I did some digging into the lag issues plaguing the 2010/2011 time frame. Where lag was arguably the worst it had ever been in DDO for raids. It turns out I may have been wrong assuming that due to this being the period of time where DDO was at its most popular, it put massive strain on the servers, causing the unplayable lag.
"DPS Lag" as it was called back then made raids nearly unplayable during heavy combat scenarios (boss fights). Around 2009/2010, players (and Devs) began assuming that TWF is the cause of the "DPS Lag" due to the increased number of attacks and procs going off.
The lag got so bad in Shroud that the the
players put together a forum post to recruit TWF players for testing lag in Shroud. Some developers joined in to monitor the test.
A week later the Dev Eladrin
made a post explaining how after doing internal testing with TWF and reducing off-hand proc chance by 45%, saw significant improvments in lag. Planning on reducing off-hand proc chance by 20% for live servers. As youll see in the post below, all this did was delay hitting the bandwidth cap by slightly lowering the total bandwidth limit each TWF player could reach.
A day later, the legend himself, Vanshilar made a
post detailing his finds on how weapons with damage effects increase server bandwidth more so than weapons without.
On the second page of this thread, Vanshilar points out the bandwidth cap of 20500 bytes and upon reaching this cap, unplayable lag or "DPS Lag" begins. Later on, a Dev called Phax
admits Vanshilars thread discovered the issue for them. He then says the bandwidth cap
will be going up. Theres also an interesting tidbit on
why Dungeon Alert exists.
Two weeks after Vanshilars thread, the Dev Phax requests players to test out the new bandwidth cap and other changes on
Lamannia.
This lead up to the release of
Update 5 (June.28.2010) that states
two important things:
Quote:Improvements have been made to server and network that should greatly enhance performance in heavy combat situations. Happy shrouding everyone!
Quote:The following changes have been made to combat for better game performance and balance:
- Attacks with two handed weapons performed while moving no longer perform Glancing Blows.
- Two Weapon Fighting attacks (weapons or unarmed) have been optimized for performance and balance. Off hand attacks now have a chance to proc (trigger) off of any main hand attacks based on the number of two weapon fighting feats (and related enhancements) you possess. (Instead of being predetermined on certain attacks in the attack chain.)
- A character with no two weapon fighting feats has a base 20% chance to proc off-hand attacks.
- The Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Two Weapon Fighting, and Greater Two Weapon Fighting feats now grant a +20% bonus to proc off-hand attacks.
- Ranger Tempest I and II now grant a +10%/+20% bonus to the chance to proc off-hand attacks when dual wielding instead of a bonus to attack speed.
- Monk Air Stance and Ranger Tempest I and II now stack with each other for these purposes.
: Players who had the GTWF Feat before this update had a 100% chance on off-hand procs. Rangers who had the Tempest Prestige 3 Enhancement got an additional off-hand proc per swing. Making their off-hand proc 2 times per swing.
TLDR; TWF builds lost 20% off-hand proc chance. TWF Rangers and Fighters got cucked even more. Click
here to see the 189 page thread discussing this nerf.
A day after Update 5s release, players
Cyr and
Symera try to red pill players who mistakenly think the TWF nerf fixed the lag.
TLDR: "DPS Lag" was a massive issue. Raids were unplayable and the players were having enough of it. A stigma was placed on TWF from players and Devs due to the extra attacks/procs. TWF Players joined together in hopes of finding the cause of the lag (some devs joined in to monitor). Devs mistakenly blame TWF for being the cause so they plan on reducing off-hand proc chance by 20% in the next update. A player, Vanshilar, points out the cause of the "DPS Lag" was due to item procs and ultimately, the server bandwidth cap. Devs increase server bandwidth cap on Lamannia and request players test it. "DPS Lag" greatly reduced due to increased server bandwidth cap. Devs continue planned TWF nerf under the guise of fixing "lag".
CONCLUSION: Turbine was too cheap to pay for better servers. Especially in regards to
Symera's comment about EU servers having a bandwidth cap of roughly 27800 bps (compared to NAs 20500) and being mostly unaffected by "DPS Lag". I can also confirm Update 5's slight increase in Bandwidth Cap didnt solve the issue outright. I remember countless amounts of unplayable lag wipes in raids during 2011 and 2012. Furthermore, the Devs would rather nerf or outright remove game systems/features in hopes of reducing lag than directly upgrading the server itself.
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DDO and Lag: A History Lesson (Read 2896 times)
