NS2 Combatmod server is unplayable over 18-20 players

[joederp]

Hi guys, I first want to thank you for hosting NS2 servers. But there is a problem. The server cannot handle when more then 18 players are connected. Serious lag, rubber banding, everyone's pings jump up to insane numbers, red plug of death every 5-10 seconds.. it really is horrible, the server is not even close to handling this load. Also I can assure you it is not my PC performance I regularly play on a few other servers with no issues at all, and when this happens I see everyone else in the server typing complaints about lag into chat. But nobody seemed to ever post anything on here so I figured you guys would like to know!

It has been like this for months. I keep trying your server in hopes that it gets better because it is usually the closest combat server to my location, and as you know ping is critical in NS2. But if anything it has gotten worse even though other servers seem to have gotten better with the newer patches.

As a former CS:S server admin who struggled with performance issues, it feels like CPU induced choke to me. My suggestion is to lower the max player count to 18 until you (or UWE?) can resolve the performance issues. You also may want to look into the server mods, its possible one of those is leaching CPU time.

[acolyte_to_jippity]

Hi guys, I first want to thank you for hosting NS2 servers. But there is a problem. The server cannot handle when more then 18 players are connected. Serious lag, rubber banding, everyone's pings jump up to insane numbers, red plug of death every 5-10 seconds.. it really is horrible, the server is not even close to handling this load. Also I can assure you it is not my PC performance I regularly play on a few other servers with no issues at all, and when this happens I see everyone else in the server typing complaints about lag into chat. But nobody seemed to ever post anything on here so I figured you guys would like to know!

It has been like this for months. I keep trying your server in hopes that it gets better because it is usually the closest combat server to my location, and as you know ping is critical in NS2. But if anything it has gotten worse even though other servers seem to have gotten better with the newer patches.

As a former CS:S server admin who struggled with performance issues, it feels like CPU induced choke to me. My suggestion is to lower the max player count to 18 until you (or UWE?) can resolve the performance issues. You also may want to look into the server mods, its possible one of those is leaching CPU time.

i haven't been seeing any issues recently. zero recently upgraded the box...pretty extensively actually. almost completely eliminated lag and problems on the NS2 server.

[ZERO]

Apparently there was a lot of lag for some reason only at the time of this post: http://ns2servers.devicenull.org/ser...7.194.21:27015

Also for comparison this is what lag does look like: http://ns2servers.devicenull.org/ser...10%2F16%2F2013

I have been told by some people that work on combat mod that there is major problems with the way that combat mod does respawn which makes it super laggy. Basically in rare occasions the respawn wave can eat the server for a short time due to these calculations (doing multi point raytracking b/c they do not cach values and run distance checks across vectors instead)

Lastly server side lag like it always has will result in tick drops but what you are describing is major network lag on the client side with red plug of death...

[acolyte_to_jippity]

Apparently there was a lot of lag for some reason only at the time of this post: http://ns2servers.devicenull.org/ser...7.194.21:27015

Also for comparison this is what lag does look like: http://ns2servers.devicenull.org/ser...10%2F16%2F2013

I have been told by some people that work on combat mod that there is major problems with the way that combat mod does respawn which makes it super laggy. Basically in rare occasions the respawn wave can eat the server for a short time due to these calculations (doing multi point raytracking b/c they do not cach values and run distance checks across vectors instead)

Lastly server side lag like it always has will result in tick drops but what you are describing is major network lag on the client side with red plug of death...

didn't the combat mod team end development of the mod?

[joederp]

According to those graphs the lag only occurred for a minute or so at a time then the server was performing fine? This is absolutely not what was happening in the server. The lag would come on and stay on until enough people quit to bring player count down. And I can 100% promise you this was not client side network lag for two reasons: 1.) I am on fios 25/50 and never see even a hint of lag in other servers for hours of gameplay on end and 2.) everyone else in the server was complaining at the same time as me, and several other players agreed that it was only the IBIS combat server where they see this much lag.
I will keep an eye on your server and check back in here next time I play in it to provide more first hand experiences, but something tells me that reporting tool may not be correct, or perhaps it is not tracking the proper metrics to show perceived player lag.

[joederp]

Just played in it for about 20 minutes, it was decent with only minor rubber banding when there were 12-14 players, once we got over 16 players it got worse, by the time we hit 20 players it was unbearable. Sorry guys, this server consistently fails to perform at the current player count. If you don't believe me buy a copy of ns2 and try it out.

[ZERO]

I think your now referring to the pub server as no one was in the combat server during these times...

[joederp]

I think your now referring to the pub server as no one was in the combat server during these times...

Eh? No it was most certainly the server with "CombatMod" in the title and it was indeed running combat mod. Perhaps my post was a few minutes later than when I was playing, and it emptied out? That tends to happen when it starts lagging so badly, everyone bails out and finds another server.

[ZERO]

Oh sorry I see now your post was on the 13th and I mistook that for the 15th which was the first time since the 12 or within a 72 hour period that the server was not full.