Server Slots, 24 Too Many?

(Apocalypse_Pony) #1

Ok, this has been bugging me for awhile. I would like to know if others notice otherwise good servers turning to laggy crap when fully loaded. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. But I can’t seem to pinpoint a problem on my end.

I test my ping before and after gaming. Low and steady. I’ve got the hardware. Phenom II quad, GTX 260, 2 gigs RAM. Yet, get me on a loaded server and I get anything from mildly annoying (and deadly) lag spikes, to almost unplayable warping and rubberbanding. The only reason I don’t come right out and blame the servers is no one else seems to have any complaints.

I would say something about there often being half a dozen oversea’ers with 200+ ping. But it’s been stated many times, with 101% certainty that they can have no affect.

Whatever the problem is, I wish there were more lower slot count servers.

(Apples) #2

welcome to etqw netcode :smiley:

The game is choppy even with good ping and not 100% loaded server anyway, well IMO…

(INF3RN0) #3

24 on promod runs better, but bad code, bad servers, bad bad bad. For examp. MCPs never used to lag the entire server, why they do now is another good question…

(ED209) #4

Dunno, some nights you get lag, other nights lag gets you.

I play same servers night after night, usually 24 players and most of the time it’s fine. Other times and it’s a slide show. I still miss 32 (or even 64) ET servers where spammage is King and there is no Arty support because you have 12 field ops, 12 snipers and maybe 1 engie to build the bridge in Fuel Dump

(Susefreak) #5

You can have 32 person. Not from the gui frontend, but just in the config

(ED209) #6

I remember seeing 32 player ranked servers early on

(Floris) #7

It’s easy to blame the netcode, but there are other factors which play an much more important role, such as the amount of resources assigned to the process and the distance between you and the server.

(DrFunkenstein) #8

[QUOTE=Apocalypse_Pony;212072]Ok, this has been bugging me for awhile. I would like to know if others notice otherwise good servers turning to laggy crap when fully loaded. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. But I can’t seem to pinpoint a problem on my end.

I test my ping before and after gaming. Low and steady. I’ve got the hardware. Phenom II quad, GTX 260, 2 gigs RAM. Yet, get me on a loaded server and I get anything from mildly annoying (and deadly) lag spikes, to almost unplayable warping and rubberbanding. The only reason I don’t come right out and blame the servers is no one else seems to have any complaints.

I would say something about there often being half a dozen oversea’ers with 200+ ping. But it’s been stated many times, with 101% certainty that they can have no affect.

Whatever the problem is, I wish there were more lower slot count servers.[/QUOTE]

I recognize the symptoms but it will vary from server to server, at least that’s my experience. Some NA servers are almost unplayable for me, not so much because of my ping (highest ping to a NA server is in the 150-180ms range) but because I just lag like crazy when I play on them. It’s hard to say what exactly is causing that.

If servers with less slots cause less problems, wouldn’t that just mean that (some?) game service providers are not dedicating enough CPU power and/or bandwidth to the 24 slot servers they are running?

Dr. Funkenstein

(Apocalypse_Pony) #9

[QUOTE=DrFunkenstein;212176]If servers with less slots cause less problems, wouldn’t that just mean that (some?) game service providers are not dedicating enough CPU power and/or bandwidth to the 24 slot servers they are running?

Dr. Funkenstein[/QUOTE]

That’s along the lines I was thinking. Either that or engine or code. Or maybe all of the above. I wonder too if servers are being reset often enough. It’s just strange seeing a ping in the 30’s, yet the screen and the control seems more like 230.

Yesterday, playing on a (full) server with a ping of about 50, I went to chuck a grenade but my lac came back up and was firing away. Then all of a sudden, the game catches up and there’s a live grenade sitting at my feet. I ran, but the bumbled grenade took out the constructor who was disarming the final objective. Almost cost us the match.

Later, I get in a fire fight, click to fire and nothing. Then it starts firing sporadically. Then I’m dead.

That kind of crap is very frustrating in a game where precision and timing is everything.

(brbrbr) #10

solutions is simple:

  1. no net_prediction.
  2. no players with ridiculous(imo 250 ms in most cases]pings and [actual. not [just]ICMP “Echo”]netflow jitter.
  3. no players with pings, fluctuating 1.5x times and more[danger decreased while you implement point 1.].

because:

  1. too many rented servers don’t have adequate[for ETQW]Hardware.
  2. too many cheaters exploit net_clientprediction stuff.[usually appear as “Lag”, visually]
(DrFunkenstein) #11

[QUOTE=brbrbr;212234]sloutions is simple:

  1. no net_prediction.
  2. no players with ridiculous(imo 250 ms in most cases]pings and [actual. not [just]ICMP “Echo”]netflow jitter.
  3. no players with pings, fluctuating 1.5x times and more[danger decreased while you implement point 1.].

because:

  1. too many rented servers don’t have adequate[for ETQW]Hardware.
  2. too many cheaters exploit net_clientprediction stuff.[usually appear as “Lag”, visually][/QUOTE]

Could you please provide some back up?

Game devs stepped in on the old forums and said high ping players don’t influence other players. The rest of your claims might be true or not, but you’re not explaining why we should accept them.

Dr. Funkenstein

(brbrbr) #12

[QUOTE=DrFunkenstein;212250]Could you please provide some back up?

Game devs stepped in on the old forums and said high ping players don’t influence other players. The rest of your claims might be true or not, but you’re not explaining why we should accept them.

Dr. Funkenstein[/QUOTE]
i just share my opinion and some years of testing and online gaming[including ETQW-related ones].
so if you don’t understand/trust me/need proof/tried to FUD me/to fat to check on own/just wounder - its just your [private]business.

p.s.
can you be more specific ?
and i don’t know who those “we”, but simply recommend made simple experiment to find it yourself 4 you.
setup server with hardware able carry ETQW “at edge”[like used by Activision-contracted ISP’s] and load it fully.
when load peaked, netflow-related things, are okay, except those, which are CPU-hungry itself[like net_prediction for example], server start performing erratically[alot].
and when you plus cheaters here[netflow mangling are quite popular among this creatures], whose is generate traffic so intensive and tricky, so even server firewall will fail sometime.
and use debuggers btw. they helps ALOT. along w/traffic sniffers.

(DrFunkenstein) #13

I’m sorry, but as far as I’m concerned you are the person employing FUD by making claims about lag caused by people using client side cvars. You may be right, you may be wrong but you don’t back it up.

I do not claim to know much about the way these games work, but to me it seems odd that a client side cvar would cause lag for all the other players on a server. I might very well be wrong here, but I’d appreciate some explanation.

Dr. Funkenstein

(brbrbr) #14

[QUOTE=DrFunkenstein;212263]I’m sorry, but as far as I’m concerned you are the person employing FUD by making claims about lag caused by people using client side cvars. You may be right, you may be wrong but you don’t back it up.

I do not claim to know much about the way these games work, but to me it seems odd that a client side cvar would cause lag for all the other players on a server. I might very well be wrong here, but I’d appreciate some explanation.

Dr. Funkenstein[/QUOTE]
i can relax you
you concerns is wrong while you cannot find “cvar” in my post.
and no, this is usually made by 3rd-party-software, used by cheaters.
but you raise interesting points:

  1. some client-side cvars can ACTUALLY cause this. for example, servers on tiny ethernet uplink and/or with weaker resources, can’t handle properly backed up packet streams with altered[upper alot]maxrate
  2. you really right that im can be right or can be wrong and not back up “claims”. or not. i don’t care, just share both experience and results of experiments on live hardware.
    you can’t accept it[don’t say “tnx”, because i don’t accept this, only Visa transfers] or not, whatever you you decision is backed up or not.
    not because im/you can be right/wrong, but because this is NOT MATTER.
    what is matter is facts. if you have different results from [you]experiments - im happy for you. or not, whatever.
    but i have mine, as well as My Point of Vision.

p.s.
but to tell its more plain, you BS-FUD is strictly usual to cheaters itself.
which is raise reasonable amounts of suspicions.

(Gradis) #15

Please upread test experiments on net prediction

this will do visual data proving that we implode and test and resulting test many members will make visual do.

i do care that nettest we test and visual data make us aware of effects. other wise we feel important and make facts that SEEM IMPORTANT but without sound makes visual pointless and waste clocks.

But remember feeling is gauge to data but with out this nothing makes it empty. V important.

(Nail) #16

[QUOTE=Gradis;212283]Please upread test experiments on net prediction

this will do visual data proving that we implode and test and resulting test many members will make visual do.

i do care that nettest we test and visual data make us aware of effects. other wise we feel important and make facts that SEEM IMPORTANT but without sound makes visual pointless and waste clocks.

But remember feeling is gauge to data but with out this nothing makes it empty. V important.[/QUOTE]

difference is, I can understand him

(Gradis) #17

try harder then. sense of achievement and all that shit etc :smiley:

(Nail) #18

btw, welcome to the forums

(Gradis) #19

trooper man :smiley: cheers!

(Coliseum) #20

[QUOTE=DrFunkenstein;212263]I’m sorry, but as far as I’m concerned you are the person employing FUD by making claims about lag caused by people using client side cvars. You may be right, you may be wrong but you don’t back it up.

I do not claim to know much about the way these games work, but to me it seems odd that a client side cvar would cause lag for all the other players on a server. I might very well be wrong here, but I’d appreciate some explanation.

Dr. Funkenstein[/QUOTE]

I’m a complete noob when it comes to connections and network settings, but, after playing this game for roughly 1 million years, I have made some observations:

-People with high ping (110+) or a wildly fluctuating ping (generally from Eastern Europe/Russia) occasionally are exceptionally hard to hit. Like the anti-lag built into QW (if I’m not mistaken) can’t keep up. They do not, however, cause ME to lag, freeze or stutter when it comes to moving and shooting; my shots simply do not register and they seem to suffer a very similar problem too.

-Net_clientprediction (default value = 20) can produce funny results if set incorrectly. I have it at 10, but if I set it to 0, the game turns into a lagfest: my game stutters, hit-detection becomes erratic and I have more people popping out of walls/terrain. Those very same people, however, complain about me becoming unhittable, so it would seem -to me at least- that net_clientprediction can’t really be used to create an unfair advantage.

-Cheaters and their nefarious ways seem a constant concern for our dear unintelligible friend, so I will share some experiences in that regard too. I’ve faced several proven cheaters in direct combat: Lashee and netc*ders.cc, amongst others. None of them beat me by causing me to lag. I simply got outshot or beaten by the advantage they held when it came to situational awareness. The people who have been accused of hacking in the past, but who were never proved guilty (so I will refrain from mentioning names here), never caused me to lag either. Also, the adverts for hacks I’ve seen, never mentioned this as a feature.

But all this may not impress brbrbr much, as he has expressed the opinion that I hack too. In fact, according to him, I even have the unholy power to shoot people through solid objects (from one Dutchman to another: hij zal het bord voor z’n hoofd wel bedoelen). FEAR me. :oppressor: