Lag Survival Guide

[Doug R.]

2137-2.30: You get attacked by a mountain goat, and you lose 0 percent strength. You saved 26 percent using your chitin shield.

= 8:55pm (20:55pm)

[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)

Animal attack processing:

2131-4.35: = 3:20am EST
2129-6.30: = 8:55am EST
2133-0.35: = 3:20 pm EST
2137-2.30: = 8:55pm EST

I can tell you right off that here is one lag problem: The 3:20/15:20 animal processing most likely overlap with ship movement, which begins at 3:40/15:40

[formerly known as hf]

Would it not be possible / helpful just to shut off the server to outside connections during those processes - most of them are only 5 or so minutes long.

?

[Rossato]

I believe too that shutdown server access during some minutes to process tasks is a better idea. The game is almost unplayable during these tasks if there is above x player on. So, a very good idea, would be a page like:


----------------------------------------------------------------


Cantr Server is Working, please wait. We'll be back in:

10:23*

----------------------------------------------------------------

* Regressive counting clock, to inform how many time approximately it will last, and avoid repeatedly page refresh.

[sammigurl61190]

I remember what it was like to be a Cantr addict, a horrible one at that. From around September of '03 to April of '04 was Cantr for me, and that's it. Being without internet for a week while moving across the country broke me of the "must have my bi-hourly Cantr fix" phase, so I know what it's like.

However, I do believe the lag isn't as bad as some people make it out to be. Maybe it's just when I play, or I'm tolerant, or something--but I really don't think it's that horrible.

Just take a deep breath, and breathe.

IN,
OUT.
IN,
OUT.

There, you feel a little better now.

[mtm21]

I remember what it was like to be a Cantr addict, a horrible one at that. From around September of '03 to April of '04 was Cantr for me, and that's it. Being without internet for a week while moving across the country broke me of the "must have my bi-hourly Cantr fix" phase, so I know what it's like.

However, I do believe the lag isn't as bad as some people make it out to be. Maybe it's just when I play, or I'm tolerant, or something--but I really don't think it's that horrible.

Just take a deep breath, and breathe.

IN,
OUT.
IN,
OUT.

There, you feel a little better now.

Yeah...

IN, (Let's play cantr! Yay!)
OUT, (stupid cantr isn't available)
IN, (Let's go to IRC to tell off staff)
OUT, (Yay! Cantr is working again, nvm. Time to play for another 5 minutes or so.)
IN, (lets start that procedure again and start praying it works again. )


There, now I feel better now.

[Doug R.]

However, I do believe the lag isn't as bad as some people make it out to be. Maybe it's just when I play, or I'm tolerant, or something--but I really don't think it's that horrible.

I thought that way too, until recently. The lag comes and goes in odd spurts with no discernible pattern. It sucks when I take a one minute break from my two-year old to check my charries, and he's calling me back again before I can even get logged in

Generally it's not "bad," but when you need it to be fast, it'll always crawl (needy toddlers, the middle of battle, trying to prove to your spouse that you do indeed just play "casually," etc.) When I'm at work, in front of my desk, speed is irrelevant, so it doesn't bother me there.

Marol said in the programming forum that using radio repeater networks can lock up the objects and locations tables for up to 20 seconds at a time per repeater, so bursts of radio traffic could be responsible for the "odd spurts with no discernible pattern," especially if that's coupled with routine server processes.

[psymann]

trying to prove to your spouse that you do indeed just play "casually,"

That's my biggest annoyance, yes!

"Yes, dear, I'm all ready to go, just need to give this cotton to the guy I'm trading with before we go out for the weekend, won't take a second..."

[five minutes pass, and all I've done is log in, and get to the inventory page...]

psymann

[marol]

Here's the list of the most "popular" game background processes. This is not a complete list - there are much more game internal processes.

[Doug R.]

Thanks Marol, this list is appreciated.

[marol]

Though I'm concerned it doesn't match your observations. In next few days I'm going to make more accurate timing measurement to determine when processes exactly start, how long do they run and if they overlap.

[Doug R.]

They match my observations fairly closely. There are two additional processes I'll list here:

server.turn.finish @ 8:15/20:15 server time.
server.cleanup @ 8:20/20:20 server time.

These two processes can take a few minutes, but on one occasion turn finish lasted >1.5 hours, and cleanup locked the game (or the game locked when cleanup was running; there's no way to determine cause or effect). I have no idea what they are, though.

Also, disease processing runs tandem with one of the project processes, but I didn't notice any significant lag, and the disease process only lasted 2 minutes.

[marol]

They match my observations fairly closely. There are two additional processes I'll list here:

server.turn.finish @ 8:15/20:15 server time.
server.cleanup @ 8:20/20:20 server time.

server.turn.finish occurs every cantr turn and makes simple cleaning, but once a day it also performs daily internal processing, like departament reports, accounts idling out etc. server.cleanup makes what its name says - cleanup of some small things.

Server time is EST, but it's about 20 minutes early.

[Chris]

marol, I just noticed the dynamic image in your new signature, which tells how soon the next process is. That's great! Can you put that at the top of the Cantr home page? Or on every Cantr page would be even better.

[Miri]

Marol, there's something wrong with the table...
I'm at UTC+1, it's 13.30 and I've just got the projects uptade (in table sheduled for 14.25), and I had the sailing about 45-30min ago.

The sign in your signature is working perfectly, though