Can other players cause lag?

[NeoQueen]

1) I was running the sewers with a friend when they died after someone joined. They ended up booting them, saying them joining had caused them to lag, and therefore die. I can't be certain if they stopped moving because I myself had just joined and was still enroute.

2) Same friend, different game. They were lagging really bad in Hideout and asked everyone to turn off push notifications. I automatically say no when asked to enable every time so i know i didnt have it enabled. A little bit later, still lagging, this friend boots a player and states that after booting them their lag decreased significantly so it was that player.

Now, I know these all happened to someone else and this is outside knowledge, but here's 3:

I was leveling at CtK when another player joined. I literally froze. My ping started skyrocketing so I exited the game and rejoined. While completing the run I had numerous pauses due to ping lag, even with a green dot. In all my previous runs there was no lag.

So, can other players cause you to lag and if so what are the main causes and how can you avoid/identify it?

[Orcish]

Yes they can. Basically since all of you are on the same instance or map, everyone within that map is affected by each persons data latency or ping. The reason this happends is because you all experience the same thing pretty much at the same time (that's what pretty much what makes any game a multi-player game). So when Joe casts a spell, susan see's it pretty much the same time Joe see's it. With players with high latency they take forever for their info to get to the server then to you all. That's a VERY basic way of explaining it.

[Ayrilana]

No single person can cause lag on another. Your friend was just being very misinformed and maybe looking for a reason to blame someone other than himself. A lot of lag has to do with your own connection.

[Orcish]

You can only have as good as a connection as the host in this case the PL server, and if the server basically waiting for a response from that player's device, then yes you can experience lag like symptoms even if you have a ping under 100 or so... They call it rubberbanding. Most ISP's sort QoS (not the server itself) so ppl with low ping get priority on the network vs. those with high ping. Normally after a player obtains a solid connection ping levels out, really it depends mostly what the server is doing or what's it capable of.

[NeoQueen]

No single person can cause lag on another. Your friend was just being very misinformed and maybe looking for a reason to blame someone other than himself. A lot of lag has to do with your own connection.

But if it was strictly my connection wouldn't I have been having problems before then? The only thing that had changed was this player joining. For my previous runs I was physically in the same place, on the same device, doing the same thing. Why would my connection chose that specific time to mess up?

Yes they can. Basically since all of you are on the same instance or map, everyone within that map is affected by each persons data latency or ping. The reason this happends is because you all experience the same thing pretty much at the same time (that's what pretty much what makes any game a multi-player game). So when Joe casts a spell, susan see's it pretty much the same time Joe see's it. With players with high latency they take forever for their info to get to the server then to you all. That's a VERY basic way of explaining it.

So, by me seeing the same spells that other players and enemies put out (that these other players also see), this can cause me to lag because a different player is having problems taking it all in?

[asommers]

Your perceived "lag" is determined by both your ping and your frame rate.

• Your ping, or latency, is the round trip time for a data from the client to the server and back is what we call ping, measured in milliseconds. A ping of 150 means that it takes 150 milliseconds to send a message to the server and get one back. A slow ping will mean it takes longer for you to see the result of your action initiated on the client.
• Your frame rate is determined by the speed of your hardware, both processor and graphics. Technically, more players could lower your frame rate because we have to draw more, and the other players would be casting spells which could lead to a lot of graphical effects on screen, but it's really negligible (since we're really adding one more character to 20 characters already on screen). A slow frame rate means the world updates fewer times per second (chugs).

The best situation is a low ping and a fast frame rate. It's possible (and normal) to have a low ping and a low frame rate, or a high ping and a fast frame rate.

Bottom line is, you can't affect their lag and they can't really affect yours.

-ALS

[Ayrilana]

You can only have as good as a connection as the host in this case the PL server, and if the server basically waiting for a response from that player's device, then yes you can experience lag like symptoms even if you have a ping under 100 or so... They call it rubberbanding.

I seriously doubt the server requires constant communication with each player. The lag is on your end, not the server's. I've been in numerous games where people are lagging constantly yet I'm fine. No lag spikes or anything.

[Orcish]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lag and here's the sublink on that page which explains more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lag_(online_gaming)Take a look.

[Sky../]

asommers has spoken. and nobody listened.

[Gluttony]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lag

Notice all of the section "lag in local video gaming" is cited as original research? or citation needed, the devs have spoken and I'm satisfied with it. It all comes down to randomness... Sky had a theory as to how potion drops work and it seemed legit, I was on board and ready to accept it as fact. Theories are all over the place (birds can break Keeper's shield, Keeper steals shield from mages, booting players right before the boss drops increases your chances for a pink), they're all unproven and once I start doubting the devs I'll never be able to accept the game again.

Bottom line is, you can't affect their lag and they can't really affect yours.

[Pandamoni]

asommers has spoken. and nobody listened.

lol

[Ayrilana]

Yeah I was busy writing my reply and looking up what the guy said before I posted. Funny that some people refer to excerpts online about a topic and assume they know everything. Here we have a dev that has first-hand knowledge which has a little more weight than some website (Wikipedia of all places).

[Sky../]

Not trying to incite a dev-war here, but the other dev's reply on that thread seemed to imply somethinh else.

Notice all of the section "lag in local video gaming" is cited as original research? or citation needed, the devs have spoken and I'm satisfied with it. It all comes down to randomness... Sky had a theory as to how potion drops work and it seemed legit, I was on board and ready to accept it as fact. Theories are all over the place (birds can break Keeper's shield, Keeper steals shield from mages, booting players right before the boss drops increases your chances for a pink), they're all unproven and once I start doubting the devs I'll never be able to accept the game again.

[Orcish]

Yeah I was busy writing my reply and looking up what the guy said before I posted. Funny that some people refer to excerpts online about a topic and assume they know everything. Here we have a dev that has first-hand knowledge which has a little more weight than some website (Wikipedia of all places).

I just threw in the wiki for an interesting read, it's rather insightfull.

[bronislav84]

Your perceived "lag" is determined by both your ping and your frame rate.

• Your ping, or latency, is the round trip time for a data from the client to the server and back is what we call ping, measured in milliseconds. A ping of 150 means that it takes 150 milliseconds to send a message to the server and get one back. A slow ping will mean it takes longer for you to see the result of your action initiated on the client.
• Your frame rate is determined by the speed of your hardware, both processor and graphics. Technically, more players could lower your frame rate because we have to draw more, and the other players would be casting spells which could lead to a lot of graphical effects on screen, but it's really negligible (since we're really adding one more character to 20 characters already on screen). A slow frame rate means the world updates fewer times per second (chugs).

The best situation is a low ping and a fast frame rate. It's possible (and normal) to have a low ping and a low frame rate, or a high ping and a fast frame rate.

Bottom line is, you can't affect their lag and they can't really affect yours.

-ALS

Uh, sorry to disagree assomers, but not only have I had times when I lag and others didn't (As quoted below), but I have had numerous games where when all five people use skills all at the same time at least two of us including myself had complained about lag. Others did affect the amount of lag I was having. I'm sure this was framerate lag and not server communication lag, but it has happened to me and I consider it a form of lag too.

Also I have also had huge ping spikes when certain people joined games, particularly if I was the host. Doesn't happen with every single person joining, but it has happened. That's definitely others causing me to lag.

I seriously doubt the server requires constant communication with each player. The lag is on your end, not the server's. I've been in numerous games where people are lagging constantly yet I'm fine. No lag spikes or anything.

Same here, and both ways. Often when I complain of lag others are not laging, and when others lag most times I don't lag same time. It's weird and inconsistent.

[NeoQueen]

I get what assomers said, but I have the same issue as bronislav. It just can't all be me when someone else joins and suddenly everything is out of whack. How many times have we played and we complain of lag or someone else does and there is that one person who is perfectly fine. I suppose the only way to test and make sure it is not others is to have the mist current, state of the art, hardware and go from there. But for people with just the regular stuff, we are more susceptible to hardware overload, yes?

If we had the option, can turning off game animations (skills mainly) positively affect the frame rate so that it increases speed and has less issues?

And I do understand that there are times when it is you and you have to suck it up. Such as a bad wireless connection, multiple programs running, that sort of thing. But as stated originally, I had completed runs with zero issues before this player joined. And, after what said friend pointed out, I have been keeping track of lag increase/frequent pauses when players join and I must say there is something there.