Could We Be Closer to Server Merges (Superservers) than we realize?

[Ganak]

Lag performance reported to be greatly improved (for evidence check out https://www.youtube.com/@Strimtom and be sure to subscribe because he does fantastic content).

There are things to be ironed out and tweaked with the lag performance changes, please be patient.


If we can have more people on a server, might that open the door? Please also note the methodology for the new forums...get in and register your forum name quickly. A problem with server mergers is character names and guilds/guild names. Might they take the same approach? I lived through the mabar/argo consolidation back in the day.

[Nebless]

Haven't seen any lag the last couple of days, but what ever they did made my character act .... 'janky'. He now while standing still will jerk over to the left and right and then return to his start direction. Kind of like a flicker, but it's with him popping back and forth.

But to the OP question, probably not. WAY too many issues that they might not be able to over come (the one's you mentioned) short of everyone starting a new character.

[archest]

Haven't seen any lag the last couple of days, but what ever they did made my character act .... 'janky'. He now while standing still will jerk over to the left and right and then return to his start direction. Kind of like a flicker, but it's with him popping back and forth.

But to the OP question, probably not. WAY too many issues that they might not be able to over come (the one's you mentioned) short of everyone starting a new character.

they would just have to transfer servers from one to the other the same as what happens with hardcore.
only things to work out are guilds which could rename in the same way as characters do with a free guild rename and shards
which can be transferred to the new server's well if it was a thing. the same with hires and horses and such that dont transfer now.
there one thing while you have 1/2 your crafting supplies on another server and at this time changing servers you have to pay to accomplish that transfer of collectables.

[Ganak]

Pardon, just for clarity, referencing the changes on Llama, not current state of live servers.

[Buddha5440]

Pardon, just for clarity, referencing the changes on Llama, not current state of live servers.

Ummm... Shouldn't this be posted on the LAM forums then?

[ahpook]

they would just have to transfer servers from one to the other the same as what happens with hardcore.
only things to work out are guilds which could rename in the same way as characters do with a free guild rename and shards
which can be transferred to the new server's well if it was a thing. the same with hires and horses and such that dont transfer now.
there one thing while you have 1/2 your crafting supplies on another server and at this time changing servers you have to pay to accomplish that transfer of collectables.

Your list of things that is not like a hard core transfer is quite significant and also missing shared banks, pets, monster manual, ... IOW not really at all like hardcore. Most of those shared things are new since the last time there was server merge so unless they are dedicating some resources to figuring out how to handle bank overflows and merge mount stables and blend monster manuals, a merge is not in the near future.

[Ganak]

Ummm... Shouldn't this be posted on the LAM forums then?

No.

I did not give away specifics, but this is not 'spoiler' content I am posting about. Really the devs should have been posting to the community at large about these potentially groundbreaking changes.


In fact I WILL spoil. They shared so much 'under the cover' details about how the game works, has worked, and changes they are making that this is pretty relevant and 'non-spoiler" to share with the community, and encourage any interested parties to check out and test on Llama.

[Buddha5440]

Pardon, just for clarity, referencing the changes on Llama, not current state of live servers.

Again...in your words... not live...so should be posted on the LAM threads.

[Jaxtan]

The only way to have a server merger is to solve the huge issue of server bound items, like guilds and ships. Given the large amount of real-world currency spent on these things there is no way the company survives without a huge reimbursement for items bought, or the ability to transfer them as well.

[ahpook]

No.

I did not give away specifics, but this is not 'spoiler' content I am posting about. Really the devs should have been posting to the community at large about these potentially groundbreaking changes.


In fact I WILL spoil. They shared so much 'under the cover' details about how the game works, has worked, and changes they are making that this is pretty relevant and 'non-spoiler" to share with the community, and encourage any interested parties to check out and test on Llama.

Lam threads is not really about spoilers so much as to keep things that are not actually in the game from confusing people into thinking they are. Your post is fine here because it is talking about a server merge. You probably should mention that you are basing this on the performance improvements announced in the Lamannia threads. Your post doesn't really need to go to Lamannia threads because talking about a server merge has nothing to do with Lamannia (or anything planned at all).


And to answer your question: No.

[Ganak]

Again...in your words... not live...so should be posted on the LAM threads.

To Roll Of Lam Lingo

[droid327]

No

Lag wasnt the only barrier to that, nor even the biggest one

Plus, those of you who wanted to play on a super server had a very generous window of time to move to Orien completely free of charge

AFAIC that resolved the issue. Those who wanted it could go, those that didnt remained behind. Further pushes towards merges would only be forcing the issue on those who chose to decline the invite, and that isnt necessary or fair.

[rabidfox]

missing shared banks, pets, monster manual

and mounts, astral shards, airships, amenities... They're all deal breakers for things that currently get left behind. Until they're possible to move alongside characters, merges will be unwanted by many people.

[Oxarhamar]

No

Lag wasnt the only barrier to that, nor even the biggest one

Plus, those of you who wanted to play on a super server had a very generous window of time to move to Orien completely free of charge

AFAIC that resolved the issue. Those who wanted it could go, those that didnt remained behind. Further pushes towards merges would only be forcing the issue on those who chose to decline the invite, and that isnt necessary or fair.

moving to Orien was intended for those who couldn’t move there from Hardcore not a super server

[thegreatcthulhu]

I doubt we will have mergers this year - if they were going to be "done right". There are so many things that need to be automated still and/or handled for it to be a fair process IMO.

But on the lag thing - I am excited for it, but I personally want to wait and see how it works when it lands on Khyber.

[Paladin_of_Power]

No the streamer you mentioned did experience some end of quest lag and there’s still desynchronization issues between the client and the server that has not been resolved and the streamer also had some “building the dungeon lag as you progress”. that has not been addressed not to mention that ithe changes on Lam hasn’t been load tested at all.

Lam does look Very Promising though.

Several things do not transfer when you’re transferring servers and that really needs to be worked out if they want to do a professional job on a server transfer.

[Strider1963]

Pardon, just for clarity, referencing the changes on Llama, not current state of live servers.

My question about this is how many people are online at the same time on Llama? There is ALWAYS barely any lag when I play early in the am on Sarlona, because theres few people online compared to evenings or weekends. Dont get me wrong, I would love for the Devs to greatly improve lag and everything that goes along with it, like rubberbanding, freezing on ports and logging out, bank lag, etc

[Valtan]

Lag performance reported to be greatly improved (for evidence check out https://www.youtube.com/@Strimtom and be sure to subscribe because he does fantastic content).

There are things to be ironed out and tweaked with the lag performance changes, please be patient.


If we can have more people on a server, might that open the door? Please also note the methodology for the new forums...get in and register your forum name quickly. A problem with server mergers is character names and guilds/guild names. Might they take the same approach? I lived through the mabar/argo consolidation back in the day.

Depends on how succesful changes are in U59. Also the removal of reaper trees and its calculation every time you swing a sword or cast a spell. Both these changes should reduce lag a lot. Then it is time to rewrite code to use multi-core CPU and GPU advancements made since late 90s when the code was written. I expect a MEGASERVER by 2035, not before that.

[mpetrarca]

Firstly, Lamannia does not even come close to the traffic Wayfinder gets, so yeah I would expect less lag on Lamannia. Also, Lamannia is a fresh build of the game, again less lag. Lets be honest, SSG has never been great at QA testing. What really scares me is, what will SSG break with these changes? When it goes live we will see, I can wish for the best, but I live in reality.

[SiliconScout]

I have some faith in this. That was part of the drive to join up E3 afterall as they could leverage engineers from other companies / departments who have far more experience specifically in this kind of work. Having game engine specialists crawl through and tidy up is always going to be far more effective than having your standard programmer do the work and the combined talent pool is so much deeper.

Will they cure lag, no because nobody has ever or will ever cure lag on a solution that required a network connection and client systems. Could it be possible that they have found and eliminated many sources of internal engine lag, oh heck yes. I am really hoping this means they were able to untangle and straighten out some of the spaghetti in there. The effort to refactor it all would be immense but if I can imagine that if you have some engineers who really understand that engine you could build a plan to compartmentalize and refactor / clean up sections of the codebase potentially completing a refactoring of the code over a 3-5 year window. Not that it would be easy and not that it wouldn't come with risks but I am positive it could be done if you have access to the specialists and if they start enforcing some proper source control and coding standards.

Sadly in much of DDO's history the coders were operating largely in a wild west environment but I get the sense that over the last couple of years they are trying to move to a more formal, one might even say more professional, standard. I hope that is the case and I hope a patch with massive lag reduction is the first of several results that ultimately produce a better game.