Evernight is unplayable due to lag... again

[SavinDwarf]

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.

[Menergroth]

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

[Braer]

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.

[SavinDwarf]

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....

[Mollymixtures]

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

[Joedangod]

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?

[SavinDwarf]

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.

[Joedangod]

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.

[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.

[Hephburz-2]

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.

[Mirhaen]

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.

[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

[Nubja]

Not a peep from a blue name. What a surprise

[Rugongrod]

I am sure Elmagor will respond soon.

[Nubja]

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

[1Asy1]

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.

[Mollymixtures]

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.

[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.

[Nubja]

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

SSG? Hello?

[Nubja]

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

[BinaryTertiary]

iTs yoUr pC nO laG hErE in CheTwOOd

[1Asy1]

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.

[Nubja]

As expected, we lagging again today

[Nubja]

Any updates? Or we too busy talking about clothing?

[Elmagor]

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