Prioritise fixing the lag and the general poor state of the servers before everything else

[Plidak]

FWIW, not everyone experiences lag. When we discuss it on my server, it's quite a mixed bag of those who experience it frequently, sometimes, or very rarely. I'm in the latter category, and am playing on a 10 yr old iMac.

The SSG team has discussed lag on several of their more recent streams. It sounds like there are many sources of lag, which makes it difficult to eliminate with one simple solution. Things like inefficient data transfer algorthims - I memorised that from one stream, because it sounded more interesting and more difficult to solve than just get better servers!

You and your friends might want to give the game a try, see if you're in the category of "rarely lag" or "always lag". If you haven't picked a server, def go for a less populated one.

Despite the lag, there are hundreds of players playing every day on my server (gladden) so the game is definitely viable and lots of fun! Good luck

If someone say he never lag in Lotro he is a liar or have no idea what lag is.

[TesalionLortus]

But I disagree that it shouldn't be a priority. I just agree they shouldn't make it the ONLY priority.

In an ideal world, I would agree. But the thing is if something is priority it is effectively a priority. If you say there are more things that are priority then that just means you have different things in mind but nothing is effectively a priority. But they've been pretty apparent about the fact that lag is their priority now and whenever stuff like the UI pops up in conversations then it's always "yes we know but engineers busy" (=lag is a priority) so they haven't even started any work in this area apparently. If they keep doing that for another 5 years because lag priority then the game will be stuck pretty much, so that's why, at some point after some of these fixes they're currently working on, it needs to be less prioritized and let the engineering work continue at decent pace on other fronts.

[Capt.Hunor]

Server alone isn't an issue. They're making changes in an ancient code of a game that grew bigger than what it was originally expected to be and growing this Middle-earth I think it is safe to say is something many of us are here for, some lag or not. Last time I was stuck for 1 minute every 3 minutes was sometime back in 2013 or so... ironically... so yeah, let them keep doing changes and observations they're currently in the process of doing, but at some point in the future I would love their engineers to get fully busy with other critical features and improvements rather than investigate lag and code for 5 years straight as a priority. Completely overhauling code and 100% solving lag in 5+ years aren't gonna keep this game afloat

Server alone is not a priority? As you would say, it doesn't matter that the engine of my car stuck every 5 minutes, important that I have all the other extras on my car.
Yes, server is the priority Nr.1, because if many lags, they should go with VIP for free, not for money.

[TesalionLortus]

Server alone is not a priority? As you would say, it doesn't matter that the engine of my car stuck every 5 minutes, important that I have all the other extras on my car.
Yes, server is the priority Nr.1, because if many lags, they should go with VIP for free, not for money.

Make mismatching comparisons all you want, doesn't change the fact it is not a car but a game and it doesn't stuck every 5 minutes plus not everyone's only wish is to see lag solved and that's it for what they expect from this game (which may not even be entirely possible, considering the codebase). And you clearly missed my point about the server not being the most important thing about lag, since the game's code is to blame in many lag situations and SSG admitted as much.

[Capt.Hunor]

not everyone's only wish is to see lag solved

Sure NOT ONLY, but first for all, because nobody is happy with lags especially in instances that mostly get fail if lags are to much.

[kerbelettos]

stuck at loading screen ..welcome back ol friend

[Baritone]

Fixing lag is an engineering job. The content and systems designers have nothing to with it. So you are saying that all the content designers should get put on furlow and not get paid so they can hire more engineers to work on lag?

[SniperCT]

Fixing lag is an engineering job. The content and systems designers have nothing to with it. So you are saying that all the content designers should get put on furlow and not get paid so they can hire more engineers to work on lag?

A great number of people seem to not realize this lol And not just in LOTRO but lots of other games too 'stop adding new content and fix the servers' is a common complaint.

[DoRonRon]

Fixing lag is an engineering job. The content and systems designers have nothing to with it. So you are saying that all the content designers should get put on furlow and not get paid so they can hire more engineers to work on lag?

They might get together and demand their hard works get an appropriate canvas to display their craft. SSG could get together with other Studios under Daybreak to demand proper provision of datacentre architecture. Those not directly under the Daybreak Umbrella too as they might be going to same way.

Then just time to catch the fire sale before they pull the plug, maybe. But with contributing 70% to EG7's coffers, maybe not! /LFF 2 Cajones Red Build

That is the new class isn't it?

[littlesquinky]

Fixing lag is an engineering job. The content and systems designers have nothing to with it. So you are saying that all the content designers should get put on furlow and not get paid so they can hire more engineers to work on lag?

Careless content and system design is a major performance issue in this game, so no, it's not just an engineering, architecture or software design problem. Minas tirith became playable without lagging (well almost) when they consolidated assets for the midsummer festival, mounted combat has been plaguing the game with problems since its inception, even SSG recently admitted it, just to give two small examples for both.

[Plidak]

Fixing lag is an engineering job. The content and systems designers have nothing to with it. So you are saying that all the content designers should get put on furlow and not get paid so they can hire more engineers to work on lag?

Yes. Because if you continue like this, they will be put on the furlow anyway.
Fixing lag should be prior. If you have limited finances, you should redirect them to fix the most importand problem. Which in out case is server performance,
Some players like me will continue to play and support the game no matter what, but i see players droping like flies, and i cant blame them.
Im afraid that at some point game will become unplayable and we will have LOOONG downtime / read as months/ or SSG will just shut it down for good.

A great number of people seem to not realize this lol And not just in LOTRO but lots of other games too 'stop adding new content and fix the servers' is a common complaint.

Name one of those games ?

[Elmagor]

Yes. Because if you continue like this, they will be put on the furlow anyway.
Fixing lag should be prior. If you have limited finances, you should redirect them to fix the most importand problem. Which in out case is server performance,
Some players like me will continue to play and support the game no matter what, but i see players droping like flies, and i cant blame them.
Im afraid that at some point game will become unplayable and we will have LOOONG downtime / read as months/ or SSG will just shut it down for good.



Name one of those games ?

Well, most of MMO. I know for sure players from Age of Conan complain about lags in mass pvp, same for Archage. Both games have even more lags in PvP when Lotro for me.

Of course, we have Final Fantasy - both developers and players don't like state of game, so players pay for sub and devs get that money, close all servers for 1.5 years and totally revamp game. Are you sure what Lotro have enough loyal player, enough money and enough time for this? If they close servers for 1.5 years game just die and never go back to life again. Yes, they have lifetime sub, and a lot of players proud of fact that they get so much content for such small amount of money for such many years.

[DavidmeetHal]

Sure, the new rig will more easily handle client side loading DAT files and rendering but it's still going to be neutered from server side bottlenecks. Smoothly to stationary with posts a day apart not the panacea you'd have hoped for? If we have current rigs that are meeting client side needs then we are unlikely to get so much benefit. Better would be investing at the time the bottlenecks are removed and get the Rig of the time whenever that happens to be. Great for you if that's just around the corner, not so much if it's far beyond the horizon. SSG being "on the case" might have persuaded you though.

Not to dissuade peeps not handling client side so well from upgrades ofc. But they are more likely hitting OS minimums before Lotro's.

Sorry for the late response, I missed this thread.

No, I stand by what I said about game performance and logging times improving a lot since I upgraded my hardware. Yes, I still suffer from lag, but getting a new rig helped a lot. You seem to have tech knowlwdge, so maybe you can answer something for me. Why is the logging on time a lot shorter with my new rig? I would think that would an online issue. I'm not arguing, I honestly do not know.

I want to be clear though, I am not a techie. I just spent 5 days reading reviews on gaming rigs, and took a shot.

[DoRonRon]

Sorry for the late response, I missed this thread.

No, I stand by what I said about game performance and logging times improving a lot since I upgraded my hardware. Yes, I still suffer from lag, but getting a new rig helped a lot. You seem to have tech knowlwdge, so maybe you can answer something for me. Why is the logging on time a lot shorter with my new rig? I would think that would an online issue. I'm not arguing, I honestly do not know.

I want to be clear though, I am not a techie. I just spent 5 days reading reviews on gaming rigs, and took a shot.

I hope I can shed some light.

On the face of it players may think there is a Middle-earth space already there with lots of avatars running around in it and you are popping in to join them. The space is actually defined by the DAT files that reside on your computer. Those avatars are just data points with an xy and z coordinate and the data the game will send to you to render them on your screen after what's on your Rig.

Your new rig likely has these files sitting on an SSD, if not move them there. If you already did previously have them on another older SSD it will not be as fast as the new one you have. Also with the one core of your CPU the game mostly uses, the new CPU's core is likely quicker than a single core of your old CPU. Can you get hold of a single core CPU, NO - who uses a single core these days? Very unlikely to find your new 8 core having a single core slower than a dual or quad core processor. Buy 16 cores to have only one in used may have one scratching heads but a Pentium was the thing to use when starting out building the engine. There is a bit of 2nd core processing done apparently. Your rendering abilities for a graphics processor upgrade are going to make a difference as well.

This is all done before you start filling the gaps from the data held on the server: your yard contents, other avatars' appearances and the npcs and mobs. Your yard being empty on occasions with no error message on display a sign that something went wrong. A brief but interrupted mention of "indexing" would suggest it's hitting a limit placed in the original aged code which quits if it doesn't complete in the time set. An index on a database table allows for faster access but it slows down over time if not maintained. Re-indexing maybe now part of a maintenance procedure but it would need to be on a server specific regularity. As it is we might suffer on Evernight for some time before it's seen on a less populated server that may prompt action. It's likely only one element to the story, server being busy elsewhere in load conditions.

But don't quite believe your eyes when you spot someone take a stable ride. The random one they take may not be the randomly generated one you see. "I tell you they were Moose horns m8", "Nonsense, what are you smoking, Reindeer Antlers, you prat" - and ends in reports to CS.

As your character moves around it's still mostly data from those DAT files providing most of what your client requires. You can use task manager on a PC to see the transfer rate of an SSD against the in game status transfer rate. Ball park of a 30 year old dialup modem, only doubled since game launch. None of this helps when the server can't manage to reply to your clients very discrete messaging. "Hey, I'm still here, sup?" - Your Connexion to the server has been lost. Dual boxing will show you the stable ride oddity, the wave of Lag hitting both clients and also those times where one client gets far worse attention from the server and often gives up bothering completely and why some players can have no issues and others hard done by in comparison. More usually when under load conditions.

Now lets move on to the tools in use to speed up content creation and the speedier game updates. The bandwidth required to upload the client was reduced some while ago, great we say, at what cost we might add? Scenario, tasked with removing fallen masonry from Hadhodiant bridge within the Mission space where you have to defeat diggers and destroy nests because it could trap mobs and be unreachable, does not actual go into that space. He goes to the landscape and removes it and low and behold the nests and the bridgebuilders spaces reflect this when we enter them. Great we say, but hang on, we could ask? Who's now doing extra work to render - take a snap shot of this space from DAT, rejig it by removing some elements and adding new ones, remove mobs of the local level and replace different ones of appropriate mission level to individualise the space for the objectives of that mission? You can see many mission spaces with remnants of the original landscape level based mobs from the run up to Glimmer Deep with a "Track", High Pass to the new Delving Missions showing distant low level inhabitants. The client? Access the DAT data but reformat before rendering and then start to load the new mobs. I've seen this process break and only load the original landscape space and mobs, more often the one up to the Emissary at Goblin Gate. I do think there has been some undocumented change to reduce the chances as I haven't seen it in a while. I wouldn't discount it from being a consequence of trying to load the space under a wave of server lag. Goblin Treasure still prone to random mob levels 1 to 140 irrespective of char level, boss is whatever your level though if you can reach him. Then think more on the differences loading the first portion of The War of Three Peeks space and that of the "War" space and the delays on the appearance of mobs and the delays when handing in a mission that could be immediate at a low pop and up to 5 minutes with login queues in play if you stand and take it like a lemon over porting out.

All conjecture on my part. As ever I invite a blue to put me right. No need to argue someone else removed the masonry in isolation to all the other conjecture ofc.

[DoRonRon]

P.S. I should add.

Shrinking the size of what we need to update reduces a bandwidth cost. Has us having a speedier upgrade process, just an occasion periodic one. The effective difference our client's running scripts on original spaces in game to recreate on the fly each and every time we enter any "new" versions of those spaces. Can't think of any other way to explain it. I've done a ton of missions at all the different load conditions from 79 dead of night to 1500+ peek.

[Plidak]

Well, most of MMO. I know for sure players from Age of Conan complain about lags in mass pvp, same for Archage. Both games have even more lags in PvP when Lotro for me.

Of course, we have Final Fantasy - both developers and players don't like state of game, so players pay for sub and devs get that money, close all servers for 1.5 years and totally revamp game. Are you sure what Lotro have enough loyal player, enough money and enough time for this? If they close servers for 1.5 years game just die and never go back to life again. Yes, they have lifetime sub, and a lot of players proud of fact that they get so much content for such small amount of money for such many years.

Age of Conan is dead game.
Was abandoned 1y after release if not on release.
Total revenue like 20 milion $.
This is nothing compared to most MMOS but most MMOS have milion of players, not 10k like lotro.
Im sure lotro have more loyal players than Dundgeons and Dragons Online. Stil DDO get more love than us.
Most of the life time subs support the game, by buying crowns or even paying game time for their friends.

And about do im sure about the loyal players. Yes im, who else will tolerate such lag if not loyal players ?
Question is, for how long

[Elmagor]

Age of Conan is dead game.
Was abandoned 1y after release if not on release.
Total revenue like 20 milion $.
This is nothing compared to most MMOS but most MMOS have milion of players, not 10k like lotro.
Im sure lotro have more loyal players than Dundgeons and Dragons Online. Stil DDO get more love than us.
Most of the life time subs support the game, by buying crowns or even paying game time for their friends.

And about do im sure about the loyal players. Yes im, who else will tolerate such lag if not loyal players ?
Question is, for how long

Lotro have more when 10K. Not many players play all day long. Some people don't have much lags, imagine that.

[Cambruyn]

Lotro have more when 10K. Not many players play all day long. Some people don't have much lags, imagine that.

Enough of this nonsense already. Seriously, you're not doing anyone any service; not us, not you and most definately not SSG. Even SSG has confirmed on multiple occasions that lag is an issue and here you are for the umpteenth time stating you and 'some others' don't experience lag.
It is blatantly obvious that the game has some of the worst performance of many an MMO out there and has been having this issue for way longer than anyone should tolerate. Perhaps you have a much higher tolerance for lag and general 'BS' than all of us, but stop stating this nonsense. As a test I tried to log on to the lowest pop French server at 3am, should we really go and record it to prove how terribly incorrect and disingenuous you are?

As for SSG, the way I see it this company if completely inept and will never be able to fix the lag:
1. They're completely dependant on Daybreak/EG7/God/Jahwe/... and lack the backbone to make any demands. If they truly make up for 70% of the revenue (where does this number even come from?), what spineless creature would continue to work like a dog and expect nothing in return. Demand better infrastructure already.
2. The evil overlords behind which they choose to cower have given them the approval a long time ago, but require them to identify the issues and come up with concrete plans on how to prevent lag on newer and better infrastructure. I guess SSG has failed to meet that demand.
3. They simply have no idea how to fix lag
4. They simply don't care enough to fix lag
5. Worse yet:while I don't think the issue could be thát bad that better infrastructure can't possibly fix it, the client and everything built onto it, is simply so unstable and broken that a complete rewrite is what is required, something SSG has also proven to be incapable of.

As a sidenote: the official dev of the game stating they can't go back to a true vanilla experience as they 'lost' the code and it would require too much effort to rebuild, yet a team of 3 has proven them so incredibly wrong. And we trust these guys to ever fix it? Yeah.. didn't think so. I'll even mail them a copy of my early-access SoA CDs if this could help em. They can even have the stickers that came with them.

[DavidmeetHal]

I hope I can shed some light.

.

You really did! thank you so much!

[Elmagor]

Enough of this nonsense already. Seriously, you're not doing anyone any service; not us, not you and most definately not SSG. Even SSG has confirmed on multiple occasions that lag is an issue and here you are for the umpteenth time stating you and 'some others' don't experience lag.
It is blatantly obvious that the game has some of the worst performance of many an MMO out there and has been having this issue for way longer than anyone should tolerate. Perhaps you have a much higher tolerance for lag and general 'BS' than all of us, but stop stating this nonsense. As a test I tried to log on to the lowest pop French server at 3am, should we really go and record it to prove how terribly incorrect and disingenuous you are?

As for SSG, the way I see it this company if completely inept and will never be able to fix the lag:
1. They're completely dependant on Daybreak/EG7/God/Jahwe/... and lack the backbone to make any demands. If they truly make up for 70% of the revenue (where does this number even come from?), what spineless creature would continue to work like a dog and expect nothing in return. Demand better infrastructure already.
2. The evil overlords behind which they choose to cower have given them the approval a long time ago, but require them to identify the issues and come up with concrete plans on how to prevent lag on newer and better infrastructure. I guess SSG has failed to meet that demand.
3. They simply have no idea how to fix lag
4. They simply don't care enough to fix lag
5. Worse yet:while I don't think the issue could be thát bad that better infrastructure can't possibly fix it, the client and everything built onto it, is simply so unstable and broken that a complete rewrite is what is required, something SSG has also proven to be incapable of.

As a sidenote: the official dev of the game stating they can't go back to a true vanilla experience as they 'lost' the code and it would require too much effort to rebuild, yet a team of 3 has proven them so incredibly wrong. And we trust these guys to ever fix it? Yeah.. didn't think so. I'll even mail them a copy of my early-access SoA CDs if this could help em. They can even have the stickers that came with them.

From what I remember, they never say they lost code, dev say they don't want to bring old bugs related to that code. You talking like we have one magical trick to remove all lags with snap of fingers, but developers refuse to do it. No, we don't have any simple way to do it. If we unable to play because of lags, how people regulary complete T3+ raids?

[Capt.Hunor]

C'mon guys, every serious development has backups, something like git or Apache Subversion.
We emulated a very well know mmo game, over 15 years and I still have all the source code releases from the first commit until to the last one.

The first issue with Lotro is that the game can not use more then one cpu/core. The next issue is that the memory management is not fit the development anymore, even if now we are use a 64 bit compatible
client. There are more questions about host servers and network, like how it's look with the server hardware performance, how modern is the hardware. And how is the server connection.

[cdq1958]

Sorry for the late response, I missed this thread.

No, I stand by what I said about game performance and logging times improving a lot since I upgraded my hardware. Yes, I still suffer from lag, but getting a new rig helped a lot. You seem to have tech knowlwdge, so maybe you can answer something for me. Why is the logging on time a lot shorter with my new rig? I would think that would an online issue. I'm not arguing, I honestly do not know.

I want to be clear though, I am not a techie. I just spent 5 days reading reviews on gaming rigs, and took a shot.

I will second what another poster said. I rebuilt my computer and the game does run a bit more smoothly both on linux and windows 11. When I rebuilt it, I had to reinstall both operating systems. Some of the improvement is from a better cpu and gpu and faster RAM. The game does not transfer much data unless you are in an instance/raid. Yes, dial-up amounts get transferred. So, I agree that the game mostly sends indexes to the client which then loads and renders data locally held, including things in the local cache. Cache misses can be quite expensive.

You can spot this with the connection status UI element. Some of that improvement is also from work they've done on the server side; but it still hits the fact of how the internet handles UDP. Some ISPs throttle UDP, particularly when UDP gets used to attack their servers. Also, equipment breaks down, whether we are talking adapters on blades, internal multiplexed routers, load balancers, etc. Internet routes are not necessarily guaranteed; so ping jitter and packet loss can affect some more than others. Lag is multifactorial, and far too many conflate that with load.

[DoRonRon]

I will second what another poster said. I rebuilt my computer and the game does run a bit more smoothly both on linux and windows 11. When I rebuilt it, I had to reinstall both operating systems. Some of the improvement is from a better cpu and gpu and faster RAM. The game does not transfer much data unless you are in an instance/raid. Yes, dial-up amounts get transferred. So, I agree that the game mostly sends indexes to the client which then loads and renders data locally held, including things in the local cache. Cache misses can be quite expensive.

You can spot this with the connection status UI element. Some of that improvement is also from work they've done on the server side; but it still hits the fact of how the internet handles UDP. Some ISPs throttle UDP, particularly when UDP gets used to attack their servers. Also, equipment breaks down, whether we are talking adapters on blades, internal multiplexed routers, load balancers, etc. Internet routes are not necessarily guaranteed; so ping jitter and packet loss can affect some more than others. Lag is multifactorial, and far too many conflate that with load.

I'm still making comparisons. Some who play other games will compare and it's Lotro that falls short. I make the comparison of Boston performance and New Jersey performance the NJ that falls short. Make the comparison of well before an update and well after. The comparison of trough and peek play. The comparison of late game/revamped areas with those untouched since 2014.

I can dual box on a single PC and make my best efforts at getting the UDP to travel the same route and through the same hardware, but perhaps I'm nieve thinking that will be enough. We do have far more backbones from Europe into the New York area than we did with Boston. In the last 10 years haven't our connections and providers gotten much improved gear? I would imagine if a single provider had a monopoly we would not see that investment. Sort of like purchasing exclusive rights to an IP and there could be no competitor to rival you. I'm all right Jack! I can't say I have actually looked for a UDP expertise job going on the Daybreak web site though. Not a skill set required beyond May 2007. And possibly the reluctance to go look at the code. Yeah not really; since AC so 2000?

Can't see all this equipment breaking just because it's lotro packets going through them, oh hang on... maybe

I can see the merits of halving these concerns with an EU datacentre though.

[maartena]

Fixing lag is an engineering job. The content and systems designers have nothing to with it. So you are saying that all the content designers should get put on furlow and not get paid so they can hire more engineers to work on lag?

I think they should hire some more engineers or replace one or two of the ones they got, because after 5+ years of "fixing lag" we don't seem to be getting anywhere. Sure, I realize that since 2020, the game has actually been growing (many free players stuck around after the pandemic, and with the free quest coupons and the expansion restructuring many people have stuck around....) which is a really good thing, but it also seems that they have fixed one thing, and then growth brings the lag right back to levels it was before.

It's certainly true that people like Scenario, MadeOfLions, Cordovan, Orion, and several others that often respond to players on these forums all have various different tasks within the organization that does not have (a lot) to do with fixing the lag, and they will indeed continue doing their work. Scenario will still design landscapes. MadeOfLions will still design quests. Cordovan will still manage the community, website, and forums. Orion will still work on his PvP and other projects. Etc, etc..... that will all continue. But I do feel that the engineering staff is..... short-staffed.

They have been working on transfers from old worlds for 3+ years now, they have been working on lag for 5+ years now, they have been working on a new client for 2+ years now, they have been working on 64-bit servers since at least 2021 if I recall, and there are many projects behind the scenes we do not have any visibility to. And it seems like they always run into "snags". Right now, they have all but given up on old world transfers and shelved it, after years of trying. Their idea of fixing lag seems to be "lets try THIS and see if it works" (I am looking at you, Sic'Em!) but from the player side there does not seem to be any noticeable improvements. MFA has been a promise for some years, but is held up by the new client..... and even without seeing all the projects we do NOT see, it seems to me the engineering team picked off more than they can chew, and they need to expand their team.

Now, expanding a team costs money. An engineer like that can easily make $100k, and with all other costs an employee brings they will look at ~$120k a year, and that may just not be in their current budget, so they may just have to row with the oars they got. It just seems to me that they have more engineering projects than they should handle at the moment, and that might go to the cost of regular maintenance or is delaying other things.

Lag should be the engineer's main priority, but it is kind of ridiculous that that we've been waiting three years to get transfers from old worlds and they now sort have thrown their hands up in the air and go "oh well we don't know how to fix it so lets just shelve it and hope people would forget about it...."

[cdq1958]

I'm still making comparisons. Some who play other games will compare and it's Lotro that falls short. I make the comparison of Boston performance and New Jersey performance the NJ that falls short. Make the comparison of well before an update and well after. The comparison of trough and peek play. The comparison of late game/revamped areas with those untouched since 2014.

I can dual box on a single PC and make my best efforts at getting the UDP to travel the same route and through the same hardware, but perhaps I'm nieve thinking that will be enough. We do have far more backbones from Europe into the New York area than we did with Boston. In the last 10 years haven't our connections and providers gotten much improved gear? I would imagine if a single provider had a monopoly we would not see that investment. Sort of like purchasing exclusive rights to an IP and there could be no competitor to rival you. I'm all right Jack! I can't say I have actually looked for a UDP expertise job going on the Daybreak web site though. Not a skill set required beyond May 2007. And possibly the reluctance to go look at the code. Yeah not really; since AC so 2000?

Can't see all this equipment breaking just because it's lotro packets going through them, oh hang on... maybe

I can see the merits of halving these concerns with an EU datacentre though.

Interesting, but, if I am not mistaken; the NJ datacenter serves Wall Street and is one of the most heavily attacked datacenters in the world. Hmm, I'm in the USA and not aware of any method to get UDP to take defined routes. If I am remembering the networking I studied 20 years ago, UDP takes whatever route the intermediate nodes don't block or drop. I most certainly may be wrong.

Given EU rules, I doubt that a US company wants the legal risk, if they can avoid it.