No CP Test : Lag Results

Recremen · March 2017

As ZOS said they wanted feedback regarding the lag in Cyrodiil with CP turned off, I've decided to do a short writeup.

First, when I say "lag" I don't mean framerate issues or latency. I am referring only to events where I fire an ability or move my character and it takes longer for the game to respond than my latency would otherwise indicate. I have a pretty beastly computer so my framerate was always within acceptable performance metrics, no real issue there. I will only be referring to what appears to be server-side lag, to the best of my ability to discern the difference.

While there did seem to be some improvements in performance overall, we were still definitely getting a huge amount of lag when we were at our worst. There was one scroll fight early in the week, for instance, near some broken down village up north near a few rickety bridges, where we had probably a hundred actual people in close proximity mostly using AoE abilities for a long period of time. At some point during that fight, myself and the whole group I was running with started experiencing remarkably bad lag. Our button inputs would go off sometimes several seconds after being pressed. Our friend and foe movement inputs would take just as long to register, with the result being (for me) very adequate framerate, but with characters themselves jumping around all over the landscape.

Most fights were not as bad as that scroll fight, but there were certainly issues with delayed response to input throughout the week, and it was especially noticeable over the weekend. I don't know if that has anything to do with the DDoS attack, since obviously the server population was no different than for any other day of the week, but I did, without a doubt, experience some issues on Saturday and Sunday.

Obviously player behavior over the week was extraordinarily different from how we normally fight on Trueflame, at least as far as I can tell, but the takeaway is that if we do end up with large concentrated fights like that then we're still going to have some lag even if you improve the CP system code.

If anyone has video of that scroll event, please share it! Especially if you also have your latency and FPS displayed. I'm sure that kind of info will be extremely useful for ZOS.

EDIT: All fighting was in Trueflame campaign on PC NA

Minno · March 2017

Though anything from the end of the week and weekend would be a problem. They had that issue with the internet near their servers in Texas causing massive issues for the game (both pve and PvP.)

For example at the beginning of the week, my ping would go up/down gradually but never past 150.
Last night, it spiked to 250 sharply but back to my usual 80-100. Fps would not tank below 40 at all in AZ. It would do this near a keep, in open world, picking flowers, etc.

Recremen · March 2017

Minno wrote: »

Though anything from the end of the week and weekend would be a problem. They had that issue with the internet near their servers in Texas causing massive issues for the game (both pve and PvP.)

For example at the beginning of the week, my ping would go up/down gradually but never past 150.
Last night, it spiked to 250 sharply but back to my usual 80-100. Fps would not tank below 40 at all in AZ. It would do this near a keep, in open world, picking flowers, etc.

Yeah that's why I'm glad the scroll fight in question was earlier in the week, definitely the most descriptive event of what's possible for lag even with no CP, as there were no DDoS attacks at that time.

rimmidimdim · March 2017

I played Trueflame all week. I was at that scroll fight in that village. There was more than a hundred I think. There was a moment about half the AD was kicked out of server and I somehow survived the server lag and received a few easy kills.

Big keep battles and such for the rest of the week was way more improved with lag. While latency and framrates did still diminish, my actions and play still reacted and worked. I felt I was and everyone else was effective. I pressed a skill, it casts. I roll dodge, I rolled. I heavy attack, I hit. In CP campaign from before, none of that would work for me in large fights.

So non CP for me. I just have too. It is just more enjoyable because of performance. Plain and simple. Doesn't matter preference on CP or No CP. It's just a better performing system. So here I come Azuras. Ty and cheers.

Eirella · March 2017

After playing Trueflame this past week I can say that, for me, performance was way worse overall. My fps was lower (I usually get around 60, but during the event I was steadily getting 35 fps), ping was around 110-130 but it felt higher, I noticed when I used my skills they were really delayed, I crashed at least once a day, and I got never ending load screens frequently when before the event I very rarely experienced long load screens.

Didn't like the event much. No CP is fun but I'm happy the event is over.

Skyy · March 2017

There was still lag. There did seem to be a little less, but I wonder if that has to do with more of an attitude of "if the keep flips it's no biggie, we'll get far more AP from getting it back than defending it".