Lag Survival Guide

[Doug R.]

All,

I've decided to post this in hopes that it will help all the players cope better with the lag. This list is not complete, but is a starting point based on my personal observations of the lag and firsthand knowledge of when certain processes are running.

I define lag here as a character page refresh lasting 5 seconds or longer.

The below times (EST) are times you may want to avoid, with an explanation given. Eventually, I'd like to get lag ratings associated with these times (periods given may be shorter during periods of low player activity):

6:40-7:45am (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)
8am (Unknown cause, but a time of consistent lag)
9:40-10:45 am (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)
12:40-1:45pm (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)
2:00pm (Character Eating)
3:40-4:45pm (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)
6:40-7:45pm (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)
8pm (Unknown cause, but a time of consistent lag)
9:40-10:45pm (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)
12:40-1:45am (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)
3:40-4:45am (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)

I will be working on adding in the times of animal processing, but I'm not sure when that is exactly (the times given to me are based on server time, and I don't have access to the current server time - all I know is that the server is fast, and I'm not sure if the times given have changed since then).

Please leave your feedback on other laggy times, or on the degree of lag for the given times (comparisons between times would be useful). (Please use the same benchmark as I have for consistency. Don't go by the forum; it's always laggy).

One note on the Travel and Project lag times: There are periods of 5-10 mins between each process where the lag clears. So far, I have directly measured Project Incrementation as lasting 20-25 mins, and Land Travel lasting 10-15 mins. Boat Travel 5 mins.

[joo]

Is that in GMT?

[tiddy ogg]

He said EST, that's GMT-5.
Seems to me to clag up on the hour, (or 5 min either side) most hours.

[Razorlance]

I've never had too much bother with lag up until now, it used to be that it lasted up to maybe 5 to 10 minutes, but recently it seems to be closer to half an hour at a time. I thought being on a decent broadband connection helped (it probably does) but it's definitely getting worse. I'll try checking at the times Doug suggests to see if it's the same for me, then try to avoid those times.

If the (English only?) player base is dwindling as a lot of people seem to think then how is the lag increasing, surely less characters mean less work for the server. Or are the Polish still increasing their player base?

[Slyder_Glyder_Ryder_etc]

Doug I could be wrong.. don't feel like doing the math right now.. but could the 8am/8pm lags be from sicknesses? You know... calculating sneezers?

[Doug R.]

I couldn't tell you, but I suspect the number of charries that are sick is far too low to cause noticable lag. The only way to find out is to post the exact times of observed sneezing. My guess is that it's the animal processing overlapping with another process.

So far, it seems land and boat travel only causes very minor lag, while project incrementation causes significant lag (it locked me out several times today during the 7:20 project update, and had me spinning for minutes during the 10:20 update.

[Chris]

6:40-7:45am (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)
8am (Unknown cause, but a time of consistent lag)
9:40-10:45 am (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)
12:40-1:45pm (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)
2:00pm (Character Eating)
3:40-4:45pm (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)
6:40-7:45pm (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)
8pm (Unknown cause, but a time of consistent lag)
9:40-10:45pm (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)
12:40-1:45am (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)
3:40-4:45am (Boat Travel, Land Travel, Project Incrementation)

Thanks for this information. Predictability is a big help.

I do think that the 65 minute windows for travel and projects can be broken down further. From my experience, projects are incremented at around 15 to 17 past the Cantrian hour. Maybe people who have several traveling characters can work out more specifically when land travel and boat travel are processed. Or maybe ProgD could weigh in.

Oh, and how about those evil individualized animals? When do they travel and reproduce and all the other things they do?

[Doug R.]

I do think that the 65 minute windows for travel and projects can be broken down further. From my experience, projects are incremented at around 15 to 17 past the Cantrian hour.

Yes, it can. Projects, which occur last in the order, are by far the most server intensive, the worst time being when the most players are on. I played last evening after Europe went to sleep, and I had no lag at all during the processing times. It seems to me that the greatest inducers of lag are the players themselves. When there are >90 players logged in at a time, things get laggy when any process runs. When I had my first account, there were more players, but less players played. I rarely saw activity over 90, and 83 seemed to be the norm. Now, over 110 at a time is common.

Oh, and how about those evil individualized animals? When do they travel and reproduce and all the other things they do?

From an email to me last July:

Hi Doug

Animals begin processing at 03:00 , 09:00, 15:00 & 21:00 server time (current server time is 03:25 EDT - yes it's fast too complicate matters) - Processing takes anywhere from 20 to 40+ mins depending on server load Normally the 03:00 and 21:00 processing tend to be at times when server load is low so runs faster - the 15:00 is quite a slow time as its close to Peak European time ( 8pm in Uk 9 or 10pm Poland)

The animal census can also be running at 11:00 server time - processing for this can be up to 15 or 20 mins once a fortnight when the detailed report is done but is normally only 5 or so

Regards

Chris

However, there are many problems with these times that make me hesitant to conclude that these times are, at this time, still the case (since this information was given to me in the context of my asking him to alter the processing times since the 21:00 one was over the one time I was regularly available to work on the animals):

1) Chris states that the current server time is 3:25 EDT, but the timestamp on the email puts the real time at 2:18am. Is this because the email server is on EST and not EDT, or is it because the game server is over an hour fast? Chris said it was fast, but he didn't say how fast.

2) Personal observation of the 8am and 8pm lag leads me to believe that animals process at that time. If we subtract an hour from the given server times, that conveniently puts animal processing neatly into those timeslots.

3) This leads me to conclude that the server times are off by an hour.

4) BUT, I do get my animal reports at 11am, so this says that the server time is correct, and that animals process at 9-15-21-3.

5) If the server times are then correct, I still have no idea what's laggy and 8 and 20, and the animals don't seem to have that big of an impact on lag.

Conclusion: I have no idea. However, I do know that ProgD has put in effort to ensure that animal processing overlaps as little or not at all with the character processes.

[Doug R.]

Homework:

I think that animal attacks are the first thing that occurs when animals process. If you can post attack times here, then we can get a good handle on that (I can do the time conversion for you). Please edit them for content.

Here's mine:

2134-4.35: You see a X attack X = 3:20am EST
2131-4.35: You see a X attack X = 3:20am EST
2129-6.30: You see a X attack X = 8:55am EST

Seems so far that the quoted times are indeed correct (keep in mind the server's 7 mins fast), but we need to see attacks from the other two times (animals process 4 times/day).

[Chris]

2133-0.35: You see a X attack X.
2134-6.33: You see a X attack X.

Projects, which occur last in the order, are by far the most server intensive, the worst time being when the most players are on. I played last evening after Europe went to sleep, and I had no lag at all during the processing times. It seems to me that the greatest inducers of lag are the players themselves. When there are >90 players logged in at a time, things get laggy when any process runs.

It sounds like Cantr's multitasking is inefficient. I know that a lot of players by itself doesn't seem to cause lag.

If Cantr were to shut down player access 8 times per day, once for each Cantrian hour, and did all processing without interruption, how long would these processing cycles take? I am starting to think that prominently announced (i.e., at the top of every Cantr page) down times would be better than the current lag. Efficient multitasking would be great, but if that is hard to implement, then people may prefer predictable periods of no access to clunky multitasking (i.e., hard to predict whether you will have a smooth session or a very laggy one).

[psymann]

people may prefer predictable periods of no access to clunky multitasking

Yes, I'd rather have quality time than quantity time, if that makes sense.

psymann

[I_am]

Homework:

I think that animal attacks are the first thing that occurs when animals process. If you can post attack times here, then we can get a good handle on that (I can do the time conversion for you).

2128-0: You get attacked by a lion, and you lose 30 percent strength.

2128-2: You get attacked by a wild boar, and you lose 22 percent strength.

2129-0: You get attacked by a lion, and you lose 34 percent strength.

2129-0: You are killed by a bear.

[Doug R.]

Homework:

I think that animal attacks are the first thing that occurs when animals process. If you can post attack times here, then we can get a good handle on that (I can do the time conversion for you).

2128-0: You get attacked by a lion, and you lose 30 percent strength.

2128-2: You get attacked by a wild boar, and you lose 22 percent strength.

2129-0: You get attacked by a lion, and you lose 34 percent strength.

2129-0: You are killed by a bear.

Thanks, but without the minutes, the information doesn't tell you much.

[I_am]

Homework:

I think that animal attacks are the first thing that occurs when animals process. If you can post attack times here, then we can get a good handle on that (I can do the time conversion for you).

2128-0: You get attacked by a lion, and you lose 30 percent strength.

2128-2: You get attacked by a wild boar, and you lose 22 percent strength.

2129-0: You get attacked by a lion, and you lose 34 percent strength.

2129-0: You are killed by a bear.

Thanks, but without the minutes, the information doesn't tell you much.

Yeah. I realized that after I posted. I just copied that from the dead character email that I got, not realizing that the minutes weren't there until my post was staring me in the face.

[SekoETC]

KoL has this downtime every night when they do stuff. Human-age also has a nightly update that takes about an hour and it's announced how it went. http://www.human-age.com/stat.php I would be ok with a downtime if it happened on a designated time.