54 replies to this topic

[Vellron2005]

PGI SAYS:

Greetings MechWarriors,

Over the past week we've been monitoring an increase in reports related to in-game server and connection stability issues. Players connecting to the North American server have reported an increase in the number of disconnections, 'rubberbanding' and teleporting of 'Mechs, and general server instabilities.

As these reports have been coming in we've been keeping a close eye on our servers, but at this time we haven't seen anything unusual on our end, nor anything that indicates the issues are occurring within our direct area of influence. The source of these issues doesn't appear to be with our North American data center or within its immediate area, but somewhere further along the line between your ISPs connection and our NA servers.

We're going to continue monitoring things on our end in the event that there's any indication we can help alleviate the reported issues, but at this stage these issues are unfortunately appearing beyond our control.
If you are experiencing any connection instability we strongly recommend contacting your ISP to find out if they can provide you with any information or assist with troubleshooting your connection.
If your ISP claims nothing is amiss, feel free to get in touch with our tech support at technical@mwomercs.com if you haven't already done so. Our support agents will gather some connection diagnostics to help determine what might be occurring with your connection to our North American servers.

First of all guys, thank you for working on this..

But I think you've completely missed the point..

I've noticed that the servers are not the problem, but the client itself might be..

Ever since you introduced the ever-flashing chat annoyance button, the client has had drops, crashes, lag and all sorts of other problems..

So please, don't tell the hundreds of us to go talk to our ISP's. Cose' ISPs from round the world can't be blamed for the instability of your game. ONLY YOUR GAME. ONLY MWO.. nothing else is unstable..

So you telling us to talk to our ISPs and that you can't find the problem is truly a slap in the face and a show of your incompetence.. And I know you guys are not incompetent.. so come on..

FIX IT.

Thanks.

Edited by Vellron2005, 12 June 2017 - 12:21 AM.

[Ced Riggs]

Please look up the level 3 communications outage monitor. It's not that your house is on fire, it's not that piggy's house is on fire, but the streets are ablaze. Your letter correspondence arrives charred because the route in between is lit up.

We went over this.

The internet is a series of hubs connecting you to your location, and some of those hubs, outside of your and piggy's control are having issues. There's no secret negligence or malicious ignorance on piggy's part at work here. Networking is a complex topic, and with layman's knowledge, we won't get anywhere but well-meaning, ignorant rumours and guesswork.

Feel free to ***** at level 3, though.

[UnofficialOperator]

If only there's a downvote button

[Paigan]

IMHO, threads (I mean the initial post) that are not only incredibly redundant, but also consist purely of spite, insult, ignorance are nothing but unconstructive disturbance of the forums.
Therefore, I have reported this thread and I ask anyone who feels disturbed as well to do the same.

Vellron, please read what Ced wrote and what's explained in detail and with links in the countless other ignorant threads.
PGI may make lots of mistakes (who doesn't), but they really can't be responsible for all the problems in this world.

Edited by Paigan, 12 June 2017 - 02:02 AM.

[Scyther]

Another "I don't understand the Internet" thread.

It is not impossible that the 'chat blinker' causes issues. Heaven knows it wouldn't be the first time that a developer implemented a minor feature in a way that causes problems. It's a completely unrelated issue however so please rant about it separately, and try to back it up with something resembling evidence.

It is also true that perhaps PGI should have done a little more checking with their ISP and found out that the issue was perhaps closer to their end than the typical players. Even if it wasn't their server "We're checking with our ISP" sounds a lot better than "The problem is on your end guys".

Other than that, please at least take 30 seconds to inform yourself on an issue before you jump in the murky pppool with all the other posters who don't understand how the internet works like a traffic system.

(Yes, there's a lotta p's in that 'pool'. Think about it.)

Edited by MadBadger, 12 June 2017 - 01:59 AM.

[LordNothing]

i havent seen any major issues untill i ran an fp match today. a guy with 80 pint was stuttering like he had 500m when i was spectating him. my game was pretty solid with my ping at its usual 180-200 (but thats to be expected i live in alaska after all so all games are in that neighborhood more or less). i do seem to recal some network issues in the group queue as well durring that challenge. but qp in general has been pretty solid.

[Vellron2005]

Guys, I admit I don't know alot about how networks work, and I really don't mean to insult anyone..

But I know simple facts:

1) The lag problems have begun when the chat button was implemented
2) MWO is the only online game / content / thingy using the interwebs that is slow, laggy and crashes for me.
3) I'm not the only one who has issues. Lots of people have issues, and they only seem to have issues with MWO.

So can you please all tell me again how piggy's hub is broken for everybody on the entire globe? Cose' it's obvious to even a layman such as myself that the simple facts point to a fault with the client, not the servers, not the inbetween networking..

Please note that I don't hate PGI, nor am I calling incompetence, I truly believe they can fix this problem.

I am however somewhat ticked off when they tell me their game is crashing "cose' I must have a bad router".

Its just silly..

P.S.

Back in the golden days of CWI, we had a running joke when someone would disconnect. We would tell them they "must have a bad router, cose' the game code is perfect and never crashes". Also, that this is to be expected, cose' the game uses Cryengine, and Cryengine runs on tears..

Edited by Vellron2005, 12 June 2017 - 02:44 AM.

[MustrumRidcully]

Vellron2005, on 12 June 2017 - 02:30 AM, said:

Guys, I admit I don't know alot about how networks work, and I really don't mean to insult anyone..

But I know simple facts:

1) The lag problems have begun when the chat button was implemented
2) MWO is the only online game / content / thingy using the interwebs that is slow, laggy and crashes for me.

What other games are you playing? Where are the servers located? What routes does their traffic take?

[Ced Riggs]

Okay, I'll try and explain, because you insinuated you want to understand.

I'm even cranking out paint for this.



Hope this helps.

[Gwahlur]

Ced Riggs, on 12 June 2017 - 02:59 AM, said:

Okay, I'll try and explain, because you insinuated you want to understand.

I'm even cranking out paint for this.



Hope this helps.

You've won 10 internet points

[Paigan]

Ced Riggs, on 12 June 2017 - 02:59 AM, said:

Okay, I'll try and explain, because you insinuated you want to understand.

I'm even cranking out paint for this.



Hope this helps.

Excellent (simplified) image .

I especially like the aussie and the US eagle.
And the fire, of course. The fire above all.

[Appogee]

Weird thing is ... despite this being reported as a T3 backbone issue, I'm not having this problem with any game other than MWO.

My feeling is that either other games are dealing with the connectivity issues in some way - perhaps by redistributing their servers and routing - or there's also a separate issue specific to MWO.

In any case, PGI are in maintenance mode. They put up a month-long event, and are no doubt planning to enjoy their summer after a grueling year of one patch per month.

Edited by Appogee, 12 June 2017 - 03:14 AM.

[TWIAFU]

Vellron2005, on 12 June 2017 - 02:30 AM, said:

So can you please all tell me again how piggy's hub is broken for everybody on the entire globe? Cose' it's obvious to even a layman such as myself that the simple facts point to a fault with the client, not the servers, not the inbetween networking..

So, you go to the ocean and fill a glass of water. There are no fish in the glass so you conclude there are no fish in the ocean.

That is exactly what you are doing.

[Ced Riggs]

Appogee, on 12 June 2017 - 03:13 AM, said:

Weird thing is ... despite this being reported as a T3 backbone issue, I'm not having this problem with any game other than MWO.

You tell me.

Edited by Ced Riggs, 12 June 2017 - 03:22 AM.

[Scyther]

I'm having virtually no lag/delay with MWO from my location (300km SW of the servers, assuming they are in Montreal - from other posts). Ping is normal, in the 24-50ms range.

The small amounts of lag/delay that I am experiencing are pretty much the same as I get connecting to Cryptics game servers down on the US east coast. (Where people are also complaining about lag, but not as much.)

The analogy that works for me is: if you are in North America, and driving to Montreal, and there is a traffic accident blocking Hwy.#138, then anyone trying to get to Montreal via #138 is going to experience massive delays. Anyone coming in on Hwy.#132 or #116 is going to get smaller delays, because those roads will catch all the overflow from the major jam on #138.

Anyone going to Montreal via Hwy.#401 from the SW is going to encounter normal traffic since it is unaffected by the accident.

The internet is a traffic routing system. Everybody doesn't take the same route to go from A to B, but many people get funneled through the same 'main roads' depending on who their various ISPs use to get to 'destination X' on the net. If your road is blocked, you get delays.

Something people with major lag might try (assuming the problem isn't fixed today), would be using a 'proxy server' that re-directs your traffic direction to Montreal from say the direction of Ottawa, Toronto, or even out Vancouver way. That might re-route your traffic around the laggy areas.

Looking at Ced Riggs map, that heavy yellow area centered around Massachusetts/Connecticut/New York is the area that you want to bypass with your internet connection. In fact, virtually every 'really bad connection problem' I have ever had bogs down in Boston, Chicago or Atlanta when I run a tracert.

(Edit: Also, Vellron, not razzing you, but feel free to explain how a problem that affects some people and not others, at some times but not others, is 'a simple fact pointing to a fault with the client'. My client is fine.)

(PS: Montrealers, don't shoot me for getting the roads wrong, it's just an example. )

Edited by MadBadger, 12 June 2017 - 03:45 AM.

[Paigan]

Ced Riggs, on 12 June 2017 - 03:19 AM, said:

You tell me.

Looks like someone is interested in Premium Männerpflege .

[Appogee]

MadBadger, on 12 June 2017 - 03:36 AM, said:

(Edit: Also, Vellron, not razzing you, but feel free to explain how a problem that affects some people and not others, at some times but not others, is 'a simple fact pointing to a fault with the client'. My client is fine.)

Allow me to explain exactly how that could happen...

A game client can be poorly coded, making it more more susceptible to network lag and errors.

For example, if the handshake and handoff between the game client and game server is coded to occur within a set timeframe, but packets are lost during that process purely due to insufficient error tolerance/retries, then those with more hops between client and server will experience more disconnections than those who are closer to the server.

Incidentally, the above is exactly what I think has been happening to me for the past two months. I have been getting disconnected from the NA server at the beginning of 75% of Faction Play matches. I don't get disconnected during matches, only during the handoff from the MechLab, which runs on one server, to the match server. I can ping and traceroute the game servers and mostly see acceptable levels of packet loss. And I don't get problems connecting to other online games, only MWO.

So this problem being widely experienced now doesn't necessary have to be only a T3 network congestion issue.

Edited by Appogee, 12 June 2017 - 06:48 AM.

[PhoenixFire55]

It is never their fault. Blame IGP.

Oh wait ...

[Ced Riggs]

PhoenixFire55, on 13 June 2017 - 01:07 AM, said:

It is never their fault. Blame IGP.

Oh wait ...

Things I wish for every day working in IT: customers willing to understand the intricacies of a network.
Things I get every day instead: customers like you.

Bash piggy for the myriad of things they actually do wrong. But don't blame the public park for getting wet when it rains.

[PhoenixFire55]

Ced Riggs, on 13 June 2017 - 01:18 AM, said:

Bash piggy for the myriad of things they actually do wrong. But don't blame the public park for getting wet when it rains.

If it rains 364 out of 365 days a year where it is then it tells you all you need to know about people who built said park ...
But sure, blame rain. I mean not like the price of land in that particular monsoon swamp was cheaper and all ...