Lag and Players?

[KaMiKaZe_JoE]

Many people think that the "lag" they are experiencing in-game is, occasionally, the result of large numbers of players. They think that if a large number of players are in a server, then the server will lag more and its performance will suffer. For example, there is a big battle going on, and there are 15-20 "extra" people in spectator mode--those spectators would be causing the server to lag by there malign presence. My question to The Folk of Computer Competence is: is this true, or are players just looking for somebody to blame for a problem they completely and utterly fail to understand due to an understandable lack of knowledge pertaining to the subject?

It is also commonly believed that players with high ping can, somehow, cause other players to lag by being present in a server. Dis true? Would an evil Chinese player with 300 ping be magically harming the server, and thus deserve to be put to the torch?

I'm curios--that word looks funny--and genuinely want answers, dammit.

Edit: And if an answer is provided, I would really appreciate reasoning. I'd like to know "why", in other words.

[Panoply]

If you have too many players the interweb toobs get clogged up. It is known.

I can't back this up with reasons so I'm probably wrong but...
1. More players generally means more lag, but for many people this might just be fps lag.
2. More spectators likely contributes to lag, though not as much as players.
3. High ping players do not cause significantly more lag than low ping players.

[Mtemtko]

EU1 with 60 people for me: 70-75ping, EU1 with 120 people: 80-95 ping
dunno man..

[Digglez]

More players = more load on server CPU.  When you see server getting near full you will often have burps and hiccups where server just cant keep up.

ALso regarding specs, specs use server network bandwidth, not as much as a regular player but they do use network resources.  People who say specs dont contribute to server load are talking fantasy.

Most servers operate on ethernet networks which is like driving on streets with alot of 4 way stops.  The more traffic you get, the speed at which they travel starts to decrease DRASTICALLY.

[Kafein]

Afaik, the server bandwidth is not the problem. At least it's not the principal bottleneck on official servers (I know that because the pecores server is the same and it uses just a little of its bandwidth capacity with 180+ players online and playing). But you are right on this :

Most servers operate on ethernet networks which is like driving on streets with alot of 4 way stops.  The more traffic you get, the speed at which they travel starts to decrease DRASTICALLY.

If we assume the server has enough CPU speed, there might still be some problems. Due to the monothreaded way the WB server is coded, I think it is possible that high ping players might contribute a little more to the general latency than low ping ones. Furthermore, I don't know precisely how the server decides where to place the player when he doesn't get info from the client, and what he does when he finally get it. But in some cases, high ping players could teleport around, server side.

[Gorath]

More players = more load on server CPU.  When you see server getting near full you will often have burps and hiccups where server just cant keep up.

^
Yup
Add to that the fact that warband was only optimized for a 64 player cap and had to be "worked around" in order to get higher caps in multiplayer servers, not even getting into the shitty code warband uses period.  Well, it all adds up.  Which is why I've always preferred going to the servers with around 50 peeps or fewer.

[Christo]

Odd thing is that I still experience non-registering attacks and blocks with less than 50 players.

Shitty netcode is shitty. Or..?

[Gorath]

Odd thing is that I still experience non-registering attacks and blocks with less than 50 players.

Shitty netcode is shitty. Or..?

Yeah, that and combined with server issues.  Some servers are just crappier than others.  The community servers (see, I'm trying not to say ATS servers ) aren't as slick as the "official" servers overall so they tend to lag more.

[Brrrak]

Most servers operate on ethernet networks which is like driving on streets with alot of 4 way stops.  The more traffic you get, the speed at which they travel starts to decrease DRASTICALLY.

This is why we need computers that use lasers.

[Kafein]

We need gravitational communication waves and quantum computers.

[rustyspoon]

We need gravitational communication waves and quantum computers.

Nah. We just need to cut out the middle-man and hit people with swords in real life.