Been hoping....

I purchased SOTA about a year or so ago. I stopped playing because I was frustrated with the slow loading entry into the game and when changes maps, and the horror of updating. I am really pleased that there has been so much updating on the game and I do realize that the devs are working on improving it but when is the focus going to be moved to improving how the game performs? I came back to the game with the hopes that there had been enough time to allow the devs to improve the performance of the game. I will admit I don't have as good of a system as I could/should, but I am still above the minimum requirements for SOTA. I do plan to build a new system if I can get some time off from work. I would like to be able to play the game in the meantime. The latest issue I am running into outside of the game taking about 15 minutes to load is that it's requiring me to patch every time. I've already gone though the patch process to patch 939, but when I started the launcher today it's wanting me to download it all again for the third time. I really, really want to love this game because UO was the first MMO I started playing over 20 years ago when my son was 8. Plus I am trying to get my son to play also since the game is modeled after UO. Is there anything that I can do in the meantime to stop this issue and to improve the performance. I already have the game on the lowest graphics and set for low end computers which mine isn't.

My system:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz processor
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. SABERTOOTH P67 motherboard
8G Kingston DDR 3 1333MHz RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 video card
2TB Western Digital SATA hard drive

Any help or explanation that someone can give would be much appreciated. I actually purchased the game back when it first came out so I would really like to be able to play and enjoy the game instead of feeling like I'm being tortured for patience. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

 

Get a SSD Hard Drive. And 8 more GIGS RAM.

Minimum and Recommend specs: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/minimum-system-requirements.55790/

Minimum:

• OS: Windows 7 64 bit or newer
• Processor: Quad Core 2.4 GHz or faster
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: DirectX 11 Compatible NVIDIA 960 / AMD 560
• Network: Broadband Internet connection (Not required for Offline Mode)
• Hard Drive: 22 GB available space

Recommended:

• Processor: Quad Core 2.8 GHz or faster
• Memory: 12 GB RAM
• Graphics: DirectX 11 Compatible NVIDIA GTX 1070 / ATI Radeon HD 5870
• Hard Drive:SSD

 

Have you tried changing your video settings to "fastest" ?

And turning off some other stuff in settings?

 

Yeah, turn shadows off.

 

Yeah 8GB memory will not do it sorry man. The minimum really is 16GB. Not sure why they are not changing those specs. Everyone knows you are not going to be running SotA on 8GB..
Your system will be swapping memory to disk non stop making it very sloooooooow on a normal hard disk.

 

Yes, ATM I've only 8GB and if my system swap on a mechanic disk the game is quite unplayable.
If you will use a SSD it will change a lot!
Game and system swap on SSD let the game go fast also with 8GB of RAM

 

Yes improvement, but with 16GB and a SSD even better

 

And 32GB is the best
BTW, only for tell that 8GB are enought for SOTA with a SSD

 

I play a lot better than I did in past with 8gb but my settings are on Fast and as a difference I got an SSD, rest are about equal

 

Turning off all video enhancements should drastically reduce memory needs. Shadows, reflections and cloth simulations are the biggest memory hogs that can be deactivated, but camera effects and volumetric lighting also use a LOT of memory. I still don't know if it will be playable with 8GB, especially if you are running Windows 10. (Windows 10 is a memory hog with all it's background tasks.)

Keep in mind towns do tend to get poor framerates. The framerate is much better in adventuring areas.

You will also always have substantial stutter on occasion. This is upstream in the game engine used. However, in the 2019 beta of the game engine there is a fix for that, so it hopefully should be fixed by the end of this year. (As well as for the hundreds of other games out there using the same engine.)

 

FWIW there are two places I know of that have puzzles that depend on shadows. I think they are Sequanna Colossus and Shamino Hills. But there may be more.

 

My performance on a laptop is really good. Im using graphical settings in about the top 40% of settings - I did several FPS experiments to find the best balance to get me 40-50 fps on average.

Your procesor and graphics outclass mine. I have 16GB RAM and an SSD, however. Also, my GPU has 4GB of dedicated video RAM that seems to be red-lined 24/7, so that might be a factor.

4GB more RAM and an SSD should be all you need. Some people are running latest generation technology that costs as much as a used car but don't fare *that much* better than me.

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