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A lot of people are talking and concerned about the state of servers (especially for launch), and the amount of bugs.


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I get that EHG can't exactly say much in regards to servers. It's pretty clear the posts on the issue has purposefully been ignored..

However, I feel like it would be good if we could at least get some acknowledgment and how they are planning on dealing with launch.

This does not mean I am expecting a magic solution to have a lag-free experience in MP mode, but it would build some good faith with the community on the topic.

Things like:

Will there be a queue to get in, similar to how PoE treats their launch?

Has improvements been made to the existing infrastructure?

Are they able to quickly scale up the amount of available servers, should the need arise?

Are further net-code improvements being made and will they be implemented before/after launch? (I admit I am not knowledgeable enough to know if net-code is the proper wording here)

Same thing could be addressed with a "post-launch" development plan (i.e. "roadmaps" that EHG have done before). I assume a roadmap is coming for Q2-Q3 2024 after 1.0, but man i feel like it is important for people to get this information very soon after launch.

Again, set the expectations so players are not assuming the best/worst.

Some of these questions are pretty important for a lot of people and for the launch.

Maybe I am overreacting but I am seriously worried for the launch of this game, not due to the games state, but the servers. We've seen what happened to Wolcen and how much it damaged their reputation and game. (not just talking about the server issues, but the issues they had with rollbacks, player stashes, etc.)

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4 months ago - /u/ekimarcher - Direct link

Had a rant at the start of this that I realize wasn't good to post so I deleted it. Short version is that almost every claim about "the servers" is not based in understanding of the issues but also not something that sounds like is interested in being told they are wrong either.

Since multiplayer has launched, our number 1 priority has and continues to be multiplayer performance and server stability. Updates like "reduced memory usage of servers by 3%" aren't exactly splashy so we don't advertise them that much but it's always happening in the background. Since 0.9 launch we have completely replaced our entire fleet of servers and they are very good quality. They are being used conservatively and we are constantly working to improve them.

We've got plenty of bare metal servers ready to rock with lots of dynamic cloud server capacity available if it somehow comes to that.

For what it's worth, I'm confident in them holding strong on launch.

Edit: I just wanted to add that we are not taking the concerns that people are raising lightly at all. We know this isn't going to be easy and that many have struggled at this task before us. I hope that we are up to the challenge. We are going to be standing by to make fixes and release updates as needed as quick as we can. I think we've shown that we can adapt to sudden needs in situations like the ones we may face. Our third party partners are prepared for launch and we will have contacts there ready to assist as needed too. I'm not expecting a magical land of gumdrops and jellybeans but I think we are going to be ready to tackle the launch.

4 months ago - /u/ekimarcher - Direct link

Originally posted by Naxerism

The frustration is understandable, server stuff will always gonna be a weird topic to talk about because of the points you mentioned.

The reason I made the post is that I've seen A LOT of comments that, based on the games history (since MP came out), are assuming pretty bad stuff which obviously isn't good.

From experience, if they go in with those assumptions, and the launch doesn't go "well", they further cement that mindset and hold on to it for a long time (even after the issues have been resolved), ultimately giving bad rep for the game.

An example is people saying blizzard are bad at launching their games. All because in 2012, more than a decade ago, the Diablo 3 servers was in a bad state for a while. It's kind of ridiculous.

In the end the important thing is that things are running as smoothly as they can.

Yup, I along with dozens more of us have been there on launch day for every medium or bigger ARPG since PoE came out.

4 months ago - /u/ekimarcher - Direct link

Originally posted by AjCheeze

The biggest issue with the servers is the delay to entering a new zone. Offline its instant, online it can take a few seconds. Its long enough to be confused. Click a zone and you can still run around and question if your going to the next zone. A story quest takes you to a new zone but really you were standing around for 10 seconds after a boss with nothing to click on wondering whats going on. Instead of a slow loading screen we are taken into a limbo state while waiting for the game to let us move on. To the loading screen.

Disconnects and lag in game arent that big of an issue for me its the delays after clicking to enter a new zone and wondering if the game is working right and you auctally clicked it. #1 server issue as a player i see that should have been addressed when online launched. It just makes blasting through zones feel so bad with a long pause. Currently i would suggest players to play offline if they are not going to use any multiplayer exclusive features because of this lag between zones.

Edit2: Preface. I'm seeing this get referenced in other threads as a response to similar but different issues. This is not the only problem with multiplayer on live right now. These server(hardware), server(software), netcode, UI, and other issues are very complex and easy to get mixed up.

I'm sorry to do this to you but this is exactly what I'm talking about. The crux of what you're saying here is not a server issue. It's the UI of the client not communicating properly that it's loading. We've got some improvements for this in 1.0.

Edit: Just to be clear, that doesn't mean the zone will load any faster. That's a separate issue that we are also working on.

4 months ago - /u/ekimarcher - Direct link

Originally posted by Aeonera

Am i right in thinking that the bulk of the issues people have with online stem back to unity's netcode structure? My perception is that unity's netcode isn't quite built to handle  the communication requirements of a game like last epoch.

This isn't criticism, obviously the decision on the engine used to build the game has many different things that go into it and i have little doubt that using an engine more suited to the online requirements would have meant significant concessions in other areas or would have been straight infeasible for cost reasons.

No, we don't use unity's netcode. We were using another package but have recently written our own from scratch.

4 months ago - /u/ekimarcher - Direct link

Originally posted by dragonguard270

As a fellow IT person I want to say I feel your pain and nicely done keeping the rant out. I have been tempted to make a few of my own and I have little to no skin in.

I write them out all the time. It's oddly cathartic.

4 months ago - /u/ekimarcher - Direct link

Originally posted by makingtacosrightnow

For what it’s worth, I’ve been playing about a week and I use nvidias streaming service, 0 lag and rubberbanding on my end.

sweet :)

4 months ago - /u/ekimarcher - Direct link

Originally posted by shrewdlogarithm

Not releasing that fix before launch is madness, if it doesn't work, and you cannot have tested it at any scale, it will be a disaster...

All online game launches are bad, you cannot sensibly scale for the Invasion that the first week or 2 brings but you do everything you can to ensure the ONLY new stuff is the players...

I'm literally planning to sit out the first month because I've been through this too many times before as a player and developer and its always bad

Great, see you in March :)

4 months ago - /u/ekimarcher - Direct link

Originally posted by shrewdlogarithm

You'll be too tired to see me but I genuinely hope I'm wrong - for your sake and mine...

I don't party that hard any more.

4 months ago - /u/ekimarcher - Direct link

Originally posted by GetRekt

I do regret buying the game now; This is an atrocious attitude. Ultimately your reponse as a developer to a correctly idenfitied issue in the game is simply that they don't have the finer details on how your sausage is made? If I click any kind of zone transition in the MP mode I have to sit around waiting for the load screen, then wait about the same time again just to finally get into the new zone. Weirdly this doesn't apply for monoliths, but I'm sure you have a "well, actually" for that too. I suppose while you're here divulging the nitty-gritty of how it's really so hard to move players around on a server you could let me know why it takes about a minute to join a friend's party too?

I'm sorry it came across that way. I don't think I was rude or out of line. They replied to a comment where I was talking about server issue misconceptions with a server issue misconception. I explained what it was and that we were addressing the underlying issue. I even upvoted them.

To answer your question, the party delay is because the social systems run on a completely different system which had a long message interval. If you got really unlucky and clicked it right at the start of an interval and their interval was perfectly anti-timed, then it could take a very long time. However, if you do get lucky, it can be almost immediate. We've been working to improve that system too because you're right, it's frustrating.

And at the risk of being that jerk again, it's really easy to move players around on a server. That's why coming back from an echo happens almost instantly. It's just a jump on the same server. The long load times are for switching servers. The medium load times happen when you change zones on the same server.

Edit: I was re-reading what I said and I think it's possible that I might not have been clear enough in the comment you replied to. When I said that the client wasn't communicating I meant that the game client software wasn't communicating to the player properly. Like that it was a UI/UX issue that is our responsibility to fix. I am starting to suspect that it might have been taken as me saying that the person wasn't communicating to us properly. That's not what I intended. If this is wrong then I'm just confused.

4 months ago - /u/ekimarcher - Direct link

Originally posted by fuckyou_redditmods

Bro, you guys are doing a good job. I saw Ziz's reaction to your latest video update and the game looks like it has moved forward by leaps and bounds since I last played it.

Every game has server issues at launch when there's a huge buzz and hype around it. What it comes down to imo, is how responsive you guys are with fixes and how rapidly and effectively you communicate updates to players.

People who don't understand that, you shouldn't be worrying about pleasing them. Just keep your heads down and work.

Thanks :)

4 months ago - /u/ekimarcher - Direct link

Originally posted by cpa_porter

Thank you for responding! It's nice to hear the dev feedback. It sounds like the servers aren't the issues of groups of 2, 3, 4 people rubber banding, lagging, invisible enemies, enemies not walking, invisible floors, etc.

Does EHG think those issues will be fairly resolved with the release of 1.0 or shortly after?

Mainly asking as I got a few friends to buy the game and play. They stopped because of issues noted above. I try and watch Aaron ARPG often and it seemed like he would still encounter some of these issues.

Those issues are affected by so many factors that I can't say for certain if they are going to be fixed for any particular individual or not. Some of those issues are related to each other. They are fixed for me but that doesn't really help you. Multiplayer stability and performance is our main priority and we will continue to make improvements wherever we can going forward.

4 months ago - /u/ekimarcher - Direct link

Originally posted by bobyhey123

How much traffic can the on-prem servers can support?

I don't know. It's kind of a tricky question to answer though. Even if I did know, in order for the information to be useful you'd need to know how much traffic each client drives to the server at peak and average. Then we would also need to look at the cpu and memory usage per client and capacities of the systems and check how many servers (software) could run on each server (hardware).

It's a lot that goes into creating a global server fleet. I'm just one of the gameplay developers so people who are way smarter than me actually handle all this. I just know enough to be dangerous if I were in there making changes to the servers.

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