Make sure that you lower all of the graphics and such. Turn the graphics onto low and open the advanced options to turn compatibility mode on. Also Ironclaw Munitions Factory is the biggest lagfest in the game so thats a problem of its own. Adjust your timing to that of the lag, its not too hard to figure out timing. The fighting is still tough but switches should be more managable.

I've had the same problem since the update, particularly in places like FSC. I think it is just a result of the glut of people playing due to the new release.

It is the same thing over and over, my connection bar remains full the entire time mind you. I'll be playing ok, with a slightly low FPS, then the screen will freeze for about 1-3 seconds and when it comes back everything has shifted by about 1-3 seconds worth of movement. Anything I was doing when the freeze started the game assumes I was doing the entire time. So holding shield and moving up, I still have my shield on and I'm at the top of the room (even if I'm no longer holding down shield, I have to press and release shield to unshield). If I was doing an quick sword swipe then I'll now have a charge attack ready to go when it comes out of it.

Usually though I'm sitting in lava or chilling in the corner with a Trojan.

I'm in Texas and have a 30 Mbps connection, although it could be a network issue on my side it is hard to imagine. My ping to San Francisco is 63 ms.

Same problem, I'm in Arizona. Sometimes the game is fine, sometimes I'll change floors and go from 3 bars to 1. Always on an arena, no less. Happens on multiple internet connections (laptop!~) and different computers. Most frequently happens during the early afternoon, which makes sense, but it happens late at night, too. It's really frustrating when you spend 10ce to go down a floor and it becomes an unplayable lagfest as soon as you set foot into an arena.

I would say its effecting to many people to be a linux thing, im on ubuntu 11.04 64 bit here; when it happens to me, it seems to effect the whole party

also, irregardless isnt a word :P i think you mean regardless ;) Sorry just a pet peeve lol, anyway, ya, i got all that stuff happening as well on linux

I can assure you i know whats happening on my network at all times; also, any game should be using a combination of UDP and TCP packets, depending on the importance of the payload.

Lately, this happened to me too, but not that much. I never had lag problems before in any game, and as everybody else, I have a good computer, and internet connection so it's definitely not that.
And for some reason, if I don't have lag myself, and someone who does is in the same party, I start lagging too. This doesn't make sense. <_>

All we can do is bother them with tickets until they get enough of it and finally fix it? Or at least say something like "fine geez we'll fix it"

If the lag problem were on Three Rings' end, then it should affect everyone, not just you. Kind of like how when they shut down the servers to do maintenance, that affects everyone.

There can be Internet connection problems in a lot of different places. It could be that your ISP is having trouble, or filtering the game traffic for some reason. Some router off in the middle of the Internet might be having issues. Maybe you're locally on a wireless router that is dropping packets or otherwise unstable. An insufficient processor may be able to delay the processing of network packets, and increase your ping time that way. Maybe you've got something else running in the background and hogging your Internet bandwidth or CPU cycles.

This definitely seems to be a connection issue and I do not see how lowering your graphic settings would help with that problem.

I have encountered this problem a few times, and it was mostly due to an issue on my part. :(

I never dip under four bars and never have any lag problems unless I am in the advance training hall.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/247623/Otherscreenshots/javaw%202011-07-21%2015-...

You guys see that bar in the top right? The one that's red? That's normal for me in Australia, and the game is very playable. I think you guys have packet loss issues between you and the servers.

I've had a red lag indicator since the lag indicator was first introduced, nothing I do resolves it and I experience everything the OP has mentioned. I experience no frame rate lag and have ADSL2 internet (400~KB/s download and 40KB/s upload). My computer is beefy with Intel i7 920 CPU, 6GB RAM, Geforce 250GTS video card etc.

I'm in Australia, other games don't show these problems like WoW, Borderlands, alien swarm, battlefield bad company 2 etc.

........

dude thats because servers are only IN the U.S so most places outside it get bad latency, the computer isnt the problem here....

supermedic1, you are completely misunderstanding the kind of lag we are talking about. I run Roarmulus twins with no framerate lag. The lag where your knight gets rubberbanded back into the position they were in 3 seconds ago is the fault of the server, when it happens to several players at once, and happens on levels that don't usually lag. My connection is fine, according to the connection meter.

Alright, before this dissolves into a e-peen jousting match, let's try and sort some things out here. (C'mon this is the interent guys; if your stuff is more than a few days old it's out of date and you loose anyway.)

First of all, how is this game hosted:
It's hosed on the Amazon EC2 service. The idea of a single physical server does not apply here since this is a scalable cloud service in use. The physical location of this hosting is in the United States, and most assume it to be in the west coast broad area. When the Amazon services host stuff like Netflix, it's very unlikely that bandwidth issues can occur host side. (This does not mean I'm saying OOO's netcode is perfect)

What are all those Havens then?
Those are instances out of the same host. Even the French, German and Spanish areas are still on the same host as the English. Last time there was a discussion about the instances (Jan/Feb) it was revealed that each instance is limited to roughly 50 knights. The main reason this is assumed to be done is because having a pile of shiny moving sprites can cause some major client side graphics lag if you are not careful.

Big Causes of Rubber Band Behavior:
The most major, and usually easiest to solve, is local network activity. This game is remarkably sensitive to sharing data upload with some other application. Less so to sharing download bandwidth. If someone is doing an online data sync or torrenting on your network you are out out of luck for a good gameplay experience unless you have router admin access. A tech savvy user should be able to set up a QoS system to regulate data hogs and give bandwidth sensitive applications priority. I've done this many times, the results are extremely gratifying when done properly.

Lost or delayed packets is another big one. First step here is to make sure you're not using a wireless that is generating transmit errors. For most this is not a problem (I've almost always play on wireless with no issue). For those where it's a problem, they should see quite an improvement switching to a wired connection. Packets lost in transit is something out of the user's control. This is where something between you and the game host is not working. This is a case where you really just have to bite the bullet. These issues can manifest themselves in game with molasses to slingshot movements and monsters suddenly walking off screen (though walls even!) as the host and client "recalibrate" for a moment.

Big Causes of Action Delay:
Distance to the host. There's no real way around this, you and the host need to get closer to improve your experience. The other is if you're on the short end of the stick on a traffic shaping network, your packets are stuck in the slow lane. In both cases the game should still be very playable as this action delay tends to remain very consistent. It does not take very long to learn the patterns of attack and anticipate monster's moves.

Other Notes:
After a re-boot for a patch there's almost always poor performance for a bit. This is written off as the massive log in influx of players. Wait a half hour and it should be gone. The wiki and the forums seem to suffer in the same way.

Getting rubber-banding on top of action delays is clearly the most frustrating scenario you can be in. This makes the game totally unplayable. Before you fire up the HWFO at the latest patch, you should examine what has changed on your end recently that could affect this. It could just be a one-off program updating in the background.

I've played this game from 4 different wireless network locations with no issues other than those generated by the people I live with. In a US college town where you have to set up strict QoS with torrent-happy flatmates. In a suburb/rural hybrid US area where getting internet is like getting blood from a stone, but If I have the connection all to myself there's no issues at all. In a college library, where I had action delay issues but the game was still very playable. Lastly, up in cottage country Canada, where paved roads are an unusual luxury; consistent action delay again, but playable and fun as always

Also, when quoting how great your experience with another game is, do not forget to consider whether or not that game has local servers to you. I've seen many folk from overseas list games they have no trouble with that use local servers or local P2P connections for online play. Of course these will perform better, a shorter chain of hops greatly lowers the chance for a weak link to be used.

Lastly, The Dev team is more than aware of the plight of those users suffering from an unruly connection. They do, on occasion, step in when there is something most certainly wrong with the game's behavior. One such example can be seen here.

Sadly, what appears to be a big part of the issue is the unavoidable delay between client and host. You control the factors you can (get a wired connection, decent computer, maybe poke your ISP and optimize your modem/router settings), and then you pray.

One complaint I do have is the massive upload spikes. Did those get fixed, or do they still happen? Since most residential high speed internet is asymmetric (much higher DL than UL), anything that shares your upload bandwidth can potentially kill SK. I am curious what part of SK's design causes it to hog so much UL bandwidth though- or is this a more general thing? I don't play other MMOs, so I can't say.

So Spiral Knights does not play well with other heavy bandwidth programs... how does it fair with other computers also running Spiral Knights on the same network? The majority of the time that CaseyWeederm and I are playing SK, it is on separate computers all hooked up to the same wireless network - could it be multiple instances of the game itself that's slowing down the game?

This doesn't seem likely, since as a multiplayer game SK must be designed for such situations, but it's a thought anyway.

seems like the game only lags when my computer is overheated i think thats pretty much true for all games and for all computers/laptops, systems just stop working when it overheats kinda annoying, i think the best way to stop things from over heating is to open up the area that has the fan but this also means your computer is unprotected from physical contact and its really annoying to handle.

I don't think so. I'm not fully convinced (in my theoretical ramblings) that the host is totally overloaded during reboots.

Right now is arguably a peak time with the giveaways happening. Rough math tells me that there's currently a bit over over 6000 people online right now. People are likely logging in and out in droves as the hour marks go by. There's no one else using the internet connection at home and I have no connectivity problems running around and hitting things in the Advanced Training Hall outside of the normal mini-corrections that my wireless tends to generate. I think what needs to be examined it not the raw compute resources but how the client/host interacts. Again, only the Dev team is privy to that information.

I have been lagging ridiculously since the past update. Before the update I could run anything without lagging. Now I can barely move around Haven without jumping. It is so not fun, haven't been able to use my mist in days.

I have a 250+ ping and the lag feels fine, i just goto play as if everything will happen with a slight delay. The only thing that really sucks is the throwing things which give a very short animation and warning too little to compensate with lag prediction. though i have not played t3, if it requires really fast shielding then it will effect the game.

However i would like to see AUS servers, i'm sure internode would host them for free, they have done it before with lots of games.
Have the hub located in america but when you go into a game it connects to an AUS server if your within the ip range or have selected an option?

"open up the area that has the fan but this also means your computer is unprotected from physical contact and its really annoying to handle."

Don't listen to this guy's advice, he's obviously pulling a load of bull- whatever he meant...