[Expected] Performance: Scene Loading Times Long Even with New SSD Drive

One of the things I dislike most about playing SotA is the frequency and duration of the loading screens. When traveling throughout the game they occur very often and the duration quite literally limits gameplay. I avoid them as often as possible and I often find myself simply walking away from the game or doing something else while waiting for the game to load, which frequently results in me losing interest or getting kicked from the game for not returning back in time to continue playing after a load.

My whole family feels the same way.

So, for Christmas I thought it would be a good idea to buy my family a new gaming computer with a new SSD drive for playing SotA. However, I'm disappointed to say that it has not made a significant difference. The load screens are still many and even with the new SSD drive they still take too long.

I think reducing the frequency and duration of load times should certainly be a main focus in order to get more people playing longer and more often.

The new load screens and game tips help a little bit, but it might be better if the screens and tips changed every few seconds.

Or maybe there could be mini-games that could be played against various game characters during load screens? Or maybe game lore could be displayed for reading? Maybe the activity could be chosen? If players were busy reading during the load screens or playing a mini game, betting gold or resources, it could even make the load screens interesting.

Overall it would probably be best to reduce the frequency and duration of load screens, but something definitely needs to be done to minimize their impact.

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Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight-Core Processor, 4000 Mhz
Radeon (TM) RX 470 Graphics 4 GB
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB
Kingston 480GB 550MB/s SSD

Load times starting with a fresh boot of SotA in Solo:

2:43 - First Login to Brittany Alleys
0:25 - Brittany Alleys to Novia
0:56 - Novia to Brittany Estates
0:41 - Novia to Brittany Fields
0:41 - Login to Celestis
0:56 - Login to Brittany Wharf
1:15 - Login to Ardoris
1:10 - Login to Central Brittany
1:15 - Novia to Brittany Alleys
0:38 - Login to POT​

It appears one thing that may be making things worse for me is that I have a house in Brittany Alleys and go there frequently. Brittany Alleys appears to have the longest load times. I notice that all scenes load fairly quickly to 50% and that is where it really slows down. What happens at 50%?

Further, there is another delay on top of the load times for housing information to load. The housing delay takes another minute or two before the house sign or house changes will apply. I'll time the housing delay the next time I login.

 

I find it frustrating too. I find it soooooo much longer after the optimizations. Gigabit connection, very fast computer (Ram, Processor, Video Card, SSD, all good) - 2 minutes to load my POT.

Makes me gnash my teeth!

 

Additional time, beyond character load times listed above, to fully load housing database:

0:52 Brittany Alleys
1:11 Brittany Fields
0:22 Celestis
1:12 Brittany Warfs
1:10 Brittany Central