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Post by Grogbot on Mar 21, 2005 8:56:59 GMT
Hey dudes Yesterday when the server was full and I couldn't get on  I popped over to Ancient Warriors and their new PoA server (the epic one). It wasn't as good as HG of course  and it was real funny buying any item I wanted, but it appeared to me that lag on that server was almost nil. My 1st question is: how can this be? They were based on the same module afterall (although the enormous # of scripts might have something to do with it) and the AW guys had similar spell changes to HG and still allowed buy/sell actions in all the stores. Anyone shed some light here? Can we learn from these guys? My 2nd question is: is there anything the PLAYERS can do to help all those hard working DMs reduce lag? Things I think cause lag: * spawn fests at the farm or the tower or wherever * multi bags of holding (its a rumor on the various forums about the place, don't know why) * mass castings of long duration AoE spells I know the DM team are busting a gut (and hooray for them, thanks guys for your efforts to date, I remember the bad old days of November and know the improvements you have all made) but was just wondering if there are things we players can do to help too. Grogbot |
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Post by Terragen on Mar 21, 2005 19:19:03 GMT
I'm also interested in finding out the detals of what creates the lag -
I notice it most when I'm local (i.e. in same area as) mass AoE casting / mass spawns such as farm. But when I'm lagging and just standing around in some random area, I know some other party is doing what I'm doing, or maybe the server is full (always lags when server is full), or is it hardware, regardless of mod size? Also large parties seem to lag at least the immediate vicinity, if not the whole server...
I guess what I'm asking is what are the main constituents of the lag, is it hardware, software, the mod size, certain scripts, character inventories (that would be me with my bags of holding - working on clearing them out right now)... or is it a combination?
Anyways when it becomes unbearable I move back to town, stock up or just listen to some soothing music so I don't go ape-house all over the place... Just learning to be patient is worth it cuz this is the greatest world available, and the only one I frequent.
To re-iterate Grogbot - yes tell us what WE as players can do with our characters to reduce the evil lag...
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Post by FunkySwerve on Mar 24, 2005 21:45:42 GMT
Here's a few things:
1) Don't loiter in any area with NPCs, except the Town of Ascension itself(not the docks, just the town)
2) Dont drop objects on the ground in town, they never despawn - or rather, never get a chance to because someone is nearly always in town
3) Don't mass spawn critters
4) Don't hoard items you won't use
Other than these the onus is pretty much on us to reduce lag. Alot of the lag is related to areas that we've addedd that other HG servers don't have. Im working to cut lag still more, but its a long process. One question: did the other server have respawning loot? That adds a considerable load, and many servers don't do it for that reason, but I like it.
Also, I'd like to add a comment: I DON'T think the server aslways lags when full, I've been on when its full and been up awhile, with no lag. The lag is now more area-related, especially with the drow, raz, the spiders in strange tower, and abandoned farm. These areas lag the entire server, and I'm working to change that. The other issue is the number of placeables - we have a TON, and they do add to lag. Im gonna be removing a bunch of useless ones (have removed a few already). I don't want to ditch too many though, because I feel they add flavor. I'll also be removing some drops and adding them to monsters, which helps too, since encounters dont have meshes. There are a number of other possible methods, and Im working all the angles. I CAN promise that lag will be eliminated for the large part, but this will take time since we need to balance this with other projects like helping out underpowered classes, filling in gaps in gear, and adding new (low-lag) areas. A good indicator is the day/night cycle - have you noticed it now changes from night to day in town, until we hit a lag patch? Updating time on the client-side is a low priority function, and this wasn't happening until recently due to all the other scripts slowing us down. Things are getting better, and will continue to do so.
Best,
Funky
P.S. As to bags of holding, afaik, the only issue is the extra # of items they allow players to carry. We have already dealt with that via encumbria, though I may kick the limit down to 125 - I have yet to get sent to encumbria since the limit was set at 150, and I like to switch out gear frequently (still a bit of a packrat).
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Post by Grogbot on Mar 24, 2005 22:29:52 GMT
Re: Loot on AW The Underdark Wars I didn't play for long enough for a respawn of loot (but as for critters the Bandit Cave respawned as soon as I had done Boat Ramp) But what was interesting is that AW Tresspasser has been waxing lyrical for some time now regarding the new treasure system. This is on the AW Boards He notes that he is using to SOU treasure system (whatever that means - they system not the abbreviation) Seems to be about generate treasure code in a loop vs a generate treasure function. See, for example, page 4 of this thread (Underdark Sticky on the AW forum) www.ancientwarriors.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7547&sid=76d915d8e71d6a5c2b3c85006da52cf1Hope this helps Grog |
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Post by FunkySwerve on Mar 25, 2005 0:53:00 GMT
Well, their loot is respawning, the thread answered that much at least. The SOU treasure system would only increase lag, and only incredibly marginally, but there's no real need for it, since we have a random drop system we can use whereever we want. I played on a server with it once, and wasnt impressed. I may decrease respawn time to decrease lag, but there are a bunch of other tactics I want to try first. On a side note, I was a little appalled that AW Tresspasser didn't know what the electrifier did - not having played the game much is a major obstacle to developing a balanced mod.  Thanks for the input, Funky |
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Post by FunkySwerve on Apr 17, 2005 9:20:52 GMT
The secret ingredient was, as it turns out, the obscene number of attacks per round that creatures in Mana and the Abyss, and dragons receive. I took a major step towards eliminating this problem this update; now all he scripted extra attacks are gone, and so is the lag.
Funky
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I popped over to Ancient Warriors and their new PoA server (the epic one).
and it was real funny buying any item I wanted, but it appeared to me that lag on that server was almost nil.
