Spiral Knights - After Event "Update" Lag Crisis. Once a Year is Getting Annoying...

After Event "Update" Lag Crisis. Once a Year is Getting Annoying...

13 replies [Last post]

Sun, 12/18/2016 - 00:23

Euclidean-Space

Yes, another thread of some Aus kid from the lagzone whining about latency issues. Please bare with me.

This has been a trend, each time after an event is enabled, let it be Winterfest, Tentacles or Black Kat, such irregular erratic latency issues occur. The game is simply made unplayable when it comes to certain missions that demand an adequate connection. To exemplify this point, I recorded a short video of me playing the Grinchlin Ass(salt) mission. There were constant annoying banding issues and long delays throughout this 7 minutes long video. It is extremely frustrating, unenjoyable and indeed an irregular occurance, even for someone living in the Ocealagia.

Please refrain from moaning on how I should use a "proper" shield or whatever, I don't care. I've done this mission solo with just SSB many times over last year. The shield really isn't the problem. In addition, I probably don't even know how to use strong shield anymore.

Note: Thought I had my Maskeraith on.

I hope the server reboot makes all this go away. Yesterday's Heart of Ice mission was a total lagging disaster.

Sun, 12/18/2016 - 03:20

Midnight-Dj

adapt or die

*complains about lag
*don't want to use a more durable shield
*wants GH to fix his own problem when he should adapt his playing style to the game's condition

GH is not making additional server, period. Not that anything in the winterfest is worthwhile, just reskin of the things I already had.

Sun, 12/18/2016 - 10:12

Ark-The-Monsta

>Says problem is not using a

>Says problem is not using a 5* shield
>Says to adapt to a new playstyle

As if a 5* shield makes a difference when the servers can't handle one instance and decides the best thing to do is to force clients to experience packet loss left right and center and periodically disconnect them resulting in enemies walking out of bounds and projectiles becoming invisible. A new playstyle can surely counter this. *obvious sarcasm*

As for OP, I also experienced the same exact thing even though I'm much closer to the servers and also when I had a 250 MB/s fibre optic connection. They said their server transfers are done but who knows, I hardly play anymore so it doesn't matter to me anyway.

Sun, 12/18/2016 - 13:38

Doppelheathen

Yeah, I love how everything

Yeah, I love how everything that goes wrong is always the players' fault.

Sun, 12/18/2016 - 15:47

Midnight-Dj

Yeah, I love how everything that goes wrong is always the players' fault.

It isn't the players' fault, but GH is not taking the blame either.

Sun, 12/18/2016 - 16:42

Melonfish

Well, the design of the mission will not blame itself.

With all due respect, no matter how carefully or deviantly you decide to play, the in-game input from the part of any player cannot and never will counter lag as it is. All it can manage to do is help put up with it during the moment that it comes up to affect their performance. After all, a few seconds of helplessness at the wrong time can throw away the momentum of an entire run.

Lag has been the black sheep of all player complaints ever since release. Not much can be done to correct it thoroughly, but the fact remains that it still influences the flow of many playthroughs in an excruciatingly one-sided manner. The gravity of that influence weighs greatly on many players when thrown in conjuction with Grinchlin Assault.

Perhaps nobody present is to blame. But that attitude will not pin down the problem to a conclusive resolve.

Sun, 12/18/2016 - 18:02

Bopp

network vs. computer?

Players use the term "lag" to refer to various performance problems. Some of these problems arise from poor connection to the servers. (I sympathize with players living far from North America and Europe.) Others arise from weak computers. (SK is constructed to use computer resources not very efficiently.)

If your lag problems were tied to network connection, then I would expect you to experience them all the time --- not just for certain events.

So I wonder whether your lag problems are more about the performance of your computer, and the inefficiency of SK running on it. Any comment?

Sun, 12/18/2016 - 23:33

Azurestratos

munny makes the cradle go round

Using a 5* shield and changing playstyle does help a bit.

Speaking from experience. You just have to press down the shield button and movement to a safe area, hope that when the teleporting stops, the shield still holds. :P

Let's face it, players from Asia (myself) and further regions are inevitably going to get some lag. My 180mbps is nice on paper, but internet speed fluctuates, and you don't get constant 180mbps.

That's why we have pings/latency meters. Peak traffic hours etc.

Conclusive resolve is unpractical. Unless one of us is a kind-hearted millionaire, :D

or...

Do you want to set up player-run servers East side from player-donations? I can totally see this work. Anyone?

Mon, 12/19/2016 - 02:22

Euclidean-Space

Oh yes, totally called it.

Ahhh, I said to not moan about my shield usage.

wants GH to fix his own problem when he should adapt his playing style to the game's condition
GH's laggy servers is my problem? Did you even read, or do you know how to? Because if you did, you probably wouldn't be so condescending. It's not my problem, it's actually yours.

So putting up your more durable shield preemptively as the lag occurs, wear more durable armor and heart lockets and fight more in ranged combat, can in no way counter lag. Ok then ...*obvious sarcasm*
What more durable shield? What kind of shield can take a 1~2 second lag spike or packet loss in this mission? The SSB breaks with 1.5 hits, a "durable" one breaks with 2.5~3.5 hits depending on the stats and the damage exerted, so much for a durable shield! And I don't have the ping to be able to shield in between attacks due to slow attack speed. Having ASI MAX on everything helps far more than a durable shield.
Oh, your sarcasm is not funny at all... try next time.

Perhaps nobody present is to blame. But that attitude will not pin down the problem to a conclusive resolve.
The lag always goes away after GH issue a server reboot, or when it's no longer the weekends. I lagged so hard in ordinary missions when I was playing during off peak last week, this is obviously not regular.

If your lag problems were tied to network connection, then I would expect you to experience them all the time --- not just for certain events.
The post clearly indicates that I experience such lag after GH enables an event. I don't experience it all the time. I can solo HOI just fine with the 3* SSB on elite -- a very shield demanding mission. Indeed, I experience such lag ONLY when GH enables an event, or when I am also downloading lots of things whilst having a video in the background. I know that would be my problem anyway.

So I wonder whether your lag problems are more about the performance of your computer, and the inefficiency of SK running on it. Any comment?
My computer is pretty good. It's one of those overpriced gaming laptops. I can run lightroom and photoshop at the same time while watching videos, that's way more RAM usage than SK. I have also set parameters in the extra.txt. It's 100% not my computer's problem.

Mon, 12/19/2016 - 02:28

Euclidean-Space

Using a 5* shield and changing playstyle does help a bit.
No, I'm not going to use a "good shield" and my playstyle is swapping weapons constantly and dodging things, whilst maximising my output and survival chance. This has worked for every single mission in the game, excluding the Grinch one with severe latency.

Let's face it, players from Asia (myself) and further regions are inevitably going to get some lag. My 180mbps is nice on paper, but internet speed fluctuates, and you don't get constant 180mbps.
Yes, during the netflix hour, lag is really obvious. But hey, I forgot to mention that I live right next to an exchange, literally. I can see those towers from my office! My connection is actually better than some people who are in the Americas.

Conclusive resolve is unpractical. Unless one of us is a kind-hearted millionaire
The conclusive resolution is to simply reboot the servers. Today (19th Dec.) I'm doing just fine, bumps here are there, but nothing irregular.

Mon, 12/19/2016 - 02:32

#10

Euclidean-Space

"Muhhh Durabble sheeldd"

The lag disappeared today, yay!

Depth one, Swift Strike Buckler, didn't die, full HP.
http://i.imgur.com/kZHojci.jpg

Depth two, dual rooms, Swift Strike Buckler, didn't die, full HP:
http://i.imgur.com/wKOjKzL.jpg

Depth two, boss. Still didn't die. Cloak up!
http://i.imgur.com/P9yhzyg.jpg

So no, the problem isn't the shield I'm using. Sure, you can say it's because I got myself a decent team, which is true! Soloing would be a lot more challenging, but it's doable with one spark maximum.

Mon, 12/19/2016 - 02:38

#11

Euclidean-Space

The entire premise of this post is to basically shed light to an irregular occurrence within the game. That is being, after enabling events, I always experience massive latency issues. There could be many contributing factors:
- Boom in player count
- Server overload
- ???

I'm not asking for an Asia or Oceania-specific server. It would be infeasible for GH, the player base from Asia and Oceania is nothing compared to that of the Americas and Europe. I understand this. If an Asian and Oceania sever is profitable, GH would do it, duh. Economics 101.

Anyway, the lag went away today. It's back to normal.

Mon, 12/19/2016 - 05:31

#12

Midnight-Dj

Looks like someone is 2 kool 4 shields

GH's laggy servers is my problem? Did you even read, or do you know how to? Because if you did, you probably wouldn't be so condescending. It's not my problem, it's actually yours.

I never said the server is your problem, but your complain will not make the server any faster. Oh, your sarcasm is not funny at all... try harder next time.

Anyway, the lag went away today. It's back to normal.

Oh well, I will see you around this same time next year.

Mon, 12/19/2016 - 21:41

#13

Fangel

servers have some issues

It seems some lobbies run into issues where the server stops talking to clients every 5 seconds. I felt this too, and I'm in North America. Making a new party often fixes it if it remains constant throughout a run.

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After Event "Update" Lag Crisis. Once a Year is Getting Annoying...