Constant Crashing since 14.2

[padraxus]

I don't why, but the game is running much better since...i don't have a clue. The game is still crashing from time to time during startup when a character is loaded. But once it is loaded, i can play for hours most of the time.

The only thing i have noticed is, that when my NAS is wakened (there are various reasons why) during play, the game is likely to crash. In addition the game is much more sensible to parallel network traffic than before. I have a 50 Mbit connection at home and until now my wife could stream a tv show in parallel via ATV and the game didn't give a damn about it. Now the traffic of "death" is around 50%, more is too much for the game.

I'm using the HC client right now, running OSX Yosemite Beta 5.

[VideoBeagle]

I'm also experiencing crashing almost every 10 minutes. Fresh install of Mavericks 10.9.5... Both with a fresh LOTRO install, or with a copied from old backup install.

[Valamar]

I don't why, but the game is running much better since...i don't have a clue. The game is still crashing from time to time during startup when a character is loaded. But once it is loaded, i can play for hours most of the time.

The only thing i have noticed is, that when my NAS is wakened (there are various reasons why) during play, the game is likely to crash. In addition the game is much more sensible to parallel network traffic than before. I have a 50 Mbit connection at home and until now my wife could stream a tv show in parallel via ATV and the game didn't give a damn about it. Now the traffic of "death" is around 50%, more is too much for the game.

I'm using the HC client right now, running OSX Yosemite Beta 5.

This is an interesting comment.

I see a crash routinely at roughly 45-75 minutes -- and they all look like "timer" based crashes.
Makes me wonder if my Comcast router is doing a periodic refresh on me... or maybe OSX is doing a refresh of some sort.
Have to try to investigate.

[Squeezemonger]

I've been in touch with Turbine tech support, and they suggested several variations on turning down or resetting the graphics options, none of which made any difference, and I resubmitted crash logs each time. Hopefully it will at least help narrow down the problem. It does seem to be Thread 0 crashing in a call to CoreAudio every time though, so I suspect the graphics options won't make any difference.

It's basically broken now, as I can't play for more than 5-10 minutes without it crashing back to the desktop. Before the latest update it was rock solid.

[Hard_Headed_Woman]

I'm glad I found this thread. I've been having the same problems with the client crashing, for about the past month, on my Mac Book Pro running Mavericks. I hadn't put it together in my mind with 14.2 update, but my client was rock solid before that release. Now 95% time I load the game it crashes during startup, or just after I choose my character. I checked my RAM and my hard drive and neither have any problems. I did a fresh install of the game and that didn't clear things up either. I've submitted bug reports, but it seems like they go into the void never to be read. Does anyone know the timetable for the next update? I'm hoping that fixes this issue. In the meantime, has anyone had any luck running the client in a Windows VM?

[Aldadil]

Hi,

same problem here – crashes to desktop while loading - the launcher works but it crashes after the connecting to the server. Sometimes while loading, sometimes in the character-menus - sometimes after a view minutes ingame. It has nothing to do with der internet connection (works fine) and it is happens on all macs here at the same time. It is conspicuous that this error mainly appears after 10 PM (CET) - but not every day. But if it occurs there is no chance to solve the problem – not before the next day. Then it runs fine again.

I wrote a ticket and hope that this will be a thing of the past by the next update. But I am worried about it …

Many Greetings!

PS: German Writer - hope my english is not too bad … sorry if it is

[Valamar]

same problem here – crashes to desktop while loading - the launcher works but it crashes after the connecting to the server. Sometimes while loading, sometimes in the character-menus - sometimes after a view minutes ingame. It has nothing to do with der internet connection (works fine) and it is happens on all macs here at the same time. It is conspicuous that this error mainly appears after 10 PM (CET) - but not every day. But if it occurs there is no chance to solve the problem – not before the next day. Then it runs fine again.

This is most interesting. First report I've seen with a TIME-of-DAY related repeat pattern. Something I'll have to watch myself now.

The implication is that it has nothing to do with the Mac Client itself, but rather with access to Turbine's servers. There are several possible situations, none easy to track down.

Encrypted UDP
"Both DDO and LOTRO connect using encrypted UDP (User Datagram Protocol) packets over ports 9000 to 9010 (for the general data communication) and 2900 to 2910 (for the chat and voice chat connections) and they use "loose" routing methods, usually referred to as "asymmetrical packet routing". What this means is that while the game client sends data outbound (upstream) on port 'x', the response packets coming back from the server inbound (downstream) are using port 'y'.
Whenever there is an issue with these ports being accessible, the two-way data method being supported, or the inbound/outbound data being mis-routed then connection issues at these stages can and do occur."

This description from the Knowledge base is a two edged sword. The possibility of UDP being "interrupted" by your local environment is always one possibility, however UDP is INTENDED to allow for, and even assume, packet loss! Whereas TCP has certain data recovery aspects in the protocol, UDP does not. If a packet does not "get through" -- that packet simply does NOT get through. There is no automatic packet retransmission in the UDP protocol -- the CLIENT must ask for it from the server again. This makes UDP slightly faster than TCP for computer to computer dialogs. However, it places ALL data integrity issues squarely on the Sender and Receiver, usually on the Receiver, in this case, the Mac Client.

I believe that CET is 6 hours ahead of EDT (currently in force in Boston) so "after" 10PM CET would translate to "after" 4PM EDT -- or "after the workday is over and Internet traffic as well as Server Load begins to increase dramatically on most days.

The implication here is that "something" can't handle the load - potentially either the network path involved or the client or server.

The Launcher itself does minimal conversation with the GLS server, and that is all in TCP! Once your userid and password are entered and verified by the authentication server and you select a world, you begin to download your character information via UDP. At this point, I can easily see the Mac Client "crashing" because it can't deal with the error correction activities needed to operate - in a "dirty" environment.

Sadly, it is virtually impossible to monitor UDP behavior outside of instrumentation built into the client itself. It is possible that the "packet loss" displayed when you mouse-over the connection icon (if you have it enabled) refers to the UDP packet transmission, however that is not documented, so I can't say for certain. If it is referring to UDP packets, then that "% packet loss" figure would be an indicator of WHAT is happening -- but gives absolutely no clue as to WHY packet loss is happening.

Assuming it is a load related problem, other than trying at a different time of day or switching ISPs I don't have any useful suggestions.
It might be worth putting in a Ticket (not bug report) citing your time-of-day observations. There is a 10% (or less) chance that someone at Turbine will take a look at it despite the fact that the problem is with the Mac Client -- AND have a meaningful suggestion.

Lol -- I took German in High School many, many years ago and would have guessed it would be "Das Internet," not "Der Internet"!

[padraxus]

@Valamar
"Das" is correct, if "internet" is only mentioned as a single noun. In this case he just forgot to translate "der" to "the".

[Aldadil]

Many thanks, Valamar, for this description - now I have a little idea of what happened. I wrote a ticket (not a bug-report) and hope for response.

And – yes, I forgot to translate the word and padraxus is right. In this case the german translation would be: "hat nichts mit DER Internet-Verbindung zu tun". Or in other words "DIE Internet-Verbindung ist gut" But you are right with - "DAS Internet" I would say - forget it *hihi*

Thanks and many greetings !