lags LAGS in official servers - lets discuss how to decrease them

[Aylana314159]

PvE, which is where most of the lag happens due to structures and zoos that never get wiped by other players, really needs an overhaul.

 

There needs to be more environmental threats.

 

The cryopods need to function differently for PvE only  (no cool down, easier to get on all maps).

 

There really needs to be a land claim system with some form of upkeep bases on size/number of structures.

 

 

[Aylana314159]

On 6/13/2019 at 6:54 AM, slejo said:

5 - Drasticaly nerfing breeding efficiency - and boosting simple taming (hunting)

This would have the opposite effect.

 

WC could release some NO breeding servers where only taming exists as a new playmode.

[Jemcrystal]

I would refuse to play an optimized version of Ark Survival.  Optimize is another word for pixelated graphics which is another word for children's crayola color barf me a rainbow give me motion sickness looking game.  I play Ark because it looks old school Skyrim.  

[CyberHunter]

Thats hell too much lags on most of the official servers

[Juggernaut]

It will never not lag on official because they use poop hardware that has terrible single core performance which Ark is mostly coded for. They use high count multi-thread cpus to host as many servers as they can on each machine because it is cheaper. Go play on a steam hosted dedicated machine and you don't have the lag even with insane amount of mods and high harvest settings because they typically are using higher clocked single threaded performance desktop CPUs vs Xeons. Back in the day when devs hosted tournaments, they used i7-6700ks overclocked to minimize lag, they didn't use server xeons...

[deedoubleu]

Playing on EU server. People from states and chinese seem to join it without even reading server's location just because it's filtered somewhere at the top by player count.  

I tried, as politely as I could, ask few asian players why they play on EU. Not an easy task, since they don't speak english most of the time. I even tried using google translate. Not sure if it made me insult their aunt or those folks simply ignored me. One that at least tried to communicate had no idea, he just joined first server he saw I guess. So it's not a case of international friendship and people all over the globe playing together. In reality it is few communities that are separated by culture, language and distance. They only speak and interact in game with other asians. They gain nothing playing on EU or NA, quite the opposite - making it worse for themselves and everyone else.

I don't think they do it on purpose or to mess with other players(well, maybe in pvp they do). Most probably they just don't look where they joining and when/if they figure out how far it is from their location it is already too late because they have a base and tames here etc etc etc. Another obvious reason is no one expects game to be THAT laggy if they didn't have previous ark experience.

Imho instead of expecting people to join proper servers on their own, WC should cut transfers and lock players to closest region. With a warning few months in advance, so people would have time to relocate their bases to servers which actually in vicinity.

 

And a nagging screen reminding players to use cryopods with short description of benefits it gives. If you way below tame cap you should not see it at all, close to cap - every 3-4 hours. Over tame cap - every hour or always on screen.

 

None of this would solve crappy server hardware problem, but will make survivor's life a little better.

[Joebl0w13]

4 minutes ago, deedoubleu said:

Imho instead of expecting people to join proper servers on their own, WC should cut transfers and lock players to closest region.

Been talked about many many times over the years. 

WC has no intention of doing that. 

[InsaneSniperzzz]

I think when the Devs can Ark updating to the latest version of the Unreal Engine the server are running very smooth because they can use more cores of the server. Its much work to update this all but i have played so much i would pay for that as a remake or dlc whatever.

 

[Jemcrystal]

Keep tribes but nerf them drastically so they cannot quickly build gigantic bases that break our graphic cards when we come in render distance.  Give bonus to solo players.  Make experimental official servers to try and test a solo friendly environment.  Work with it until you get a solo player official friendly version of this game.  Make cryopods easier to get for solo and beginner players.

Keep non-English speaking players, called box tribes, from playing NA servers.  Let only North Americans on NA servers.  This game produces a violent hating atmosphere.  If it was a Final Fantasy mmorpg I would promote cross-country play.  But this game is more likely to get us into a real war with it's negative game play dynamics.

[Juggernaut]

12 hours ago, InsaneSniperzzz said:

I think when the Devs can Ark updating to the latest version of the Unreal Engine the server are running very smooth because they can use more cores of the server. Its much work to update this all but i have played so much i would pay for that as a remake or dlc whatever.

 

The devs already said they would if they could but when Ark came out in 2015, the unreal engine didn't utilize multiple cores like it does now and wildcard edited the engine a lot to make Ark. They already said to upgrade the engine would require a complete re-write from the ground up, aka Ark 2. Sadly Atlas is still using the old ark/unreal engine also. Then again Atlas is using almost all of the Ark assets also. 

[Jacira]

Lag is not only caused by tamed dinos on a server but by all the information on a server as a whole, server saves especially create the famous rubber band mini rollback more so due to the number of building structures on a server. Not the dinos.

[CptChandler]

Optimizing the building system could be a way to get server load down. But I doubt they will do it.

If I need a wall as high as a behemoth I should be able to make 1 piece not have to make 8.   Reducing individual game pieces\entities that have to be rendered would help a lot.

 

 

[Weipa]

i returned playing after a long break, began on an pve official ext(in the past only PvP, but not possible to constant raiding of mega tribes/duping/cheating) what i think is really annoying, is all those use less structures like pillars with a ladder or a foudnation with a wall, just to block spots. i dont think its really well for server performance as well

the server i play, began over a week ago wit more and more of those lags, and mostly since then 1 or more server crashes a day. they also should do more maintenance or upgrade the hardware

[Juggernaut]

On 7/26/2019 at 1:27 PM, CptChandler said:

Optimizing the building system could be a way to get server load down. But I doubt they will do it.

If I need a wall as high as a behemoth I should be able to make 1 piece not have to make 8.   Reducing individual game pieces\entities that have to be rendered would help a lot.

 

 

https://ark.gamepedia.com/Large_Stone_Wall

[CptChandler]

Yep the 4 high wall exists. But in order for it to practical it has to be dynamic. So one can create 4 or 14 walls depending on what you need.

[deedoubleu]

6 hours ago, Juggernaut said:

https://ark.gamepedia.com/Large_Stone_Wall

No one uses those. Don't know if it's just habit or misalignment and messed up "indoor" status that draws people away from it.

 

Just having large walls is not enough, it should also work at least as good as regular ones.

[Juggernaut]

1 hour ago, deedoubleu said:

No one uses those. Don't know if it's just habit or misalignment and messed up "indoor" status that draws people away from it.

 

Just having large walls is not enough, it should also work at least as good as regular ones.

No one uses them because they have marginal health over regular. Also if someone destroys the wall now you lose 4 walls high worth. Same would happen if someone busted a bottom single 4 wall ceiling but with so singles if they pop 2 3 or 4 walls high and not bottom most things still stands. Also you can't connect ceilings at ever 1 wall up which limits building options like you can with individual walls. I saw the devs intention, which was probably to reduce some server/render calls but they implemented it very poorly and thus no one uses them.

[LaugherOutLoud]

ok so for starters Tek is not hard to get with extinction you can very easily spend a sneaky weekend farming up a replicator and doing ele dust runs in the city are super easy.
next up, why is every suggestions some poopty QoL loss.

the biggest thing causing lag is not dinos is not the patchy stone bases but is the huge metal bases with heaps of spam. why are they laggy? because there are lots of structures with high polygon counts spammed around that have to be rendered in.

all you need to do is introduce a new class of item that takes up more space, has a lower polygon count and can be a replacement for foundation spamming.

[deedoubleu]

I seriously doubt reducing polycount would do much for lags. All those rivets on metal structure only affect client which rendering it, but server doesn't render anything and doesn't send this to clients. Yet, one person in enormous base will instantly raise ping to 200+ and introduce tons of rubberbanding for everyone.

I was on smalltribes pvp with alpha main base in carno cave. Of course they also had turrets outside, infinite amount of velons and foundation spam so dense that you would not be able to place a pillar even without enemy-structure-radius. Every time one of them went in that base game was becoming barely playable so hard it lagged. You videocard or mesh optimization by devs won't do anything.

Structures do need rework, but we all know it won't happen. "we made it less horrible" doesn't sell new copies, "new stuff" does.

[Radzy]

Special Request

Hi guys, Hope  all is well.

Just a suggestion, =

Can we maybe halt production on any upcoming expansions, and fix the horrendous lag on Official servers this game has suffered from, well..... day one ?

No offense in any way, but when it lags and rubberbands me up to 3 times over a 15 second period, I actually chunder in my mouth a little...  Its not stomach acid or tea wanting out, but actual chunder..

 

Other than that, I love your game and its still one of the best of its kind !

but please, lag. fix.!

[Rep]

On 6/14/2019 at 2:14 AM, Klakky said:

First of all.... Ahahahahajahahahahahahahahh

Secondly I never experienced lag until asian tribes came to the server with names [][][] it's fine if 1-2 join but 20 lags the s*it out of the server rubberbanding their 200+ ping to the rest of us and the only way to decrease lag(other than upgrading the servers) is limiting the amount of people joining from other continents at the same time... I see so many asian and US servers almost empty while every EU has 40+ players at some point of the day

if u wanna pay monthly or weekly for a different server cluster I don't see why not, but it should be on its own cluster, you shouldn't be able to transfer to normal ones cause if I know the devs they're gonna give u constant 2x or something if that happens... 

maybe u should go unofficial? Lots of servers out for rent or even pay every month for access.

I mean u are obviously a new player or u lost your Dino's, why else would u wanna limit everyone's Dino's and making them starve quicker? So gigas dying in 3 days isn't bad enough? U think they should starve in 3 hours?

I think almost every one of your problems is solved on prim+ or no Dino servers, I'd suggest going there? Cause ur radical ideas aren't for any older and or bigger tribe

 

I don't disagree with you but I do want to point out that the EU servers are full when you play and the others look empty because of the time zone you are playing. I purposely selected EU servers mostly because it's more empty that US when I actually play. I'm fairly certain the Asian tribes do the same thing...would you rather play on a always maxed out local server or one across the world showing 5 people on? 

Besides the obvious lag negatives the positives mean: More access to resources, first pick of wild tames, better land options, less server crashes and less server queues.

[Klakky]

20 minutes ago, Rep said:

I don't disagree with you but I do want to point out that the EU servers are full when you play and the others look empty because of the time zone you are playing. I purposely selected EU servers mostly because it's more empty that US when I actually play. I'm fairly certain the Asian tribes do the same thing...would you rather play on a always maxed out local server or one across the world showing 5 people on? 

Besides the obvious lag negatives the positives mean: More access to resources, first pick of wild tames, better land options, less server crashes and less server queues.

I have no idea what your idea of "look empty" is because 30 players is not empty and add another 30 chinese, minus 10 that were griefed and or had their base destroyed by [][] or [][][] makes 50 active players... thats not little..

Also 3 managamars and 2 gigas blocking the inside of a cave if reported will take a minimum of a month and the GM wont do anything he will only move them out of the cave, few hours later they put them back in...

 

[BTH]

On 6/13/2019 at 4:54 AM, slejo said:

LAGS in official servers - lets discuss how to decrease them

Playing game at ragna is unplayable these days. Other maps too. Lets discuss how to lower lags to make devs suggestions.

IMHO and from devs infos lags are caused by too many active dino numbers, so there have to be a way to fix it (lower this number)

My ideas:

1 - Lower active dino limit per tribe and allies to 50%
2 - Faster starvation of unusable active dinos - 10x more
3 - Make wild dinos be able to destroy structures - stone easier and metal tougher... but imho tek should be immune.
4 - Make some kind of enraging or disease of unusable active dinos
5 - Drasticaly nerfing breeding efficiency - and boosting simple taming (hunting)
6 - Remove cloning chamber from game

7 - If nothing helps - offer us official monthly paid cluster connected to official free cluster

Anyone with other ideas?

 

Edit:

8 - Limit dino number of one species. For example max 10 spinos, etc... per tribe and ally. To stop massive breeders
 

Seriously dude, just go single player, you think everything is related to tames,  not the massive castles?  How about you stop telling anyone how to play their game...

[Xxtheclashxx]

On 6/13/2019 at 6:03 AM, Stegaros said:

Quit the game

I agree though monthly paid cluster would be great

but wildcard still wont fix their damn game

 

This. I have over 3,000 hours in Ark and the same problems that have existed since pre release are still present. 

 

I absolutely can't stand Dinosaurs clipping through buildings, and seeing you! Also can damage the inside of your building. 

 

I one time when i still played official, i logged out inside my stone building, logged in the next day and was killed by a raptor. 

 

Xbow stops firing which gets really annoying when tranqing. 

 

Behemoth gates use the audio of dinosaur gates, so you hear the door shut before it actually shuts. 

 

On official there is rubberbanding. I went to a private server.