Cassiopia Server

**SloppyJoe** · 11-12-2007, 02:03 PM

Hey all. I've been noticing that our server is running pretty full and I keep seeing Cassiopia running much lower. I know we wanted East to integrate with Euro players, but we don't have any Euro players so I think the main reason to be on Pegasus is kinda moot.

I know some of you guys are east coasters, but to me, I ping typically between 250-450ms+ on Pegasus and 70-140ms on Cassiopia. This makes a -huge- difference especially with non auto target weapons like shotguns and probably flame, for both PvE and PvP. Plus server pop not being so damn high means better chances to find CPs not pwnd all the time and boss spawns not camped to death.

Yeah we spent 2 weeks on Pegasus but I'm seriously considering switching. The high population and the super high ping is kind of like a no brainer for me.

Plus now that I have a better idea of how the game works (since I missed beta), I wouldn't mind re-rolling.

Any of you east coasters do a ping check to west? If they are running out of the bay area, they might actually be quite good.

Any thoughts?

**Damonte** · 11-12-2007, 02:23 PM

Damonte will check his ping on the Cassiopia server tonight. He's located in the Washington, DC area so he usually gets good connections just about anywhere.

**Davorn** · 11-12-2007, 03:22 PM

Well wherever you guys decide to go, I'll move. I'm only level 15. So no big loss there.

However, I never really get these lag issues or high ping. I'm located down in FL.

**Nemesis** · 11-12-2007, 05:13 PM

I could move as well....I'll check my ping in a bit to see how it runs.

EDIT* Ok, I'm located in CT and just checked pings during lots of on screen action...Pegasus my average range is from 70 to 175 with some crazy spikes up to 400. (never really watched the performance meter very much as the game usually ran smooth.)

On Cassiopia, I get between 125 and 275 on average with spikes up to 600. Not good but if it became a guild wide decision to move, I could make due. Besides, I have my name on Cassi, so that's some incentive to move right there.

Basically, I'm the opposite of you, Joe.

It's too bad they don't have any Mountain or Central servers so we could split the difference but in absence of that, I'll go where the guild does. Starting over at this point really doesn't bug me too much, though I'm sure some of our higher level people may feel very differently.

**Gambit7** · 11-12-2007, 06:26 PM

Yah, the eastern issue is moot because of Maelstrom Crew forming their own clan on the EU server. It's somewhat my bad for not contacting them, but I really think they shoud've made the effort on their own to realize we already had something going on the EST server. It's not like we're all secretive or anything. (kinda makes me mad actually)

Only issue there was the maintenance schedule, which is 4-6am CST (10am-12pm GMT); which isnt a big deal really.

As for Cassiopeia, they've been having their fair share of issues lately as well.. the server has been going up and down repeatedly it seems over the past couple of nights. Seems like a temporary issue though. Also, where we might get better pings for some folk if we switched... we'd be alienating many others as well.

This is a no-win situation when you're talking about ping.

The only issue that really determines anything is server population. Of course, Cassiopeia is usually 1-step lower in pop. than Pegasus... but that doesnt necessarily mean there's a huge difference. It's tough to tell. Per what the Devs say; there could be 2000 people on Cassio listed as "medium," and 2001 people on Pegasus listed as "High." Regardless, technically Pegasus is still the 3rd most populated out of only 4 servers. Orion and Centaurus are WAY more populated than we are.

Also, Cassiopeia might be a much lower population... but you can bet the server instances will reflect that. Whereas there might be TWO(2)+ instances of Palisades on Pegasus server... there may only be ONE(1) on Cassiopeia. In most cases, you're MUCH better off on a cluster with many instances then a low-pop cluster with ONE.

In then end, we're back to square-one... which is ping. The only way we all win the ping-battle is if NCSoft puts their boxes in Austin like all the gaming companies do. (why they didnt do that really boggles my mind). Heck, I get better pings to Austin then I do to most places on the East Coast (i live in soFla).

Sloppy, I've heard you complain about your ping a few times. There might be an issue of just how your data is routed to that particular EST server. Many people are PST and dont have issues. Again, it's kind of a luck thing. Also, like I've said before... many gamezones arent optimized, so there will be lag no matter where you are located. Some zones arent even located in the same server-house. Again, luck of the draw.

You could be located down the street from NCSoft's main server bank, but the moment you enter Caves of Donn your ping can go to hell (either due to optimization or a server that's in Australia). Wilderness might be smooth as silk, but Incline will suck.. or vice versa.

Point is, you never know. And you'd have to level a character to Arieki to really get a decent idea of how Cassiopeia is, because Arieki represent 75% of the game. Using Foreas as a judge is a bad idea. Also, if they're going to allow players to switch servers, then there's no point in switching right now.

Sloppy, how's your ping in Torden?

p.s.
Dont forget to check what's coming down the pipe:
http://www.playtr.com/news/patch_not...st_server.html

**SloppyJoe** · 11-13-2007, 05:13 AM

I went from 1 to 15 today and found it to be quite nice. Although the ping was much better for me, it wasn't so much about the ping but on pegasus there would be a common place where things look like they are moving smoothely but there is clearly a desync going on, especially with the hit notifications and consistent misses with cone weapons. It could be the server just getting too busy. Today I played in low zones without any hitches, and then played in high pop zones and couldn't tell the difference.

Regardless I wanted to check it out because the pegasus desyncs were just getting annoying. If this patch helps no problem. I'm not advocating a guild move, but in my experiences with mmos, sometimes some servers are just funky, and without trying out others, you never know. The difference for me between these two was like night and day though. Not so much an awesome ping, although it was lower, I'd see 75ms sometimes and 400 on the other extreme, but even with the variation, things ran smooth all day. And I don't even know where Torden is so I can't answer that =P

I doubt they will allow server switching for a while with the naming thing it'd be a pain for them.

Kinda nice to have a little less pop though, CPs were actually contested.

I dunno. I certainly don't want to ask anyone to move. There's the name thing that sucks, and losing 2 weeks of work. But for me at least I figure better to find out now if it's a crappy server than commit to it for a long time. I'm not happy about not having the Joe surname so I'd -rather- Pegasus gets a good overhaul, that would be ideal. But if it doesn't and this game, midgame and especially endgame, is going to be PvP, I'd have my reservations about playing on an over-loaded server.

**barefacedstorm** · 11-13-2007, 03:21 PM

I'm sure since the live servers have been out for a week we should see some stability issues fixed within a decent amount of time. I hopped on the West coast server, my pings were through the roof, 800+ in the newbie areas. My ping on the East Coast usually sits around 200-300, but even with 300 I dont see any lag issues. What I want to find out is the ip address of our server and do a tracert to see what hop I'm being bogged down on.

**Gambit7** · 11-13-2007, 05:00 PM

If you check my test server notes you'll see that the servers do indeed feel MUCH smoother. Problem is, there was literally no one in there but me. I'll admit, I get desync even on Pegasus as well as the PST servers... but last night I got nothing of the sort. It was shotgun lovin ftw.

**SloppyJoe** · 11-13-2007, 06:51 PM

so either the patch helped or lower pop. I guess the only way to elimate possibilities is to see how the patch plays on high pop.

**Gambit7** · 11-13-2007, 07:11 PM

Originally Posted by SloppyJoe

so either the patch helped or lower pop. I guess the only way to elimate possibilities is to see how the patch plays on high pop.

Or compare it with Pegasus and/or Cassio at off-peak times. Like just before server maintenance.

**barefacedstorm** · 11-19-2007, 12:42 AM

Since the patch I can tell a difference in the viewing distance, they cut it down alot. Which in turn would create less stress per client since they would be loading less on a screen at a time.