Not sure if this is the correct forum but have only been playing for 2 days so a new player.

I get alot of lag. For example sometimes I will look and the room desc will show up instantly, and sometimes will take 1-2 seconds. Sometimes 3 or 4. Same in battle, will wheel kick and the char will kick right away, sometimes will be several rounds later, or even come back after the fight is done in extreme cases. This can't be normal. I have constant 40ms pings, even if I am pinging and get this lag, the pings dont reflect it. So the actual connection isnt the problem. Have tried tf and tintin++ and both are the same.

So I guess my question is if this is normal for this mud? Or if there is anything I can do to stop it from happening. This is my first pk type mud, but think that something like this would be terrible for battles. Like playing quake with a 2000+ ping. Will appreciate any help or input.

thanks

There was recently some server lag that made this it slow for us all. It was pretty universal and I experienced it too. This fits the description of random lag that simply slows everything down. Such server lag bursts are not too common, and the MUD usually works just fine.

I assume that you realise that you lag yourself with command(wheel kick lags you two combat rounds etc.) and that opponents can lag you with their commands(opponent tripping you lags you two combat rounds etc.) and can tell the lag you are asking about apart from this.

I didn't realize that certain commands will lag you. Going into a fight spamming wheel kick, you can see how I was thinking of lag. In a previous mud I played certain commands would lag you, but they would go into queue right away. So if you were tripped and tried to flee, flee would show up in queued right away but wouldn't actually execute until next round when you stood up or whatever. Helped alot to see what is actually going on.

Now that I know that, will be able to differentiate between server lag and input lag.

thanks

As it exists in the CF universe and stick a tutorial type thing into the academy. Honestly... lag is probably the number 1 most important thing to understand when it comes to pk, and it isn't that easily grasped. So umm.. get to work?

Thanks,

Laearrist

This is part of a project I am currently working on, but I figured hey, what the hell, why not post it here now and get some feedback from folks. Visualize it web-based, with key words highlighted and hyperlinked to approprite help files.

Carrion Fields Quick Start Guide #3: Combat Overview

Combat: Combat in Carrion Fields is the most complex part of the game, and this guide is not intended to provide detailed information on all the nuances of fighting other characters or NPCs. Rather, it is intended to present new players with a broad understanding of how the combat system works, in the hopes that they will experiment and refer to help files as they apply to specific situations.

There are two basic types of combat: Combat vs. Player Characters (PCs) and Combat vs. Non-Player Characters (NPCs), also sometimes referred to as MOBs or Mobiles. The two types of combat share most of the basic attributes, but do have some differences that will be pointed out.

Prior to Combat: Before attacking an NPC, it is advisable to use the ‘consider’ command to see how difficult they might be for you to kill, as well as determining their size and alignment. If you are planning on attacking another PC, you can also prepare yourself for combat using spells, skills, supplications, songs, magical objects and items. You can also choose to wield certain weapons that take advantage of any vulnerabilities that your opponent might have. For example, if you are a duergar warrior planning on attacking an elven thief, you might want to quaff a ‘fly’ potion (to negate their ability to trip), eat a pill that grants you ‘protection’ (reducing the damage you will take from them due to their and your alignment differences), and wield an iron axe (taking advantage of their elven vulnerability to iron as well as their lack of knowledge of fighting with axes).

Initiating Combat: Certain spells, skills, songs or supplications can be used to initiate combat. The ‘murder’ command can be used for both PCs and NPCs, and the ‘kill’ command can be used for NPCs.

During Combat: The flow of time in the game is divided into a series of ticks, each of which lasts (roughly) one minute in real time, and accounts for an hour of game time. During combat, the time between ticks is divided into ‘rounds’, each of which is even further divided into ‘segments’. For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll assume that each combat round contains five segments. Since the length of each tick is variable, the amount of rounds per tick is variable as well – but the amount of segments per round is always fixed. During each round of combat, all physical attacks take place automatically: you strike at your opponent with whatever weapon you are holding (if any), and then they strike at you. Some classes have the ability to perform more of these attacks than other classes (the second/third/fourth attack skills). Around those automatic attacks, you can enter commands to the game, either informational or combat oriented in nature.

Every time you perform an action or enter any command to the game while in combat, you require a certain number of segments to complete that action. Most commands (where, flee, tell, etc.) only require a single segment to complete. Most skills, spells, communes or songs (strangle, fireball, wither, etc.) require multiple segments to complete, and will often take more than one round to do so. For example, if you initiate combat with the ‘charge’ command (which we’ll say requires 11 segments), your next command will not be implemented until just after the third round of combat has started (5 + 5 + 1 segments), though your physical attacks will occur automatically.

This is important for a number of reasons. First, if you ‘stack’ commands to the game, each one will have to be executed over the appropriate number of segments and rounds of combat before the next one can go through. For example, if you initiate combat with ‘charge’, then follow immediately with bash (13 segments) and trip (15 segments), you will not be able to perform any other commands for 39 segments, or almost eight rounds of combat! It is often possible for the fight to turn against you in that period of time, and if you have stacked commands, you will be unable to change your tactics and flee. This concept, having to wait before your commands to the game can be executed, is known as ‘lag’.

Certain skills, spells, communes and songs can also cause your opponent to experience lag, though this is only experienced by PCs and not NPCs. The ‘bash’ and ‘trip’ skills are two popular methods of ‘lagging’ your opponent. If successful, each skill will impart upon your opponent a number of segments where they will be unable to execute any commands…but remember (from the previous paragraph) that these skills will also impart upon you a number of segments where you will be unable to execute any additional commands. When deciding whether to lag your opponent, or try to deliver additional damage, a good rule of thumb is to ask yourself, “If both players got up and walked away from the computer without entering any commands, who would win?” If you think you would win in that scenario, then maybe lagging attacks are good options.

Ending Combat: Combat ends one of two ways. Either one party flees (via the ‘flee’ command or via ‘wimpy’) or retreats, or one party ends up dead.

Following Combat: Once combat is over, your character will be experiencing a rush of adrenaline that will not allow them to sleep for a short period of time, or enter their guild or leave the game for a longer period of time. As well, to the victor goes the spoils of war, and the winner can now loot the corpse of the fallen, taking whatever trophies they desire. It is important to note that all non-newbies can loot the corpses of the fallen, though the victor has the option to guard the corpse from such vultures.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

Although you could probably use the word pulse instead of segment, since ya know... that's how it's coded or some####... also, giving them the idea that bash, trip, and charge all lag yourself for different periods of time is a little misleading... again a nitpick type thing. Overall... not too bad, but I would suggest a mob or two in the academy that might say... spam trip you to show you how effective that can be, and explain the concept of permalag....

Laearrist

instead of made up ones. Newbies reading it will be expecting combat round to be 5 segments(instead of 12, which was the impression I have been under, as I have heard it being so from somewhere and recall counting twelve flees from someones log after a round), charge to be 11 segments, bash to be 13 segments and trip to be 15 segments. This assumption is made, as they assume you to take these examples from the game, using the values the game uses. It will be also more enlightening to the newbie to see it work just like it was written in the newbie help guide.

I can change it to pulses, that's solid. I really had no idea what they were called, if anything.

Why didn't I put actual numbers in there? I really don't know the number of pulses per combat round, if you can believe that. I think it's around 10. My goal was more to provide them with a general understanding of how time works in combat rather than provide them with specifics (if we wanted everyone to know how many pulses each skill takes, that'd be in the helpfile, and I think that's a bit too number-crunchery).

But I see your point, and maybe I can come up with a happy medium that doesn't mislead newbies, but still gives them the gist of the idea without being too number oriented.

This doesn't have to be an Imm-only product, by the way. If you (or anyone) wants to rewrite or add a paragraph in the Guide, feel free. I'll even give you credit if it goes in the final version!

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

Well, I probably would have, but we've been discouraged from doing this in the past.... for instance I suggested such a thing be done for shifter form descriptions, since it is low in immortal interest, but bothers enough players that it would probably get done.... The word pulses comes from that being what it's called in the code...not neccessarily in the CF code, but I doubt they bothered to change it. Appreciate the response though, and the work that you put in to get it done.

The commands will go to queue, but if you spam wheel kick ten times in the beginning of combat, don't expect to see your character doing anything else in the next twenty rounds. Meanwhile, if you see that you need to flee during this time to survive, the flee will go through after the wheel kicks are completed. This isn't doesn't help you much if you die before the flee goes through, which is why exsessive spamming during fights isn't generally a good idea. Of course wheel kick out of combat lags you for one pulse only(with the 'you're not fighting anyone' echo, in similar fashion commands like say, inventory and mistyped commands lag you one pulse(Kastellyn uses word segment in his post. AFAIK, one combat round is 12 pulses)).

Server lag will be easy to recognise, since it when it occurs, it totally jams things up, whether or not you are in combat. It will more resemble losing link than combat lag. Bad server lag also doesn't occur often(I remember two days during which it occurred this year). The only reason I mentioned it was that one of these server lag days was not too long ago(This week or was it last sunday evening?).

Bad server lag also doesn't occur often(I remember two days during which it occurred this year). The only reason I mentioned it was that one of these server lag days was not too long ago(This week or was it last sunday evening?).

Yeah. It's very rare that we experience any server lag-- text games aren't very resource intensive. The machine the game is on frequently has two copies of the game going (the one you're playing, and some coder or Area Guy doing a test of some kind), and no one seems to notice those moments. (During the rare moment of actual lag, the newbie channel inevitably lights up.)

The rare thing that can cause lag (one of which was a week ago or so, but a handful of times per year is probably accurate) is if we need to write a lot of data to disk. We were doing some major housecleaning at that time, and all the moving/copying/etc. involved really slowed us down. Nonetheless, all of these things are necessary to keep things running smoothly, and protect the integrity of our records (character files, areas, etc.).

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Trace routes were going bad once they hit the ev1 machines. Also, it wasn't true server lag because the game didn't slow done, just the text in and out. So several round would fly by and I'd see mobs had been pounding on me for the last couple of minutes.