If you read this and have any further troubleshooting ideas, maybe I have overlooked something? Please do comment below.
In short:
I have tested this with numerous 4v4 unranked games, 200 pop (and in local play vs AI in a 4v4 Amazon Tunnel game, 300 pop.) Online games especially start lagging after a short while. Game freezes for a second or few, then resumes. Sometimes it completely freezes and only the cursor is working. I can give commands and after like 30s the game might continue running with accelerated speed to catch. Then it might work fine for a while but then the lagging and freezings starts again. Other players are clearly not affected. Commands can be given to vills and units.
In local play vs AI the stutters seems like “normal” and it’s only small stutters which have been there before. But even that is near unplayable due to lag, but atleast I can normally issue commands etc without having to wait dozens of second and wait my game to catch up.
GAME INFORMATION
These details are CRITICAL; DO NOT skip them or your issue may not be reviewed.
- **GAME BUILD: App ID: 813780, Build ID: 7486483
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GAME PLATFORM: Steam
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OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 10
ISSUE EXPERIENCED
This started happening after upgrading my pc. I updated my CPU, riser cable and updated my AMD drivers. I noticed the issue first on this game. I then tested other games (online and offline) and 3DMark tests, Heaven 4.0 but all of them worked completely fine. I also tested with my old riser cable and checked all my connections and cables, but everything was fine. Also the CPU is working fine in all other applications so I doubt there is an issue there. Antivirus is set to ignore AoE 2 DE. Tested with TPM on and off. Game has been reinstalled once and files verified via Steam. Disabling mods had no affect.
When I start an online 4v4 game via unranked lobbies everything works fine at first. Then as the game progresses, it’s starts showing signs of lag that only affects me, other players have never experienced the same when I asked them. At first it’s most noticable when placing farms and other buildings. Game might freeze for half a second, then continues to play. When then placing multiple farms it might freeze for a good 5s before catching back up in a fast forward speed. Then as the game progresses to late game, post imp the stutters get worse. Game might freeze for dozens of seconds at a time. At worst it has been some minutes. Cursor works fine. I can use my pc to do other things normally (watching streams, surfing websites, using other programs, etc.). Only AoE is affected. During the worst massively long lag spikes, Task Manager shows 0% network activity for AoE which is quite odd. But my internet is working fine during this and I might have a stream running on the background with no issues. Otherwise hardware usage is quite low as is expected as this game doesn’t need much to run.
At this point the game is in a state where I can’t really affect the game. I might be able to give general orders to my units and set rally points where to spam units. But during the worst lags I’m not sure if any commands go through.
The ingame Ranked Benchmark Test gave me about 1150 points. The test lagged quite badly though. Previously I have gotten over 1300 points with almost no lag.
FREQUENCY OF ISSUE
How often does the issue occur? CHOSE ONE; DELETE THE REST!
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100% of the time / matches I play (ALWAYS)
REPRODUCTION STEPS
List CLEAR and DETAILED STEPS we can take to reproduce the issue ourselves… Be descriptive!
Here’s the steps to reproduce the issue:
I think the previous description gives a good representation how this happens. And this issue doesn’t affect everyone so can’t give any more info on this.
EXPECTED RESULT
What was SUPPOSED to happen if the bug you encountered were not present?
Game lags and stutters so much, it’s unplayable.
IMAGE
ALWAYS attach a PICTURE (.jpg, .png, .gif) or VIDEO (.mp4, YouTube link) that highlights the problem.
This clip is not from my game and I found it from someone who had reported a similar issue. But it perfectly illustrates the issue. The video shows the mild version of the issue for me. When it’s bad, it gets way worse than the footage shows.
Age of Empires II Definitive Edition 2021.07.27 - 20.13.38.03.DVR_Trim (streamable.com)
GAME FILES (SAVE / RECORDING)
Attach a SAVE GAME (.aoe2spgame) or GAME RECORDING (.aoe2record) of the match where you encountered the issue. Link it below if using an external file service.
- Here are logs from the game, using the logging function from Enhanced Logging Build. The first two files are from an unranked Black Forest 4v4 online game, 200 pop. The latest is from a local 4v4 Amazon Tunnel game against AI, 300 pop.
They are downloaded to Google Drive (read only mode):
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OFXbgk3leVHFJ0zBZcaJGUv1iGDpFWiH?usp=sharing
Further possible troubleshooting ideas:
I have not tested with my old CPU as I sold it. I have not tried to reinstall Windows, but I’d rather not do it as I need my pc daily (also CPU updates don’t warrant an OS reinstall). And as I have not had any issues with any other programs, games, etc, it would seem that this is an issue with AoE not linking something in my working PC setup. Also my pc is more than capable of running this game. Specs below.
My system specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5 11400f
Motherboard: Asrock H570M-ITX/ac (latest 1.5 BIOS from AsRock)
RAM: 16GB (2x8GB), G.Skill Ripjaws V, F4-3200C16D-16GVKB (timings: 3200, 16-18-18-38)
GPU: AMD Powercolor Hellhound RX 6600XT
Storage: Samsung SSD 870 EVO (Read: 560MB/s ; Write: 530MB/s)
Case, PSU, CPU cooling: NZXT H1, 650W, 140mm AIO
Monitor: Asus PG279Q, 144Hz, 2560x1440
This really needs to get fixed, as this this makes the game completely unplayable for some people.