Intense lag, 90k's and general mayhem

[gamesmart]

It should be noted that I have done this several times in the past and I am almost always connected thru a VPN for this reason.

Unfortunately, as Square Enix does not own any part of Level 3 Communications, which is one of the biggest roots of this problem, there is very little that they can do firsthand - they would have to pressure Level 3 from one side, while we as consumers pressure them from the other side, in order for anything to be done about it.

[Vespar]

Unfortunately, as Square Enix does not own any part of Level 3 Communications, which is one of the biggest roots of this problem, there is very little that they can do firsthand - they would have to pressure Level 3 from one side, while we as consumers pressure them from the other side, in order for anything to be done about it.

I am not talking about the routing issues here. The issues I am seeing is solely during patches and weekend traffic. It seems more like server congestion to me than Level 3's usual issues. No, this appears to be general server congestion. Not to mention the length of time its been taking the poor Duty Finder to reserve an instance after finding party members (1-6 minutes at times). This obviously isn't just the normal issue with routing here. If SE's servers are being this congested with a single patch, then perhaps its time to increase the amount of servers they have before 3.0 comes out and bombards us with even more players. (This feels very similar to the lag and 90k's I experienced at launch of 2.0. And it was alleviated when they increased the amount of servers back then.) So there are things that can be done about this.

[gamesmart]

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Well, you do have to take in mind that 2.5 came out less than a week ago, and that new content rush is still going on (even now I still have at least 5-6 people getting their first time WoD clear achievements). As such, instances are probably quite a lot more populated (I'm getting near-instant queues for World of Darkness as a ranged DPS, imagine that), thus taking the servers longer to open up spots. Perhaps it is server stress, but this is natural with a major patch having just come out. Hopefully it eases up as the weeks go by, though I don't imagine Gold Saucer helping much when it comes out next month.

[Vespar]

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You just proved my point. With each new patch and with free trials, there are more and more and more folks all vying for that server space. And after patches, it often takes 2-3 weeks for things to calm down enough to be stable again. We shouldn't have to wait 2-3 weeks at a time to be able to play the game the way it was intended. The servers are obviously feeling the pinch when it comes to this, and I would really hate to see SE go through another escapade like they had at launch, when they mistook how many servers would be required to house us all because they assumed they wouldn't get that great of a turn out since 1.0 wasn't great. That aside, this game is steadily gaining in popularity and more and more people are flooding in. (Especially when there is a patch, old players come back and new players want to try out the game) It will eventually be necessary to increase the amount of servers or stream line them further so more players can be housed on a single server, or we are going to start seeing more frequent lag and/or other issues, not just on weekends/patch days.

[gamesmart]

snip

I'm all for server upgrades, but it's not an instant decision on SE's part, as they are after all a company, and companies seek to make as much profit as possible, particularly by spending as little as possible. Then comes other factors - the time required to actually hook up the servers, which is building onto the already incredibly tight schedule of the dev team, and when to do so without pissing off a good chunk of the playerbase (remember 2.4 and gardening? dem Thavnairian Onions). Honestly though, I'd be surprised if plans for more servers weren't already in the works, what with Heavensward looming on the horizon.

That said, I personally have not been experiencing lag at all, even at peak times, except for one instance that happened on patch day, so there may be other factors at work here. I'd try to look into that, but I'm not a network/tech expert.