Storm Gorge PQ Lag Fixes Soon (maybe Thursday?)

In response to players asking why Storm Gorge PQ lag fixes can’t be implemented ASAP, Windslasher had these responses on the EQ2 Forums:

There are multiple lag sources, some of which are obvious and unavoidable (Large numbers of players in combat at the same time = lag), some of which are interesting and somewhat fixable (30 players vs. 30 encounters is worse than 60 players vs. 1 encounter) and some which are too subtle & complicated to describe in one sentence without using jargon (There are scripts & abilities that load up the server at O(n^2)).

I’m going through all of these issues slowly & carefully so as not to break anything. The next hotfix will bring some improvements, and as I dig deeper there will be more.

I look forward to hearing back about how well Storm Gorge performs with ~3 groups.

and:

[Making more encounters] is already part of the plan. It has to be done delicately though, because it means a thorough restructuring of the event, which is more complicated under the hood than most people guess.

There’s a subtle performance issue with the way EQ2 handles encounters (i.e. linked groups of mobs). Five creatures that are unlinked load up the server more than five creatures in one encounter. Good job deducing that!

and…

The goal is playability, so even 1 second of casting lag is too much. My efforts continue.

Yes, it is really necessary to wait for scheduled hotfixes (which aren’t always on Tuesday) to implement changes, even when they’re this important. If you don’t follow good software engineering practices, which includes allowing for adequate testing time before sending a change to live users, then you will make your problems worse.

Having said that, my next hotfix is (probably) going to be Thursday. It’s a bigger change than the last one, and it should improve lag in the second wave of Storm Gorge significantly. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.