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[FIXED] Summon Lag

SuperKimxDSuperKimxD
Mabinogi Rep: 980
Posts: 10
Member
edited April 25, 2018 in Archived Bugs
Here I finally am with the requested video of summon lag occurring.
This is a server-wide occurrence that's been happening unpredictably and frequently since dungeon revamp was released. I know it's server, or at least channel-wide because while in voice calls, multiple people complain about summon lag at the same time. It affects both summoning and desummoning pets, and you can't perform any actions while stuck in summon lag. Location and connection speed have no affect on this, to my knowledge. I've experienced it in California and Hawai'i. My friends in New Jersey and Ohio have experienced it. A friend more south in California than I am, one who also has a godly connection, also experiences summon lag.

Here's a video of this occurring.

Microsoft's instant replay didn't pick up my own microphone, but from my friend's "help help help help help" in call, you can tell that at least two people (me and my friend) are experiencing summon lag at the same time.
Since you can't act while the summon lag window is up, it can cause a lot to go wrong, including VHM runs (see the video) or just resulting in death in other scenarios.

This bug has been around since the dungeon revamp. I've heard that KR had the same problem, but patched it? Regardless, now that there's video evidence of it, it would be much appreciated if you could look into it.

Thanks,
Superkim


Edit 10/12/2017: I've since captured this happening several more times, some on my own side, some from friends that experienced it and recorded it. Here are some examples, and here are a few more from 10/11. These occurrences were all around 3-5PM HST, or 7-9PM Pacific. Toon suggested that summon lag seems to happen more during "prime times," so perhaps this is a good window to look for it in. Additionally, the VHM runs on Wednesday, 10/11/2017, had a lot of trouble with summon lag. The next day, we ran at the same time after the servers had been restarted for the patch, and experienced little to no summon lag.

Edit 10/15/2017: I got another example of summon lag occurring, and probably the best one so far. In this capture, many party members tried to summon pets during a summon lag spike, and as you can see, all of their pets finally summoned at the same time once the summon lag subsided.

Edit 11/29/2017: As a disclaimer, I've pretty much always played Mabi on a solid connection, decent ping, good computer, etc.. I rarely notice summon lag that is clearly client-sided or local, though I won't say that such doesn't exist. Sure it does. But any client-sided or local summon lag, as has been implied, depends on your own set up, and my set up is usually pretty good. Since the dungeon revamp, I've noticed an increase in summon lag, regardless of my location, connection, or computer. I am not expecting all forms of summon lag to be server-sided problems, but one form of summon lag very clearly is.

Comments

  • ToonToon
    Mabinogi Rep: 1,460
    Posts: 37
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    edited October 2, 2017
    Hardmuscle wrote: »
    The lag shown in your video has been around since pets were first released. There is nothing indicating this to be caused by the "dungeon revamp" or any other content addition in the past 9 years. Your friends may very well have the same habits and poorly maintained hardware as you do; in terms of computer networking. Can you share some information about your great computer and tell us whether or not you're playing on a wireless or wired connection? If you are playing on a wireless connection (and the same applies to all of your friends on opposite coasts), consider connecting directly to your modem/router with an Ethernet cable, for maximum stability. In addition to system specific info, can you provide a list of all running services (services.msc) and programs installed on your computer? It's going to take a lot more than a 25 second video of summon lag at Girgashiy (of all things) to make a case out of lag. ~ https://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/Lag#Client-Side

    Have you (and all of your friends individually; coast to coast) considered optimizing your (their) paging file? This kind of lag works a lot like quest information. The less quest information you have, the less time it takes for that information to load into a frame (or the instance you're in). When you press T; if you're loading up 150 pets; this requires memory (to be available/not in use) on your system; else you're going to feel it ..


    Getting stuck on a pet summon is server sided. Taking long to summon is for what you're describing. This type of lag shown in the video happens channel wide (if not server wide) to everyone. It is not only a problem in our server, it has been around forever in all servers. Recently KR released a patch that fixed it, but it's the only region to do so as of now. Video of it happening to a KR player, with extremely low ping and great connection. Video of pet lag happening after the fix. (You can still use actions while it is happening). To my understanding the fix reduced the overall occurrences of the pet lag, but also made it so you can move and attack if it happens, as shown at 1m43s in the second video. KR's patch was on 27th July and included on the patch notes was "Game server environment is improved for smooth play." So I'm assuming other improvements were also made on top of that one.
    GretaSuperKimxD
  • Volex53Volex53
    Mabinogi Rep: 475
    Posts: 5
    Member
    edited October 2, 2017
    Hardmuscle wrote: »
    Can you share some information about your great computer and tell us whether or not you're playing on a wireless or wired connection? If you are playing on a wireless connection (and the same applies to all of your friends on opposite coasts), consider connecting directly to your modem/router with an Ethernet cable, for maximum stability. In addition to system specific info, can you provide a list of all running services (services.msc) and programs installed on your computer? It's going to take a lot more than a 25 second video of summon lag at Girgashiy (of all things) to make a case out of lag.

    This is a server sided issue where everyone at the same time will experience it on the same channel globally. This is not a client side issue.

    I'll enlighten you since you insist, however this is very much irrelevant. I am the New Jersey person in this post.

    i7-4790k @ 4.3GHz
    24GB DDR3-1333 RAM (As if pagefile is gonna do anything)
    Samsung 850 512GB SSD
    MSI GTX 970

    Arris TM1602 Modem connected via Cat6 UTP cable directly into a TP-Link AC1200 gigabit router with another Cat6 UTP cable connected directly to the Intel Gigabit Ethernet Port on a ASUS Z97-A motherboard

    SpeedTest Results
    6673017732.png

    TestMy Results
    unknown.png


    Running at the time,
    Recently reformatted Windows 10 Pro OS with every possible service that usually runs on Windows 10 (cough telemetry). No Anti-virus period, Chrome Background service with no tabs, Classic Shell, Google Drive Sync, Logitech Gaming Software, Discord, NadekoBot Host, Nvidia Drivers & ShadowPlay with Instant Replay turned on, ShareX Image Capturing Software, TeamViewer, and VMWare.
    ToonGretaSuperKimxD
  • ToonToon
    Mabinogi Rep: 1,460
    Posts: 37
    Member
    edited October 3, 2017
    They're reduced the ammount of occurances too in KR, it's rare now. And in JP, the servers are so good that it almost never happens. This has nothing to do with services or software or your internet connection or your ping though, it's entirely on the mabinogi server. If you're 2ms or 200ms you will experience pet lag in the same way. (I'm 200ms)
  • IyasenuIyasenu
    Mabinogi Rep: 24,265
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    @Hardmuscle
    "Pet summon lag" has got to be a server hiccup issue.
    How else could an entire group of people from all over the country get it all at once, and have it end all at the same time?
    If you do something as a group that involves pet summoning and desummoning, it's really such an argument that it's not on the player's end of the deal.
    Especially when while this "lag" is happening, the player can still see the world work around them.

    Like an example, VHM Girgashiy.
    One of the most popular methods involves minimizing your need for Shielders by having unprotected folks (10/16 squad members) hiding inside of a Mimic-type pet.
    That's a whole group of people summoning a mimic to hide in to survive Mineral Hail, and then desummoning it afterwards.
    "Pet summon lag" can occur on attempting to summon a pet AND can also happen on desummoning.
    While it happens, the character is locked up until the pet can finally summon/desummon.

    When it happens, it affects everyone at once. You could live in Texas, or Maryland, or Europe, or right on top of the servers.
    Anyone who attempts to summon/desummon a pet during this hiccup will get it. And when it ends, it ends for everyone at once.
    Since it only causes pet de/summoning to hang, for anyone who isn't summoning/desummoning a pet when the server gets one of those hiccups they won't notice any issues. Unless they notice everyone's pets summoning/desummoning in sync once the hiccup, or whatever it is, subsides.
    Or notice that any affected parties are stuck standing still. At least they can still talk, even if they can't move or use any skills.
    In my example, one thing that could happen is:
    1. Everyone attempts to summon a mimic to hide in.
    2. It just so happens that they're trying to do it during a hiccup.
    3. "Summoning..."
    4. The hiccups subsides and all the mimics get summoned at once

    Or
    1. Everyone survives the hail by hiding in their mimic
    2. They attempt to desummon the mimic because it's faster then dismounting and then desummoning
    3. They sit there in their little box (mimic) because "Cancelling the Summoning..." because they all decided to do it
    4. The hiccup subsides and everyone's mimics disappear at the same time

    I'm omitting the variants of "everyone was stuck so long they either couldn't summon in time to hide, so they die" and "everyone's stuck in their boxes waiting for desummon to go through that they can't do the crusader combo because you can't perform any actions aside from talking when this is happening".
    Though those are the reasons why this is a really annoying occurrence.

    You've got to have experienced this.
    Unless you've been so fortunate as to have never decided to summon/desummon a pet during one of the hiccups.

    If it affects everyone at once, and ends at the same time for everyone, and doesn't actually stop them from receiving data like getting hit, seeing monsters move, and chatting, then doesn't that seem like it's not an issue with the player's own internet but with the server handling the summoning of pets?
    Toon
  • SuperKimxDSuperKimxD
    Mabinogi Rep: 980
    Posts: 10
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    edited October 3, 2017
    Hardmuscle wrote: »
    I know the difference between server and client-side lag. :expressionless:

    I also know when I am not experiencing the same lag as someone else. When this complaint was made, I was in the game on Alexina and I was not able to reproduce what's shown. My crapnet is more than 10 times slower than the internet being used by "Volex53". When I asked for a list of running programs, I meant more like; using the Get-Service command in PowerShell and posting the list, as opposed to a user-selected list of choice programs. The purpose of the question was to determine whether or not the few of you are running any similar not required processes. As I said, this kind of lag has been reported since pets were first released (even your pal "Toon" confirmed it has been happening forever). I implore the lot of you to investigate (get more familiar with) the meaning of "Confirmatory Bias" (aka ''myside bias'') and to look at other possibilities.
    My friend,
    - The video attached was not uploaded immediately after the problem happened. That video was recorded between 7-8pm Pacific. I went to dinner after 8:20 pacific, and when I returned, I uploaded the video and this thread. Of course you couldn't replicate it as soon as this thread was posted, because this thread was posted at least an hour after that video was taken. As aforementioned, summon lag happens unpredictably.
    - As for "confirmation bias," I haven't sent this thread to my friends individually. You know where I posted this thread? In the "suggestions" channel of the Official Unofficial Discord server and nowhere else. Toon and Volex came to comment on this post of their own initiative. Other people who think summon lag doesn't exist could also comment if they wanted to, but the lack of such people says something, doesn't it? The only person that I have privately sent this thread to is Katherz through Discord, as she suggested a while ago that I make such a thread. I hope that clears up any misunderstanding that I'm trying to rally people against you, or something.
    - As for whether or not the three of us that were in that video and have commented here have the same programs running that would affect this, no, we do not. I can't publicly speak for the others and say what they may be doing to affect this, but I can say that I don't even have Nagle disabled on this computer, nor do I lower my MTU or use any program similar in nature to Pingzapper. On my desktop computer back in California, I have Nagle disabled and a better connection than I do here in Hawai'i, yet I still have this problem. And this problem affects more than just Toon, Volex, and myself. At least two other people have complained about summon lag at the same time in previous voice calls that I don't have recorded.
    Hardmuscle wrote: »
    You're saying (assuming without a shred of evidence) it's "entirely on Mabinogi's server" based on an isolated occurrence not taking place in the country of discussion (the one we actually play the game in).

    I didn't make this post because summon lag happened once. It's been a regular problem that we've noticed an increase in frequency of since the dungeon revamp was released. Saying that we don't have a shred of evidence implies a lack of investigation or thought on your own part. Yes, Toon is outside of the United States. No, his experience with summon lag is not an "isolated occurrence." As I mentioned in the initial post, many, many people experience summon lag, and it happens at the same time for everyone regardless of location.

    Unfortunately, I have no means to test my ping to Nexon NA's headquarters from my current location, nor from my home in northern California. The variance in pings between Toon and Volex should tell you something. Or, if you'd like to instruct me on how to test my own ping, feel free to contact me about such.


    If everyone on the same channel who is trying to summon or desummon a pet experiences summon lag at the same time, why wouldn't it be a problem with the servers?
  • IyasenuIyasenu
    Mabinogi Rep: 24,265
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    Yeah, since it didn't follow the format and lacked information.

    I dunno, it doesn't seem like they fixed the issue, even in KR.
    But at the very least, the Band-aid solution seems to be better than nothing.

    Sort of like... if you can't fix the illness, try to get rid of the symptoms?
    Being able to move and use other skills while waiting on the summoning to go through would be nice.
    In my above example, if everyone got stuck summoning their mimic to hide in, if they could still use skills, they could avoid a wipe by transforming (Mana Deflector lowers VHM hail's damage enough to not be a one-shot at full HP).

    Whether it would work here or not, I don't think I could know for sure.
    But it feels worth a shot.
    Or at least worth asking for a shot.
    [Deleted User]
  • Volex53Volex53
    Mabinogi Rep: 475
    Posts: 5
    Member
    edited October 3, 2017
    Albeit this thread may not provide enough information, for something that occurs randomly as a server hiccup in select channels, it's quite hard to reproduce. This can happen at any time, most noticeably during prime time hours. Standing in Dunbarton not doing anything in a low density channel can even have this issue occur out of nowhere. It can happen during Shadow Missions, Dungeons, etc. With it happening so randomly I personally only seem to complain about it once or twice a week, while on and off I see select people on Discord reporting "Channel X Summon Lag?"

    The sole purpose of the thread at this point is for others to contribute for this problem to be noticed. While some may have not experienced this issue, it's at least best to know it exists.

    I assure others that this is a server-sided issue, and no amount of hardware or software configuration/tools will prevent it from occurring. While Superkim doesn't have Nagle Disabled or MTU modified in Hawaii, I do in New Jersey. As stated previously Toon does not live in the United States and plays out of country. I can't speak for Iyasenu but they seem to understand as well.

    The only further proof I can provide now is several perspectives of this occurring at the same time which I plan to do next time this occurs.
  • SuperKimxDSuperKimxD
    Mabinogi Rep: 980
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    edited October 3, 2017
    Yes, I agree with the band-aid solution being worth asking for.
    Hardmuscle wrote: »
    I was unable to reproduce the bug (at the time of the complaint, and/or since then)

    I first brought this issue up with Katherz and the rest of the Official Unofficial Discord server on 08/16. Only on 10/01 was I able to finally get a video of it happening. This isn't to say that it didn't occur at all during that time. I experienced it several times (namely three that I can think of, out of 2~6 RAHMs per week and one hour of VHM per week), but either instant replay wasn't on, I lost the footage, or some other complication.
    Two days after this post, you can't reasonably expect to have experienced it. Running something that requires a lot of pet summoning/desummoning for an extended period of time would help your chances of seeing it.
    Hardmuscle wrote: »
    @SuperKimxD ~ I don't want to veer too far off topic, but ... if you don't have Nagle disabled, you are (without a doubt) eating a delay of up to 500 milliseconds. This is called an ACK delay, and it is the sole reason for disabling Nagle's Algorithm to begin with (to get rid of the delay)

    Again, even on my desktop back in California, with a better connection and with Nagle disabled, I still have this problem.
    I didn't realize you could select a server on speedtest.net. My ping to an LA server from Hilo is 53ms. My ping to an LA server from NorCal is 33ms.
    Volex53 wrote: »
    The sole purpose of the thread at this point is for others to contribute for this problem to be noticed. While some may have not experienced this issue, it's at least best to know it exists.

    The intent of this thread was to bring this issue to the attention of GMs, namely Katherz. I've brought it up with them before, but Katherz said I should make a forum post about it first, because that's how she keeps track of these things.
    I didn't expect replies, honestly.
    Hardmuscle wrote: »
    I was unable to reproduce this when I tried.

    See my above statements on this. Do not expect to reproduce this easily. Hopefully the GMs will consider that as well. This is not, as I have learned, a bug that you can hunt for. It's one that you observe unexpectedly and then document as a result. As I've stated twice now, it's unpredictable. Though Volex's insight that it seems to happen more during prime times is interesting; I hadn't noticed that.
  • ToonToon
    Mabinogi Rep: 1,460
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    edited October 4, 2017
    A lot was typed but uh. This happens across all servers, with it happening very rarely in the JP server. It's entirely a server issue, and the changes made in KR were netcoding changes, they didn't change the server location or anything like that. Out of the Mabi servers, NA is the weakest one in terms of stability and bandwidth. If the fix was applied here, it would still function, just we would still see the lag occurring a lot. If you are unable to reproduce this bug, it's literally because you do not play enough. It happens every day. Either you don't play enough or you're using divine link all day. If you play for 2 hours, while summoning pets, you will reproduce this. The reason kim and others only see it in girg, is because that's the only place where they do a lot of pet summoning. I have a friend that lives 20 minutes from the server by car, and he also gets summon lag, as does literally everyone in the server that is playing the game when it happens. Once again your ping, your computer, your game client has absolutely nothing to do with it. In reality I would go as to say it never happens in JP. Either they modified their code or their servers are too good, but I haven't heard of it in JP at all. But that is expected, JP are the mabi gods.
    SuperKimxD
  • ToonToon
    Mabinogi Rep: 1,460
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    While the game was developed in korea, JP have the best server, and they are free to modify their game. They have done so multiple times. I've done every possible thing to improve latency, since I am on 200ms. Nexon's server being weak has nothing to do with the geographics, I mentioned stability and bandwidth, not ping. And their fix is, as I've mentioned, not just the move while it happens, but it also decreased the overall occurrences of the problem. No client-sided or hardware or software sided change will affect this issue. Also this issue happens at least once hourly. Sometimes it's really bad and you're stuck for 10 seconds, sometimes it's short. And no, it's not just to me. Like I said, just play the game and summon pets, that's all you need to experience it. Over the past 2-3 weeks it's been the worst it's been in a while. Before that, it wasn't that easy to experience it.
  • ToonToon
    Mabinogi Rep: 1,460
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    edited October 4, 2017
    Stability and bandwidth have nothing to do with how big the countries are. I might as well stop talking it seems pointless. You should look into how servers and internet in general are in korea and japan vs how they are in NA. Actually by your logic, NA's server should be better, since it's population is much much smaller than the other servers.
  • ToonToon
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    Your replies make a good cringe compilation, I'm not responding to you anymore.
    PanSeiko
  • SuperKimxDSuperKimxD
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    Here are three more examples of this occurring that I've managed to capture. Two of these examples are the same occurrence captured from the perspective of two different people.
    Both of these occurrences were around 3-4PM HST, or 7-8PM Pacific. Toon suggested that summon lag seems to happen more during "prime times," so perhaps this is a good window to look for it in.
  • RRMRRM
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    I've experienced this multiple times over the years.

    In a technical sense, it may be related to the specific pet having a "size" over a certain threshold. Mabinogi uses an encrypted TCP stream so no other communication can continue until the client finishes managing what it's been sent or is waiting on. If the client has to parse and handle all sorts of sub-data for the pet (especially complex items in the inventory), it can stall something else since pet summoning happens in multiple steps before your character is released from it.
  • MeriMeri
    Mabinogi Rep: 940
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    I've experienced pet lag for years, but I don't typically lag otherwise.

    I have pretty good net:
    https://i.imgur.com/xrRZYfB.png This is pretty typical for me. I'm hardwired and have a nicely built computer.
  • SuperKimxDSuperKimxD
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    @meri @RRM, thank you for your contributions c: Much appreciated.
  • SuperKimxDSuperKimxD
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    Hardmuscle wrote: »
    This is Technical Support ~ not Feedback & Suggestions.

    You are correct, good sir, in that it is not feedback or a suggestion. It is a bug report.
  • KatherzKatherz
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    I am moving this to the Bugs section. As there are many reasons why summon lag can occur, I feel like it is still important to bring this up to the team and the development team.
    SuperKimxDMissFortuneIyasenu[Deleted User]
  • SuperKimxDSuperKimxD
    Mabinogi Rep: 980
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    Katherz wrote: »
    I am moving this to the Bugs section. As there are many reasons why summon lag can occur, I feel like it is still important to bring this up to the team and the development team.

    Thank you so much, Katherz <3
  • VerlandVerland
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    I have this issue daily...not exaggerating.
    SuperKimxD