CLOK BBS

Hello
According to this topic:

http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.p ... 75#p293075

I think I'd rather bring it here for consideration. Some people like it slow, but some like it fast. Clok is slow in its own way without command lag. Realistic rp is sure without fun if it's fast. But the concern voiced opinion about the time between command without roundtime, which takes around 1-3 seconds depends on the timing itself and how crappy one's internet connection is. They love Clok, they just can't stand the lag. Is there anything that could be done about it?
With humble and sincere appreciation in advance, and with whole hearted love for Clok.

They also don't want to come around here to voice their concerns, so most of the talk has been on the other thread. I know a few of the gm's here have audiogames accounts, so it might not hurt to have a look at the last two pages of that thread that Artus gave the link to. I know at least one doesn't want to say anything since he did on another mud and was banned for voicing his opinion.

The complain was registered by me. My problem isn't the roundtime for certain actions, or the play style, whether some consider it fast or slow or in the middle, my problem is the general lag that is in everything you do. This can be gleamed from commands such as look in bag or read sign. I find that this is an unacceptable amount of lag for me to be able to enjoy gameplay. I have come back and tried several times within the past nearly two years to see if anything has been done about it, and there has not been. The point that I was making is that tis a bit disappointing because I like what Clok has to offer otherwise.

I also made the point that it there may be nothing to be done about it, in which case, that's fine but I think it should be made clear at some point. I honestly don't understand how people can deal with the amount of lag I'm experiencing. This is a constant thing, it is not intermittent, however every once in a while, you will get a response almost immediately which makes me wonder...

Anyway, that's about the gist of it.

This may help some with lag issues. It was discussed here when some players were having a problem with disconnections:

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5868

Hi, I tried 3 alternate Ip's from that list, same amount of lag, also the port 23 was refused me. ALso, I counted about 3 seconds of lag during my connection whilst trying to look into my inv, check my gear, etc.

Just to add my input...

I've been playing Clok on and off for years (I think it is years at this point at least? Probably two, minimum!) and the command lag is one of the worst things in the game. It always takes me a while to get "used" to when I come back. Yes, I do use "used" to in the loosest manner. It is thrakking ghastly.

I also realize at this point, the issue is probably so ingrained in the code of the game that rooting it out would take a huge dedicated push towards it. Meaning, no further features, no other bugfixes, no additional content, etc...

And to all that, I say... if there was no command lag then there are at least 4 other people I know personally out of my small circle of friends who mud that might have taken Clok seriously compared to other games. It is horrible to say, but put against other games on the "market" it doesn't matter how unique you are playing Clok feels like wading through pea soup and while some of us will struggle with it (perverts) it doesn't mean we like it.

I'd be happy to see no additional fixes to Clok for a year if the situation was changed, personally.

I agree, It feels like I am on a dial-up connection, I got broadband in 2003 and before that it was time spend on Juno and NetZero. I don't know if its network related, code related or an amalgamation of the two, but I would like and appreciate an official response, even if it is that nothing can be done at this time, just so I know.

If it is network issues, might I suggest putting out there a donation box on your site where players would give money to move to a faster server, I would kick in if I knew it would actually help and get us on a faster server, not that I could do much, but other people might.

Just chiming in to say that even though I haven't played Clok in months, I still log on every now and then to see if the command lag is fixed or even remotely reasonable. Still no luck yet.

As Dorn accurately described (and I believe to be one of the people in his circle he's referring to), I don't think that it's appropriate to say that the staff isn't aware of the issue or that it's causing frustration for players, in fact my only real contribution to the forums a year or so ago was about this matter in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5283
and I got responses both on the forums and in-game from the staff also, to which I'm grateful. Rather, it's most likely a problem that would require a significant rewrite of some of the underpinning of the game, which would almost assuredly entail its own problems breaking existing features even should it be possible. As a programmer by trade myself, I understand the difficulty of taking an already complicated project and trying to change an underlying mechanic without breaking everything else in between, so I don't hold out a lot of hope for it changing anytime soon.

That said, nothing stops me from checking in every month or so just to see if it's as unplayable from my perspective as it used to be. Clok is actually still the default mud on my client just because I liked it so much from before. By far the only genuine deterrent from me playing actively is the lag issue.

Dorn wrote:I'd be happy to see no additional fixes to Clok for a year if the situation was changed, personally.

I'd also second this, although that's coming from a person who still hasn't seen all the features in the game currently.

Being a new player to CLOK myself, I have to agree that the command lag is really, REALLY obnoxious and really the only (big) thing I have disliked so far about the game. It's especially frustrating in groups where there have been times where I've completely missed someone walking into or leaving a room due to the command lag, leaving my poor character talking to herself or me otherwise frustrated because I wasn't able to fire off the emote/say fast enough or I was too distracted by waiting for a look command to go through that I missed something important.

Or the fact that you often end up talking over people in RP scenarios because you never quite know if you're waiting on them to send a reply through or if it's just the command lag causing the pause.

I don't even want to talk about the frustration in combat scenarios.

The command lag isn't enough for me, personally, to throw in the towel with CLOK, but I can definitely understand why it would drive some people away. Which is a terrible shame because otherwise, CLOK has a lot of good things going for it.