Component Servers: please disable the "catch-up"

I had a rather interesting experience with the Hindemith server today, and it got me thinking (never a good thing?). Currently, when one of the component servers (Item Server, NPC server, etc) gets severely slowed down or paused, it attempts to resynch by catching up when it becomes fully functional. This may sound like a good idea...until you see it in action.

Item Server pauses...items stop working until it comes back up, when every item your character attempted to use for the several minutes it wasn't working (manually or automatically) goes off in under two seconds. Ran into that for the first time today; the shouts were...interesting. :eek:

A server related to combat (perhaps a combination of servers, I don't know the configuration) pauses, and everyone who was fighting stands there a while staring at each other...then catches up by doing three minutes of combat in under two seconds. Hope you have enough VR, because you're sure not hitting potions in time...my HP was like a yo-yo in the hands of a child in desperate need of Ritalin :eek:

I honestly think it would suit the players better if these components simply picked up from where they start to function properly instead of playing catch-up. Pauses of more than a second not a terribly common occurance (I hadn't even seen an Item Server pause worthy of note until today), so I highly doubt that they would add up to more than a minute by the weekly maintenance, when the clock could easily be reset.

If I'm correct, it would solve an intermittent short-term problem without any long-term ill effects. If ;)

OMG... You should really learn some things about this kind of server works :P

No the server does NOT catch up. NPCServer from World Server does not get asyncronised...
You are experiencing the so called LAG spikes, its 100% your problem, better check your internet connection... Trust me on that.

You really have a faulty idea on how the server works :)

It may be lag, but it's not always 100% our fault. Especially when it's been lag that effect people in multiple states, multiple providers, multiple countries.

OMG... You should really learn some things about this kind of server works :P

No the server does NOT catch up. NPCServer from World Server does not get asyncronised...
You are experiencing the so called LAG spikes, its 100% your problem, better check your internet connection... Trust me on that.

You really have a faulty idea on how the server works :)

People do not walk around, chat with each other, kill monsters, etc during a lag spike. They definitely don't have full conversations with other players about how the server is behaving oddly. They don't hear things like "yeah, it's not working for me either" from several complete strangers on the shout channel.

However, they can do all of those things while the only the items will not activate or drop from monsters. When items begin to function again, it processes all the backlogged commands at once (the potions you tried to use 5 minutes ago will suddenly all go off, etc). Doesn't happen? Tell that to the players of Hindemith, it was a widespread problem the day I posted this thread.

Would you care to explain what is happening in that situation, since obviously I don't know what I'm talking about?
This should be interesting...

(Oh, and you might want to check out the Technical Discussion where people talk about the items server having problems the day I posted this...*ahem* "OMG... You should really learn to use the search function!")

Incidentally, if you honestly believe "NPCServer from World Server does not get asyncronised" then you haven't been playing long. Anyone playing more than a month or two has seen the NPC server bug out or crash on multiple occassions, while everything else continues to function as usual, and might have noticed the odd NPC behavior the moments after it is resynched.

Edit: I just saw you've been playing less than a month, you probably honestly don't realize it works this way. Just FYI, when the NPC server gets lagged, NPC's start to respawn slower, then take a long time to vanish after dying, then just stop respawning entirely (or maybe just too long to measure)...often the GM's will just shut it off entirely, causing every NPC, servitor, etc to vanish from the map, and restart it fresh.
Almost every veteran player knows exactly what I'm talking about, here.

I had a similiar problem over this past weekend.. might have been sunday.. .don't remember...

Everything was working fine but my shots would not work for a few seconds... at first I thought it was my keyboard (button not working) until I did a test... pressed the key and a few seconds later the shot went off. Everything else was normal.. I could move normally, the mobs could beat the hell out of me etc.

That is when I starte wondering if the shots were handled differently, like the mobs.

Me too last weekend. Tried using the gatekeeper and nothing happened. Tried like 5 times and still nothing. Could talk, could walk around. Finally, a minute or so later, I ported. Weird.

So yeah, it was NOT client-side lag.

Do you play Hindemith? It did that several times Sunday night before it finally just paused all items entirely for about five minutes. I was in a catacomb, so you can bet people panicked when their potions and soulshots stopped working (4x social monsters and no soulshots? eep!). They hit the button repeatedly to no avail...then at the end of five minutes, most players used more than a dozen potions in the first two seconds as the backlog was processed.

Edit: Gatekeepers stopped working too, Elro? Maybe it froze at the "check and deduct adena" step...I dunno, wasn't near one...

Do you play Hindem

Are you kidding? He's a legend on Hindemith!

Edit: Gatekeepers stopped working too, Elro? Maybe it froze at the "check and deduct adena" step...I dunno, wasn't near one...

I think that was it. I finally checked my system messages wondering if I was getting billed multiple times but hadn't.

Do you play Hindem

Are you kidding? He's a legend on Hindemith!

Fine, I admit it. I knew he played Hindemith, but it sounds better if he says "yes, as a matter of fact I do" than if I say it ;)

This is off topic but I just like to point out bekkar, that you cant judge how long a player has been playing by looking at his "registered on forums" -date. Just a note, nothing more ;)

On topic: This usually causes brilliant light shows when using SS/Bsps combos normally in pve. Was really nice looking when about 30 BSS went off simultaneously on my GS after one such time and all the others in party had similar light shows going too. Wish I had SS'd it, would have made a fine picture. And yeah, everything else worked just fine, no lag in moving, in using skills or in hitting the mobs, only items didnt work.

This is off topic but I just like to point out bekkar, that you cant judge how long a player has been playing by looking at his "registered on forums" -date. Just a note, nothing more ;)

You are correct. I was assuming his registered date was close to his start date based on his analysis, but it's entirely possible he's been here longer and simply (amazingly) failed to notice these issues. I probably shouldn't assume, but it's human nature.

It's just that I have the same reg date and I'd hate to be classified as someone who has been playing less than a month ;)

It's just that I have the same reg date and I'd hate to be classified as someone who has been playing less than a month ;)

I hadn't even noticed that. I suppose I only check if a poster's comments lead me to wonder, and your posts certainly hadn't...oh well.

Do you play Hindemith? It did that several times Sunday night before it finally just paused all items entirely for about five minutes. I was in a catacomb, so you can bet people panicked when their potions and soulshots stopped working (4x social monsters and no soulshots? eep!). They hit the button repeatedly to no avail...then at the end of five minutes, most players used more than a dozen potions in the first two seconds as the backlog was processed.

Edit: Gatekeepers stopped working too, Elro? Maybe it froze at the "check and deduct adena" step...I dunno, wasn't near one...

We have a winner!!!

Yup! My shots stopped working completely and it very well could have been Sunday night.

I actually had to kill 2 mobs using no shots (yeah.. I know ... horrors.. but we mages are brittle when they actually reach us) and eventually just restarted which did allow me to use the shots but I still had a delay at times.

regardless, i'm sure the server hiccup behavior in question is not intended

This is off topic but I just like to point out bekkar, that you cant judge how long a player has been playing by looking at his "registered on forums" -date. Just a note, nothing more ;)

yeah i registered several months after i started playing. didnt want to post much(first time on boards). and couldnt figure out **** login! (thought it used ingame name and psswrd >.>)

regardless, i'm sure the server hiccup behavior in question is not intended

Well.. of course it's not intended!

Imagine ...

"hey Spam"

"yeah?"

"Watch me mess with Hindemith... it will be so funny!"

"you mean like how we teleport people all over the map?"

"No... BETTER!" :cool:

regardless, i'm sure the server hiccup behavior in question is not intended

Well.. of course it's not intended!

Imagine ...

"hey Spam"

"yeah?"

"Watch me mess with Hindemith... it will be so funny!"

"you mean like how we teleport people all over the map?"

"No... BETTER!" :cool:



They're such spoofsters!!

So would you rather have a system designed to hiccup pleasantly, or one designed not to hiccup at all? I'd be concerned that building in a check "is the system lagging" to every consumable would cause more problems than it solves.

And it's too easy to think of time when you'd want it to continue using stuff, and other times when you'd not.

Just like when you get disconnected. Sometimes it's nice if you keep fighting the current mob until you poof (or die). Othertimes it'd be nicer if upon losing contact with the client, the server would cease all actions by the unmanned PC.

regardless, i'm sure the server hiccup behavior in question is not intended

Well.. of course it's not intended!

Imagine ...

"hey Spam"

"yeah?"

"Watch me mess with Hindemith... it will be so funny!"

"you mean like how we teleport people all over the map?"

"No... BETTER!" :cool:



They're such spoofsters!!

So would you rather have a system designed to hiccup pleasantly, or one designed not to hiccup at all? I'd be concerned that building in a check "is the system lagging" to every consumable would cause more problems than it solves.

And it's too easy to think of time when you'd want it to continue using stuff, and other times when you'd not.

Just like when you get disconnected. Sometimes it's nice if you keep fighting the current mob until you poof (or die). Othertimes it'd be nicer if upon losing contact with the client, the server would cease all actions by the unmanned PC.



Oh.. I'm not a programmer and don't have the faintest idea as to what would be reasonable to expect. I'm just saying that I had the same problem and came to the conclusion that the shots were being run by some different system.

Other than that I will leave the "redesigning" of NC's systems to you guys.

I can change hard drives, add video cards and memory and that's about it.

In school (way back in the day when we were using punch card systems) I could make my name go up and down and change the border on my commodore 64. So ends the extent of my knowledge of such things.

Yes, it does happen often enough that most players will see it in some form at least once per month...for a couple minutes.
Yes, it would be nice if it didn't do that, or if it handled such instances with more grace.
No, I don't expect major changes to be made to the a live product in order to correct what is, at worse, and intermittent problem.

However, as most suggestions on this board are of the "wouldn't it be nice if..." variety, I didn't particularly mind that combination.

Sounds similar to what happened to gustin a few weeks back still in c3. We had a 4 man ab group going when all of a sudden the bsps and ss stopped working. Tried everything that has worked in the past, but it just wouldn't activate. Npc's didn't function right, mobs would drop money that upon pickup would just simply vanish, buy/sell shops stopped working, things traided between players simply vanished with neither player having the items. This lasted about 5 - 10 mins when finally the whole server just crashed for about another 10 - 15 mins.