Load times and PvP

[necrovore]

Just a question: if you have a low-end machine, zoning from a port into the open sea or from OS into a battle can take quite a while. You're staring at a 'loading' screen for minutes and in the meanwhile your ship is already there for others to see and gank to their heart's content. Imagine that in a contention zone.

Should you just get a faster PC (which I intend to do by the way as this is pure agony) or is there some sort of protection mechanism? I seem to recall you're "invulnerable" for a few seconds after zoning in or out, but how long and is that tied to loading times in any way?

Would be lame if by the time your loading screen disappears you're already ganked before you got a decent chance to prepare yourself.

[Spinnaker Sam]

There is a 60 (or is it 90) second invulnerability period after leaving a port as long as you do nothing to move your ship or use a ship skill. But, if it is taking you minutes to load, then even this period isn't going to help you.

[phizuol]

You get 60 seconds of invulnerability but it is cancelled if you do any actions with your ship.

Edit: Bleh, too slow.

[Mamluk]

I mean if you taking more than a minute to load are you running at the lowest settings and if you are, are you meeting minimum specs?

[sinjinsmythe]

Doesnt seem to matter at the moment. I have posted a similar thread. My machine is not low end and has plenty of memory but i have the same issue with loading screens.

[Sykomyke421]

I'm not even running a great machine and it loads within 5-15 seconds for me.

AMD 2.01 Ghz processor rated at 3.0 ghz.
nVidia 7800 GS OC 512 MB
2 gigs of RAM

Nothign special, nothing out of the ordinary. Though I do get some lag around tortuga sometimes. I feel personally I'm running somewhere along the line of Minimum/Suggested specs.

What are your specs? Make sure your video drivers are up to date too, that helped alot.

[willy]

I play on the blackbeard server, british. ANyways, I was coming out of a port, knowing it was pvp and I could get into a fight. With that being said, by the time my loading screen for OS had end'd it had started another one for a fight. OKay, so I was going to fight, kewl.. have some fun.. But I was wrong. By the time I was load'd in, I had 2 pirates sitting on top of my ship, with my ship having no sails and half crew. Then another load screen, I got borded (cant spell late at night and tired sorry), so now I have to defend myself without any reinforcements. Okay probly will get beat, and I knew I would. But by the time I got loaded in, I was in combat and my guy was half dead already. I didnt get a single swing in and I was dead. Lost all my cargo, and full upgrades of sails, guns, ect..... but I still have my ship thankgod. I just think its an unfair advantage for someone to load gank you in so many forms. I didnt have a chance or a hope of defending myself. I couldn't even run away from the fight, because 2 ships where sitting on top of me. This is a huge problem that needs to be resolved, or what's going to happen is all pirates and factions will start doing this. Thus, making people *like myself* frustrated and p'd off about how fair or unfair the play is. If people like this or anyone, can get away with a "free kill" with out letter the person being attack'd even have a hope of defending himself or running away, then I find that a major issue that needs fixed. You can say i am whining, crying, being a noob... whatever.... say what you want. I can careless. But, in all the mmo's I have played (wow, swg, everquest... ect) you can be camp'd, ganked... so on so on, but you really never had to problems of being "load kill'd" Anyways, Just had to vent on the situation. I think this game has alot of potential, and I can see myself playing it for a long time... but probly only if issues of unfairness like this get address'd. Not for me, but for alot of people, so they don't have to go thro the frustration and anger that this can cause.

[Gustave Molyneux]

I play on the blackbeard server, british. ANyways, I was coming out of a port, knowing it was pvp and I could get into a fight. With that being said, by the time my loading screen for OS had end'd it had started another one for a fight. OKay, so I was going to fight, kewl.. have some fun.. But I was wrong. By the time I was load'd in, I had 2 pirates sitting on top of my ship, with my ship having no sails and half crew. Then another load screen, I got borded (cant spell late at night and tired sorry), so now I have to defend myself without any reinforcements. Okay probly will get beat, and I knew I would. But by the time I got loaded in, I was in combat and my guy was half dead already. I didnt get a single swing in and I was dead. Lost all my cargo, and full upgrades of sails, guns, ect..... but I still have my ship thankgod. I just think its an unfair advantage for someone to load gank you in so many forms. I didnt have a chance or a hope of defending myself. I couldn't even run away from the fight, because 2 ships where sitting on top of me. This is a huge problem that needs to be resolved, or what's going to happen is all pirates and factions will start doing this. Thus, making people *like myself* frustrated and p'd off about how fair or unfair the play is. If people like this or anyone, can get away with a "free kill" with out letter the person being attack'd even have a hope of defending himself or running away, then I find that a major issue that needs fixed. You can say i am whining, crying, being a noob... whatever.... say what you want. I can careless. But, in all the mmo's I have played (wow, swg, everquest... ect) you can be camp'd, ganked... so on so on, but you really never had to problems of being "load kill'd" Anyways, Just had to vent on the situation. I think this game has alot of potential, and I can see myself playing it for a long time... but probly only if issues of unfairness like this get address'd. Not for me, but for alot of people, so they don't have to go thro the frustration and anger that this can cause.

There is a one minute timer after you exit a port, and a 1 minute timer when you enter an instance. There's also a timer when you enter boarding. All three give adequate invulnerability until you're loaded in and ready to start moving, which cancels the timer on the first two, and once you enter the mid-deck on boarding that timer is cancelled as well. If you're taking longer than those timers to load, you really do need to consider better hardware or reduced graphics settings.

[willy]

I know it can't be my computer.. its an Area 51. *alienware* My load times arn't usually that bad, but it seem'd more of a lag issue that caused it. But, that could also be my internet, who knows. I was just trying to state a point. I know your trying to tell me that theres a 60 second timer, ok maybe there is. I have no clue, not going to argue the fact. But, along with the 60 second timer, they sould make it so no one can move for 60 seconds then just to make sure the other has loaded in or maybe gotten through a lag spike. I dunno, not an expert, not sure what caused my situation. The strange part of it is when I load'd in, I had 2 ships on top of me. Explain this to me, if theres 2 ships on top of me, how am I sposed to move anywhere? Then they blast my sails and crew away, board me. I understand you telling me theres the timer, but if the other person (or persons) can move right on top of you that quickly, then something seems strange. But who knows, maybe end up I doing it to someone with out knowing, maybe that was the issue. I am not meaning to sound like crying, whining, nerfing.... bla bla bla. Just curious on how you would get around some of the "issues". I never played beta, and I just started playing 2 days ago, so I am not quite familiar with the known issues. So, if someone has any suggestions, feel free to let me know. (I honestly wouldn't think it was my computer, but I have been known to be wrong.. *ask my wife lol*) Thank for putting up with my rambling.. and I apologize if it sounds like I am whining or complaining :-s

[Sykomyke421]

*Snicker*...alienware....the most overpriced piece of crap you can buy. Yea it might run good but the bill is killer.

Sorry....couldn't help it. It's just that alienware is about 5 years past its prime.

[ArmEagle]

It's really a shame that that timer starts running when you 'swap' zones. Not when you've finished loading the new zone.
Why should people with a fast machine have this benefit, while people with a 'slow' machine don't?

[willy]

Your probly right on that, its about 3 years old. So its probly time to upgrade it some.

[TheGreatGuignol]

Please upgrade your computer willy, the rest of us with 3 second load times don't want to wait 5 minutes for everyone else. No offense.

[Titanten]

Please upgrade your computer willy, the rest of us with 3 second load times don't want to wait 5 minutes for everyone else. No offense.
Wow, how egotistical of you.

Let me guess no one who doesn't drive a Lamborghini is allowed to drive in front of you either?

You know it's in their best interest to cater to all of their subscribers and not just the egotistical leet kids who upgrade their computers every 3 months. MMOs should not be like Crysis. They should be playable (and loading into a sunken ship in a pvp centric game isn't playable) for people with a wide range of computers.

WoW understands this philosophy of catering to all types of computers and, whether you like the game or not, it is the most successful MMO out there.


What would be wrong with loading into a state of invisiblity that lasts until you move (but unable to see other players), and then a 10 second immunity upon moving or instant removal upon skill usage.

There risk free loading all around with a buffer zone to prevent instant ganking.


"It's really a shame that that timer starts running when you 'swap' zones. Not when you've finished loading the new zone.
Why should people with a fast machine have this benefit, while people with a 'slow' machine don't?"

This is my reasoning.

[sinjinsmythe]

Yup.....What he said.

[Cat Swift]

Perhaps there is some signal your pc could send to the server to tell it that its still loading (and not that you pulled the plug) and delay the start of battle or keep invis on. Your computer is still running while its loading so it should be able to do that.

I killed someone last night that im pretty sure was loading. Caught them again in the same situation and this time waited and they were visible for a while before moving. Jumped them as soon as they moved but even so they didnt have a chance as I was positioned perfectly. I felt bad about getting 2 loading ganks so I let them go.

[Spinnaker Sam]

What would be wrong with loading into a state of invisiblity that lasts until you move (but unable to see other players), and then a 10 second immunity upon moving or instant removal upon skill usage.

What's wrong is that then a group of players could sit outside a port completely invisible and immune waiting for the word to decloak and attack some unsuspecting ship/group. It is just another form of sitting in port waiting for your friends to call you out for an attack.

[Sykomyke421]

Well...an easy and simple way to do this would to be have a loading screen for the intial "pull" where it shows all players in the group loading, sort of like the loading screeen for C&C3....this way the actual zoning in isn't activated until everyone has loaded the zone...yea the wait will be a bit more but oh well...in PvP it be more fair to allow this then the current alternative.

The only downside to this method is the "fast" computers have to wait on the slow ones...which is a marginal side-effect at the least....if you can't wait for players to load so you can have a fair fight then you probably shouldn't be playing this anyways.

[Spinnaker Sam]

Another downside is that you wind up having a timer that has to expire just in case someone doesn't ever load into the instance. Which means some jerk can probably do something to his connection or computer to prevent himself from fully loading and hanging up the entire group until the timer expires.

Then what happens? Should everyone be thrown back into the Open Seas because someone never sent the acknowledgement that they were loaded? Or should it just load the instance anyway? It just adds more complexity to what can go wrong (intentionally or not).

[CarloTMata]

I had similar problems during the Open Beta. I seem to have fixed them by getting a better Video Card and upgrading my internet connection from up to 780 to up to 3 GB.

Still, I think that one comming out of the ports, there should be an area immidiately around the towns, of invulnerability. It would allow the player to SEE what is out there before actually venturing out. In terms of the game, it may represent the area protected by the town's batteries. I guess instead of 2 circles (light red and dark red) we would expand those two to accomodate in the middles a clear area of invulnerability.

The fact that we cannot sea outside the Port, because of instacing, is a game mechanics limitation. With an invulnerability or clear area (maybe the 8 miles one can dock from) the player comming out of town will get his or her chance to know what is out there and decide to risk it or go back to town to wait the storm passes over.

Muy Servidor Suyo,

Lorenzo Rios

[Titanten]

Still, I think that one comming out of the ports, there should be an area immidiately around the towns, of invulnerability. It would allow the player to SEE what is out there before actually venturing out. In terms of the game, it may represent the area protected by the town's batteries. I guess instead of 2 circles (light red and dark red) we would expand those two to accomodate in the middles a clear area of invulnerability.

The fact that we cannot sea outside the Port, because of instacing, is a game mechanics limitation. With an invulnerability or clear area (maybe the 8 miles one can dock from) the player comming out of town will get his or her chance to know what is out there and decide to risk it or go back to town to wait the storm passes over.


This is a good idea. Hell even make it only extend 2miles from the spawn points and there you go.

[martyr1777]

I have to throw in my 2 cents just because all the load screens are annoying as all hades... Seriously, I thought load screens were gone like 2-3 game generations ago, whats the deal FLS?

But the graphics are exactly killer either, the water is the only high end graphic and my machine which doesn't lag on other games lags right after the load screen. FLS has done a poor job of obtimization on their code IMHO.