The lag is getting worse!

[Aranaan]

Bumping this important post.

The issue is still not resolved and replied upon by any of the SSG, so its important that new players knows what they can expect.

(6 months of complains and not a single reply)

[Kreegan]

Everyone facing significant lag needs to run a traceroute (PC) to LotRO to determine if the lag is the game or one or more of the hops between their PCs and the game.
You can have a gigabit Internet connection and still have lag; although companies love to advertise their high-speed Internet service, guess what? That's only from your house to the local area. After that you're a victim of all the intermediate hops like everyone else.

[Loriandra1979]

Everyone facing significant lag needs to run a traceroute (PC) to LotRO to determine if the lag is the game or one or more of the hops between their PCs and the game.
You can have a gigabit Internet connection and still have lag; although companies love to advertise their high-speed Internet service, guess what? That's only from your house to the local area. After that you're a victim of all the intermediate hops like everyone else.

This is something we as players cannot fix, nor the ISP's.... this is something SSG needs to address

[Cambruyn]

Bumping this important post.

The issue is still not resolved and replied upon by any of the SSG, so its important that new players knows what they can expect.

(6 months of complains and not a single reply)

It'll only be a matter of time before someone decides to make it personal, giving Cordovan a reason to close the thread.
Complaining will get us nowhere unfortunately. Not spending any money on this game however might.

We all care deeply for the setting, we all care deeply for the game. By funding SSG we are however sending a very bad message, as if we're ok with the current state of affairs. No, we're not ok with the lag. No, we're not ok with delvings not being properly tested. We're not ok with class imbalances, neglect of Legendary Servers, half-a**ed 'features' (missions, skirmishes, big battles, delvings, they're basically all the same to me: some instanced nonsensical grind) and so much more. Funding is not the issue here, while it may cost quite a buck to upgrade their server infrastructure etc, money is or should not be the issue. EG7 cancelled some upcoming games, redistributing the funds intended for their development to their bigger games, LotRO being one of those. The average pop has also gone back up (source: http://lux-hdro.de/index.php). Several new ways of monetization have been introduced (supporter packs, 'temporary' cosmetic bundles, ...).
Even if funding were an actual issue, then they could still alocate their budget accordingly and dedicate far more funding to their technical dept. Why are we getting these bad features such as delvings, something no one asked for, yet the server lag is still omnipresent? I know a systems designer will not be able to assist on fixing the lag, neither will an graphical artist, but perhaps they can do with less of those and add some techies instead or outsource it or whatever it takes to fix it.

I never, as in not ever, played an MMO without subbing to it. Somehow it just feels wrong to me, as if I'm taking advantage of a developer, but not a penny in my pocket will ever go to SSG prior to them fixing the lag.
No vague promises, no stunted mentions in some stream, but actual fixes felt ingame.

Also, question: saw the LazyPeon covering DDO. Why is that game not suffering from any lag whatsoever? It's older, yet continues to get bigger the same way LotRO does. So why does that server not experience these issues? Different server parks? Surely an older game can't have better coding?

[Nebless]

Also, question: saw the LazyPeon covering DDO. Why is that game not suffering from any lag whatsoever? It's older, yet continues to get bigger the same way LotRO does. So why does that server not experience these issues? Different server parks? Surely an older game can't have better coding?

It does suffer from lag, but generally it's only with the groups conducting raids where you have a large group in one spot.

As to the reason why lag isn't really an issue is the way DDO is set up. None of the open area's are anywhere close to the size of the smallest region in LotRO and most of the game is played inside small instances (the dungeons) by either single players or just a few others. You really don't have any real number of people in one area like you generally do with LotRO. I'd say DDO is more compartmentalized.

Now you do see lag on the starter island for the first week or so when they do the Hardcore League servers (think fresh start) as LOT'S of players are all in one spot.

[DoRonRon]

Everyone facing significant lag needs to run a traceroute (PC) to LotRO to determine if the lag is the game or one or more of the hops between their PCs and the game.
You can have a gigabit Internet connection and still have lag; although companies love to advertise their high-speed Internet service, guess what? That's only from your house to the local area. After that you're a victim of all the intermediate hops like everyone else.

It why I have task manager up and a CMD window at the ready to fire off a tracert before posting anything, I check on non-anons too and mention the server I'm on as well. What players are doing in game is a factor, dressing up self and house or pushing the boundaries with massive AE pulls in an instance. Comments from some on a server far below a threshold for problems just doing us and the game a disservice.

The recent increased latency the current owners of the gateway (into the datacentre) has come down to good levels with naught of a mention from SSG. In fact at the current latency of 104 it's the best I've seen since we had a Boston datacentre (trans-Atlantic) 86ms back then.

We perhaps are both disappointed with those who offer up un-quantified reports in either camp.

[Rylnconn]

8 pages and counting and over 5 months and closing on 190 posts and nary a dev in sight not even a MoL or Cord to offer up any explanation .

Inexplicably unprofessional on every level .
If I didn't know better I would say the actions of the front office were " Contemptuous " and that's putting it mildly .
Its a wonder nobody has screenshotted this post and posted on youtube .
Its probably just a matter of time .
Sad so very sad ...

[Hetweith]

8 pages and counting and over 5 months and closing on 190 posts and nary a dev in sight not even a MoL or Cord to offer up any explanation .

Inexplicably unprofessional on every level .
If I didn't know better I would say the actions of the front office were " Contemptuous " and that's putting it mildly .
Its a wonder nobody has screenshotted this post and posted on youtube .
Its probably just a matter of time .
Sad so very sad ...

it's the "ignore it and it will go away" strat.....it's worked for years so why change?

[thinx]

Everyone facing significant lag needs to run a traceroute (PC) to LotRO to determine if the lag is the game or one or more of the hops between their PCs and the game.
You can have a gigabit Internet connection and still have lag; although companies love to advertise their high-speed Internet service, guess what? That's only from your house to the local area. After that you're a victim of all the intermediate hops like everyone else.

While traceroute may give some information, the resulting user information is quite limited.

• The lag problem seems to be quite common, so if the problem is route related, it is on the "common" routes. SSG is the one that can collect the information about that and they have done so in the past. Single users will not be able to tell the backbone operators that they experience problems with the routes for LOTRO. It is SSG that can tell that their users (in country Y) experience problems and they have done so in the past (2015 or 16, a short time after merges, when routes were misconfigured). It is up to SSG to get that information or (if they need user support) provide useful tools to get it. The current bug reporting form is no such tool. There may be automated client built-in tools that we do not see.
• Even if we were to use tracert, we would not even know what servers we would need to trace. We do know the login servers, but gameplay takes place on different ones. Their routes could be the same, but don't have to. This brings up the problem that we do know the domains/IPs to trace to. We could try to find out by tracking these connections during gameplay, sorting out all of the other connections that our computer has at that time.
  In case of lag we would then try to trace routes to all of the found ones, assuming that lag is persistent - which it isn't, see gameplay.

Of course traceroute is a great tool, but it is rarely useful for the players. It is diagnostic information that SSG should get and collect, *IF* the problem is network related.

Nevertheless SSG's information policy is (AFAIK) to tell us that lag is a multi-headed beast that they are tackling. This is the reason why people have absolutely no idea where the actual problem is. We could tell other players that it works fine for us, that they should buy a better PC, that they should get rid of malware, that they should analyze their home network, get a new ISP, trace routes, etc.

Up to now, SSG has only given indirect information as they take responsibility to fix the problem, but AFAIK they never acknowledged that the problem is on their side. The only hint we have is that they are NOT giving players hints to ping, traceroute or avoid that GPU or whatnot - which I would normally expect IF they knew the problem is not on their side.

Nevertheless, thanks to the information policy, we're only doing guesswork based on forum statistics. These statistics tell us that a relevant part of the forum user names has problems. No more, no less. Forum users might not be representative. They might be fake. They might tell lies. But this is also the case for those that claim to not have lag...

[DoRonRon]

It's still getting a drywall company in when it's groundwork that's needed. Problem is once you give the drywaller the job they only got plasterboard in the truck.

I had to stay up for an Amazon delivery today so was intending to lengthen my nightly session into the day but it just got so painful I logged to come here and gripe. I've gotten too used to low pops play at night.

Pressing F5 to refresh the delivery tracker seems to be just as joyful.

[Utherkai]

Just to once again add another voice to this.

The embarrassing thing is, I'm now starting to have to try and downplay the lag to new members who are new to the game...

[Marancil]

It's also a ping problem which isn't helped by the fact that SSG refuses to invest in Data Centres outside the U.S.

Mostly irrelevant since the com speeds for Internet backbone vastly exceeds what is needed. However, having said that the issue in this regard is often closer to home, with your ISP not being fast or resilient enough, or the ISP they hook up to, etc. It is a chain of ISP's and the weakest link may be hard to find. As I have stated many times, the worst ISP's can in general be found in the US and "third world countries". The first, because many don't care as long as they can make a buck and still be cheap, the second because they are still building up capacity and quality of service.

I am almost 6000 Kilometres from the servers and I have better ping and less lag than many being 60 kilometres from the servers.

[Cambruyn]

Tried to play a bit yesterday evening. 400 players online, lag was out of this world again. Tried to loot some 'Soggy Mushrooms' in Lonelands. I kept getting 'out of range' while rubberbanding all around that 1 soggy mushroom. 4-5s later I still couldn't loot it as I was still out of range. Mind you, I was standing on top of it and hadn't touched my keyboard for several seconds just to see for how long the server would keep moving my character before finally registering my actual location.
Spoiler alert: it never did, I logged out instead as 4-5s later I was still rubberbanding all over that 1 soggy mushroom.

Tried to mine some Dwarven ore veins, got the xp, moved on to the next only to receive 'out of range' several seconds later. 'lo 'n behold, the ore vein I just looted was still around as for some reason it takes several more seconds for the server to register the loot in my inventory compared to calculating the xp I gained.

Absolutely loathsome. Lag could be an issue on new releases where devs understimate the influx of players, but come one, this game has been running for 15+ years, the last several years of it with an appaling degree of technical neglect or lack of respect for the engine's limitations (I don't know, i'm just trying to come up with excuses for this blatant disrepect to both the game and it's community).

[Marancil]

A quest failed to deliver. I hit the quest icon several times in the UI and never got it opened and accepted.

At the same time I took a long ride from Thorin's Gate via the Greenway, through Cardolan all the way to Dunland and stopped in the Pristine Glade. Never been all the way since the updates of Cardolan and Swan Fleet. The riding on my War Steed as such went well, even in Bree, not much rubberbanding or anything like that. But I noticed that the amount of frills that you can't disable in newer areas, like Cardolan, is significantly higher that in the older areas. Should affect performance I guess. In the older areas when you turned of frills to avoid that extra load, the ground became mostly bare and the game became slightly more responsive.

[Pharone]

I hate to say it, but I am betting this gets worse before it gets better.

There are a lot of people coming back to the game thanks to the Rings of Power series. I say this because I stream my game sessions every day on Twitch, and I routinely get told by people watching the stream, that they are just coming back to the game after many years away. It happens all the time in my streams, so I assume from that it means that the population of the game is growing right now.

If the servers are having issues keeping up, adding more players to those servers is only going to make the issue worse.

On one hand, you have server lag getting worse, but on the other hand, you have the game itself becoming more profitable due to higher number of customers. I can't see SSG wanting to not have new or returning players coming to the game, but I am sure they are aware of the issues. We can only hope they find a solution sooner than later.

If you want to see examples of the server lag, all you have to do is go watch any of my daily streams. You will see it all over the place. I even hover the mouse over the connexion icon to show at times that there is no lost packages and the ping is fine. I solo 99.99% of the time, so the vast majority of the time, I am completely alone where I am playing.

The one thing I have noticed is that when I was on vacation for a week, I was playing a lot in the early mornings and afternoon (US Central time zone). I had less server lag during the mornings than I have had any other time of the day. It was pretty blatantly weighted towards better performance in the mornings. To me, this is an indication of server lag directly being related to the number of players online at the same time on that server.

That being said, my friend tells me that he never sees lag issues (or very rarely). He plays very, very late at night from like 10pm to 1am (Us Central). That probably is a lower online population time just like the early morning times.

[Whohaz_Duhrang]

Period

[DavidWe]

I'll ask again, would opening up a new regular server help a bit with the lag? I ran into it today while in combat, and naturally, once out of the lag moment, all of the attacks that the mob was aiming at you hit at one time.

[Cenrandir]

I just disconnected two times today.

Would be minding my own business, my char would suddenly stop moving, get stuck in place and boom, disconnected.

[KadinKohle]

Everyone facing significant lag needs to run a traceroute (PC) to LotRO to determine if the lag is the game or one or more of the hops between their PCs and the game.
You can have a gigabit Internet connection and still have lag; although companies love to advertise their high-speed Internet service, guess what? That's only from your house to the local area. After that you're a victim of all the intermediate hops like everyone else.

This has nothing to do with the hops between our PC's and their servers. This is not a new issue and has been happening for years and just keeps getting worse.

Played quite a bit today at various times and numerous issues of lag especially in Bree where it would take almost 10 seconds from mounting my horse to actually see the proper artwork and the steed move like normal instead of just floating away.

[1Asy1]

Evernight on its knees the last few days, Skirmishes are in slow motion.

Reduced awareness everywhere.

I'd ask for specifics on when we'll get a proper fix, but I know you'll hit me with your tried and tested lag response.

[Chastyel]

Hello, what is going on with Evernight. Just started the game and everything I click in the game has a massive delay. I can not do anything right now.

[DoRonRon]

When SSG instigate a hot desk policy and the devs find their machines are in use when they get to work they'll either have to wait around for a desk and PC to become available or come back at night in order get their shift done.

That's when they get some clue of the context!

But maybe they have the luxury of a machine at work and one at home these days? My game threw a complete wobbly in one spike today. System level wobbly. Ended my plain to knock out Ill Omens for a couple of hours. Just watching the clock for EU bedtime and getting a pot of coffee ready now.
Lavazza Qualità Rossa Freshly Ground for me. 6 shots should be enough.

[.Onji.]

Quite bad this morning (~05.30-06.00 gmt+1). Popped on Evernight to mine some ore in Yondershire, about 93 + anon online. First ~5 minutes was fine, then game froze for a few seconds then I was lagging my way trougt the hills for about 30 min before I gave up.

[Aranaan]

I have been on Treebeard (VIP server for those who pay to play this game) for the last few weeks. ZERO lag!
Jump over to a f2p server, and tons of problems.

Conclusion. Server hardware problem.

Solution. Get rid of f2p players or get servers that can handle more players.

[Cambruyn]

Meanwhile, if you make any mention of the lag in an article outside of lotro.com, staunch SSG defenders will immediately counter you claiming they have never experienced any kinds of lag and that I should surely update my hardware or change ISP.
They're doing a disservice to you, me, themselves and the company they so valiantly defend.

Hilarious that after 2 or so years, this topic remains so active, yet no improvements in sight. But hey, SSG supposedly has confirmed the lag, right? So there's that.. the bi-annual confirmation of lag.