Sunday, September 23, 2007

Granado Espada - Irritating server lag, disconnects

When IAHGames announced the business model for Granado Espada, one of the reasons quoted is:
An extremely large player base can also lead to server crowding, without providing adequate revenue for IAHGames to install and run new servers. It is our goal to maintain an optimal volume of players on all worlds, and to open new worlds as necessary. A free to play system would hamper our ability to do so.

Preventing server overcrowding makes for a great gaming experience, I mean, having 15-20 families squeezed in a small part of Porto Bello's Cabin is pretty claustrophobic. Ever since the game has gone P2P, I find that there's a noticeably less overcrowding, so that's a plus point there.

However, I still have gripes about the server lag and disconnects. After every Thursday's server maintenance, you'll find that the game is extremely responsive. The elementalist swings her arms and fireballs zoom in on target without any hesitation, the fighter slashes the wolf with a smooth, clean stroke, the musketeers cocks her rifle and unleashes a bullet to the skeleton's mid-section with nary a delay, and you get from A to B without unexpected pauses. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the world is happy and at peace.

But come every Saturday and Sunday, things start to go awry. You can't switch stances easily. You can't get your party to follow orders promptly. You can't get from A to B without the screen stuttering. At times, you can't even stay in-game for long. Well, usually it's not that bad but sometimes it's irritating to click on a monster to attack it when you're in the heat of the battle only to see your party stay rooted for 10 seconds before getting slayed.

The problem gets a lot worse for major in-game events like the 'Dark Lord Returns'. Supposedly a exciting event where players unite to fend off the forces of evil, the greatest thrill you'll get is actually registering a mouse-click in the game with all the screen spasms going on. IAHGames , I'll expect to get better connectivity when I'm paying for it, thank you very much.

2 comments:

  1. One of the solution is make a new server, so that the players will move to other sever. the lag and disconnection will be less. Make it F2P, it will make other players to try it. If they will love it then they will move to this game.If not , nice try ^_^.

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  2. I've found the situation to be a lot better now. Now that the game has become F2P again, IAH Games will need to monitor this in case crops on once more.

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