TOA server broken?

[Jarod]

Enough is Enough this lag is really getting to my nerves rightnow... im pissed of cant RvR, cant pve... then whats left in this game? expensive chat as hell and that i can have IRC /msn/icq for i'm for sure is not going to pay subs until the lag is being fixed whopzie do an Alb less in end of DEC.

 

[scorge]

The game is unplayable for me at the moment because i'm not interested in going to the frontiers the things i want to do ingame at the moment is in TOA. This means the game is unplayable for me and GOA have admitted its there fault so i would like free days for every day i have been unable to play.

Hi Mate, you have more chance of giving me 50p then getting free days, best thing to do is to set the subscription to none and resubscribe when the service gets better ( thats if you dont find anything else to play)

Dont pay for a service you HOPE gets better, Pay for it when it gets better.

 

[Sanzor]

We, the customers, deserve:

a) The problems fixed FAST, and no, wait until 1.71 is NOT FAST.

or

b) Free days or even a reduction on monthly payment while those GOA problems happends until get fixed.


Thats supposing GOA would be a company capable of give a good service to their subscriptors, sadly this is not the case.

Gee..get a grip alb zerger. You ever tried running something big as this? They ain´t gods to make this happen, ok?

You set some way too high standards. I know its terrible with the lag in ToA. I have it myself, but im not whining about it. Im kinda used to how GOA handles most stuff. I dunno how big the company is, but due to the slow patching is both due to bugs AND they gotta translate 3 languages >_<

Imo just play something else, lvl an alt and stop thinking of ToA. Give these guys some time, i prefer they test their stuff out instead of throwing it on the server full of bugs.

And if its wayyy too terrible for you, then theres a nice little button called Quit...

 

[Sugah]

He wasn't asking them to throw together 1.71 and patch the server asap, he was simply asking that goa provide a server that is suitable to run the game as it should be. I have alot of respect for requiel as he does more than probably everyone else at goa to help the community but i don't think his bosses will be happy about the comments hes made here. Telling us that the lag is down to the fact that mid and alb toa run on the same server and this server isn't good enough, add to that the fact he said we ain't worth purchasing a extra server for then i think people have every right to come on here and complain.

 

[Dreamor]

Like where for example?
Paying OT for their fantastic service and amazing troubleshooting skills?
In-game Customer support?
The man behind the official site who is keeping the player base so well informed?

The above remarks are not a sarcastic flame attempt, they are real concerns that myself and at the very least some others have.

This really is a poor showing from GOA, not just one persistant problem (not directly GOA's fault, but still their responsibility to their customers) but a second that MAY be fixed as and when the serious problems with 1.71 are resolved.

I don't mind being informed I will get a poor standard of service for x reason, if in the meantime until y if I am not being charged for it or at the very least getting a price reduction for partial service.
That is life.

Since this seems to be the only place to find out from official sources what is REALLY going on, I would like a GOA representative to tell me if we are due ANY free time at all for the poor standard of service over the past weeks, and if not, why not.

This is the most sensible post I have seen from all the posts on this TOA lag.

A few things though... did we get this released knowing this problem would happen? if so is that not foolish to release something that is not ready... I for one would have waited longer for NF & 1.71 than have this happen.

People always come to this site for un-official updates, however, its been 1 week now and still nothing new on the DAOC-Homepage... is this not kinda sucky from a customer relations point of view?

This post has gradually worn down to 'we don't have the man-power' or something about 'if we look into this problem, another serious problem will appear' - bull - just tell us whats going on, Rightnow I am sure would not mind waiting (apart from Account related problems, don't think you get that many tbh) as I am sure people would not waiting.

We paid what, £20+ for TOA disks+CD Key? Thanks, I pay a monthly sub & now as a loyal customer I get...

- Late response on RightNow
- Patch updates are just ridiculous - now we have 2 other countrys so whats that... 2-4 weeks more?
- OT lag, come on... I had a problem with my ISP and I shouted enough they fixed it... its not that difficult guys and girls...
- Updates that cause problems - surely making people aware WELL AHEAD of the update that might cause some problems that would help you out in the long run. - Seen a post recently with someone asking for a 'known' problems database... omg, help yourselves out

Before some whines/moans... I work for IBM and worked in a call centre doing Hardware & Software for 2.5 years on a Goverment project. I am now a Technician. So I have seen 'most' of the wrong things that causes a customer to call and COMPLAIN about the loss of network/unscheduled outages and general stuff like you guys do.

Help yourselves by taking on these posts and maybe putting them in front of someone that can improve out service. What with all the quit posts its just ruining the game for everyone. Yeah, most say go sub to another game... but that does not help the fact that I have lost time and money on something I loved. I made TONNES of friends through this game, for which I thank Mythic. But lets not forget that the person with the most power is ME... THE CUSTOMER.

I would spend all my non-in-work time talking ALL this through with your customer rep's if it meant I could improve the service...

REGARDS

The Dark Age of Camelot Liberations Army

 

[tierk]

Give these guys some time, i prefer they test their stuff out instead of throwing it on the server full of bugs....

lol u r joking right, test it out?? They took i dont know how long to give us Toa and NF because they said they were testing it out to make sure less bugs and problems. In reality they dont fix jack shit and poor sods like Erivoss and Requiel have to come on here and take a mountain of shite from peeps. Considering they are supposed to fixing things for us i find it really strange we get all the same problems they get in the US for example the shite coding from mythic that messed up the dual logging facility when they incorporated Toa, great fix they gave us if i remember right, was a wonderfull disclaimer.

As for free days i think, correct me if i am wrong, we got one free day a long long time ago ( sound like the start of a fantasy story, ironic, no?) when we had a massive crash and nobody could log into game for three days over a weekend as all the nooblets in Goa hq were to pissed to come to work and reset machines ( was New Years me thinks and dont ask me what year).

Good luck waiting for free days or a improvement in service and with wow just about ready would the last person to leave please turn off the lights

 

[Hrogar]

I'm sure there's a good explanation for the recent lag - but it doesn't make it easier to live with. Been playing this game on a comp that's just above the minimum requirement for more than 2 years (and with a 56k modem for the first few months ), so I'm used to bad performance. The recent lag, however, is unbearable, as many have pointed out already in this thread.

GOA has a lot of servers to run and it can't be expected of them to keep every single customer happy all the time, but the problems as of late have affected and been pointed out by a big part of the community. At the moment RvR is close to implayable for some reason, and ToA is even worse. Sure, most of my guild are leveling alts but what about when they hit lvl 50?

As for the free month or similar it would seem like a fair option. I know for a fact that many people have gotten their gaming experience severely spoiled during the last few months.

Ah well, good luck fixing this GOA. And don't stress out too much now right before X-mas

Kind regards

 

[Kaod]

As for the free month or similar it would seem like a fair option. I know for a fact that many people have gotten their gaming experience severely spoiled during the last few months.

Or even an official response or senior GOA acknowledgement to the fact that the player base is asking the question as I said in a previous post.

I'd really like to know where we stand on this, as no response is sometimes worse than a negative one.

 

[IainC]

He wasn't asking them to throw together 1.71 and patch the server asap, he was simply asking that goa provide a server that is suitable to run the game as it should be. I have alot of respect for requiel as he does more than probably everyone else at goa to help the community but i don't think his bosses will be happy about the comments hes made here. Telling us that the lag is down to the fact that mid and alb toa run on the same server and this server isn't good enough, add to that the fact he said we ain't worth purchasing a extra server for then i think people have every right to come on here and complain.

I didn't say anything of the kind. Please read what I wrote before putting words in my mouth.

 

[Votan]

Well ToA has become completely useless as its nigh impossible to play. I watched a lvl 50 DS necro (buffed) get ganked by 2 yellow merely due to the fact that he could not get a single cast of due to lag delay.. one can say but one thing: uke:

I dont mind a little bit of lag as its unavoidable during very busy hours.. but this was during a time when there were less then 1000 people on the entire Excalibur server. I mean come on, all the posts should have set off a decent amount of alarmbells going (disregarding the blatant flaming) yet all we are presented with is an utterly useless (in my opinion) post on the DAoC-Europe website about everything being done. Sorry folks but that just doesnt cut it for me anymore as this is not an issue that manifested itself overnight.

I see people and friends leaving left and right.. being tempted more and more to join them in leaving DAoC. These continuing (and in some cases worsening) lag issues/bugs are providing me and many others with a good incentive to say adieu.

 

[Crimson LoneWolf]

Requiel, can you tell me if the beta testing of 1.70 on the european servers, and the closed beta test, showed any hints of ToA having this kind of poor performance?

 

[IainC]

Requiel, can you tell me if the beta testing of 1.70 on the european servers, and the closed beta test, showed any hints of ToA having this kind of poor performance?

No for two main reasons.
1: The main tests for 1.70 were done in frontiers zones. Certainly the tests with more than a couple of characters were almost entirely done in the frontiers zones.
2: Gorre bears very little relation to the spec of a live server. It is significantly less powerful making it very hard to tell if lag manifesting there was as a result of poor code optimisations or inferior hardware. For the open beta we beefed up the frontiers zones on Gorre as this was where the thrust of the testing was taking place. All the other zones - ToA included - were running on much lower end hardware.

 

[Jarahl]

Seems to me that GoA is working double time on fixing the problem, and I appriciate that, however what else is to be expected? We are paying for this game, which should get payed back in form of good feedback, costumer services and stabil servers.

All of these are sadly lacking as hell atm, only 2 people bothering to inform us whats going on (Thanks Requiel and Erivoss), costumer services - Well indications on us getting any free months or anything is still unseen Last but not least, well stabil servers, pfff. Servers has been VERY unstabil to say the least over the last few months, and people are frustrated ofc.

I just hope GoA plan on compensating people for this nightmare, else I fear more and more will quit Including myself if things keeps getting worse

 

[Tallen]

No for two main reasons.
1: The main tests for 1.70 were done in frontiers zones. Certainly the tests with more than a couple of characters were almost entirely done in the frontiers zones.
2: Gorre bears very little relation to the spec of a live server. It is significantly less powerful making it very hard to tell if lag manifesting there was as a result of poor code optimisations or inferior hardware. For the open beta we beefed up the frontiers zones on Gorre as this was where the thrust of the testing was taking place. All the other zones - ToA included - were running on much lower end hardware.

Your test server is lower spec than your live servers, and yet on the live servers the game is laggy all the time and unplayable sometimes with mass ld's etc...how did this not show-up on the test server?

Also, why is the test server lower spec than the live servers? Surely a competent test would involve using the hardware you intend on using for the live version. What is the point doing a test otherwise? It's like benchmarking a melon against a satsuma and then scratching your head because for some reason they taste different.

This is complete incompetence, typical of GOA and with their track record we should have expected no less.

 

[IainC]

Your test server is lower spec than your live servers, and yet on the live servers the game is laggy all the time and unplayable sometimes with mass ld's etc...how did this not show-up on the test server?

Also, why is the test server lower spec than the live servers? Surely a competent test would involve using the hardware you intend on using for the live version. What is the point doing a test otherwise? It's like benchmarking a melon against a satsuma and then scratching your head because for some reason they taste different.

This is complete incompetence, typical of GOA and with their track record we should have expected no less.

Because it's hard to simulate 2000 odd simultaneous connections with an internal test staff of a dozen or so testers. Lag like that doesn't show up when you're the only person in a zone. Also most of the lag is from outside our network in Opentransit hubs as has been stated repeatedly and proven by hundreds of Pingplotter graphs. We don't get that lag here in Paris as we don't connect through those hubs.

The test server is lower spec than the live servers because there really is no point in spending a silly amount of money on a server that is going to have a max population of ten or so. The population for the NF test was exceptional and so we cobbled together a higher spec box to host the NF zones. There was no real point in upgrading the rest of the network because 99.9% of the peopel testing would be in NF. Most of our testing is testing translations and finding bugs, code stability is something that Mythic take care of as we don't actually change anything with regard to code at all.

 

[Dreamor]

Because it's hard to simulate 2000 odd simultaneous connections with an internal test staff of a dozen or so testers. Lag like that doesn't show up when you're the only person in a zone. Also most of the lag is from outside our network in Opentransit hubs as has been stated repeatedly and proven by hundreds of Pingplotter graphs. We don't get that lag here in Paris as we don't connect through those hubs.

The test server is lower spec than the live servers because there really is no point in spending a silly amount of money on a server that is going to have a max population of ten or so. The population for the NF test was exceptional and so we cobbled together a higher spec box to host the NF zones. There was no real point in upgrading the rest of the network because 99.9% of the peopel testing would be in NF. Most of our testing is testing translations and finding bugs, code stability is something that Mythic take care of as we don't actually change anything with regard to code at all.

Ok, so if your saying that 2000+ 'hard to simlulate' on, lets admit this openly.. a crap server, then surely ANY testing done on such a server is always going to bring problems in the future. I mean if it lags out on Gorre your answer would be that the new servers would cope more right?

It seems that our argument is not with you, because you do not support the code stability... perhaps Mythic could find the time to give us days back then?

I seem to remeber seeing both the OT and 'other known' problem appear in a recent Friday news. We got made aware that some of the issues regarding lag was down to the OT network. Someone mentioned (this may not have been GOA) that people in France had not been getting this problem. Surely since the NF patch you must have noticed the lag? - I been checking TOA and there is less than a few groups running around, I am sure even with a closed/ open Beta of NF- recent patch you could have found this problem and said 'hold on lads, lets just wait for 1.71'

There is no doubt in my mind that EVERYONE here is just upset/annoyed at having to pay for a game that they cannot use 100% yet have paid money for.

We, I should imagine, would have MORE than happily waited a while longer for an improved service. Lets face it, we have waited weeks for NF behind the yanks so whats a few more weeks.

Perhaps polls on your website would have resolved this like say
---> We give you NF = Lag in TOA
---> We give it a few more weeks and Patch NF + 1.71 = Have a good time!

I am sure I saw a Poll on there with something to do with Mobile phones... yeah... thats the jobby... that REALLY helps you out, eh?


Perhaps on the OFFICIAL website you could do a...
'Are you happy with the lag resulting from 1.70 - Yes/No?'

I would be interested to see the results.

 

[Blow]

Requiel does your company not care about the excal players? There is absoluty no solution given what to do or what your company is gonna do about it, no news post nothing, since there is no cash for an new server, you just laughing at the lag flameposts until 1.71 is released thinking its solved then.

Im not flaming you Requiel, but since your the only one that is man enough to respond here im asking it to you. You must admit that you cant just ignore this lag in toa until 1.71 is out.

And please if you answer give a status what your company is doing about this, and if they just say wait for 1.71, whats the status on that

 

[Crimson LoneWolf]

Hmmm, well, if i would be testing such a new patch on a server that i knew was worse regarding speed and hardware compared to a normal play server, then i'd somehow try to find out how much bandwidth, system load, memory load, disk usage load, excal would have with 2000+ people logged on, and then compare it to how well Gorre performs relative to the same data from that server. Maybe that is not really possible, in terms of having 100% solid data, but i'd guess it would hint in the right directions of how any patch/update would work, maybe only as a worst case scenarion.

Anyhow, i just dont really enjoy reading about a company that test a patch on a server to see how well it works, when that test isn't even done properly.

1) With such a big patch, its extremely obvious you'd have to make sure that everything else in the whole game doesn't get screwed up... ie, i cant believe how it could be missed that TOA wasnt going to be affected. (And i think it was written somewhere else, that the toa issue was down to poor code optimization, ie mythic would already know, ie goa would already know in advance?)

2) Testing on anything that doesnt qualify 100% to the normal playing conditions on Excalibur or any other server, will never be precise, nor accurate enough.


I'm not bitching at you Requiel, or any other person who's relaying information our way, but i'm just generally disappointed about the game and the situation at the moment.

 

[Sugah]

I mentioned it a few days ago about there being 2 problems. The first one is OpentTransit and we all - unfortunately - know about that.

The second is the internal problem and that's to do with alb and mid ToA zones. When NF was first launched, everyone was in the NF zones and so the lag in the ToA zones wasn't there. Now that things have calmed down, more and more people are going back into the ToA zones and so they are starting to lag more and more.

There are several possible solutions to this. The first is to add another machine to the server and put the alb ToA zones on one and mid ToA on the other. The problem with this solution is that it takes rather a long time to get the servers and set them up. Remember, it's not just one machine for Excal that we'd be adding but one for each server.

The second solution is to release 1.71 as quickly as possible. 1.71 has many many server side changes that affect the NF and ToA zones especially. We've been testing this version for a few weeks now but unfortunately it's like a slippery eel and we're still experiencing severe technical problems. Mythic are working on these problems overtime along with us and we're quite confident that once these technical problems are resolved we'll be able to release the version relatively quickly. (There isn't that much content that needs to be tested in all the languages for this version). Most of us who work actively on the new versions have cancelled (or pushed back) our xmas holidays to try and get this version to you asap. We are very aware of the lag problem and the problem that we face as a business because of it and are knocking heads about to get it fixed.

Sorry requiel my bad it was your colleague who made the remark about the servers not being up to scratch. Game is unplayable in TOA between 1200 and 0000.

 

[Tallen]

Because it's hard to simulate 2000 odd simultaneous connections with an internal test staff of a dozen or so testers. Lag like that doesn't show up when you're the only person in a zone. Also most of the lag is from outside our network in Opentransit hubs as has been stated repeatedly and proven by hundreds of Pingplotter graphs. We don't get that lag here in Paris as we don't connect through those hubs.

The test server is lower spec than the live servers because there really is no point in spending a silly amount of money on a server that is going to have a max population of ten or so. The population for the NF test was exceptional and so we cobbled together a higher spec box to host the NF zones. There was no real point in upgrading the rest of the network because 99.9% of the peopel testing would be in NF. Most of our testing is testing translations and finding bugs, code stability is something that Mythic take care of as we don't actually change anything with regard to code at all.

So, essentially what your saying is that GOA performed no worthwhile testing whatsoever on NF? How the hell can you expect people to pay for a product you havent even properly tested!

I dont think i'll bother checking this thread again, the answer seems very clear to me that GOA simply dont know how to run a business.

Enjoy the last remnants of your DAoC monopoly on the EU.

 

[Vodkafairy]

they did do testing, public test on gorre

what a shame the most annoying bugs present there, are still in the game. good going really. as tallen said.

 

[chretien]

Clueless ranting.

There's some good advice in your sig. I suggest you take it.

 

[Kaod]

Since this seems to be the only place to find out from official sources what is REALLY going on, I would like a GOA representative to tell me if we are due ANY free time at all for the poor standard of service over the past weeks, and if not, why not.

I therefore ask that you ask the question of those senior people, so that they give an answer one way or another and THAT is put on the official site.

Requiel, can you please confirm for me whether this question has now been put to the Senior GOA staff?

 

[IainC]

Requiel, can you please confirm for me whether this question has now been put to the Senior GOA staff?

I've passed it on.
For the record I always pass on the significant concerns of the community. It's a two way thing, I tell you things and I tell my boss things.

 

[[NO]Magmatic]

Because it's hard to simulate 2000 odd simultaneous connections with an internal test staff of a dozen or so testers. Lag like that doesn't show up when you're the only person in a zone. Also most of the lag is from outside our network in Opentransit hubs as has been stated repeatedly and proven by hundreds of Pingplotter graphs. We don't get that lag here in Paris as we don't connect through those hub.

Isnt the lag talked about here in this thread, the lag experienced in TOA? Because yesterday, NF was fine, yet TOA had 5-20s lag spikes making stuff like follow-up styles impossible...

I'm sorry but [GOA]Erivoss said on the first page this is due to server problems at GOA's side... ToA is currently unplayable for the most part... Lag spikes up to 5-20s isnt uncommon every minute or two... These spikes are not due to OT, sure sometimes it is, but not for the major part...

So far, GOA seems to have decided to let the players play on over-stressed servers resulting in lag that makes ToA unplayable to some extend... GOA thinks (e.g. has no solid proof) that 1.71 will solve this... With no compensation for its customers... So far no ML4 raid has succeeded since 1.70 got introduced on Mid/Exc...

Take your own conclusions from this, but dont ever think you should thank employee's of GOA for their hard work or just say 'their doing as much as they can', because in the end... It is still their job, and GOA is still a commercial company that is making a profit... The only people you should ever thank are the E&E, as they actually do it for the fun, and not the money in their pocket...

I've had to cancel my vacations too in the past, because of problems at a company where I was working... This sucks, but its part of the job... I will not say 'thanks for this, I really appreciate the help you guys give to make this game playable', because being able to play this game the way it was intended is the least we can expect for our money...

Making the customers feel sorry for the people working at GOA makes me sick... Its like asking a bus-driver to 'pretty please' get you to the next bus stop after you paid for the journey... Its his job to drive from bus stop to bus stop...

GOA got to this point (e.g. unplayable toa until 1.71) due to commercial decissions... The least GOA can do is compensate their customers for the situation at hand... And give a (good) estimate on when the problems will be solved...

Anyways, do with this whine/flame what you want, I dont have a lot of stuff to do in TOA anymore... But it sucks that one of my guildies is stuck on ML3 because no ML4 raid has managed to make it all the way to the end...

 

[Danamyr]

I mentioned it a few days ago about there being 2 problems. The first one is OpentTransit and we all - unfortunately - know about that.

The second is the internal problem and that's to do with alb and mid ToA zones. When NF was first launched, everyone was in the NF zones and so the lag in the ToA zones wasn't there. Now that things have calmed down, more and more people are going back into the ToA zones and so they are starting to lag more and more.

There are several possible solutions to this. The first is to add another machine to the server and put the alb ToA zones on one and mid ToA on the other. The problem with this solution is that it takes rather a long time to get the servers and set them up. Remember, it's not just one machine for Excal that we'd be adding but one for each server.

The second solution is to release 1.71 as quickly as possible. 1.71 has many many server side changes that affect the NF and ToA zones especially. We've been testing this version for a few weeks now but unfortunately it's like a slippery eel and we're still experiencing severe technical problems. Mythic are working on these problems overtime along with us and we're quite confident that once these technical problems are resolved we'll be able to release the version relatively quickly. (There isn't that much content that needs to be tested in all the languages for this version). Most of us who work actively on the new versions have cancelled (or pushed back) our xmas holidays to try and get this version to you asap. We are very aware of the lag problem and the problem that we face as a business because of it and are knocking heads about to get it fixed.

Superb and honest feedback. Well done

 

[Kaod]

I've passed it on.
For the record I always pass on the significant concerns of the community. It's a two way thing, I tell you things and I tell my boss things.

Thank you very much Requiel.

 

[Tharion]

Any news on the matter?
When will you fix it?

 

[Votan]

If you'd read the weekly news on the DAoC-Europe site then you would have known that they're planning to implement patch 1.71 in the first week of the New Year.

 

[Tharion]

If you'd read the weekly news on the DAoC-Europe site then you would have known that they're planning to implement patch 1.71 in the first week of the New Year.

Read that, but thats not really an answer imo.
But I guess it will have to do.