Dear Darkpaw : We are disappointed

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by I_Love_My_Bandwidth, Jan 8, 2021.

  1. kizant Augur

    Lag adds an extra tier of both challenge and fun. Do you not like challenges and fun? :(
    scaethach, Andarriel and Lannin like this.
  2. Sancus Augur

    As others have mentioned, the issue is the substantial stress that the zone servers are under as a result of everything happening in a raid zone. Lag is much more pervasive now than it used to be, but this started years ago. Pets didn't swing all the way back in TDS raid instances. The beginning of the modern proc problem was the code change that allowed for more than one proc per swing/cast.

    Immediately after that change, players started using more procs that previously could not be used together. Then, each year designers added additional procs on top of those. Here's a list of every proc I have active at some point during a raid (I know this is long, but I felt listing them helped make my point):

    Worn Casting Procs (always active):
    • Velium Enhanced Arcane Staff - Sympathetic Surge of Ice (level 129) - Surge of Ice
    • Complimentary Velium Infused Gem of Devastation - Sympathetic Surge of Ice (level 27) - Surge of Ice
    • Elemental Curio of Ondine Force - Sympathetic Spike of Corruption (level 23) - Spike of Corruption
    • Complimentary Velium Infused Gem of Striking - Sympathetic Spike of Ice (level 21) - Spike of Ice
    • Velium Empowered Gem of Freezing - Sympathetic Spike of Ice (level 19) - Spike of Ice
    • Rallos Zek Devotee's Casting Ice - Rallos Zek Devotee's Casting Ice - Surge of Ice II
    • Rallos Zek Acolyte's Casting Ice - Rallos Zek Acolyte's Casting Ice - Surge of Ice I
    • Blazing Euphoria Casting Fire - Blazing Euphoria Casting Fire - Burst of Flames VIII
    • Whispering Midnight Casting Fire - Whispering Midnight Casting Fire - Burst of Flames V
    • Sacred Prayer Shawl of the Duke - Brell's Divination - Brell's Sacred Chromatic Strike
    Worn Melee Procs (always active):
    • Velium Enhanced Arcane Staff - Surge of Ice
    • Rallos Zek Devotee's Assaulting Ice - Rallos Zek Devotee's Assaulting Ice - Surge of Ice II
    • Rallos Zek Acolyte's Assaulting Ice - Rallos Zek Acolyte's Assaulting Ice - Surge of Ice I
    • Blazing Euphoria Assaulting Magic - Blazing Euphoria Assaulting Magic - Spike of Magic VIII
    • Whispering Midnight Assaulting Magic - Whispering Midnight Assaulting Magic - Spike of Magic V
    Buff Casting Procs (mostly or always active):
    • Potion - Restless Focus - Restless Strike
    • Mana Replication Aura Rk. III - Mana Replication III - Mana Replication Strike III (also procs Mana Re-Replication Strike III, etc.)
    • Icerend Aura Rk. III - Icrend Aura Effect III - Icerend Strike III
    • Arcane Symphony Rk. III - Arcane Symphony Effect III
    • Elemental Form XXXIII - Elemental Air IV
    • Elemental Form XXXIII - Elemental Flames IV
    • Elemental Form XXXIII - Elemental Earth IV
    Buff Melee Procs (mostly or always active):
    • Jann's Veil - Jann's Light
    • Arcane Symphony Rk. III - Arcane Symphony Strike III
    • Omorden's Song of Suffering Rk. III - Omorden's Strike III
    • Mana Infusion - Pure Magical Energy
    • Night's Perpetual Darkness Rk. III - Night's Perpetual Darkness III
    • Frightful Aura - Frightful Force
    Short Duration Procs (Casting or Melee):
    • Composite Reinforcement - Composite Reinforced Strike 6
    • Evoker's Synergy IV - Evoker's Synergy Strike IV
    • Apex of the Elements IV - Allied Elemental Strike IV
    • Mana Replication Rk. III - Mana Replication Strike III
    That's 32 distinct procs on one character. This list is only the procs I have; my pet has his own set of procs. Everyone else in the raid has their own set of procs, which exceed the volume of my own in some cases. Each time one of these procs casts, the spell has to check every focus on me to see if it meets the requirements.

    It's not surprising that combining these with player melee, normal spell casts, event scripts, pet pathing, etc. creates the issue that it does. I really don't think it's as simple as resetting the servers frequently or upgrading the hardware/bandwith. Those might provide a slight bit of relief, but really the design team needs to make a concerted effort to find an alternative to procs. Doing so would take a lot of resources to maintain some semblance of balance, but the status quo isn't workable.
  3. Svann2 The Magnificent

    Could probably reduce raid lag quite a bit by removing the trash mobs.
    If you want the aug drops you can still get them from last expac raid trash.
  4. Benito EQ player since 2001.


    A 24-hour data migration occurred on 11 February 2020. A similar 24-hour migration was scheduled for all of Daybreak's games.

    Extended Downtime Announcement - Tuesday, February 11, 2020 | EverQuest Forums (daybreakgames.com)

    We've had lag issues since at least this migration (likely compounded by unexpected population loads). People have speculated that this migration may have been a servicer change. If I wanted to "defend them with all [my] might", I'd be totally unreasonable and deny the lag outright. Some folks are even describing lag as originating last month when I am not covering up the fact it has been around all year (including multi-day outages this summer).

    Darkpaw Games was never based in Las Vegas. They've always been based in San Diego. (There may have been a mention of a move to Burbank or Irvine but I may be mis-remembering). I also see no mention of the server farm or provider in Las Vegas. Could you provide your source? (Not that geographic location will dramatically change this speculative analysis in a positive way).
    Fenthen likes this.
  5. Smokezz The Bane Crew

    The game world servers have been in Vegas since 2011 I believe (2 day downtime to do it). The Feb migration was likely to new hardware as route to the worlds didn't change. As for where Darkpaw/Daybreak/SoE/Verant has been based - Yeah, San Diego. But due to the wonderful thing called the Internet, you can host things in other places. You can search the forums just as well as I can.
  6. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    I searched the forums and Google with no official mention of the Las Vegas provider you speak of. I am not so sure they wouldn't have moved the servers since 2011 because of the change in ownership between SOE and Daybreak and now EG7.

    Whatever they did on 11 February 2020 may have botched something. Whether they went with a budget provider or infrastructure (because this migration applied to all of Daybreak's games including Planetside 2) in the process does not cover up for them. I suspect, if anything, they are tied down by a contract (made before the pandemic with a major cancellation or change-order penalty).

    My argument is not that of an apologist but of a realist. I readily admit it is speculation.
    Fenthen likes this.
  7. Fanra https://everquest.fanra.info

    https://traceroute-online.com/ with everquest.com:

    be731.las-agg7s3-2.switch.com (66.209.72.2) SWITCH-LTD, US 66.209.64.0/19 [IMG] 0%%
    45.69ms



    https://www.iplocation.net/ip-lookup with 66.209.72.2:


    66.209.72.2 United States [IMG] Nevada Las Vegas
    ISPOrganizationLatitudeLongitude
    SWITCH, LTD SWITCH, LTD 36.05989 -115.21021


    If you want to check your EverQuest game logs, you can find IP addresses for the game servers and they will also say Las Vegas Nevada. Except for the AB server which is in Europe.
  8. smash Augur

    There is something that give lag. And you can do something about it.

    Few years ago, I had massive lag, and it was not caused by dbg directly. It was caused by introduction of advanced loot system.
    Each time you kill a mob, and there loot, you will get hickups if you got a large advanced loot file.
    Why, because it checks for each piece of loot, need/no.

    I deleted nt advanced loot file and it reduced my lag by 50%., and cleaned out bank/house and it reduced further.
  9. Smokezz The Bane Crew

    The lag didn't start in Feb either. But whatever man, you can be "right". I don't really care.
  10. Nennius Curmudgeon

    It MIGHT have been a February. I do seem to remember some lag in February of 2001. But anyway...have the devs. commented on this? I have been a bit busy of late and I haven't checked every thread in every forum.
  11. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    Chill out. It's a forum, opinions will be shared. If you call someone out, don't expect them to sit down and take it.

    You can ignore people on the forums by clicking on their Profile and hitting "Ignore." You're welcome.
  12. Smokezz The Bane Crew


    Well, you're demanding "official" sources of where they host the servers. Companies NEVER come out and say YO! We're hosting this part of our stuff in this particular city, that in another particular city. That's just not how it works. It was mentioned in passing that they're in Vegas, the traceroute goes to Vegas. Sorry, but they're in Vegas.
  13. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    I backed up my claim by circumstantial evidence (i.e. 24-hour data migration of Feb 2020). I was merely asking for your source. You could have responded in the way Fanra responded. I want the truth - nothing more, nothing less. It would only make us better.

    You are taking this argument way too personally. Did I offend you in another thread? Time for all take a step back and chill.
    Gyurika Godofwar and Nennius like this.
  14. Tucoh Augur

    They should delete:
    • All procs
    • Player flurry/triple/double attack
    • Most swarm pets
    And start re-balancing the classes from there.
    Garglak and Barton like this.
  15. Barton The Mischievous

    They may not even have to get quite that drastic. They could make a start by consolidating as many of those things you listed as possible first before outright just deleting them, and if that doesn't work well snip snip
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  16. Coagagin Guild house cat

    Technical people have this "super secret" applet call 'Tracert' or Trace Route that leads us directly back to Level 3 in Las Vegas. No special Voodoo needed. Just a command prompt for the CLI from any Windows or Linux machine.

    - Coag
  17. Tegila Augur

    Most isps prioritize streaming services over other things
  18. Kumudil Journeyman

    What is the exact name of this 'nt advanced loot' file?
  19. smash Augur

    They under userdata:
    LF_AN
    LF_Rnd
    LF_AG
    LF_Nvr

    What I did was, delete them, also clean out my huge bank, and empty out the stores in house.
    Kumudil and Maedhros like this.
  20. Hogwilld Elder

    As a virtualization engineer, VM's can run better than physical servers. If you have someone that knows what they are doing.

    I went into a place that had servers setup and running at 1Gbps but had 10Gbps hardware, because they didn't load the right vmware tools and vmware para-virtual drivers with Vnx3 network cards. These people were certified experts.

    So EQ admins don't be afraid to reach out for a 3rd party support person to double check your setups.