Recently we moved to an entirely new, substantially more expensive hosting service.
My question is, is it worth it?
Does performance seem improved? Keep in mind that server performance will have no impact on your own personal computer and its ability to handle either the new tilesets and/or lots of stuff going on at once.
But before we commit to staying with this service for a while, which I am happy to do even if I have to pay for everything myself, I'd like to know whether it is in fact providing real improvements to you guys, the players.
My personal impression is that the new server improves gameplay - while I can recall some real "bumpy" gameplay in the past, at least at times, I don't think I have encountered any problems like that lately.
This is a little subjective by nature, of course... just my impression.
Edit: Since, of course, I can't be entirely sure some of those laggy times etc weren't due to intarwebs problems, etc...
Was at the Ziggurat peak yesterday. There was impromtu Market. 10+ people, and about 35-40 items on the ground.
No lag.
If that isn't an improvement....
I've noticed my pings are substanially lower than before.
Noticing the difference alot, here. Never had a touch of lag.
My pings /halved/.
My pings still hover around 250-350 at best (being halfway around the world from the server, that's not too shabby), but I have found that the spikes and bad lag periods where you can barely move have been reduced substantially to practically nil for me since the change. Most of the glitches I get now I know are due to my rig, so to me the change was a success.
It is excellent. Any lag we had previously seems to be gone, for me at least.
I'd say that the experience is definately improved.
Clearly the server needs a gigantic meta-event to properly test the change.
However, I can testify that doing A certain Goblin Quest where there were literally 50 or so goblins on screen at once, the lag was entirely manageable, and any delay was probably purely clientside.
So: Seems good, Boss!
My ping has also halved. Haven't gone IG yet, but I imagine it will be brilliantly fluid.
The server is absolutely faster and less laggy. Major thanks for slaying the lag monster.
I've not encountered a single lag spike what-so-ever, which is practically a miracle when it comes to my poor internet.
Ping from 180 to 100, roughtly, plus I havn't experienced lag for a while. Wether it's worth it or not isn't up to me, though.
Ping lesser for 7-20 (from prague). laggs rarely. if old server has 60-65%, this have 95%. good work.
You both improved the server's power and moved it closer to my homebase! To be honest, the only time I get stoppage is straight out the Main Gate, and that's my crappy rig. I hate to take money from your childrens' mouths Howland, but I think we'd like it to stay.
As of now, the only slowdown I experience is on the client side, and it is exceedingly rare.
Sounds great. I'm really pleased performance has improved as much as it has.
If you have some spare cash lying around, I'd encourage you to donate. Consider the cost benefit of playing EFU to practically any other form of entertainment. Measure up the hours of entertainment vs. going to the movies, going to a bar, buying new games, whatever. If EFU has been something worthwhile for you, I hope some of you will please consider donating what you can afford to help defray the (considerable) expense of the server. If everyone donates a little, then no one has to donate a lot.
At this time I'd prefer only Paypal donations sent to howlando@gmail.com, but if you want to send a large amount (say in excess of 100$) contact me privately and we can work something else out.
How about a "donate, you bums" sticky?
Ping is cut consistantly in half. Haven't noticed any lag beyond some client-side video issues since the switch.
OK, I've got one complaint about the performance: it's TOO good!
The server doesn't seem to crash at all, so there seems to be a lot of time between resets. ;)