The most epic boss - lag

[ginsu]

Every time I'm with a lag problem playing on this server, I trace the route to see where is the problem. Here an example:

http://prnt.sc/enrsls

This IP 198.27.73.92 (step 13 of the route) is where I always have problems with packets. Or the packets are lost, or it dellay to much, etc. As the server is the step 14 of the route, I have reasons to believe that this IP is in fact from the internet provider of the server.

I only have problems when there is to much ppl playing, like 50 or more.

Believing that I'm not the first to report this same problem, is there any light on the end of the tunnel?

[Aspect of Sorrow]

Short answer, the server's network is multihomed, large latencies on the pipe have their traffic running a hand-off onto another route, so the answer is a strong no where the server's provider is concerned. You don't have to take my word for it either, here's a link to the throughput weathermap at the facility.

Secondly, ICMP responses are to the hop it requested. Hop 13's 538ms response may not add to the overall latency to subsequent hops due to a throttle on the ICMP protocol itself in favor of it's cpu usage toward routing rules defined. In the picture defined, this is the case here, as even I can't ping that IP (it appears like route hop 9 to me).

Thirdly, the network lag experienced from the game server is not network lag. Under previous DDoS attempts, this was the case especially where it was easier to shut down the game server by, today that's not so. Repeat ICMP packets (ping -t game.bgtscc.net) will show the behavior as nominal while a 75+ player activity fighting creatures can simulate the occurrence of lag because nwserver itself has not had the processing prowess to ascertain the computed changes and respond accordingly. Think of it as this way, you can have a one on one discussion with someone fairly easily, but holding discussion with 70 people simultaneously, while making adjustments to what's expected as a response, takes time.

[ginsu]

Thanks my friend.

Is there anything possible that we, as players can do to help with this issue? Maybe some tests we could run when the server have the problem to try to better monitor it?

[Aspect of Sorrow]

Nothing that isn't already monitored.

[Toxen]

I didnt understand half of all this technical info.

My question is simpler: Would stronger/better hardware improve the server?

If theres 50+ people online its laggy.

if theres 50+ people online and a dm is doing an event = crash within 1 hour (+ endless lags and 5mins loadscreens untill crash)


So would the server improve if it wasn't running a wooden comp?

Or is the game just taking such heavy toll on it that no matter how good a comp, it wont work?


Edit: This is not an attack on dm events. I think they are very fun and add variety. I'd just wish they could be done more smoothly. Events are the most fun when theres less than 30 people online, because then it doesn't ruin all other on servers playtime with lag, but is good times and fun all over. Thats what I wish we could have all the time.

[Aspect of Sorrow]

nwserver is compiled without taking advantage of multiple cores.

BGTSCC is hosted on the most current and fastest piece of to-market silicon per core.

nwserver is not optimized and suitable today in it's state with logic that was written in 1998 (19 years ago).

Some of the blame is on the module's design as well.

[chad878262]

nwserver is compiled without taking advantage of multiple cores.

BGTSCC is hosted on the most current and fastest piece of to-market silicon per core.

nwserver is not optimized and suitable today in it's state with logic that was written in 1998 (19 years ago).

Some of the blame is on the module's design as well.

So write some new nwserver logic AoS...

j/k, I realize it's far more complicated than that.

I think folks should realize that the things Duster, Rasael, Valefort, AoS, Endelyon, Maecius, Zanniej (and I'm sure I am forgetting many other developers/scripters as well as our wonderful area builders and media team) have done with this server over the past couple of years is nothing short of amazing. This is evidenced simply by the fact that there are COMPLAINTS about having 50+ people in game, because it has become the norm, rather than a rare occurrence. Back in late 2014 when I joined server population ranged on average from teens to 30's. Rarely going over 45 and maybe once every couple months it may have approached 75. This was pretty much the norm from Sept. 2014 throughout most of 2015. 2016 saw a steady increase in player count with some ups and downs as new content was released, bugs were fixed, etc. However, where the server has been for the past 3-6 months I never thought I'd see. 2 years ago common sense told me I would have fun around here for a few years as the server slowly waned and eventually disappeared. While that is still a possibility, the current staffing makes me think it is much farther off then I would have considered. While there are and will always be issues due to the technology the software is built on, there won't be another game like this released any time in the near future. My guess is things will continue to incrementally improve and, hopefully we someday get to a point where the server can handle 8-9 hours between reset. However, I don't know that this is possible because when the server was up for that amount of time the populations were much lower.

[Aspect of Sorrow]

So write some new nwserver logic AoS...

Working on animation support right now.

[chad878262]

Working on animation support right now.

*drops mic, walks off stage*

[Toxen]

Working on animation support right now.

*drops mic, walks off stage*

Very nice.

And btw thx a lot for clearing it up in the post above in a language that even I could understand.

I have one last question about performance/improving it:

I see Realms of trinity has 2 servers... Would it be possible to do that with BGTSCC as well? And would it help at all? (I have never played on RoT so I got no clue) Was just thinking 2 servers would be twice as good as one... But also twice as expensive.

[Aspect of Sorrow]

We may have multiple game servers set up in the future depending on population.