard, a ranger, a wizard, and a pally in there at some point along with a couple of hirelings.

[Nyata]

joined a couple of raids on a level 30 artificer on khyber. mostly full or almost full groups, so 10 to 12 people.

mixed groups, pretty much every class present (have not seen a wizard. but everything else was there some time or another.. even a deep gnome barbarian)

DOJ: unfortunately the verdict is still unplayable with a full or almost full raid group. tried EE and EH. gave up due to lag

temple of the deathwyrm: EH, mostly went well lagwise. one person got seperated from group previously and trapped in portal room, which usually does not bode well for lag (we asked her to stay in for the completion at least, and spreading out the group is never a good thing in that place). stutters in final fight, 'volley' effect (attacks not hitting for a while, and then all of them seemingly hitting at once a bit later) and some delayed casting. first attempt at levers failed because lever only moved 2 seconds after it was flipped. we were blessed and got both jump room and red/green room (lucky, I know). Red/green was... wonky. some players standing completely still for minutes not even daring to range anything still died all of a sudden when lights changed.

Fire on thunder peaks: EH, lag was unpleasant. not completely crippling, but I for one died with nothing actually being near me and the combat log not even stating that I got killed.

FoT: was pleasantly surprised by no lag freeze after dragon/giant pairs were killed. occasional stutters, but nothing disastrous.

hoping to test legendary HoX, shroud and TS tomorrow.

[dunklezhan]

I knew it! Lag is caused by the NSA!

That's ok. Apparently once you find out about one of their listening posts there's a non-violent solution to that...

[Vulkoorex]

Wayfinder back to normal.

None to very little lag on quests.
Raid lag is back to pre-data center move.

Overall...a very good day on Wayfinder.

Hope it stays.

[Six_Gun]

1. Server - Thelanis
2. Approximate time - 5pm MST
3. General class makeup and group composition - Barb x 2, Rogue, Pally, Fighter
4. Size of party/raid group - 5
5. Quest or raid run - Vale quests
6. General experience

The lag seems about the same to me. Consistent stuttering, slight rubber banding, and minor freezes when large groups spawn. Still seem to be missing a lot of swings while monsters seemingly shift about.

Not much of an improvement.

[Gordo]

Argo
19:40 EST
One caster
Grim & Barett
Epic Elite
* Horrible lag, monsters dying 5 seconds after they were already dead, spells having no effect after cast, etc...
* Quest was much better solo on EE before the "fix" today.

[Eryhn]

1. Server: Argonessen

2. Approximate time: ~ 30 mins ago, aka 02.15-02.30 CET / 08.15-0830 PM Eastern

3. General class makeup and group composition:
9/8/3/10 cleric/fighter/pally/epic PDK, Legendary Dreadnaught, Twists: Sense Weakness, Balanced Attacks, Brace for Impact, Cocoon

4. Size of party/raid group: solo

5. Quest or raid run: LN Tempest Spine

6. General experience:
start with fire eles smooth. slight rubberbanding on first few drow groups. bypassed fire+ice cause to dumb for rune and just hunting some chests. in the room with 3 drow rednamed, rubberband was still ok on the first drow, slightly increased onward, on the 2nd one, caster at shrine more often hits didnt go in. once the thrid caster started spamming cloudkill, completely lagged out for 30 sec before server caught up and i was dead. cloudkill effect persisted during death, after shrining up, could not be removed by any spell or scroll and persisted after quest in house J public too ...

latency and loss were perfectly stable / non existent ...





TRY HARDER

[Jetrule]

Just finished several heroic quests and a heroic Tempest spine full raid group on Canith. 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm eastern. Playing a wizard. No lag at all that I noticed.

[vandall01]

8:57PM Eastern

12 man DOJ Normal

4 Locks, 1 fighter, 2 barbs, 1 wiz, 2 rangers, 1 rogue, 1 Sorc

Made it past initial mobs first room up stairs lag started lightly, in blade room lag was worse but we killed all. Gate opened and lag went through the roof, unplayable complete stops and after 6 died lag disappeared until fail for too many adds.

[alancarp]

Things were going fairly well until 9:11pm ET on Thelanis.
Running a rogue Gnome + cleric hireling on Attack on Summerfield. Suddenly I got stopped very short for a minute or two.
Example? Shoot a barrel with an arrow, then literally count to 4 seconds before it blew.
Better now as I write this...and that's been the only note of significance right now.

Was watching for performance just running about in the marketplace public area, too: seemed a bit better, though slightly jerky if you're looking for it. It was more noticeable earlier in the week.

Edit: Correction - still pretty stop-n-go-like at 9:18pm...maybe it's that DoJ run (prior post)? The 4-second breakable thing is back, too (I'm in the warehouse).

Bad again at 9:23-24. At 9:27 it got me killed.

[AnubisPrime]

No lag

Ghallanda 9pm EDT...

But i end up w/ some delays on load screens.

Did Shar quests and Harbor stuff

[vandall01]

9:15 PM Eastern

12 man DOJ Normal

4 Locks, 1 fighter, 2 barbs, 1 wiz, 2 rangers, 1 rogue, 1 Sorc

Made it past initial mobs first room up stairs lag started lightly, in blade room lag was worse but we killed all. Gate opened and lag went through the roof, unplayable complete stops and after 6 died lag disappeared until fail for too many adds.

[vandall01]

Ran with 8 peeps and lag was tolerable. Still small flashes when mob numbers were high @10pm EST on Thelanis.

1 rogue, 4 locks, 1 ranger, 1 barb, 1 bard

Made it to pit fiend fight and lagged a bit, one death and we were able to go until we failed for too little DPS, but it was playable.

[Lerincho]

Cordovan, still seeing a lot in regards to when mobs die and server is divvying out renown. Was the renown mechanic changed at all recently?

[lostgunman]

Not noticing any real improvement. Same lag as normal...and I have been soloing. Load screens are taking about twice the normal time (but that has been happening a while now). I am running with 16gb of ram and a solid state drive. Processor and video are far beyond what's needed for best graphics...should not be having long load times...

[Bolo_Grubb]

1. Sarlona
2. Approximate Time - 1020pm eastern
3. Location - Tucson, Az,
4. Quests/raids run Von 5/6
5. Difficulties run - Epic Elite
6. Your character class - Rogue
7. Number of players in the group 12
8. Mostly freezing lag affecting everyone for short amounts of time through out the quest. Lag seemed better for me then it has been the last few weeks but others reported it as just as bad for them.

[Bolo_Grubb]

1. Sarlona
2. Approximate Time - 1050pm eastern
3. Location - Tucson, Az,
4. Quests/raids run - Thunderholme slayers to get Flagged for both raids
5. Difficulties run - Slayer area
6. Your character class - Rogue
7. Number of players in the group 8
8. freezing lag affecting everyone through out the attempt to get flagged, lag just as bad or worse then it has been the several weeks.

[LrdSlvrhnd]

1. Thelanis
2. Early afternoon Eastern time. Say, between noonish and 2-ish eastern.
3. L30 Warlock, mostly using cone with the rest of the time the default EB; no aura. Consume, Stricken, Steal Life Force, occasional Eldritch Burst. In DC, level 2-3, with Aura of Purification and some (not much) Consecration.
4. Soloing
5. EE A Small Problem & Partycrashers, and some running around an empty-other-than-me guildship.
6. Mostly good, but some stuttering in both quests and on the ship. Generally while not firing everything off, but a couple of times while blasting. No "OMG, this game is unplayable right now!" moments, though I'm pretty sure some abilities never fired off when told (may've just not mashed the button hard enough, though).