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Crimewatch, low sec and large fights and the lag monster.
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The Economist
Logically Consistent
#1 - 2016-07-25 16:29:38 UTC
We all know how the experience of big fights tends to go in low sec lag-wise compared to 0.0 (even comparing two reinforced nodes). My assumption has always been that this is in large part (though not entirely, i'm sure there are other mechanics relative to low sec rather than 0.0 i'm not thinking of including load distribution) down to sec status adjustments and crimewatch in general having a continuous series heart of attacks.

Just wondering if there's any focus on this area and improving the results on gameplay (to be honest its probably already better than it used to be).

A thorny issue given how many things crimewatch touches on i'm sure, but out of interest I'd like to know:

CCP do you think pvp (mainly large scale) in low sec is adversely affected by these systems? Do you think the state of affairs is good/tolerable/craptacular? Are there desires active or passive to address this area of the game experience and if so what are the hurdles?
ShahFluffers
Ice Fire Warriors
#2 - 2016-07-25 17:17:24 UTC  |  Edited by: ShahFluffers
Lag and Time Dilation don't have anything to do with crimewatch.

If I can recall correctly, it has to do with...
- relative geographic location (stars in the same cluster or region tend to be on the same node)
- how much traffic a star system sees (star systems/clusters/regions that see little traffic tend to be lumped on to one node to free up more resources elsewhere).


Generally speaking, the servers try their best to even out the load. But sometimes you have situations where players will pile into a star system that generally and historically sees little to no traffic. And because that star system is loaded on the same node with many other stars... well... guess what happens? All the stars are affected.

Now the server will do it's best to "offload" the other star systems so that more resources are available for the players in that system... until the players move on to another systen... which is on a different node...

... yeah.


Of course... there is a way to sort of prevent this.
You can file a special support ticket that tells the GMs/DEVs when and where you expect to have a big fight go down... allowing the necessarily resource loading to be done before the fight takes place.

How did you Veterans start?
The Economist
Logically Consistent
#3 - 2016-07-25 18:22:53 UTC  |  Edited by: The Economist
I was referring more to the effect of x hundred people performing aggressive actions upon each other in low sec at the same time and how much crimewatch contributes to grinding the system to a halt as a result. (sec change calculations, flagging etc)
ShahFluffers
Ice Fire Warriors
#4 - 2016-07-25 18:58:59 UTC
I believe that with "Brain in a Box" finally implemented (remember how the whole game became laggy as hell a few months back? Especially when accessing the market?) it should not be that much of an issue.

I don't think there has been any discussion on the part of the DEVs relating to how crimewatch affects lag.

How did you Veterans start?
The Economist
Logically Consistent
#5 - 2016-07-25 19:06:00 UTC
ShahFluffers wrote:
I believe that with "Brain in a Box" finally implemented (remember how the whole game became laggy as hell a few months back? Especially when accessing the market?) it should not be that much of an issue.

I don't think there has been any discussion on the part of the DEVs relating to how crimewatch affects lag.




You're right brain in a box may have made something of a difference, but since its implementation there's still (subjectively) a noticeable diff between comparable scale fights in 0.0 vs. low sec even when both nodes are reinforced. It's possible i also don't entirely remember the scope of 'brain in a box' but I thought its impact was more on session changes.

Think you're right on the lack of discussion, don't think i've ever seen any dev chat relating to the effects of crimewatch and security status change calculations on lag in low sec; hence posting this thread, would be interested to know more.
Donnachadh
United Allegiance of Undesirables
#6 - 2016-07-26 14:40:02 UTC
To answer your question we would have to know where the crime watch portion of things was handled.
If crime watch issues are handled as part of the server tick processing along with targeting etc then yes they could at least in theory cause additional lag. If crime watch is handled outside the tick processing cycle then it would have very little or no affect on lag. This link may explain this better than I can.
Understanding the EvE server tick.

Another aspect of server balancing is the servers are linked to system based on historical data. Meaning that systems with historically high loads are put onto the same server as systems with historically low loads when / if you hit that historically low load system with a mass of players in a large fight you have radically changed the things.

It is not really important but the inter related nature of systems and servers was brought home to me a while back, I was alone in a system in high sec running a mission and ended up with the wonderful privilege of dealing with TiDi. Very interesting being alone in a system and still dealing with TiDi.