Characters Getting Lagged/Bugged:
 

Hey folks. We've had a problem on our server as long as I can remember that is mysterious and just plain aggravating. I never can find a definite reason in the error logs, and I was hoping to get some ideas from others who may have experienced this issue. First allow me to describe the problem:

This has happened in multiple zones and to multiple characters. What will happen is that you'll be buffing/nuking/attacking/whatever, and you'll suddenly notice that your spell icons are all greyed out, or that your character has stopped attacking. Your lag meter will show no packet loss, you'll be able to send and receive chat as normal and run around, but you won't ever be able to cast or attack again until you /q and log back in.

I really wish I were more technically adept and able to find the cause, but I'm unable to. I do have a few ideas, though, so I'll offer a bit more background.

• We run the most current PEQ database and quests with a few modifications of our own.
• We run the most current EQEmu build, but this problem has existed off and on since February of '07.
• Our connection we run on is only about an 800k/s upload. This happens most often when we have more than a few people online, and I'm wondering if it is bandwidth related.

My theory is that it is a bandwidth issue, and that something is occurring where someone begins to lag out. Shortly after, the connection jogs itself back up, but the client does not know how to compensate entirely; it gets all the pieces it can, but doesn't know how to handle a few different things. For example: If I'm attacking a mob with a group and experience this glitch, I will see its hitpoints reduced to 0%, but it will not die on my screen. We can pull another and I'll see it die and give XP properly, but I won't be able to do anything but stand around being useless.

Though that's my theory, I've pulled parts of the log during the most recent occurrence that we experienced. I really have no idea where this comes from or how to attack it, and I'm open to all suggestions. Here are some parts of the error log from around these instances that I'm not sure how to interpret:

I know there are quite a few code wizards who live here and can look at that and read it without a pause, but I sure can't. Any ideas and suggestions are welcomed, and thanks for your time.

Also to note before I get bashed for trying to run a server for this many people on a connection that speed, we're installing a new DS3 connection later this month =P We've been trying to get by on what we have until it's in, and I'm hoping for some confirmation that this is bandwidth related and will be resolved once we're running at 10 MBs up/down. And if it's not the connection, I'm anxious to be pointed to the problem so I can tinker with it :) Thanks again!

What you describe is what is generally known as simply being "bugged." There is no one thing that can cause this, just about anything can cause this to happen. I am able to re-produce it pretty easily with pickpocket. Generally what is happening is the client sends a packet to the server and awaits one back. The return packet never arrives either due to a missing/incorrect opcode, system that isn't implemented in the code, a bug in the code, or anything else under the sun, so the client just sits there and waits. Since the packet never comes, the client never moves forward and so you have to log to clear it. Your best bet it to nail it down to certain functions that cause this behavior (a certain spell or ability, etc) and report it. Half of the battle is simply finding what is causing the client to bug, with the next step being of course fixing it.

Alright then. I was just thinking there was something in the log that would be more indicative and conclusive if it were an OpCode error. I'll see if I can isolate it in some testing. Thanks for the reply.