Summons create lag?

[LokiNya]

Summons create lag?

From the very start when this game came out there was and still is one class I love to play the most; a full summon necro.

The only problem is that a lot of other people don't really like it, especially in baalruns.
Now I do agree that an army of 30 is overkill in a fast baalrun, so I usually summon around 5 to 10 normal skeletons depending on the parties strength.
Still, even with so little summons people sometimes start shouting; "NO SUMMONS!!" or crap like that.
They say it creates lag.

But does it create a real lag? or is it just their crappy pc that can't handle what's on screen and the frame rates drop.

 

[Eshmasesh]

I'm inclined to say that it's their crappy PC's. I have never, ever had a problem with lag when I've done baal runs with summoners, meteor sorcerers, or anything else people whine about.

 

[AngryJimmy]

I don't know about lag, but there seems to be a correlation of game crashes and meteor sorcs and summoners -

 

[JayhawkFan]

its most likely their pc... i mean cmon this game is like a decade old.

 

[LokiNya]

So I was probably right after all.. :undecided:
It's kind of annoying, a summoner is a great class to assist others by letting my skeletons take all the hits, lower resists, amplify damage and doing damage at the same time, but getting yelled at because the problem is their own old hardware kind of bugs me.

Maybe those people even start yelling to others in a FPS for throwing hand grenades at them because it causes a lower framerate due to the explosion :shocked:

I'm inclined to say that it's their crappy PC's. I have never, ever had a problem with lag when I've done baal runs with summoners, meteor sorcerers, or anything else people whine about.

Now that would be a great situation... as a meteor sorc getting yelled at for casting meteor, then getting yelled at for just standing there leeching :cry:

 

[McTCM]

Blizzard putted up a ping max to "prevent" duping

that's why games drop when an Amazon with a torch uses Strafe gets yelled at (the ctc makes the game drop), same thing with meteor because the fire keeps burning and makes the ping higher

 

[Radamer]

I no longer have that problem with whiners in the realms. I just play single player.

If the game crashes due to excess skeletons while online, then it is the realm-players fault for duping and trading for duped items in the first place. And yet, there still are dupes in the realms. Makes me wonder why I anyone would bother with battle.net in the first place, other then the Uber Tristram quest.

 

[NotSoKoolAid]

its most likely their pc... i mean cmon this game is like a decade old.

Lol, i second that. I havent heard much complaining lately besides being yelled at to unsummon in cows. That would make sense, being that noone wants the summons to kill the king. But with the lag "issue", i always ignore people yelling at me. My laptop is currently using a 512 MB memory thing, i think its RAM, but idk :undecided: . So really, my laptop is slow, and im fine playing diablo. I really never had a problem with having a lot of summons.

For those who still complain about crap like that, then just go :hang:, if you catch my drift.

 

[spunky]

I have to interject.
It's not the players' computers that is the issue, it's the server lag that was mentioned earlier.

And, having run my own baals for awhile, I have to say, having a bunch of skellies running around, increasing the chance of the game dropping, isn't the best.
Good baal runs don't require you to summon. If you have some hammers flying, maybe a trapper, and me CE'ing (bone nec), you simply don't need all that extra skelly running around on the screen.

I have a wicked fast computer and plenty of RAM - Getting dropped has nothing to do with your computer speed/memory!!!

My 2 cents is, if you are running Baal specific runs, don't summon. You can summon all you like in questing games, but leave 'em out in runs.

/end rant

 

[bogie]

Ive actually tested it from both standpoints =/

As a summoner, I NEVER get lag...Yet when I start to run chaos' and baals and summoners come in, it does become hectic, confusing, and yes, laggy. For whatever reason, it appears that unless the summons are your own, you have a greater chance of lag problems.

 

[jkra]

The one time I'm absolutely sure that I create lag is when all my skellies get poisoned--usually by the nutty vipers near Nihilitak--and the game get's dropped.

 

[dejavoodoo]

I think its fine if you only summon a few. Most of the time I've actually done well in games with a million summons. I've lagged and not lagged with them. Then again I've lagged being the only person in a game before too. It's your right to play whatever you want and you should hold to that, but I would limit the summons as you are doing obviously in order to keep everyone happy. If you are one of the higher levels in the game, conviently unsummoning right as one of the harder waves comes in might make them be quiet too. Anywho enough rambling on. Comprimising is the way to go IMO.

 

[MYK]

More stuff on screen = mo lag

If you've got a gosu computer then maybe you won't lag. But this game wasn't exactly coded to run super nice with 9,000 things happening on the screen. So, in an 8 player game with tons of spells getting thrown around it's a pretty good chance your gosu machine might get a little upset.

 

[BobCox]

Your computer knows about the Skell's you made them you get all the updates 1st as you get exp for them they track location to your location etc - for everyone else its extra stuff to be kept track of thats not native to the client session.
Thus it can cause lag for others - Not a lot anymore they fixed bugs and memory leaks long ago but this is basic client server session stuff people.
Be polite in crowded areas, hold it down to Skell's and a few revives only.

 

[LokiNya]

I have no idea what a gosu computer is, but I'm guessing a very fast system? Then we are talking about better PC = smoother running game. My PC isn't the fastest one for todays standards (XP 2500+, 1GB), but it only stutters sometimes when I have all summons in a baalrun or in chaos sanctuary... keeping windows clean from spyware or weird probrams makes a big difference.
But I guess we are all familiar with walking around and none of the monsters move, or the evil black wall. That's what I call lag.

 

[MYK]

I have no idea what a gosu computer is, but I'm guessing a very fast system? Then we are talking about better PC = smoother running game. My PC isn't the fastest one for todays standards (XP 2500+, 1GB), but it only stutters sometimes when I have all summons in a baalrun or in chaos sanctuary... keeping windows clean from spyware or weird probrams makes a big difference.
But I guess we are all familiar with walking around and none of the monsters move, or the evil black wall. That's what I call lag.

Yes. Gosu = godly = good = something bought within the last 5 years or so...

 

[BobCox]

Yes. Gosu = godly = good = something bought within the last 5 years or so...

The PC will keep your screen up to date with the info it gets over the wire.
The game as a whole takes place on the server and everyones connect time (Bandwidth and latency) counts on this - how current is you connection vs others? FPS Rate
If you have a Fast connection and a fast PC the server is up to date for you. Someone with a slow connection and a lots of summons will seem to lag the game. When the game has to chose it drops the slowest connection. (but if lag starts and you move around a lot it may drop you if everyone else is in sync so to speak)
The effects run both ways a slow person will freeze in place and nothing will effect him till he catches up to current server time and a fast person may seem to desync around in your client as the slow one gets all his server side movements updated in a short time.

 

[anilrobo]

I haven't done much experimenting with this, but I have an experience to recall.

My Fishy was "perming" a game as usual, getting ready to convert the keysets into orgsets when a friend pm's me on bnet. He asks "watchadoin" and I said mini-ubers. He said his Fishy wants to join too, as he had never done that before. So he joins, and both of us summon our entire army. I had 16 skeletons, 16 mages, 25 revives, a clay golem and a merc (total minions = 59). He had 14 skeletons, 14 mages and about 18 revives, plus clay golem and a merc (total minions = 48). All in all we both had 107 minions plus two chars in the game. No lags whatsoever, even in the busiest Matron's Den. Absolutely smooth gameplay.

Just my two cents, dunno if some conclusion can be derived from this.

 

[MK V]

Alot of things can cause the evil "connection interrupted". It's unwise to point the finger at one or two things, even if they seem to stand out. If playing on bnet has taught me anything, it's that the majority of people playing on bnet are idiots.

I've run alot of baal runs. Invariably, someone will ask me to unsummon the 2-3 skels I've made. On occasion, our conversations will go like this:

(XxXxXanother_hammerdinXxXxX is a fictional name)

XxXxXanother_hammerdinXxXxX: Hey, necro, you think you could not use summons next game?
Me: Sure, I don't mind not using summons. It's just that I made the portal and no one entered, so I was forced to kill a pack of souls and frenzytaurs using a golem.
XxXxXanother_hammerdinXxXxX: Serious? I'm sorry, I'll jump right in and help next time.
Me: Sure. I won't summon if you guys jump in right away.
XxXxXanother_hammerdinXxXxX: Ok, deal.

This happens about 1/100 instances of being requested to unsummon. The other 99 sound something like this:

XxXxXanother_hammerdinXxXxX: OMFG F***ing UNSUMEN NERCO!!!1
Me: If I unsummon, we'll have no tanks and this is a game full of sorcs. Besides, you're just sitting in a corner leeching. Who are you to complain about free experience?
XxXxXanother_hammerdinXxXxX: OMFG GO TO HELL> I HOEP U DIE> U F***ING NERCO!!!!111

In the past, I would unsummon right as minions spawned, then lure them into the corner where the instigator idled and tele away. I've since matured beyond retaliatory behavior and have decided to ignore these sorts. It works quite well. After all, I'm the one teleporting to the throneroom and doing the work killing. They can complain all they want, but they can't really do anything about it, except choose not to join the next game.

With that said, I never summon more than I have to. If I don't need to summon to get exp and protect other players, then I won't. The less work for me, the better.

I've got a friend that is really bothered by this. Whenever he sees someone reacting poorly to another player using summons, he will immediately rejoin the game with a specially designed druid that uses fury and an absurd number of ctc's. He can ci a game within seconds if he wishes to and does just that in these situations. Remarkably, no one seems to make the connection between his druid ctc'ing dozens of complex spells and lag in these games. As I said before, most people on bnet are idiots. Indeed, that's why I like these forums, as they seem to be inhabited almost exclusively by the portion of diablo 2 players who are not idiots. :laugh: <3 smart people.

P.S. Having a bad computer will create lag in situations where there normally wouldn't be. I have two computers and can make this contrast easily.

 

[Mad Mantis]

If somebody is having problems with Summoner lag, not caused by connection, they could always try to install this Glide Wrapper. It does well to enhance the speed of the game with a lot of effects onscreen. Topic in Community Forum.