Servers unplayable due to Lag

[Hastran]

Is it time to reduce server populations? Lag is worse than I have ever experienced and is a topic of discussion in chat constantly. Things that have been supposedly done to improve things have come to naught. I have trouble believing that the increase in server load we have seen in recent times from RoP impact is not having a significant impact. Maybe we need more servers with population caps, maybe we just need new servers, but we need something, Currently the game is not worth the price of subscription (at least not to me) and I may stop mine until the situation is improved.

[DoRonRon]

We wouldn't have 1300 non-anons on Evernight today if they were unplayable. Not enjoyable and not worth paying for sure.

Then we are stuck with virtualisation until someone accepts responsibility for that choice and we roll it back to 2014. But Daybreak would likely cut and run with those costs. All rather embarrassing I suppose. So, we keep digging down that hole, "delving" to our doom. At least the devs have a sense of humour.

[Plidak]

Is it time to reduce server populations? Lag is worse than I have ever experienced and is a topic of discussion in chat constantly. Things that have been supposedly done to improve things have come to naught. I have trouble believing that the increase in server load we have seen in recent times from RoP impact is not having a significant impact. Maybe we need more servers with population caps, maybe we just need new servers, but we need something, Currently the game is not worth the price of subscription (at least not to me) and I may stop mine until the situation is improved.

Server pop have nothing to do with bad server performance we have on Evernight.
It happens with 1500 and 150 nonannon online. Good that is not constant/all the time.
I prfer laggy server but decent population, over "smooth" running ghost town.
All you can ask is free transfer, thats all.

[Dervacus]

Is it time to reduce server populations? Lag is worse than I have ever experienced and is a topic of discussion in chat constantly. Things that have been supposedly done to improve things have come to naught. I have trouble believing that the increase in server load we have seen in recent times from RoP impact is not having a significant impact. Maybe we need more servers with population caps, maybe we just need new servers, but we need something, Currently the game is not worth the price of subscription (at least not to me) and I may stop mine until the situation is improved.

These complaints always make me sad. I do not know what causes lag, but please be aware that it is not universal. I, and many people I play with, do not experience lag

Things to keep in mind:

• Your system
• Internet Connection
• ISP

I know it is tempting to never think something is wrong on your end (and I'm not accusing you or anyone else that that is the case), but it is an easy way out to straight up accuse the game

I would also recommend:

• open Command Prompt
• type 'tracert gls.lotro.com'
• enter
• ignore 'Request timed out'

If any of these hops are bigger than 1000 ms than that means there is an issue between you and the game's server, which would be not your fault or LotRO's. If that is the case there's really nothing you can do other than move or invest in wherever needs infrastructure

[Daguest]

These complaints always make me sad. I do not know what causes lag, but please be aware that it is not universal. I, and many people I play with, do not experience lag

Things to keep in mind:

• Your system
• Internet Connection
• ISP

I know it is tempting to never think something is wrong on your end (and I'm not accusing you or anyone else that that is the case), but it is an easy way out to straight up accuse the game

I would also recommend:

• open Command Prompt
• type 'tracert gls.lotro.com'
• enter
• ignore 'Request timed out'

If any of these hops are bigger than 1000 ms than that means there is an issue between you and the game's server, which would be not your fault or LotRO's. If that is the case there's really nothing you can do other than move or invest in wherever needs infrastructure

System have NOTHING to do with connection lag. That's a different kind of lag. They are not related (unless in odd cases like peer to peer and potato computer hosting, but that's entirely irrelevant for lotro).

SSG themselves have officially recognized the lag issue is on their end. There : https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...19#post8137319
I honestly don't know how you can not have lag when it's guaranteed for me at prime time, and very common otherwise. The Mordor's bridge are very notorious for me for dumping me into the lava underneath it (more than half the time I cross one, that's how bad it is).
And before you blame my ISP, I let you know I have an optical fiber connection in a relatively big city. So we can safely rule that out (I don't have lag anywhere else and can download a game in mere minutes).

But I agree that server pop have little to do with it in this situation. We lag more now than we did back when Moria launched, and servers had a LOT more people playing back then than now. While technically more people = more lag, the issue is not the population itself (in this case). It's like if you break your leg. Yes, if I push on your leg it's going to hurt, but the core issue is not me pushing.

[Kreegan]

Some of what you see as "lag" may be the result of using a wireless mouse, believe it or not.
If you've ever coded under Windows, especially under the old Win32 standard (pure C; none of this Visual C++ or C# #### with all of its overhead), the OS works fundamentally as a poorly designed "discrete event" system. Every event generated in the S/W must be replied to... and that includes all mouse actions. Button pushes are no big deal (MOUSEUP or MOUSEDOWN events), but every movement of the mouse generates what is known as a MOUSEMOVE event... even if you only move a pixel. And it's not "start here" and "end there" events, it is EVERY FREAKIN' PIXEL.
Because real-time games generate a lot of MOUSEMOVE events (for every pixel, basically), it is common to buffer the events. Whether it is buffered on your PC (most likely as part of the mouse drivers) or in the game S/W is irrelevant; there will be delays in processing.
You can test this (particularly true for Logitech mice) by turning off the mouse (which clears the buffer) and then turning it back on; if everything is smooth at first, but then degrades fairly quickly to staccato performance, what you're seeing isn't "lag" per se. It's just bad driver S/W design.
You can beat it (partially) by frequently turning the mouse off and then back on to clear the buffer... or, better yet, get a wired mouse.

[Daguest]

Some of what you see as "lag" may be the result of using a wireless mouse, believe it or not.
If you've ever coded under Windows, especially under the old Win32 standard (pure C; none of this Visual C++ or C# #### with all of its overhead), the OS works fundamentally as a poorly designed "discrete event" system. Every event generated in the S/W must be replied to... and that includes all mouse actions. Button pushes are no big deal (MOUSEUP or MOUSEDOWN events), but every movement of the mouse generates what is known as a MOUSEMOVE event... even if you only move a pixel. And it's not "start here" and "end there" events, it is EVERY FREAKIN' PIXEL.
Because real-time games generate a lot of MOUSEMOVE events (for every pixel, basically), it is common to buffer the events. Whether it is buffered on your PC (most likely as part of the mouse drivers) or in the game S/W is irrelevant; there will be delays in processing.
You can test this (particularly true for Logitech mice) by turning off the mouse (which clears the buffer) and then turning it back on; if everything is smooth at first, but then degrades fairly quickly to staccato performance, what you're seeing isn't "lag" per se. It's just bad driver S/W design.
You can beat it (partially) by frequently turning the mouse off and then back on to clear the buffer... or, better yet, get a wired mouse.

We are talking about connection lag, not system lag. Your mouse movement are not recorded and sent to the server (that'd be nuts), it's 100% a local PC thing. I'm not even sure if what you are talking about is still relevant nowadays, or accurate, honestly. And if it is, how much an impact it can have. Maybe for super competitive e-sport stuff ? Or perhaps if your computer is super potato, it make it even worse ?

And the issue with LOTRO FPS, which is another thing entirely, is related to being an old architecture that doesn't optimize the use of multi core CPU. It will use one core, fill it to 100% and then you have FPS drop. The other cores are basically slacking, with all their potential power wasted. Back when LOTRO was made, from an even older engine I might add, single core CPU were the norm. Nowadays they are an obsolete thing of the past. Wireless mouse or not won't change that (I use a "regular" one myself, for other reasons).
On top of that we have modern day features that can't be optimised properly because the engine was not made with those in mind. Or pushing said engine beyond what was intended.

Not much they can do, sadly.