Please don´t Dominate the Arrowhead...

[synti 10]

There´s allready been a lot of discussion if OA runs better than ARMA2. I´m one of the fortunate ones to have it run way better than basic ARMA, although my rig ain´t exactly a monster one. One thing bothers me though; Domination games in multiplayer.

They are laggy. Like, unplayably laggy.

It wouldn´t be a problem if you could find other gamemodes than Domination with decent amount of players. The lag-monster manifests itself mostly in the enemy AI. They move around with 30 m lag-jumps and their vehicles can´t seem to be able to decide wether to go forward or backwards.

My ping is usually very low on these games (about 32), and other player controller soldiers & vehicles move smoothly. It´s just the enemy that keeps jerking. Is it just me, or is anyone else experiencing this?

I tried one of OA´s CTI-mission online yesterday; 24 players & big battles. It ran great. No lag with enemies whatsoever. Has Domination too much processing going on and does this render it unplayable?

Still, everyone keeps playing it. Am I the only one in this world with crappylaggy AI on Domination?

My rig is:

Dual Core E7500 2,93 Ghz

4 Gb RAM

Radeon 4890 Super OC

"High"-preset selected on OA

Edited July 1, 2010 by synti

[rstratton 0]

to late

[Guest]

Yeah, I am one of those guys who hates domi as well. It used to be awesome, no doubt about it, but I am so fed up of it now, I wish other modes would become more popular.

[Trracer 10]

To me it sounds like a server issue. There are some settings a server admin can tweak in the server config, like this one for example:

MaxSizeNonguaranteed=<limit>;

Maximum size of non-guaranteed packet in bytes (without headers).

Non-guaranteed messages are used for repetitive updates like soldier or

vehicle position. Increasing this value may improve bandwidth requirement,

but it may increase lag.

Default: 256

But as far as I know "domination" isn't a standard BI mode (like warfare). So it could also be an issue for the mission maker.

[Arrowhead 0]

Domination is just laggy and stale. People need a chance to try other things. CTI and other PvP missions I find to be much more rewarding.

Oh, and I don't mind being dominated if it's PvP! ;)

[Hud Dorph 22]

Ohh no not another hate/love Domination thread - if u like it play it - if u dont like it dont play it.

[Placebo 28]

Discussion about an MP mode belongs amazingly enough in the MP forum ;) Moving.

[-)rStrangelove 0]

So the point of this thread is : plz don't play <mission x> because i had some lags on a mp server???

Uhm ... personal taste anyone? Also server settings can have a great effect how AI acts.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Don't blame that problem on the mission, blame it on servers allowing more people than it can handle when mission grows complex. Instead of reducing the number of max players on the server, or editing the mission to have less slots, they play as is and hope for the best - and very often fail. I've played that mission on servers where lagfest is guaranteed and on servers that can actually handle the load/bandwidth. Haven't tested in OA yet though.

[Boomer-vLLBrig31- 11]

It's a Server issue indeed, BUT as Xeno already stated, Domination uses public variables A LOT, there are MANY of them. And everytime a player does JIP all these variables are passed from the Server to the Client and that strikes heavy on the bandwith.

That said, for me it IS an issue caused by the mission itself in the first place. Hope he finds some spots to improve the performance cause Domination is not the worst Gamemode we have for MP.

[Tankbuster 1733]

If it's so bad, why is it the most played coop game?

Domination needs a powerful server certainly, and the code is not yet fully optimized, but let's remember, it's a very complex mission with many features, that's what makes it so popular.

[xeno 230]

Oh, yet another "Dom is evil" thread... It's really getting boring. :)

To Boomer, only the revive version uses much to much publiced variables (norrins revive that is, with 40 players revive itself is allready at 600+ publiced vars). Dom itself has only about 40-50 publiced variables + one real publicVariable.

Other than that, all the "Dom is evil" threads encourage me to put even more time into it :)

Xeno

[synti 10]

I´m not saying that Domination is the work of the devil, it really is a great game mode. The only problem is that it has become unplayable on most of the servers most of the time. That was not always the case, I used to play it a lot with my friends and we didn´t experience this lag problem (at least not to this extent) before. Sure there was lag with other human players, but the AI moved smooth and silky. Nowdays it is a totally different story; jumping and jerking all around.

That´s why I was asking if anyone else have noticed this NEW problem with Domi.

If the Domination would run like the "official" CTI-missions (performance-wise), I would be and play it like theres no tomorrow.

So, I´m not here to diss Domi, just looking for a solution.

[Murklor 10]

I´m not saying that Domination is the work of the devil

When the devil is mentioned you know you've done something good Xeno :p

Unfortunetly, while I do love Dominaton - ALOT - it really is a lagfeast most of the time. And its really no wonder, because for a fairly simple idea (generate a random zone with with enemies and a side task, repeat) the mission resources are massive. There's just so much around it.

[Zipper5 74]

*Sigh*

If it's so bad, why is it the most played coop game?

See my post here (more specifically the second paragraph) for a list of reasons, the main one being that it is a "plug-and-play" mission, and server admins are lazy.

Oh, and Xeno, every thread or post that discusses Domination is not automatically a "hate-Domination" thread/post.

[xeno 230]

Unfortunetly, while I do love Dominaton - ALOT - it really is a lagfeast most of the time. And its really no wonder, because for a fairly simple idea (generate a random zone with with enemies and a side task, repeat) the mission resources are massive. There's just so much around it.

Makes me wonder too, but probably at least for OA it is because OA is still more at ArmA 2 1.05 level (none of the performance changes and the 64 Bit changes from ArmA 2 1.07 made it into OA yet but BIS is working on it).

Beside that, not much on the server running, AI gets only spawned and some groups get some random waypoints for patrol. No other scripts running for them.

Well... another problem is, do server admins optimize their servers ?

I know that I've put a lot of time (weeks) into finding the best server settings when I ran a server myself (includes optimizing Windows 2008 server too).

Some small changes in the arma2.cfg made a difference of 20 fps on the server.

Xeno

---------- Post added at 17:53 ---------- Previous post was at 17:47 ----------

*

Oh, and Xeno, every thread or post that discusses Domination is not automatically a "hate-Domination" thread/post.

That's true... but the haters are allways showing up seconds after the first post is made. Like in this thread. Same like with ACE :P

Xeno

[Zipper5 74]

Yes, but all I can say to that is - Welcome to the Internet. ;)

[Fox '09 14]

I like Dom. With friends though... I would like to see more operation missions, where you have to search every building in certain buildings for stuff etc...

[whisper 0]

Knowing Xeno, 1 thing for sure : the mission is optimized, better than most, if not anyone, could do.

[ryguy 10]

Yeah, I am one of those guys who hates domi as well. It used to be awesome, no doubt about it, but I am so fed up of it now, I wish other modes would become more popular.

Not to mention when I play with ACE my game crashes like no other.

:banghead:

[xeno 230]

Not to mention when I play with ACE my game crashes like no other.

:banghead:

Yeah, evil ACE :D (makes me wonder why so many people can play with ACE and have no crash at all, PEBKAC ?)

But this thread is not about ACE.

New Dom version is up, reduced to 30 players, less AI. Let's see how it works.

Xeno

[Unkn0wn 10]

Domination Sucks!

[Fox '09 14]

really? I love it. It's simple, and it's easy to get into.

[Zipper5 74]

Domination Sucks!

[Defunkt 431]

Poor Xeno, being the creator of Domination and an ACE team member he catches it all wherever the haters congregate. You must have an ERA hide dude.