I very much like this idea, I am even happy to help fund adverts in game to make players aware. Just a thought before this goes any further, is this affecting everyone ? If I was at home in the UK on a 50 meg line and this lag was still happening then i would complain my ass off but i m currently in Nigeria with not the greatest connection although i do get 5-8 meg so it should be fine. Maybe players who are not affected can say where they are based.
Moondog
It's not location based, as far as i can tell. I'm spending most of my time in team with other players and i've noticed my friend Thief (who lives less than 1000 km from me) often gets lagged off or encounters CTD while i have no lag at all and no CTDs.*)
For example, while shooting at mobs my friend suddenly stops for a few moments, and then complains about terrible lag, while i have no lag at all.
Another good example is going into Space. As a rule (with a few exceptions) my friend has to relog before we take off or otherwise he will drop off the game and has to relog anyway, while I don't even remember when i had similar problems. Etc, etc.
*) This does NOT apply to the auction lag and chat lag, if those hit, we both experience them.
What is causing this? Good question!
Internet?
I'm currently using mobile internet dongle (~30 mbps down / ~20 mbps up), my friend is using 100 mbps broadband land line. So, it seems the root of the problem is not the internet connection (unless it's something very specific that i can't figure out?).
Client PC?
My PC: Quad-Core 3,6 GHz; 8 Gb RAM; Nvidia GTX 550 Ti with 2 Gb video memory; SSD drive.
My friend's PC: Dual-Core with 4 Gb RAM and it seems it's one of those older motherboards that can handle only 3.5 Gb of RAM.
Server-side problems?
We're both at the exact same location at the same time and i have no problems (except chat lag/auction lag), so can't see how these problems can be server side.
Conclusion: It
seems in our case the most likely explanation for the disconnects, lags and CTDs is the client PC. I'm not a game engine expert thou, just using common sense.
That said, i have experienced ingame lag during Migration at some locations. There's some laggy areas (area servers), i.e. Nymphtown on Caly, Empire Z (Zombie Kong wave area) on Rock, etc. In those places both me and my friend are experiencing the same lag.
This seems to be server-side problem and it is extremely annoying i totally agree!