I’m done. I quit. I can take it no more.
And yes, I know that no one cares. Go ahead and ask if you can have my stuff. (You can’t.) And no, I won’t be back when HoT finally is released even though I bought the $99 package.
For months I and many others have reported incredible amounts of skill lag and skill failure during large events. WvW, World Bosses, Silverwaste events, etc.
There has been not one instance that I have been able to locate in which Anet has responded to these reports.
This problem began (for me at least) when the condition calculation changes were first introduced months ago. It was limited to extremely large events like Karka Queen, Modnir Ulgoth and a few others most of the time. When the stack cap was increased the problem became the norm for ALL major events.
This issue is not client side. There is no graphical lag. There is no increased ping times to the server. There is no indication that anything is wrong during these events/fights except for the failure to have my key presses acknowledged by the server.
Example:
Karka Queen fight.
Elementalist with staff.
Press 2, cursor at right spot, press 2 again and the square starts to blink.
Second or two later it goes solid again but did not activate.
Press 2, cursor at right spot, press 2 again and it begins to blink.
Second or two later it goes solid again but did not activate.
This is the case for just about ALL of my abilities during large events.
Auto Attack 1 continues during all of this but the animation and the speed of the attack is GREATLY slowed.
The minute the boss is dead / event is over all abilities return to normal.
I have noticed this SAME effect when on a map that a world boss event is occuring even when I am not nearby. The fight starts (based on time and map chat) and my abilities start to be delayed. Not as strongly as if I was present at the fight but significantly enough that it affects my combat on the opposite side of the map.
When the boss chest icon appears on the map signifying the event is over my abilities return to normal.
This occurs no matter the video quality settings. I have tried with EVERYTHING at the lowest setting accept for keeping the resolution/rendering at native and the result is the same. Abilities are delayed and/or won’t fire at all.
Now I know that it is cliche to say “I work in the industry.” or “I have a degree in ‘computers’.” but sometimes it is true. In my case though 1) I no longer work in the industry but did for MANY years and 2) I do have a bachelor’s degree in Information Systems and Telecommunications. In my case my experience nor my education make me an expert or even an amateur in game design or the coding that is involved. I have never done much coding and I have NEVER attempted game design or creation. But my background does HELP me try and troubleshoot the source of the problem from the player’s perspective.
Based on what I have read and inferred from the current megaserver environment is that the server makes virtual servers for each instanced map and that they are created on the fly as needed based on population. The parameters on when and how are not a concern for my hypothesis.
I believe that the amount of calculations that must be performed for each and every player’s abilities/skills during a major event overload the processing power for the hardware that instance is on. If one physical server hosts multiple instances of the same map during a large world boss event the problem would be magnified greatly.
The server while trying to process all of the data it is receiving becomes overloaded and cannot in a timely manner process the command that you issued via your client and so the client gets no response and resets the skill/ability. No cooldown is triggered because it the skill was never activated as the server failed to respond saying the request was accepted and will be processed.
Now I know that this might not be the case but it is my best educated guess as to why after the condition changes this problem surfaced.
This problem is mentioned and complained about constantly at world boss events. I have seen topic after topic made on it and all have gone without even a passing comment by an Anet employee.
This “blind eye” to the problem has pushed me over the edge. I don’t want to play anymore. Pushing buttons and having them accepted is the most basic part of ANY game. When I can’t do that then there is no game only frustration and I value my free time enough to say no more to the frustration.
Hopefully this might catch someone’s eye and instigate a reply. All those players still struggling with it would probably appreciate one.
Hope it gets fixed soon for those that stick it out.
Time to go check my Steam library.
:-)
