Evernight is unplayable due to lag... again

[Burzdolion]

Maybe you should play when there is less player ?

/thread

Go put your big boy pants on and come back with some actual discussion.

[Gilean-EU]

I rarely complain about lag, but today it has been worse than ever. At the moment, to be precise. I was questing in Gundabad earlier and stopped because lag in tightly packed orc camps was getting a bit too dangerous for my character, so after a break, I thought I take my lowbie brawler out questing in wight mounds of Ered Luin (Haudh Lin). Well, turns out I couldn't actually play at all. Lag became so bad that I was in combat and out of combat, fighting wights that I couldn't even see, or not fighting those that I stood right next to... I tried to open a chest, but it only worked after I waited for 30 seconds or so. I didn't want to lose undying title because of lag, so I had to run somewhere apparently safe and logged out. Maybe this is better early in the morning...

[oggbnvwnyc]

Maybe you should play when there is less player ?

Just imagine an online game whose servers can handle more than a few thousands players simultaneously.

Crazy, right?

[oggbnvwnyc]

Reduced Awareness on Evernight with barely 1k non-anon.

[1Asy1]

If PM doesnt work to Cord.

Send an email to :-

lotro@standingstonegames.com

[OghranNasty]

We apologize for the issues you have been experiencing on Evernight. Our IT folks would like additional information to help them investigate, so if you could private message me the below info it would be helpful:

1. A Direct X Diagnostic. From the Windows desktop, press the Windows and R keys to open the Run window. In the Open: field of the Run window, type dxdiag. Click OK or the Enter key to open the DirectX* Diagnostic Tool. If prompted to check if your drivers are digitally signed, click Yes.
2. IP address
3. Internet Service Provider
4. Character name (and server if not Evernight)
5. Location in game with a /loc along with more detail about what you experienced.
6. Video if possible. Please consider recording some video and getting it to us through an unlisted or whatever video on YouTube or something.

Could you be more specific what part of dxdiag you need? Full output is 10 times the max message size and I don't think we can add attachements.

[TobiasEstForte]

Playing with a friend on discord, doing 2 man content and skills are unresponsive/movement rubber banding at precisely the same times. Definitely an individual issue. I second that one need to only log in as a dev and see how it is for themselves rather than troubleshoot someone else's experience.

[OghranNasty]

Is this a serious question? Literally the whole server has been unplayable for longer periods of time since the expansion came out. The problem is beyond what kind of Direct X, internet provider etc someone is using.

The interesting thing is: not for everybody. So it does make sense to try and find out what divides the happy players from unhappy ones.

[Winzhi]

Why are they asking about our ISP and directx versions? SSG knows, we know, Daybreak knows. Everyone knows.

Its daybreaks servers that is awful. Just go to eq or eq2 forums and search for lags and you will get threads going back 2-3-4 years by now lol.

I am sorry, but asking the players for these details is just a smoke screen and pretending to do something. Same strategy Daybreak has been using to do nothing.

[Popey-211]

Arkenstone lag is pretty bad too.

[LagunaD2]

Our IT folks would like additional information to help them investigate

Why don't they create a user account and just log in?

[Arnenna]

These problems have been around for years and that will not change.

SSG proves to us how competent they are to solve these problems during 13 years. If players play lotro after all these last years of failure, it means that they accept this situation as long as they have their dose of lotro every day.

You have to be patient to wait maybe 14 years or more before there won't be no more server's issues in lotro.

Your reply doesn't help anything. I have for most part, been able to play the game without the issues I listed, for the best part of 8 years.

This is since FoG.

[Arnenna]

We apologize for the issues you have been experiencing on Evernight. Our IT folks would like additional information to help them investigate, so if you could private message me the below info it would be helpful:

1. A Direct X Diagnostic. From the Windows desktop, press the Windows and R keys to open the Run window. In the Open: field of the Run window, type dxdiag. Click OK or the Enter key to open the DirectX* Diagnostic Tool. If prompted to check if your drivers are digitally signed, click Yes.
2. IP address
3. Internet Service Provider
4. Character name (and server if not Evernight)
5. Location in game with a /loc along with more detail about what you experienced.
6. Video if possible. Please consider recording some video and getting it to us through an unlisted or whatever video on YouTube or something.

Done. Zero errors on all five tabs. Drivers are signed and up to date. ISP Virgin Fast Ethernet. Arnenna, EN. Everywhere in the world, massive delays, especially when trying to pick things up, hand in quests etc. Vault access etc, is really bad.

[oggbnvwnyc]

Your reply doesn't help anything. I have for most part, been able to play the game without the issues I listed, for the best part of 8 years.

This is since FoG.

Such replies help a lot, especially if there are a lot of similar ones from different people, over the course of several years, with not a finger lifted by SSG.

[Altair6]

We apologize for the issues you have been experiencing on Evernight. Our IT folks would like additional information to help them investigate, so if you could private message me the below info it would be helpful:

1. A Direct X Diagnostic. From the Windows desktop, press the Windows and R keys to open the Run window. In the Open: field of the Run window, type dxdiag. Click OK or the Enter key to open the DirectX* Diagnostic Tool. If prompted to check if your drivers are digitally signed, click Yes.
2. IP address
3. Internet Service Provider
4. Character name (and server if not Evernight)
5. Location in game with a /loc along with more detail about what you experienced.
6. Video if possible. Please consider recording some video and getting it to us through an unlisted or whatever video on YouTube or something.

The reason I find this an odd request is I play on both Evernight and Crickhollow. I've just been on Evernight and it's lagging - slow using vault (both taking out and putting in with error messages), crafting going at slow speed even though I have my VIP buff, constant "Reduced Awareness". I've just switched to Crickhollow and it's fine. Vault fast as normal, etc., etc. All on the same computer using the same connection.

Edit: When I checked on Evernight 1,111 non-anons. Crick 344. Spot the variable.

[Finnadan]

We apologize for the issues you have been experiencing on Evernight. Our IT folks would like additional information to help them investigate, so if you could private message me the below info it would be helpful:

1. A Direct X Diagnostic. From the Windows desktop, press the Windows and R keys to open the Run window. In the Open: field of the Run window, type dxdiag. Click OK or the Enter key to open the DirectX* Diagnostic Tool. If prompted to check if your drivers are digitally signed, click Yes.
2. IP address
3. Internet Service Provider
4. Character name (and server if not Evernight)
5. Location in game with a /loc along with more detail about what you experienced.
6. Video if possible. Please consider recording some video and getting it to us through an unlisted or whatever video on YouTube or something.

1: This is not relevant as my museum piece is more than capable of running LoTRO, and other online games. It is not an issue with the 1,000 other customers computers of varying specifications, it is a server issue when a player lags and/or bands so much that 2 minutes after trying to stop moving, said player plummets over a ledge to their doom. By the way, nice work with the spawn locations, I've seen more of them now that I have over the last 13 years.
2&3: With the 1,000 plus players affected by sever lag, it is irrelevant to require IP/ISP details as my details in Ireland (North) will be different from a customers in say, Ireland (South), France, Latvia, Croatia etcetera.
4: For my issues, you have my character name, but as I cannot contact ingame support, maybe you can contact me directly to discuss the Bound to Character items that I received and cannot use on a new character as they are not bound to account (Valar and other level 130 boosts), this would be a show of good faith considering the server issues.
5: location in game, it's problematic everywhere. Creating a Brawler (which was why I bought the expansion pack with the boosts which bound to the first character I logged in with), I was unable to get the undying deed in the North downs due to lag affecting an easy fight and being defeated (which was weeks ago).
6: Would it not be better for your mods/devs to create an account and check for themselves if such evidence of the lag issues is required?

[littlesquinky]

We apologize for the issues you have been experiencing on Evernight. Our IT folks would like additional information to help them investigate, so if you could private message me the below info it would be helpful:

1. A Direct X Diagnostic. From the Windows desktop, press the Windows and R keys to open the Run window. In the Open: field of the Run window, type dxdiag. Click OK or the Enter key to open the DirectX* Diagnostic Tool. If prompted to check if your drivers ....
6. Video if possible. Please consider recording some video and getting it to us through an unlisted or whatever video on YouTube or something.

This information is all player dependant. Out of curiosity I played a bit on evernight tonight, just in the starter areas. It's very laggy even there, it took me 20 seconds between I opened the door in south bree AH and the instant the server acknowledged I was out and put me actually out. Then I switched to Laurelin, the server I play in, both european server, both located in the US, same person playing on the same connection, same pc, same time, southern europe based. On Laurelin there was no lag at all, and none of my kinmates had lagging issues (in gundabad, not in south bree).

So, given that at the same time, Laurelin had around 600 non anon and Evernight around 1100, it's clear that the server tech is simply not capable to handle that amount of people. Assuming you can't fix this in the foreseeable future (if you could you would have done it years ago), why don't you simply allocate another server to EU players and put an end to this? Add another EU server, allow only EN player to move there in the first month or so, split the population in two and it's done. You are capable of doing this, it's been done for leg servers and even Bombadil.

Now I know that resources for Leg servers are paid by them being VIP only, but this evergoing evernight debacle has already costed you so much both in reputation and loss of playerbase, is it really worth to go on with this sorry show just to save money?

No point in adding new content if people cant play it because of horrid performances.

[afuturestrader]

Arkenstone lag is pretty bad too.

Wanted to confirm that Arkenstone lags.

Yesterday I tried a a lowbie character on Gladden and found problems there as well. For example, on a stable ride (not swift travel) the stable horse literally
stopped for 5 seconds, turned around and went back towards the original stable master before eventually heading back in the correct direction.

I don't know how EN compares to Arkenstone and Gladden but I can confirm the latter two have very noticeable performance issues as well. In the case at least of Arkenstone that includes solo Missions.

SSG - It seems to me you have two choices to resolve the performance issues. First, correct the situation so that LOTRO can handle current and - hopefully - additional new players. Or reduce server
load by waiting for some players to give up and leave thus accepting a decline in revenue and probably bad press.

[Cordovan]

Could you be more specific what part of dxdiag you need? Full output is 10 times the max message size and I don't think we can add attachements.

Feel free to email it to lotro@standingstonegames.com. This isn't about me reading it, but rather about offering some further information to the people doing the investigatory work who would appreciate receiving the information.

[Forodir]

We apologize for the issues you have been experiencing on Evernight. Our IT folks would like additional information to help them investigate, so if you could private message me the below info it would be helpful:

1. A Direct X Diagnostic. From the Windows desktop, press the Windows and R keys to open the Run window. In the Open: field of the Run window, type dxdiag. Click OK or the Enter key to open the DirectX* Diagnostic Tool. If prompted to check if your drivers are digitally signed, click Yes.
2. IP address
3. Internet Service Provider
4. Character name (and server if not Evernight)
5. Location in game with a /loc along with more detail about what you experienced.
6. Video if possible. Please consider recording some video and getting it to us through an unlisted or whatever video on YouTube or something.

So after years of "we are working on it", the investigations have come this? Really? They haven’t logged on the lagging servers even once to investigate the problems first hand?

[maartena]

So after years of "we are working on it", the investigations have come this? Really? They haven’t logged on the lagging servers even once to investigate the problems first hand?

I do know that Scenario was talking about world building in his 2 hour Gundabad stream and he mentioned some things like they can combine certain assets into one asset, which would make the loading of various assets faster....and could reduce lag. As you move through the world stuff gets rendered as you get closer to it. He also said they often have not done the combining of assets into one asset because they have the individual assets and just placing them was quicker.

Now, I am not a 3D modeler of any kind, nor do I know anything about the technical side of the engine used by the game.... I am just not a game programmer. That said, the Scenario streams have been extremely educating, and I can see that DirectX information may help to see how stuff is rendering on locations further away from the server, such as Europe and Asia. They can log on to the server all they want, but they have a direct link to the servers, and virtually all employees live within a 15ms radius to the servers, so they may not be able to emulate what is happening on larger distances such as European countries. I also know they have been trying to figure out problems with their links going to Europe. Their ISP may be able to provide better routing to European ISP's and for that having IP address information from the laggy clients could be extremely valuable.

I'd say if it helps in any way for them to make server adjustments, I'd be willing to try it. Doesn't seem like it is too much of an effort to collect logs, so I'll do it when I experience lag on Arkenstone.
It does tell me that the technical staff isn't able to fix the lag at this time, are at their wits end, and they are looking for clues. If we can provide some clues for them, I have no problem with that.

If you DO have a problem with that request, feel free to ignore it, and also this post, and hope for the best.

[Burzdolion]

Now, I am not a 3D modeler of any kind, nor do I know anything about the technical side of the engine used by the game.... I am just not a game programmer. That said, the Scenario streams have been extremely educating, and I can see that DirectX information may help to see how stuff is rendering on locations further away from the server, such as Europe and Asia. They can log on to the server all they want, but they have a direct link to the servers, and virtually all employees live within a 15ms radius to the servers, so they may not be able to emulate what is happening on larger distances such as European countries. I also know they have been trying to figure out problems with their links going to Europe. Their ISP may be able to provide better routing to European ISP's and for that having IP address information from the laggy clients could be extremely valuable.

With North American based Evernight kinnies suffering with the same lag and poor performance as us over in Europe, it's unlikely to be a transatlantic networking issue. There are clear trigger points to the lag based on user count - I say this with there being 500 people online (not anon) - and I'm not seeing the poor gameplay performance I saw when there were 900+ online.

The questions originally requested are what I would deem first stage investigation with the idea in mind that this is a single user issue, not reflective of the 10+ pages we see in this thread. Logging onto the server, and replicating the issue first hand is a very valid troubleshooting exercise.

[oggbnvwnyc]

So after years of "we are working on it", the investigations have come this? Really? They haven’t logged on the lagging servers even once to investigate the problems first hand?

Isn't that proof that the new "producer" lied through his teeth about "work" being done when they now, yet again, need information if customers really are affected, which they have for the last several years?

[LagunaD2]

Isn't that proof that the new "producer" lied through his teeth about "work" being done when they now, yet again, need information if customers really are affected, which they have for the last several years?

Happy-talk about 64-bit servers and unspecified improvements coming in the indefinite future could *technically* be considered "working on it", couldn't they?

I mean, they're paying people to do it, right?

[Harvain]

Isn't that proof that the new "producer" lied through his teeth about "work" being done when they now, yet again, need information if customers really are affected, which they have for the last several years?

No, they've been working on stuff but new problems always arise when you change, add, or remove coding.

You always need as much information as possible especially with issues that Evernight is seeing.



Personally, Evernight shows the extreme of LOTRO's Servers and how they work for all of them it's just not every Server sees Evernight type numbers to get to said Server's issues.

This is showing how LOTRO and how it's Servers are working is hanging over the edge and hanging on for now and that if SSG doesn't start dedicating a lot more resources to any and all ways to Optimize every bit of Coding, System, etc they'll be looking at a lot more problems in 2022.

As it stands heading into the last days of 2021, LOTRO cannot especially with Evernight, have any major influxes of Players in 2022 and beyond until Optimization is worked on for months and sees true meaningful progress with Evernight being the main Server that will show if such is working.



Things are still just in SSG's court. The ball is in their hands. They have to start making the winning plays.

Otherwise by this time next year in 2022, LOTRO is really going to be hurting.