Evernight is unplayable due to lag... again

As per title, it's been atrocious the past couple of days and bad for months now.

Complete server freezes in raids for 10s+ every minute or so. Raid on Monday if we used OB the entire game would freeze up for the entire duration... imagine doing less dps with it on than off. immediate skills failing more than they work - lagging out in shire homesteads with 600 people online...

Not even going to mention the ettenmoors...


It's laughable at this point but nobody is laughing because it's just tragic. Fix the servers before releasing 3 mans with more talking than actual gameplay. Thank you.

Just to add, every "piece of work that's been done" has done absolutely NOTHING to improve performance of the server itself

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nubja

Just to add, every "piece of work that's been done" has done absolutely NOTHING to improve performance of the server itself

---

Yep, been lag for a long time. Guess its more for europeans, but i heard its also some americans. Its sad. Havent been online for a week now, just waiting for a new game. This is not good.

And a note, you have to lower your settings quite drastic to be able to play fairly smoothly. I play on very low when raiding.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HeliStorm

Yep, been lag for a long time. Guess its more for europeans, but i heard its also some americans. Its sad. Havent been online for a week now, just waiting for a new game. This is not good.

And a note, you have to lower your settings quite drastic to be able to play fairly smoothly. I play on very low when raiding.

---

I don't think it's an unrealistic expectation, in 2021, to be able to play an online game with high graphics. Almost all games are online these days, in some capacity.
The game needs a huge performance overhaul, and I would settle for that over new content at this point.

For the thousandth time, it's not frame lag -.-

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nubja

For the thousandth time, it's not frame lag -.-

---

I didnt say it was, just the settings i been using since Throne-raid. Just doesnt make so much difference anymore tho.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HeliStorm

I didnt say it was, just the settings i been using since Throne-raid. Just doesnt make so much difference anymore tho.

---

How do you think adjusting graphics has anything to do with server side issues?
Its not FPS lag, its server side rubberbanding, dosnt mather what graphics you are using.

For FPS lag i have more issues with lower graphics than high.

For server side issues on Evernight, i can highly confirm this has been a big big problem past days. It's getting worse and worse
I tried to do Shelob for 3.5 hours with a decent group that should have been able to kill it without big issues. However constant 10-15-20 seconds skill lag every 1-2-3 minutes (Yes, i am actually not kidding here) made it impossible.
Imagine this.. Double side weavers come in and you as a yellow burg are trying to handle the CC on them, but a simple daze or stun is not even going true.. No skills going off at all, and suddenly 2 people are bound.

I wish someone in my group recorded and can share it here.

Lag spikes and server freezes returned after the restart yesterday, 8-9 pm GMT raiding was just about possible in between all of the performance issues being felt raid-wide.

Could you redirect your efforts away from whatever is the current focus and back to stabilizing the infrastrucure?

Thanks.

I've also been experiencing the old disappearing housing items bug again since the last patch, both interior and exterior. Other than that it's the usual smorgasbord of rubberbanding, skills taking an eternity to register and the occasional lost connection even when my internet is still up and running. I don't know how much longer they can keep duct-taping everything together until it finally gives up the ghost. I know this is a concept they've been avoiding for years, but at some point they're going to actually have to spend some money on their own game if they want to fix this mess.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 1Asy1

Lag spikes and server freezes returned after the restart yesterday, 8-9 pm GMT raiding was just about possible in between all of the performance issues being felt raid-wide.

Could you redirect your efforts away from whatever is the current focus and back to stabilizing the infrastrucure?

Thanks.

---

Keep in mind the development team is made up of a lot of specialists - graphic artists, building quests, etc. Those specialists can't just swap to working on performance and networking issues. The team can't just focus on "stabilizing the infrastructure" because 90% of the staff can't help in that area. Hiring new people is not a great option because it would take 3-4 months just to get them up to speed in the architecture of their environment and how the gaming engine works.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SavinDwarf

Keep in mind the development team is made up of a lot of specialists - graphic artists, building quests, etc. Those specialists can't just swap to working on performance and networking issues. The team can't just focus on "stabilizing the infrastructure" because 90% of the staff can't help in that area. Hiring new people is not a great option because it would take 3-4 months just to get them up to speed in the architecture of their environment and how the gaming engine works.

---

I honestly don't care. All that additional resource is essentially working on something that will be unplayable or an unenjoyable experience for any number of reasons.

I don't fancy having to do landscape again outside of core hours, just because the area is unplayable due to the sheer volume of people.

It doesn't take contract resources 3-4 months to get up to speed either. A skilled developer or DBA could have analyzed and suggested a number of fixes in that time, possibly even deployed some.

I see zero value in your post, other than a week attempt to offer some form of defence to something that should have been addressed a long time ago.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 1Asy1

I see zero value in your post, other than a week attempt to offer some form of defence to something that should have been addressed a long time ago.

---

EDIT deleted original reply ...

I normally avoid this type of post. Sorry for my hasty reply. Ignore my analysis and be safe and happy.

Another night with reduced awareness in remmorchant. Literally impossible bossfights when quick shot takes 3s to start casting.


SSG. Fix this NOW. Stop treating your customers like this. It's unacceptable.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SavinDwarf

Keep in mind the development team is made up of a lot of specialists - graphic artists, building quests, etc. Those specialists can't just swap to working on performance and networking issues. The team can't just focus on "stabilizing the infrastructure" because 90% of the staff can't help in that area. Hiring new people is not a great option because it would take 3-4 months just to get them up to speed in the architecture of their environment and how the gaming engine works.

---

Don't understand this post, or agree with any of it sorry to say. If this is true that 90 percent of the staff can't help in each area, then I would say (depending on exactly which problem with the game we're addressing) that you still aren't explaining why the other 10 percent of the staff hasn't fixed almost anything promised and majorly important to the game in many years.

The store is run by someone who does the store, I get that. It's only gotten more pay to win yearly every year for many years. The netcode is done by a server person, netcode person, call it what you'd like. The unpredictable latency spikes have only gotten worse over time, never can I name one year where it was consistently better than the previous. So apparently the netcode guy can't fix the netcode either. Or the servers.

How about legendary items? When people remind us that oh the person who makes new cosmetic pets can't work on the LI system! Sure, I get that. But who can? It seems no one left at the company is both interested and capable of implementing ideas from their own discussions and promises, or from ours on the forum, into the game anymore.

Even the most basic thing: A small letter of comments and promises, call them ideas more like it from the producer. Where is it again this year? We're in March.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HeliStorm

Yep, been lag for a long time. Guess its more for europeans, but i heard its also some americans. Its sad. Havent been online for a week now, just waiting for a new game. This is not good.

And a note, you have to lower your settings quite drastic to be able to play fairly smoothly. I play on very low when raiding.

---

YES! This is the best solution... you have to be crazy to play in high resolution on Evernight even with a very good computer.
On raid and pvp it is impossible to activate a skill :confused:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Esgalad

The store is run by someone who does the store, I get that. It's only gotten more pay to win yearly every year for many years. The netcode is done by a server person, netcode person, call it what you'd like. The unpredictable latency spikes have only gotten worse over time, never can I name one year where it was consistently better than the previous. So apparently the netcode guy can't fix the netcode either. Or the servers.

How about legendary items? When people remind us that oh the person who makes new cosmetic pets can't work on the LI system! Sure, I get that. But who can? It seems no one left at the company is both interested and capable of implementing ideas from their own discussions and promises, or from ours on the forum, into the game anymore.

---

Exactly.

00:23 AM in the UK. 435 players online. Server freezes at shelob

Get your act together.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Esgalad

Don't understand this post, or agree with any of it sorry to say. If this is true that 90 percent of the staff can't help in each area, then I would say (depending on exactly which problem with the game we're addressing) that you still aren't explaining why the other 10 percent of the staff hasn't fixed almost anything promised and majorly important to the game in many years.

The store is run by someone who does the store, I get that. It's only gotten more pay to win yearly every year for many years. The netcode is done by a server person, netcode person, call it what you'd like. The unpredictable latency spikes have only gotten worse over time, never can I name one year where it was consistently better than the previous. So apparently the netcode guy can't fix the netcode either. Or the servers.

How about legendary items? When people remind us that oh the person who makes new cosmetic pets can't work on the LI system! Sure, I get that. But who can? It seems no one left at the company is both interested and capable of implementing ideas from their own discussions and promises, or from ours on the forum, into the game anymore.

Even the most basic thing: A small letter of comments and promises, call them ideas more like it from the producer. Where is it again this year? We're in March.

---

My post was in reply to a comment that suggested they should stop working on expansions/bug fixes etc until they have fixed the performance problem. I never said they shouldn't fix the performance issues - just pointed out that if they stopped working on everything else and just focused on fixing the performance issues it does not really help much.

I suspect that almost all of the staff capable of fixing performance issues are already assigned to that exact issue. For whatever reason everything they have done to fix the issue doesn't work. Or, even more strange, works a little bit for a while then gets worse again.

I see the old bug that causes an inability to log a character in, forcing you to quit and try again with your character now in their undies on the selection screen, is back again with a vengeance. So much for that getting fixed.

At this point, I don't even think Lotro can call itself an MMO, seeing as the "online" part barely applies.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mollymixtures

I see the old bug that causes an inability to log a character in, forcing you to quit and try again with your character now in their undies on the selection screen, is back again with a vengeance. So much for that getting fixed.

---

Yep it's definitely back on Evernight :(

At least the tedious several minute wait to hand in missions/leave instance + able to launch another happened in game.

Evernight does seem particularly prone to all these problems, why?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nubja

Another night with reduced awareness in remmorchant. Literally impossible bossfights when quick shot takes 3s to start casting.


SSG. Fix this NOW. Stop treating your customers like this. It's unacceptable.

---

Sure they can. They have been doing this for years. And yet here you still are.

By again i guess you mean still ;)

I think we can all tolerate "some" lag however it's firmly gotten to stage where it either:-

- Unplayable completely.
- Cancel the raid come back an hour later and hope fewer people are online.
- Cancel all together and come back another day.

The last 6 months of "improvements" personally for me have reduced the performance of the game significantly.

To qualify, it's raid-wide and not individual.

It would be great to get a response from a blue name, please?

Question for Evernight Players:

When lag is at its worse, does it even effect people in lowly populated starter zones? I suspect the answer is yes ... but I was interested to get a real answer.

The answer is just to confirm my belief that the Evernight issue impacts the whole server.

If my memory serves me correct (and that is not as sure these days lol!!) there was a time when the whole farm was going down, even the forums. This time its just impacting Evernight. Of course that's no relief for those of you suffering and it certainly needs to be fixed.

I guess the issue is related to the number of users - but I seem to remember that back in 2007-2009 we used to have a lot more users on the servers???

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SavinDwarf

Question for Evernight Players:

When lag is at its worse, does it even effect people in lowly populated starter zones? I suspect the answer is yes ... but I was interested to get a real answer.

The answer is just to confirm my belief that the Evernight issue impacts the whole server.

If my memory serves me correct (and that is not as sure these days lol!!) there was a time when the whole farm was going down, even the forums. This time its just impacting Evernight. Of course that's no relief for those of you suffering and it certainly needs to be fixed.

I guess the issue is related to the number of users - but I seem to remember that back in 2007-2009 we used to have a lot more users on the servers???

---

Yes is the short answer, I was stood in Thorin's homestead parsing on the dummy, once the server exceeds 500-600 players hitching, delay, and stutters start to happen - early afternoon around 4 pm.

It's server-wide, you can see people complaining in world chat, everyone in our raids is affected, it's not singular.

In the evening the player base for none anon ranges from 1200-1400 - with the majority of players on EN being insecure anon I suspect the player base is a lot higher.

It's rarely worth doing group content during peak time.

At the start of Minas Morgul, the whole server landscape-wise was on its knees, I just logged on very late in the evening to get it done.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 1Asy1

Yes is the short answer, I was stood in Thorin's homestead parsing on the dummy, once the server exceeds 500-600 players hitching, delay, and stutters start to happen - early afternoon around 4 pm.

It's server-wide, you can see people complaining in world chat, everyone in our raids is affected, it's not singular.

In the evening the player base for none anon ranges from 1200-1400 - with the majority of players on EN being insecure anon I suspect the player base is a lot higher.

It's rarely worth doing group content during peak time.

At the start of Minas Morgul, the whole server landscape-wise was on its knees, I just logged on very late in the evening to get it done.

---

Yuck.... You would think that with the increased power/memory/speed of disk access of modern servers that the max user load would increase. But I guess there is something about the design of the game engine that is the reason for max user before "the #### hits the fan".

Evernight is probably over double the users of most servers and because its the main European server it probably continues to add new users. It would be interesting to hear from a SSG techie what the maximum number of users on a server is.

Having skill lag in zones like rohan,gondor etc.
Endless loading screens are back,housing items not spawning people of all lvs keep asking is it lag or just me?
What is point of developing new content if game is unplayable?

P.S i know there will be some 500 IQ big brain indivuidal who will say i am mot getting any lag it must be you guys.
To you i havent got covid this pandemic must be you guys

I think I can be certain that the players have upgraded their machinery over the years of the game. We hope SSG have done the same, but given that at key moments of infrastructure change there's been a noticeable degradations in performance, what are we to think?

Now it could just be every little bit of new tech that gets implemented with little consideration to performance impact. If you are getting a pat on the back for some new tech or great new visuals working on the internal server are you considering the live server under load? If your bosses aren't even playing they're not in a position to know. It literally doesn't exist unless you experience it for yourself and haven't managed to "create" some excuse or misdirection.

I'd ask the raiders who are struggling in prime time to run a BG or OD instead to see if the 30 second freezes are still occurring? I get that a choice has to be made to prevent players lagging out the mobs to gain advantage so they are given priority but when performance is so effected under load it doesn't seem so fair.

I've been doing WotTP and missions recently; having to wait around for so long for the load process seems very different, unlike the usual instance loading. What is different? Seems like each new content purchase is another degradation. I'm getting very selective on where my characters are in game before doing particular chores; like coming out of a mission I can sell the vendor trash but no hope of speedy access to storage. Can ID ILs and use heritage runes though. Some missions I can dash to the end boss before any mob is visible but all are in toe when they appear on screen. My take - the touted performance "work" was more a juggling/re-ordering and suspect the consequence of an enforced external circumstance from above. In some ways I'd like the end of the load screen to actually mean the end of the load process, might be more annoying though. When you have avid streamers rolling their eyes at the 20 to 90 second wait for an npc to become active, it hasn't worked. At least if gives our CM time to maybe address some questions.

One Potential Solution (no one please kill me yet)

1) Bring up a BRAND new server
2) Give KINs the option to move the whole Kin and all of its players to the new Server
3) KIN transfer is on a first come- first server basis. When this reaches about 40% of the ACTIVE users on Evernight POST the list of KINS transferring
4) Allow individual accounts to move to new server. The list closes when the move now includes 50% of Evernight
5) Allow individuals or KINs to remove themselves from the list (because or relationships)
6) Execute the move.

Now we have two servers with a number of users that does not cause everything to go to heck.

Sorry, but I bet this solution, although terrible, is better than waiting for a miracle and is something that could definitley be done.

OK -- now feel free to KILL ME....

Still having problems getting into the game. The restart has changed nothing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SavinDwarf

One Potential Solution (no one please kill me yet)

---

I am curious about one possibility here. Would a brand new server be subject to the EU/US server divide?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Joedangod

I am curious about one possibility here. Would a brand new server be subject to the EU/US server divide?

---

I'm guessing the new server would focus on EU because that is where the bulk of the users are coming from initially. The challenge (listening to other posts) is to not have too many new people join these servers since Evernight is already twice the users of the other servers.

One advantage of a BRAND NEW server is there is no problems with name changes being forced - kinship names and character names are all unchanged. But even with that some friends will get split from each other.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SavinDwarf

I'm guessing the new server would focus on EU because that is where the bulk of the users are coming from initially.

---

Yeah, I was mostly talking about the block preventing US toons from transferring to the old EU server and vice versa. Both EU and US can send toons to Bullroarer/Palantir and I believe the Bombadil toons could be moved to either EU or US after the event ended. I'm not really sure why I made it look like I was asking you a question with that post. It was really more idle musing about the fact that I'd really like to be able to move my US toons to EU so I can get back to raiding at a more reasonable hour.

Whilst it's appreciated there are many solutions and the mystery of not being able to transfer between EU/NA, yet we can all move to BR are all good talking points, let's try and keep this thread on topic, documenting server-wide issues.

Yesterday, I joined another kin to do Threshold at 7:30 GMT time, the game froze for the whole raid on multiple occasions.

The server was literally restarted 3-4 hours prior.

The raid can't free a pinned tank if we can't physically move to him/her.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 1Asy1

Whilst it's appreciated there are many solutions and the mystery of not being able to transfer between EU/NA, yet we can all move to BR are all good talking points, let's try and keep this thread on topic, documenting server-wide issues.

Yesterday, I joined another kin to do Threshold at 7:30 GMT time, the game froze for the whole raid on multiple occasions.

The server was literally restarted 3-4 hours prior.

The raid can't free a pinned tank if we can't physically move to him/her.

---

Good to see a year down the line lag still makes the game unplayable, I cannot, literally cannot count the number of cancelled raids we had, or the number of raids we cut short and came back to later in hopes the issues had subsided, why bother releasing yet another raid when we can't even play the two that are out.

I'm sorry to hear you are still experiencing major issues with lag. Would like to add, for the record, that we on Laurelin are having same and similar problems, big enough to make raids impossible to continue or finish sometimes. It is not every day issue, but it does happened, and it's hard to predict as it seems it can happened on any day :/ Last time was on Monday for me. We have raid today and tomorrow, will see how it goes.

This has been going on for too long now and it is quite disappointing and annoying, to say the least, that is not fixed by now.

If we are correct and the issue is to do with the number of users....

I did a little bit of analysis using the only real source we have (http://lotrostats.gefallenehelden.de/r10.html) . The only thing it tracks is logins by server, but it does it every 5 minutes so it does produce some interesting data (and goes back to 2009 or so). What I found was:

• Evernight is by far the most populated server – at least 20-25% higher than the next server.
• The European servers (physically located in the US) tend to have there users logon at about the same time. This would suggest that the bulk of the users are in Europe.
• The US servers have peaks at USW times, but must have a significant number of users from other places (Asia/Australia?, some Europe?)
• The above two trends mean that peak load on European Servers compared to US Servers is higher than the daily logins would suggest. Evernight is probably really 70-80% above Arkenstone at peak load.
• The worst servers are Evernight followed by Brandywine, Gladden, Arkenstone and Laurelin (adjusted for its peak load).
• Based on what we are hearing from the user base, at peak load:
o Evernight is seriously above what a server can handle probably by as much as 100%
o Akenstone, Laurelin, Brandywine and Gladden (and maybe Gwaihir?)are all on the edge, occasionally going over. A 10-15% reduction in users would probably fix the issue.
o Users could be added to Sirannon but its FR, so learn French). Users could be added to Landroval and Crickhollow


Now the interesting thing is do these facts match with the servers having lag issues?

ADDED: Of course the above analysis assumes that each of the virtual servers is identical and the number of virtual servers on a physical server is identical, etc. But if the number of users is constrained by the engine design, then these factors will be minor impact

Not a peep from a blue name. What a surprise

I am sure Elmagor will respond soon.

Another night with reduced awareness in a raid. Are there actually people working for SSG?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SavinDwarf

If we are correct and the issue is to do with the number of users....

I did a little bit of analysis using the only real source we have (http://lotrostats.gefallenehelden.de/r10.html) . The only thing it tracks is logins by server, but it does it every 5 minutes so it does produce some interesting data (and goes back to 2009 or so). What I found was:

• Evernight is by far the most populated server – at least 20-25% higher than the next server.
• The European servers (physically located in the US) tend to have there users logon at about the same time. This would suggest that the bulk of the users are in Europe.
• The US servers have peaks at USW times, but must have a significant number of users from other places (Asia/Australia?, some Europe?)
• The above two trends mean that peak load on European Servers compared to US Servers is higher than the daily logins would suggest. Evernight is probably really 70-80% above Arkenstone at peak load.
• The worst servers are Evernight followed by Brandywine, Gladden, Arkenstone and Laurelin (adjusted for its peak load).
• Based on what we are hearing from the user base, at peak load:
o Evernight is seriously above what a server can handle probably by as much as 100%
o Akenstone, Laurelin, Brandywine and Gladden (and maybe Gwaihir?)are all on the edge, occasionally going over. A 10-15% reduction in users would probably fix the issue.
o Users could be added to Sirannon but its FR, so learn French). Users could be added to Landroval and Crickhollow


Now the interesting thing is do these facts match with the servers having lag issues?

ADDED: Of course the above analysis assumes that each of the virtual servers is identical and the number of virtual servers on a physical server is identical, etc. But if the number of users is constrained by the engine design, then these factors will be minor impact

---

Its literal peak EU time 6pm-11 pm GMT for me, most of the raid was either lagging or experiencing reduce awareness tonight.

I appreciate the analysis and the insight, but I don't really want to move to a dead server just to enjoy Lotro.

Having serious issues getting certain characters into the game. I'm fast approaching the point of giving up entirely. When your players meet their first hurdle just getting past character selection, you have a serious problem. But regardless of how many times this crops up there never seems to be a genuine solution, does there? Just more glue, more sticky-tape and more silence.

Reduced awareness + skill lag while questing second-age today.
Last few days , reduced awareness + skill lag on random raids at random hours.
Funny thing is , lag chooses specific groups. I contacted friends on other raid groups during our laggy runs and they were playing smoothly.
Same thing happened once vice versa.

The server is lagging again. Freezes and skill delay in the ****** shire homesteads.

SSG? Hello?

More lag today - The current time on the server is 03/14 10:58 AM.

iTs yoUr pC nO laG hErE in CheTwOOd

https://i.imgur.com/hYaIega.gif

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BotLike

Reduced awareness + skill lag while questing second-age today.
Last few days , reduced awareness + skill lag on random raids at random hours.
Funny thing is , lag chooses specific groups. I contacted friends on other raid groups during our laggy runs and they were playing smoothly.
Same thing happened once vice versa.

---

You can try resetting the instance, disband the raid and make a new one.

Some people believe this works, it's worth a try I guess next time you experience something similar.

As expected, we lagging again today :(

Any updates? Or we too busy talking about clothing?

Here we go again... yesterday reduced awareness during raid on Brandywine, right now logon server on Brandy just down. Looks like SSG so busy with u29 so they forget about server maintenance

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Elmagor

..... Brandywine, right now logon server on Brandy just down. Looks like SSG so busy with u29 so they forget about server maintenance

---

When you say "right now logon server on Brandy just down" do you mean logging into your LOTRO account or once you have logged on and select Brandy the time it takes to bring up your list of characters, or once you select a character the time it takes to be in the game?

I'm guessing its the last one, but was not certain.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SavinDwarf

When you say "right now logon server on Brandy just down" do you mean logging into your LOTRO account or once you have logged on and select Brandy the time it takes to bring up your list of characters, or once you select a character the time it takes to be in the game?

I'm guessing its the last one, but was not certain.

---

I can log on account, but trying login into Brandywine (it's online) launcher can't find logon server and can't find character list. We have such problem in summer 2020, it's pretty rare. But at least this problem disappears in 30 min and I able to get into character.

18:17 GMT Everlag(night)

Stood in Annak-Kurfu, been waiting 2-3mins now for something to leave my shared vault.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 1Asy1

18:17 GMT Everlag(night)

Stood in Annak-Kurfu, been waiting 2-3mins now for something to leave my shared vault.

---

It takes between 1 to 5 minutes on Evernight, for the server to recognize that you are actually out of the instance! Every single time! Moving things from and to vault while in the Three Peaks main hub takes the same. Also same with sending mail. Lag is out of control on Evernight! And where is Cordovan or other blue name to explain when it will be fixed? Nowhere! Slap after slap after slap in our faces, and Cordovan and company is just counting the money.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Anglion1

It takes between 1 to 5 minutes on Evernight, for the server to recognize that you are actually out of the instance! Every single time! Moving things from and to vault while in the Three Peaks main hub takes the same. Also same with sending mail. Lag is out of control on Evernight! And where is Cordovan or other blue name to explain when it will be fixed? Nowhere! Slap after slap after slap in our faces, and Cordovan and company is just counting the money.

---

Talking about clothes > addressing the game's issue

The lag has been terrible on Arkenstone since the patch. I don't even want to play in the U.S. afternoon when most people are getting off work. Today has been the worst. I just now lag disconnected from servers three time within the span of an hour. "Connexion lost".

It is NOT my internet or computer, as early in day I have browsers, music, and video GoToMeetings going on in the background at the same time and Lotro running at 120 FPS, everything playing fine. But an hour ago when I have nothing but Lotro running, utter garbage performance.

Even though I only returned to the game a month ago and was a fresh install, I just now repaired my game files and we'll see if that has any effect at all. I'm not optimistic.

Lagging out again.

WTB a community manager and server specialist

20:00GMT until now, the server is unplayable, reduce awareness, skill delay.

Raiding is pointless.

Skill delay and server hangs ramping up once again...

Still lagging :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nubja

Still lagging :D

---

Right. And according to my observations the performance will decrease slowly but steadily.

Sorry folks, just an old programmer mumbling about. ;)

I'm getting a lot more lost connections than I used to. It seems to happen fairly often when I'm travelling by mount from Celondim to Duillond or back, on that patch of grass you can cut across when you're close to the bridge. I gather it's something to do with passing from one area into another. It happens in other places too, especially Misty Mountains for some reason, but for the past two weeks it's been as irritating as hell trying to finish the day's tasks during the festival. My character just suddenly freezes, forcing me to quit the game and log back in again.

4 hours maintenance in EU prime time and then random people freezing in place. Like, why even bother ?

Fresh off the back of the weekly restart and we've got lag in the homesteads.

Stop ignoring this issue you CENSORED

evernight is literally a slideshow right now. Any blue names???????????????????????

Just had to force-close the game yet again after getting stuck on loading whilst trying to simply exit a door in Bree. This is getting out of hand and it's clearly getting worse. I'm now at the point where it's necessary to force-quit sessions more and more often. Why am I having to fight a game in order to just play it? How are we still here after years of asking for the most fundamental aspect of the game - i.e. the online part - to be fixed?

I understand that the game is old, but all these problems really aren't going to go away until something is done about them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mollymixtures

Just had to force-close the game yet again after getting stuck on loading whilst trying to simply exit a door in Bree. This is getting out of hand and it's clearly getting worse. I'm now at the point where it's necessary to force-quit sessions more and more often. Why am I having to fight a game in order to just play it? How are we still here after years of asking for the most fundamental aspect of the game - i.e. the online part - to be fixed?

I understand that the game is old, but all these problems really aren't going to go away until something is done about them.

---

Yeah, i bet they downgraded their hardware too cut cost. Never been this bad, and they said they can fit all players on one server now lol, yeah right!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HeliStorm

Yeah, i bet they downgraded their hardware too cut cost. Never been this bad, and they said they can fit all players on one server now lol, yeah right!

---

I've reached the conclusion that the servers consist of cardboard boxes filled with lemons and nails.

You know, the other day I literally watched someone spend the best part of an hour travelling from Bree in the direction of the North Downs. I wish I was joking, I really do. I was questing in the area and kept running into him on his stuck horse, galloping on the spot. As I worked my way down the landscape clearing out orcs and bears and so forth, occasionally freezing in place as I did so, I would meet up with him again, just a few feet further on his journey. I don't know if he was away from his computer and was thus unaware of what was happening? Perhaps he thought it was normal that it should take that long? But i remember thinking how absolutely ridiculous it was that this is where we are years after this problem started.

By the time I'd left the area he was still at it. For all I know he's still on his journey to this very day! Perhaps I should sell tickets so people can watch the Incredible Travelling Man?

Gladden is to me unplayable right now. I made a thread earlier not knowing it was affecting other servers. Long lag spikes, loss of chat, unacceptable.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mollymixtures

I've reached the conclusion that the servers consist of cardboard boxes filled with lemons and nails.

You know, the other day I literally watched someone spend the best part of an hour travelling from Bree in the direction of the North Downs. I wish I was joking, I really do. I was questing in the area and kept running into him on his stuck horse, galloping on the spot. As I worked my way down the landscape clearing out orcs and bears and so forth, occasionally freezing in place as I did so, I would meet up with him again, just a few feet further on his journey. I don't know if he was away from his computer and was thus unaware of what was happening? Perhaps he thought it was normal that it should take that long? But i remember thinking how absolutely ridiculous it was that this is where we are years after this problem started.

By the time I'd left the area he was still at it. For all I know he's still on his journey to this very day! Perhaps I should sell tickets so people can watch the Incredible Travelling Man?

---

There's definitely an issue with the server miss handling arbitrary characters when pops are high. Shown up when dual boxing during last summers' issues at the datacentre. Within a climate to blame another rather than look to oneself we can't expect anything but the fantasy SSG live in to continue. A CM would have gotten a character beyond the intro quest on Evernight if there was any interest in mere acknowledgement of our issues. Nothing to see here, it's the players' dodgy connections...

An analogy: If you don't actually spend one minute to look at the implementation of the 2020 Ford Explorer Police Interceptor Utility Hybrid functionality and see the specific Law Enforcement idle modes that has the engine topping up the battery for immediate full power pursuit as needed you might assume a dripping tail pile would indicate a constant idle and not an intermittent ICE idle and make you look like even more of a amoral plonker than you've already made yourself out to be. Where do you move to in search of an apartheid nation though?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Braer

There's definitely an issue with the server miss handling arbitrary characters when pops are high. Shown up when dual boxing during last summers' issues at the datacentre. Within a climate to blame another rather than look to oneself we can't expect anything but the fantasy SSG live in to continue. A CM would have gotten a character beyond the intro quest on Evernight if there was any interest in mere acknowledgement of our issues. Nothing to see here, it's the players' dodgy connections...

---

I think the worst aspect of this is is that the players will justify the god-awful state of the game too. I remember on several occasions last summer's long-term server outage being blamed on a "Dos attack" or something similar. Colour me thoroughly unconvinced.

And as far as high-pops causing problems are concerned, Evernight's excess population could do with being placed on its own server. During the late afternoon and into the evening it can be nigh-on impossible to get anything done with a whole load of people hanging around the same areas. Bree becomes nothing but loading screen after loading screen. If you want a semi-okayish playing experience, best become nocturnal, I guess.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mollymixtures

I think the worst aspect of this is is that the players will justify the god-awful state of the game too. I remember on several occasions last summer's long-term server outage being blamed on a "Dos attack" or something similar. Colour me thoroughly unconvinced.

And as far as high-pops causing problems are concerned, Evernight's excess population could do with being placed on its own server. During the late afternoon and into the evening it can be nigh-on impossible to get anything done with a whole load of people hanging around the same areas. Bree becomes nothing but loading screen after loading screen. If you want a semi-okayish playing experience, best become nocturnal, I guess.

---

I have no idea how feasible it is but I think a solution to the issue would be to reopen perhaps Snowbourn or one of the other closed old EU servers, allow free transfers to it for a limited period and run it as the preferred server for newer players for a while. The draw to return "home" for some players would be enough I think to pull a number of people onto it and lessen the load on Evernight. Of course the problem is which server and people would then complain if they did it with one why not another. I don't see a brand new server having the same effect though.

Handing in missions, moving stuff from/to vault, sending mail, takes ages today on Evernight (in Annak Khurfu). Last couple of days, it was generally a lag nightmare on Evernight. Will you finally wake up and fix it SSG??!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ellemere

I have no idea how feasible it is but I think a solution to the issue would be to reopen perhaps Snowbourn or one of the other closed old EU servers, allow free transfers to it for a limited period and run it as the preferred server for newer players for a while. The draw to return "home" for some players would be enough I think to pull a number of people onto it and lessen the load on Evernight. Of course the problem is which server and people would then complain if they did it with one why not another. I don't see a brand new server having the same effect though.

---

It's a good idea to open Snowbourn back up. I came from there originally and I for one would seriously consider moving back to it. The question is, would it have a positive enough effect on performance that it would solve our problem? There are servers with much lower populations than Evernight that seem to suffer bad performance. However, it's still worth doing if not for the fact that questing and deeding in some areas on Evernight is becoming a real pain when you find yourself sharing a small number of mobs with a whole slew of other people, even in the early hours of the morning.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mollymixtures

It's a good idea to open Snowbourn back up. I came from there originally and I for one would seriously consider moving back to it. The question is, would it have a positive enough effect on performance that it would solve our problem? There are servers with much lower populations than Evernight that seem to suffer bad performance. However, it's still worth doing if not for the fact that questing and deeding in some areas on Evernight is becoming a real pain when you find yourself sharing a small number of mobs with a whole slew of other people, even in the early hours of the morning.

---

I wonder if there is a quicker way than traditional transfers?
1) Get a list of players that want to move (accounts) and guilds.
2) Try to limit the number to about 50%
3) Clone the whole server
4) Delete the accounts that moved from Evernight
5) Delete the guilds that moved from Evernight
6) Delete the accounts that did not move from Snowbourn.
7) Delete the accounts that did not move from Snowbourn.

Bring up the servers. I know I've simplified and there is stuff I forgot, but it has to be better than transfers. Especially when the intend would be to cut the load on Evernight by 50%.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Anglion1

Handing in missions, moving stuff from/to vault, sending mail, takes ages today on Evernight (in Annak Khurfu). Last couple of days, it was generally a lag nightmare on Evernight. Will you finally wake up and fix it SSG??!!

---

This is a cultural implementation for the British Players who all wear bowler hats, a pin striped suit and love to queue. For those alien to this stereotype port to an Ally hall to do your business and clear the tracker then exit to Magh Ashtu for the stable ride (up the stair and inside to the right) to the missions room. Or continue to queue for the years it might take to resolve an issue that has a known workaround already.

For those without access to Ally halls, research all the mission stable rides and how you'd get to them.

Second time in so many hours that I've been unable to load a character. The same one, as it happens. Each session now usually ends, or starts and ends, with this problem.

Seriously, do something. It's getting dire. The way we've started this year I wouldn't be at all surprised if we end up with another mystery long-term server closure.

####ing Anor is lagging out 184 players.

Do something about these servers...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nubja

####ing Anor is lagging out 184 players.

Do something about these servers...

---

The hamsters are on a break? Maybe it's that table indexing thing again?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Braer

The hamsters are on a break? Maybe it's that table indexing thing again?

---

no no no they are upgrading to 1 kitten, they just cant find one so they only have one hamster

Failure to load characters is now a common problem for me again.

Its actually shocking how bad the situation is and how little has been done to solve the problem.
This ''ongoing battle'' with lag that SSG loves to use as a term , feels more like PR BS since i've literally seen 0 change in multiple months.

Missions can take several minutes to turn in.
Game client needs restart every ~45 minutes , in order to be half-stable.
On peak hours , some instances are so laggy that it's basically unplayable. Skills stop working for a few seconds or go on cd without doing anything.
Some characters take several minutes to logout and when they do , the character selection screen is so laggy , that i feel like i am playing this game on playstation 1.
Apparently , that happens because they've ''become too big''. Lmao , this is such a sad excuse. Lately , i stopped loging out altogether and i just shut down the game from the task manager and start over. It's 3 times faster.
Many cases of loss spikes on half the server , people unable to login , others lag out entirely and have to restart the game.
I can add so many examples to the mix , but its pointless.

This is a depressing and unacceptable state. Maybe i wouldn't even care if this game was considered cheap , but its actually the opposite , that's what almost makes it funny.

IMO the last week is definitely in the top 10 of worst weeks - at least of those that are considered as "normal operation".

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by thinx

IMO the last week is definitely in the top 10 of worst weeks - at least of those that are considered as "normal operation".

---

It's bound to be worse for a bit because we have a load of SSG staff investigating our issues now. Pity they can't give a few of us access to their de-bug client to help them out.

Perhaps they'll start to appreciate how a few extra hours saved their end equates to countless hours of customers' wasted time.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Braer

It's bound to be worse for a bit because we have a load of SSG staff investigating our issues now.

---

If this is the case, communication could be a good idea. Something like: Hey, we are doing some live work on the servers this week, expect more lag.

Dagnabit. Wish I had seen this earlier. I've been playing with my settings so much to try and see what's up...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nubja

As per title, it's been atrocious the past couple of days and bad for months now.

Complete server freezes in raids for 10s+ every minute or so. Raid on Monday if we used OB the entire game would freeze up for the entire duration... imagine doing less dps with it on than off. immediate skills failing more than they work - lagging out in shire homesteads with 600 people online...

Not even going to mention the ettenmoors...


It's laughable at this point but nobody is laughing because it's just tragic. Fix the servers before releasing 3 mans with more talking than actual gameplay. Thank you.

---

553 entries. Skill lag.

How do we get a response from SSG? Like, why do you not give a #### about your players?

I know we haven't had much to say in the thread here, but we do continue to look into game performance issues impacting Evernight specifically, and as soon as there is something to say we will do so as quickly as possible. Some of Evernight's issue is related to hitting particularly high player populations at peak relative to the other game worlds; Evernight in particular saw a massive increase in population during the initial months of the COVID stay at home time period, and while that is not the cause of the server's performance issues, it is a contributing factor.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cordovan

I know we haven't had much to say in the thread here, but we do continue to look into game performance issues impacting Evernight specifically, and as soon as there is something to say we will do so as quickly as possible. Some of Evernight's issue is related to hitting particularly high player populations at peak relative to the other game worlds; Evernight in particular saw a massive increase in population during the initial months of the COVID stay at home time period, and while that is not the cause of the server's performance issues, it is a contributing factor.

---

Why not offer evernight players free transfers then to go to another server?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cordovan

Some of Evernight's issue is related to hitting particularly high player populations at peak relative to the other game worlds; Evernight in particular saw a massive increase in population during the initial months of the COVID stay at home time period, and while that is not the cause of the server's performance issues, it is a contributing factor.

---

If the reason your customers can't get into your store is because the building is too small... Get a bigger building.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SingularityNow

If the reason your customers can't get into your store is because the building is too small... Get a bigger building.

---

As far as I know, Evernight players aren't having difficulty logging in. Your analogy isn't a very good one.

A better one would be: "If your customers are complaining about delays at the airport, build a bigger airport." Which might help, might not. There are many potential bottlenecks in airport passenger traffic flow that are not helped by simply tacking on another terminal. (I say "simply", but ask Berliners how simple it is to build a modern airport.)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Thurallor

As far as I know, Evernight players aren't having difficulty logging in. Your analogy isn't a very good one.

A better one would be: "If your customers are complaining about delays at the airport, build a bigger airport." Which might help, might not. There are many potential bottlenecks in airport passenger traffic flow that are not helped by simply tacking on another terminal. (I say "simply", but ask Berliners how simple it is to build a modern airport.)

---

Very good point but at least allow passengers to divert to other airports at zero cost or benefits for those affected. Maybe some permanent buffs , free travel, free cookies and bacon ?

I m the only one that remembers few years ago the "data center" transfer ? I mean SSG stated back then that they transfer the servers into new and "better" center.

To be honest, i don't like the idea of seperate the popuplation. I used to play in a private server (I don't want to name it) of WoW on which during its peak time can cap arrround 12k people and they aren't even the officials servers and they have almost zero lags .Lotro on the other hand can not even hold like 2000 people on peak? and they call them official servers. Ofcourse i don't say to have 12k people on peak because that number causing other issues like unreadable world chats but i would like the servers to have atleast the half of them on peak without any lag issues. I just don't want to play on a dead server where you barely find anyone arround you doing quests and have issues to find players to do basic instances. Even the current Evernight's poppulation numbers are fine for making the game look alive and active but for sure the lag is terrible.

Although it is unprofessional for a company to ask i would definitely donate some money to SSG if they ask to as target of upgrading their server's hardware.

The Legendary servers was a good try to separate the population a bit but they failed with the execution.

Anyway, Spliting is a cheap and easy sollution so its a NO option for me. Upgrading the hardware its what mast be done for a proud and proper company that respect its self.

They don't need to upgrade their hardware. There is no way that they have ####ty servers that can't handle ~2k players in 2021. This is clearly not a server issue. It's a game engine issue. I wouldn't expect any improvement. Not now and not in the future

It's 2021 and the servers can't handle a mere 2k ppl online, also no matter what SSG do they can't do anything about the awful latency for EU players...They're just milking you all.

I Imagine at least 30% (likely a bit more) of their revenue from lotro is coming from ppl located in Europe, yet they won't even give those folks a single server on their continent.

When you see your favourite treat sold with the "new improved recipe" packaging it means that the recipe has changed to use cheaper ingredients. But hey, you'll get used to it! Coco Cola classic lesson unlearned.

Sadly only the reinstalling of "a" Snowborn is going to help in the short term. I use quotes as the old server's return seems remote now. When all the costs cutting schemes; virtualization, database switch are spun as benefiting the game it's not for the players' improved gaming experience.

I wouldn't so mind their attempts to increase profitability but for the deceit used and the very little done to alter the impression taken by many that had them buying "more", specifically to support SSG even at a time the Government were contributing to coffers. Do you remember that single post?

Do they all remain "excited" in their own bubbles with no performance risk assessment in evidence? If you are blinkered to not see, not particularly observant or just passively blundering into issues we get where we are now. Who is really up to it at SSG? All about the looks rather than what's under the hood. And has my GPU running 100% on a char select screen, good grief that's inane or pure indulgence!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Thurallor

As far as I know, Evernight players aren't having difficulty logging in. Your analogy isn't a very good one.

---

Well you don't understand the analogy, that doesn't make it bad. If Evernight is unplayable due to lag, then the server can't handle the capacity, the same as a small store forcing its customers into a queue. Has nothing to do with logins, has to do with the total capacity of the servers to handle the demand.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cordovan

I know we haven't had much to say in the thread here, but we do continue to look into game performance issues impacting Evernight specifically, and as soon as there is something to say we will do so as quickly as possible. Some of Evernight's issue is related to hitting particularly high player populations at peak relative to the other game worlds; Evernight in particular saw a massive increase in population during the initial months of the COVID stay at home time period, and while that is not the cause of the server's performance issues, it is a contributing factor.

---

When will we see the fruit's of this "looking into"? It has been far too long in this state.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cordovan

I know we haven't had much to say in the thread here, but we do continue to look into game performance issues impacting Evernight specifically, and as soon as there is something to say we will do so as quickly as possible. Some of Evernight's issue is related to hitting particularly high player populations at peak relative to the other game worlds; Evernight in particular saw a massive increase in population during the initial months of the COVID stay at home time period, and while that is not the cause of the server's performance issues, it is a contributing factor.

---

It's getting way worse now. Question is what are you going to do about it? The lag is insane today and was awful yesterday. It's not just Evernight either. Any server I have logged in has been the same.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cordovan

I know we haven't had much to say in the thread here, but we do continue to look into game performance issues impacting Evernight specifically, and as soon as there is something to say we will do so as quickly as possible. Some of Evernight's issue is related to hitting particularly high player populations at peak relative to the other game worlds; Evernight in particular saw a massive increase in population during the initial months of the COVID stay at home time period, and while that is not the cause of the server's performance issues, it is a contributing factor.

---

Appreciate the update, but this is a long-standing issue that should be at the top of your list surely? it's literally a game-ruining experience...