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Check out the v.264 - Every Little Thing Every Precious Thing patch notes
here!
Turn the chat channels off, now!
Comments
It causes your maplestory client to be constantly trying to connect to the chat channel server. For some reason, it fails, over and over. Each attempt causes a lag spike (freeze), and it keeps trying every 2 seconds. So your client is constantly stuttering.
The workaround people found is to block all outgoing traffic from your computer to the chat channel server. Then the client doesn't try to connect and works smoothly.
But since there was no word from them (and obviously no action), for all of Thursday and Friday, I decided to make a thread with a more specific title (rather than "lag" and "cure for lag" and such general things) and tag the CM for good measure.
Apparently, though, I waited a little too long and he'd already left the office (or maybe he did see it but the people who could throw the switch were already gone for the weekend), so we'll have to wait 'til Monday at the earliest.
Sorry for trying?
I find it hilarious that this "fix" is even a thing, and that it's probably more effective than whatever Nexon would have done if they had actually done anything to try and remedy this. The game should have been down for maintenance on the same day the issue occurred and was identified, or they should have hotfixed it like they did the Dojo rankings, if it's possible in this situation.
I can see some use for the chat channels, but I don't want them that badly. And it's only a matter of time before the mesoselling bots get in on it, once it starts working correctly, that is. But nobody's gonna do anything about that either.
If the curse filter is important enough for an unscheduled maintenance, then so is 99% of the playerbase having constant framedrops due to a bug. Priorities, people.
I don't know where this "chat channel" idea came from. I don't remember seeing it on Orangemushroom's blog. We certainly didn't ask for it. And as you said, the spambots will take over all channels as soon as the thing starts working, rendering it useless.
I really wish they'd work on adding features we ask for, instead of features nobody asked for and nobody will use. (And which they insist on releasing without proper testing).
The Chat Channels were disabled after the v.177 patch, and enabled again without a minor patch, so I'm sure they can disable them again with only a minor maintenance (or even none at all - just shut down the chat channel server. After all, once you turn on the firewall thing, the chat channel server is effectively "down" for you - and that doesn't bother your client at all).
Priorities... idk what Nexon's are anymore, tbh. Used to think they'd deal with Cash bugs first, but now even that can't be counted on (both the 999 item bug, which affects some people since v.177, and the name change that didn't run). So I don't know what they're so busy with. Other than pissing people off by blocking IPs that will be reopened within a month, and boasting of fixing text bugs.
It does feel like things have been rather hectic over there ever since the migration was announced. Hopefully once things settle, we'll see a bit more getting done.
Anyway, hopefully we won't have to jump through hoops to be able to play the game soon enough. It still baffles me that they didn't hold an unscheduled maintenance.
Or should we try to make @OneLetter aware of the sad state of this game?
@Invulgo , @Neospector , @MegaScience , did any of you alert Nexon to the chat-channel stutter issue?
I understand they're busy with the migration and whatnot, but it seems absurd that they haven't even acknowledged the issue, much less attempted to solve it. (And no, the client-side workaround, which is technically against the ToS as it interferes with client-server communication, doesn't mean they can just push this on the pile of "we'll get to it whenever").
They haven't told us anything regarding the firewall workaround, period. My personal suggestion: screenshot turning the firewall rule on, only use the method if the lag becomes 100% unbearable. If Nexon sends official word to stop, stop immediately. Use at your own risk. Port 8786 is used for the cash shop in some worlds, making you DC if you attempt to use the cash shop. Do not block port 8786.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Maplestory/comments/5a8e23/psa_do_not_block_port_8786/
Not that we can avoid going in cash shop anyway, because of having to "settle" reward points after every 10 bosses or tokens (from Monster Collection).
Some people on Reddit determined that blocking the specific IP address for the chat channels using a firewall filter would block the system's attempts to reconnect, thus removing the lag. However Nexon has not reported back on whether or not this is a bannable offense.
As mentioned in a few previous posts, you can avoid gambling against the TOS by logging off the character while the game is stuttering. This will bring you to the channel selection screen. Enter your respective world to go into the character selection screen. While in that screen, wait until the spikes, stuttering, freezes or whatever you want to call it stops. After logging back in to the game, there will be no more freezing as long as you do not join a chat channel, enter the cash shop, or log off. If you do, simply do the trick again.
Some players claims that this do not work. I believe that it does, though I have no proof. But I did notice a few things. First, the time it takes to stop stuttering in the character selection screen ranges from 2 minutes to 15 minutes.
This seems to be affected by:
1. Computer speed
2. Game latency
3. Internet speed
On double exp events on my slowest computer, it takes ~15 minutes before stuttering stops.
On double exp events on my fastest computer, it takes ~8 minutes before stuttering stops.
On my fastest computer in the mornings, it takes ~2 minutes before stuttering stops.
On my fastest computer in the evening, it takes ~5 minutes before stuttering stops.
These results are proven through testing and not through hard facts.
Also, if you want to avoid freezing on a character that currently does not have this problem, simply do not enter the cash shop. After entering once, it will also start freezing even if you never enter it again. If you must enter it to claim your Reward Points, you can simply sacrifice a character that you hardly play to do so.