Let's talk lag!

[Hulk Hogan]

Since TobbaLighting (blessed be!), atmos and deletion seem to be the primary culprits of escalating lag, at least from a player viewpoint. Deletion is already fairly intelligently handled, but atmos is apparently deep murk code that nobody wants to tinker with in case it breaks everything forever.

That's unfortunate, because nearly every single round the idiot spacemen can't resist punching holes in the hull or starting plasma fires.

That said: If Goonstation wants to set up a Patreon or something, that is something I would absolutely chip in to. I've been playing this stupid game for so long for free it's starting to make me feel guilty.

I'd donate some money to this server. That being said, I suggest we have a bounty system. Lots of devs do stuff like that.

[Wire]

Just a note: I put #4 on secret mode. Which means you can now just pick whichever server you lag on less, like god intended.

Sidenote: if you are sad about the lack of an extended mode server, deal with it. Extended is dumb anyway.

[TheOnlyRyan]

Just a note: I put #4 on secret mode. Which means you can now just pick whichever server you lag on less, like god intended.

Sidenote: if you are sad about the lack of an extended mode server, deal with it. Extended is dumb anyway.

Realistically how can you expect both servers to have a reasonable amount of people on at any one time?

EASY FIX Wire!! Move your server to an island in the middle of the Atlantic for even ping for everyone!

No island you say!??! MAKE ONE ! ask the Chinese, they love doing it.

[69andahalf]

I do realize how how complaining about lag is like farting into a high wind, but recently I'm finding the lag very discouraging when playing on #1. I'm not sure why, but nearing the end of some rounds the game doesn't "lag" in the sense that I get a high ping, but I'll be holding down a movement key and it's very much like a slide show, just teleporting into walls and doors. I've no idea what could cause this, but it seems like a lot of people are experiencing it also.

Just my two cents, I'm not sure if anything can be done about it, and I'll continue to play through it, but I think it's good for the admins to know where the community stands. For a long time I've found the discussion around lag with administrators to be a "deal with it" attitude, but it's nice to see some discussion and explanation.  

[Ed Venture]

Things will get better hopefully when Wire gets the chance to switch 1&5. As said in the LLJK1vsLLJK4 thread 5 has a beefier server and could run the higher population better. Just gonna have to be patient and wait and see. Also yeah I've been experiencing this lag as well but it was only in the last round I played, I have no idea if it will keep doing it for me.

[Vitatroll]

Could we also drop the [US]/[UK] tag?

I know it might sounds stupid, but to new players choosing a server they'll do what they've done in every other game: choose the highest pop/lowest ping server in their country. It's just automatic video game logic.

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As for ping, well, that's just an measure of the intercommunication speed between client and server. The server itself can be choking on something and give everyone slower speeds. On average, a low ping probably just means you can react faster than your average 2dspessman. Well, I noticed a marked increase of robustability on my own account.

If it comes between lower ping and lower server grinding (byond being single threaded-yeeey), I'll gladly be less robust.

[Doctor Honkington]

Yeah, the lag really affects me wanting to press that join button. I'll end up joining and just exit out because I can't deal with the teleportation of lag. (Hold down W, don't move even with it held down, then you all of a sudden pop up at the end of the hall 2 seconds later.)

It really just destroys the game, I understand that it's a major problem, but there's a lot of people like me who just won't play until said lag is fixed so it runs smoothly again.


fyi: the map doesn't help neither, as much as I like it, bigger map = bigger lag.

[quiltyquilty]

fyi: the map doesn't help neither, as much as I like it, bigger map = bigger lag.

the size of the map doesnt affect lag

[Erik]

fyi: the map doesn't help neither, as much as I like it, bigger map = bigger lag.

the size of the map doesnt affect lag

It does, 500x500 zlevels cause severe lag.

[TheNewTeddy]

From my experience, the overwhelming majority of the lag is tick lag.

Go to a solar panel display and listen as the ticks pass by. You'll notice that this is the same rhythm and pattern of some of the lag.

[Sundance]

Mind explaining what you mean TheNewTeddy?

As far as the map size goes,perhaps a simple fix would be to reduce the map size to 400x400 instead of 500x500.
How?
Reduce the actual distance of space. I did the maths, you can reduce the map by 100x100 sq pixels, the only difference is the wizard shuttle and syndicate outpost would be a bit closer to the station. This could be combated by reducing the size of the syndicate outpost and moving both the wizard shuttle and the syndicate outpost to the further most corners (north west and south east respectively)

[Haine]

The maps are 300x300.
Z1, the station level, could handle a reduction in size just fine.  Z2, the admin/VR/telesci level, and Z3, the debris field, could not.