Lags at horrible levels now

For me, lags is a problem that's getting worse and worse. I doubt this has anything at all to do with my connection, everything else is working fine, and MMOs like EQ2 and WoW still have the same pings as they usually have.

The problem is annoying on my private island, it makes everything react slow, and the almost neverending hourglass when trying to make something, has become a constant factor to expect.

On adventures it's far, far worse. I'm now trying a simple 1R block in SotV, but it's impossible. The problem is that when sending out general #1, it takes an eternity for him to leave the camp. I've been testing this a lot the last minutes, and even if I wait upto 20 secs after sending out general #1, before I send out #2, they always leave the camps at the same time. This makes it impossible to calculate for the lags by trying to wait out the lag spike, it just won't work at all.

For me, adventures are only playable in three ways in the current horrible situation:
- Play without using any blocks at all (a no-no for advs like SotV and several others, the losses would be horrible)
- Play at late nights, since that's the only time there are almost no lags
- Play on the middle of the day (except weekends), lags are often not that bad when ppl are at school/work. Unfortunately, rarely an option for me.

For me, there were no such problems at all when I started playing in June last year, but after noticing it first, it has gradually worsened. It won't be long till the game is completly unplayable if it continues like this.

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Originally Posted by Rafnir

For me, there were no such problems at all when I started playing in June last year, but after noticing it first, it has gradually worsened. It won't be long till the game is completly unplayable if it continues like this.

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I agree i have posted in a different thread in forum today that since i started playing the bugs etc have got worse, i dont do blocks as its not worth it if things go wrong for to loose elites/xbowmen (that take for ever to make) but then again BB dont like people using blocks so maybe there are some bugs to put off people from doing them you never know.

Yep lag has increased lately, definately.
I have that hourglass too when making troops or in the provisions, making it essential at times to refresh.
I keep my cache and history fairly low by deleting them and also after viewing video anytime.
So also I know it's not me and also on another game play is per normal.
I do sent blocks out but trust in god that they'll work. I've been playing victors mostly lately and that's manageable, sotv I've played a lot, I love the challenge but I agree it'd be tough at the moment.

Quite simply the problem here is Flash, different browsers require different versions of flash to run the game. Basically BB have put themselves in a position where they can quite honestly say it's not their fault. However with hundreds of browsers available I say it's their responsibility to at least provide us the end user with a list of approved browsers. By providing such a list we will know what to use to play the game. Failure to do this ultimately means lost sales for them.

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Originally Posted by Dorotheus

Quite simply the problem here is Flash, different browsers require different versions of flash to run the game. Basically BB have put themselves in a position where they can quite honestly say it's not their fault. However with hundreds of browsers available I say it's their responsibility to at least provide us the end user with a list of approved browsers. By providing such a list we will know what to use to play the game. Failure to do this ultimately means lost sales for them.

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And your references for this are?

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Originally Posted by Dorotheus

Quite simply the problem here is Flash, different browsers require different versions of flash to run the game. Basically BB have put themselves in a position where they can quite honestly say it's not their fault. However with hundreds of browsers available I say it's their responsibility to at least provide us the end user with a list of approved browsers. By providing such a list we will know what to use to play the game. Failure to do this ultimately means lost sales for them.

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Flash is only part of the problem, server capacity is another part, and there are distinct times where it is like somebody has flicked the 'lag switch' on or off, switching to the "g04" mirror of the game is particularly noticeable.

Lag has been getting worse for me too lately.

And every time BB has posted they have changed things on their side to remove lag, it has been getting worse. :confused:

I must agree, that their has been an increased lag during the last 3-4 days. First I thought it was because of the weekend, but today it's still taking buffs (on a guildmembers building) more then 15 seconds to actually show that the building is buffed (and receive the notification by popup).

Earlier last week, it only took about 5 seconds (sometimes a bit more)

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Originally Posted by Rendor

And your references for this are?

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Rather extensive as a result of over 3 decades gaming. I have about a dozen different browsers I use depending on which operating system I boot into. Obviously there are going to be browsers for popular operating systems which I don't use for example Apple products & Android just to name two.

My point which you appeared to have missed was a request for a list of approved browsers, not a list of browsers which could be used. Now I could fire up the old Amiga 1200 and try playing the game on that, I know enough to get that to work, I'm wise enough to know that would be a very painfully laggy thing to do. No I'm not going to repeat the same futile experiment with a ZX Spectrum :)

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Originally Posted by Dragavon

And every time BB has posted they have changed things on their side to remove lag, it has been getting worse. :confused:

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Yup. That's my impression too.

A lot of lag is to do with the player's PC and internet connection speed. I'm on a dual-core PC running Windows 7, but I suffer from appaling lag, and often lose connection to chat. When this happens, however, I can often hear my PC hard-drive going nuts as it tries to swap stuff about in 'Virtual Memory' because it's run out of physical memory.

Of course, TSO is a pretty huge flash-based game - so there is a lot of information for your PC to move about. You therefore need a fairly decent PC to be able to run it effectively. Anything older that 3-4 years old (unless it was a high-end gaming machine) and it will begin to struggle.

I'm planning on grabbing 4Gb more physical memory for my PC - I believe that this should make a huge difference to the game. I'll let you know...

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Originally Posted by Dorotheus

Rather extensive as a result of over 3 decades gaming. I have about a dozen different browsers I use depending on which operating system I boot into. Obviously there are going to be browsers for popular operating systems which I don't use for example Apple products & Android just to name two.

My point which you appeared to have missed was a request for a list of approved browsers, not a list of browsers which could be used. Now I could fire up the old Amiga 1200 and try playing the game on that, I know enough to get that to work, I'm wise enough to know that would be a very painfully laggy thing to do. No I'm not going to repeat the same futile experiment with a ZX Spectrum :)

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Thats an opinion not a reference ..... I blame the server myself. Each to his own theory tho....

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Originally Posted by Jamdoggy

A lot of lag is to do with the player's PC and internet connection speed. I'm on a dual-core PC running Windows 7, but I suffer from appaling lag, and often lose connection to chat. When this happens, however, I can often hear my PC hard-drive going nuts as it tries to swap stuff about in 'Virtual Memory' because it's run out of physical memory.

Of course, TSO is a pretty huge flash-based game - so there is a lot of information for your PC to move about. You therefore need a fairly decent PC to be able to run it effectively. Anything older that 3-4 years old (unless it was a high-end gaming machine) and it will begin to struggle.

I'm planning on grabbing 4Gb more physical memory for my PC - I believe that this should make a huge difference to the game. I'll let you know...

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There are SOME situations where you can blame internet connection and PC, but this is rarely the case nowadays. BB's comments on their work to improve lags is just one piece of proof to that - they can only do things on their side, they can't fix my connection or upgrade my PC. And most MMO publishers have periodic lag issues, and many of them are often very open about it.

My old PC has an AMD X2 5600+ CPU, 4 gigs of RAM, some 512 mb GPU. I bought a new PC a few months ago: i5-3570k CPU (quad core), 16 GB RAM (1866 mhz), XFX Radeon HD 7950 (3 GB VRAM!!!), SSD harddrive, etc. I also have a laptop I bought in August 2011, not sure about the specifics, only know it's an ASUS with some intel CPU and 6 GB RAM.

So, my old PC isn't much to brag about these days. But my new one is a monster compared to my old one.

The point: I've noticed absolutely no difference at all on these PCs, when it comes to playing this game. So it has NOTHING to do with my PCs.

And about my internet connection:

As I said, EVERYTHING else works fine. For example, I have a constant 52-55ms latency in WoW - you don't get that kind of numbers if there are the slightest problems.

Blame me and my PCs, connection, whatever, all you want, but you are WRONG.

I cant logg: zone error

Friends cant visit my isle: zone error

i blame BB

and prolly by time i can logg my mines are empty and BB blames technical issues

Its beta and with pro's at BB it will stay forever beta as its such a handy shielding argument:p

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Originally Posted by Dorotheus

Rather extensive as a result of over 3 decades gaming. I have about a dozen different browsers I use depending on which operating system I boot into. Obviously there are going to be browsers for popular operating systems which I don't use for example Apple products & Android just to name two.

My point which you appeared to have missed was a request for a list of approved browsers, not a list of browsers which could be used. Now I could fire up the old Amiga 1200 and try playing the game on that, I know enough to get that to work, I'm wise enough to know that would be a very painfully laggy thing to do. No I'm not going to repeat the same futile experiment with a ZX Spectrum :)

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Actually, the A1200's architecture was designed to take such things in its stride, unlike IBM clones and their dodgy interrupt system. Fit one with an 060/PPC board and you're laughing.

The new update turned things from bad to worse, at least for me. I'll continue using SotV as an example to explain:

On the last attack, you need 6 gens for a full block/attack. When I was sure the block was not going to work, due to the ususal delays, I called back all 6 gens. 4 of them (all the blockers) wouldn't retreat, but went on with the attack. So I was sitting here getting more and more frustrated over the upcoming losses, while watching the battle animations, then something weird happened: suddenly there was no battle, and all gens were in their garrisons. It's like the server finally caught up with my retreats, 2-3 minutes after I clicked the white flags.

Just one example on how the lags are now, there are plenty more. Like when trying to buff a few buildings - nothing happens for over a minute, then all are buffed at the same time, etc.

So, BB. What exactly are you doing to improve this game? I really have to ask, because lags are getting worse and worse, and the "improvements" we got, isn't improving much, considering all the bugs and the fact that promised fixes are not fixed at all. Read the feedback forum for more about that, but you're well aware of the situation, no doubt.

same here lag is back takes forever to change troops and blocking not going to that for some time now.. The "old" version of the game was much better when it comes to lag

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Originally Posted by Dorotheus

Rather extensive as a result of over 3 decades gaming. I have about a dozen different browsers I use depending on which operating system I boot into. Obviously there are going to be browsers for popular operating systems which I don't use for example Apple products & Android just to name two.

My point which you appeared to have missed was a request for a list of approved browsers, not a list of browsers which could be used. Now I could fire up the old Amiga 1200 and try playing the game on that, I know enough to get that to work, I'm wise enough to know that would be a very painfully laggy thing to do. No I'm not going to repeat the same futile experiment with a ZX Spectrum :)

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Unfortunately, this is nonsense. Playing games for however long does not necessarily give you any insight in how they actually work. This issue is very clearly and obviously the result of server-side lag. The issues arise whenever the client needs a response from the server. Look at the time it takes for a building to show up in your build queue. Or a buff to show up on a building. Or a general to leave camp. These issues all arise whenever a response is needed from the server.

The same is the case for generals moving across the map. It's server-side logic because letting the client control that kind of stuff would make no sense. Your generals would stop moving if your browser closed, or flash crashed. This is obviously not the case.

To everyone: Please don't go out and buy new ram, a new processor or a new graphics card for this. It won't make a difference. It will likely make your animations a bit smoother, but it won't fix the jumpy general, since this is an issue that arises when the client tries to show the general where the server says he should be, and receives odd data. I play from my mid-range work computer with on-board graphics and a Pentium2 dual core processor and 1gb ram. I also play from home on a gaming rig with an i7 sandy bridge processor, 12gb of ram and a nvidia GTX 580 graphics card. Lastly, I occasionally visit my mother and play on her ultrabook HP envy, with an i5 processor and 8gb of ram. This problem is universal across all these setups. The issue is server-side.

Totally agree EctoRune, the problems are almost all server-side.
We didn't experience this kind of lag before, when there were many more active players. There was a clear drop in performance on a particular update last year, after this maintenance, communication with the server noticeably became longer.
Playing on other servers, another has suffered a similar hit to ours yet before was one of the best responding versions to play on, whereas another has had frequent tweaks after complaints, after which it noticeably improves again. No prizes for guessing which language server that is!

One thing I have noticed this last week which I don't recall seeing before the last update is constant calls to facebook to verify your login while in game.

Once more players have been driven away by the absurd quests it will free up some bandwidth.....

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Originally Posted by Rendor

Once more players have been driven away by the absurd quests it will free up some bandwidth.....

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Or more likely:

Once the amount of active players have dropped below a set limit, they'll allow even more players on each server. Then when everyone comes back at the same time to check the easter event, the problems are tripled, or worse...

... or just drop the server capacity even further, until we all just grind to a halt.

The lag is because there are people joining, and not leaving the game. Would be nice fro people to understand this instead of keep saying "Ouuu, people will leave!"

It does not help the lag. Not at all :(

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Originally Posted by Whizkeyjack

The lag is because there are people joining, and not leaving the game. Would be nice fro people to understand this instead of keep saying "Ouuu, people will leave!"

It does not help the lag. Not at all :(

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It is caused by too many joining, but the problems associated with it may cause some to leave. That's what's being said by some here.

No need for the "educational tone", especially when you haven't understood what people are actually saying.

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Originally Posted by Rafnir

It is caused by too many joining, but the problems associated with it may cause some to leave. That's what's being said by some here.

No need for the "educational tone", especially when you haven't understood what people are actually saying.

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Too many people join, and people will leave because of this.

(now it's your turn to repeat what I wrote, again)

yawn. Server capacity was reduced in November, and has not been adjusted accordingly since. Also, one of the 4 'copies' appears to be corrupted, or that particular server has a hardware fault as lag is more prevalent when that particular one is in use.
92 posts, and yet to see one that is either original or constructive. :(

If it swims like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck the chances are reasonably strong that it is a duck.

I have noticed lag for the last two weeks now. I don't consider my pc to be at fault neither. I have a very fast connection to the internet too. I do not have any copper between my house and the first connection - it's fibre up to my front door.

I can play a dvd, have TSO open and have more browsers open too.

Nothing has changed here.

But I am noticing lag.

Quack quack :-)
Nuttymut :-)

Blaming Flash (or the browser, browser version, flash version or even the operating system and computer type) for the noticeable lag is critically wrong as the laggy elements do not run client-side, as many have tried pointing out.

A simple test: Start the game, wait until your island has all the buildings shown correctly, then 'open your build menu' (just open it, don't build anything, just see how long it takes to appear) ... that delay/speed is your client-side lag (as opening that is governed fully client-side and does not need to contact the server). That speed can vary dependent on browser, flash, os or pc.

The only two possible culprits are communication speed and/or remote server response speed.
Pings against the server indicate it is not communication speed, which leaves one culprit.

Sub-note: A long time ago I suggested Buff-Lists, which would help reduce lag, reduce server load and help improve the game... nobody commented though. Instead of that, BB opted to give us quests that required performing 175 or however many buffs on friends, which increased lag, increased server load and...