[kta]

I don't want you to consider this a rant, its more a vent of temporary frustration... :-/
But it can't be gainsaid - the leading cause of death in Thay is - as it is in real life - stupidity and the BLOODY LAG! You know, on my first day in Thay my char died of both. I was just curious about this server and went exploring the sewers in Bezatur. In the first room I found myself in a fight with one - NO HALT the LAG kicked in - two dire rats - being level one I did the thing one might expect - I lost the fight and found my char bleeding to death. And stopped at -4! Boy I'm lucky I thought to myself and rushed to the exit - at 1 LP at the time. So I rushed out and was pleased and BOOM dropped dead! WTF? Well it was a cold night and the frost cost me my last remaining LP... :D So I learned from my stupidity and got my char a nice warm cloak...
Since then my char has died 5 times - two out of stupidity or bad luck ( I remember my first Dwarf Merc and his famous 62 critical...) and 3 time of the BLOODY LAG! Just now I was doing my favorite sport these days - catching Blooded Gnolls - its a risky business I know, but I can controll the risc - BUT NOT THE BLOODY LAG! It ended like this: I fight the Gnoll and all is fine - until someone logs on and BOOM! THE LAAAAAG! WTF?! I remember fighting the Gnoll SERVERTIME stops and when it comes to life again I see the fight has gone from fighting to dieing - I wonder where those others came from... at least I did not die alone...

Yeah, the bloody Gorgon - that must have dropped out of the sky - turned my char, my opponent and another opponent - which must have come with the LAG too - to stone...
*BLAST!*

KTA

[TheSupremeForce]

I've had the same happen to me. Being in the middle of a fight and having a (lag) delayed spawn drop on top of you is rough. When it gets you killed, it downright sucks. That along with seriously brutal criticals is likely the leading cause of sudden respawn situations.

I was once "Lag Killed" by a half-orc bandit who busted out a 69 point critical. I had a few colorful words for explaining that one at the time.

I also agree that the leading cause of death overall is still a lack of proper restraint. Go too far. Try to tackle something without being properly prepared. Things like that.

[kta]

I also agree that the leading cause of death overall is still a lack of proper restraint. Go too far. Try to tackle something without being properly prepared. Things like that.

Yes, but for me it is when the char grows and becomes involved in the world - I always whip my chars up for fun, not intending to really keep them, then falling in love with them and then keeping them after all - I take smaller risks, start to think more and then situations like the one described really suck.
*still grumbling*
KTA

[Jafin]

I swear I'm the only person who has never had a major problem with lag... yeah, occasionally but I don't think I've ever had a lag death... Of course, it took the majority of beta testing for me to get to a level 6 character so... yeah :) I like inns.

[D3VII_]

perhaps if every one logs in direct (direct connect), if you are not alredy. i seen this done in another server, dont know if it reduces lag or not but they say it dos, perhaps we can try to do this in thay to see if any results occur.

to direct connect: multiplayer->join LAN Game->Direct Connect->"type in the server IP address, witch is: 75.174.128.207:5121"

if IP changes find thay on normal "internet game" hi light thay and click "Server Details" its there right under modual name.

[Balanor]

Direct Connecting may help, I'd recommend that.

I've run a Profiler on the machine and found the scripts that get called the most, so I am trying to optimize most of them. But the server itself appears to not be working too hard most of the time - more than half the memory is always available, and the CPU only occasionally jumps up to 30-40%.

I'm looking at upgrading the internet connection to the server, however with where it's located the options are limited.

[kta]

Direct Connecting may help, I'd recommend that.

Well, IMHO this is a myth... I tried this before and it does not change it. What I notice is a longer lag on logon and when entering a new area - it would seem that a couple of scripts are run then to check on the player or so. And then there is the lag when walking a area and it also "feels" if this occurs when walking over triggers for example to spawn the inhabitents of a cityarea - sometimes I see the citizen appear one after another without clothes and then "being dressed" slowly as if generated by scripts...

KTA

[Jafin]

is it a bigger problem in overland travel or when you know people are in overland? There are quite a few scripts are run during overland that aren't used in other transitions.

Also going to have to agree on Direct Connecting being a myth as we weren't able to connect back a few months ago when Gamespy went haywire. Direct connect still uses gamespy but instead of finding it in the server list you're just putting in the address you want to go to. Gamespy is still the client used to connect you; it's your "server browser" if you will.

[kta]

is it a bigger problem in overland travel or when you know people are in overland? There are quite a few scripts are run during overland that aren't used in other transitions.

No, can't say that. The lag on entering a new area is always the same and the fits and starts when walking over triggers too. But there is one thing I noticed - the game freezes longer when wlaking past or nearing the Flaming Brazier in Bezantur - Southeast... its strange, the direction does not matter - try it!

KTA

[TheSupremeForce]

I'm inclined to agree with kta. Triggers generally cause brief lag. Overland lag does tend to be worse, however. Sometimes, I'll get lag, and then the first message (about traveling one league in whatever direction) and then more lag before it announces I've received xp for exploring a new area. Weather alerts also give me brief lag. At times, it's hardly noticeable. At others, it can be quite the pain.