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Recent Networking Improvements
As an ever-evolving MMORPG, our networking model has also needed evolve over the years, based on the changing requirements of the game. Sometimes the nature of the data we're sending has changed, like dynamic mission synchronization; or at other times the amount of data, like the increased bandwidth requirements of next-generation (fully real-time, fully interactive) capship battles:
(click the image to see the video)
At the same time our stated minimum requirement is still a 56k modem, and while that particular example is pretty uncommon, we have a lot of people on quite varied connections (people overseas with higher pings, people on mobile phones, people on satellite links, etc).
After the Linus Tech Tips people had some trouble connecting on a low-bandwidth simulator, we decided to investigate and see if anything was awry, and we found a few areas that would benefit from improvement. I thought I would describe a little about this.
These improvements help everyone, this is not an "ancient modem people" problem. All connections experience packet loss or intermittent latency (variable ping), especially because of constant DDoS attacks that over-saturate the major connecting links of tier-1 networks (meaning: even if you aren't being attacked, and we aren't being attacked, there's still a good chance some malicious idiot is blowing up a router between us, and that will often degrade our connection to each other).
There's simply no avoiding this, unless you want to try LAN gaming from inside our datacenter.
The better we can build our networking layer, the better things work for all player types: The same technology that makes content playable for a low-bandwidth user also has the potential to make "extreme" content more accessible to high-bandwidth users. Or, as the saying goes, "A rising tide lifts all ships".
So, here's some of what's taken place..
Client Mission Cache
The game missions are slowly being translated into additional languages, and whenever this happens, the missions get larger (19 additional languages). This isn't a problem when the data is cached in the client, but if the client has to download the updates on login, it can make that process take longer. The client-side cache was supposed to be synchronized automatically on every patch, but that system was not working correctly.
As a result, once we re-synchronized the mission cache in the client, some people were able to connect to the game more quickly.
The automation of this has been examined again and the cache should now be properly updated with every patch. We've also added an internal alarm system to tell us if it isn't working.
Dynamic Missions
The dynamic mission system contents cannot be cached on the client, because they are created server-side on a somewhat randomized basis (driven by the dynamic economy, etc). However, their synchronization to the client (during login) has been optimized for some players (particularly newer players) and will be further optimized in the new year, helping to further shorten login times.
Network Congestion Detection and Management
We improved the server-side algorithm intended to handle detection of a congested network (too much data being sent to the user). This can happen even for broadband players, as we have a "streaming" packet transmission mode that supports faster transfers, and sometimes this can result in packets being received by the client faster than they can be processed by the player's system.
Notably, this is only something that impacts sector loading. You will not see any "good" or "bad" benefits from this during regular gameplay, at this time. But, it's still a good thing overall.
The improved algorithm is working much better (we have a lot of new analytics to track this), and I have ideas for a more advanced algorithm we may try in the new year.
This was impacting quite a few people every day; it didn't necessarily make things stop working, but it did sometimes delay things.
Plus Other Things
In the process of the investigation, we found a number of other areas that may be further improved, and some that probably need to be before we can roll out certain aspects of next-generation gameplay.
That capship battle video above shows some conditions that can get pretty intense. The biggest battles we've run required over a megabit per player (just to process real-time events), and some of this latest testing has given us some ideas on how to further optimize and improve the game's performance under these kinds of extremes.
While this kind of gameplay may be very uncommon at the moment, these kinds of "larger scale" events are expected to become more and more commonplace (or smaller versions, trending in that direction), as we want to push the boundaries of what can be expected of an MMORPG experience.
(click the image to see the video)
At the same time our stated minimum requirement is still a 56k modem, and while that particular example is pretty uncommon, we have a lot of people on quite varied connections (people overseas with higher pings, people on mobile phones, people on satellite links, etc).
After the Linus Tech Tips people had some trouble connecting on a low-bandwidth simulator, we decided to investigate and see if anything was awry, and we found a few areas that would benefit from improvement. I thought I would describe a little about this.
These improvements help everyone, this is not an "ancient modem people" problem. All connections experience packet loss or intermittent latency (variable ping), especially because of constant DDoS attacks that over-saturate the major connecting links of tier-1 networks (meaning: even if you aren't being attacked, and we aren't being attacked, there's still a good chance some malicious idiot is blowing up a router between us, and that will often degrade our connection to each other).
There's simply no avoiding this, unless you want to try LAN gaming from inside our datacenter.
The better we can build our networking layer, the better things work for all player types: The same technology that makes content playable for a low-bandwidth user also has the potential to make "extreme" content more accessible to high-bandwidth users. Or, as the saying goes, "A rising tide lifts all ships".
So, here's some of what's taken place..
Client Mission Cache
The game missions are slowly being translated into additional languages, and whenever this happens, the missions get larger (19 additional languages). This isn't a problem when the data is cached in the client, but if the client has to download the updates on login, it can make that process take longer. The client-side cache was supposed to be synchronized automatically on every patch, but that system was not working correctly.
As a result, once we re-synchronized the mission cache in the client, some people were able to connect to the game more quickly.
The automation of this has been examined again and the cache should now be properly updated with every patch. We've also added an internal alarm system to tell us if it isn't working.
Dynamic Missions
The dynamic mission system contents cannot be cached on the client, because they are created server-side on a somewhat randomized basis (driven by the dynamic economy, etc). However, their synchronization to the client (during login) has been optimized for some players (particularly newer players) and will be further optimized in the new year, helping to further shorten login times.
Network Congestion Detection and Management
We improved the server-side algorithm intended to handle detection of a congested network (too much data being sent to the user). This can happen even for broadband players, as we have a "streaming" packet transmission mode that supports faster transfers, and sometimes this can result in packets being received by the client faster than they can be processed by the player's system.
Notably, this is only something that impacts sector loading. You will not see any "good" or "bad" benefits from this during regular gameplay, at this time. But, it's still a good thing overall.
The improved algorithm is working much better (we have a lot of new analytics to track this), and I have ideas for a more advanced algorithm we may try in the new year.
This was impacting quite a few people every day; it didn't necessarily make things stop working, but it did sometimes delay things.
Plus Other Things
In the process of the investigation, we found a number of other areas that may be further improved, and some that probably need to be before we can roll out certain aspects of next-generation gameplay.
That capship battle video above shows some conditions that can get pretty intense. The biggest battles we've run required over a megabit per player (just to process real-time events), and some of this latest testing has given us some ideas on how to further optimize and improve the game's performance under these kinds of extremes.
While this kind of gameplay may be very uncommon at the moment, these kinds of "larger scale" events are expected to become more and more commonplace (or smaller versions, trending in that direction), as we want to push the boundaries of what can be expected of an MMORPG experience.