Client freezing while zoning and other issues

[ALLCAPS]

I have been playing p99 for a little over a year now and have never had this problem before until I started playing again (after a ~4 month break) and installed the latest spell files.

Nowadays about 10% of the time that I port or zone my client hangs up and freezes entirely. Which leaves me having to exit the client and reboot it. However, sometimes once I log back in my character list is empty, and other times it says my spell files are out of date (they aren't).

That's if I can even log in, because many times my server list is completely blank or I'll even get an error message telling me there is a problem with the log in. It's getting really frustrating considering I am a druid and there has been countless times that I will port someone and freeze up meaning I don't get a tip nor can I give them levitate or whatever else they need.

I have turned off the artwork while zoning but that has done nothing. Is there any suggestions as to what may be causing this? Some people in my guild said they have been having the same issues lately but no one knows a solution.

[JickFromTholuxe]

+1 !

I have been having this same issue. I got back recently from a hiatus away from P99. Before that, I was playing on a Mac (using the Wineskin method) without any of the OP's issues. Now that I'm back, I've been experiencing the exact issues OP describes but it's the same installation I used before. For me the zoning crash happens about 25% - 50% of the time. When I zone, if I see the loading graphic and the progress bar I know that I will probably make it but sometimes the progress bar disappears (as if it's the final step in the zoning process) and then just hangs indefinitely. Most times I zone and never see a loading screen -- just the frozen picture as I hit the zone line. I have to force kill EQ, re-open it, and wait until the server times me out.

I can't tell you what a soul-crushingly bad issue this is to live with. I lose groups because of it. I sometimes haven't been able to tip porters (I now always tip in advance) or get a SoW after port. I lose buffs that I could have gotten after getting a rez. When I move with a large group through several zones, everyone ends up waiting on me wondering WTF happened. I was even being helped by Greengrocer earlier this morning with some crafting services and he got stuck waiting on me as I crashed zoning, then crashed zoning back in. I lose track of my /tell history and can't follow up with important conversations. The list really goes on and on. Zoning for any reason scares me and I dread doing it.

I haven't had the server-list-blank issue but I do get the empty character list and spell file out-of-date issue. At first I thought I was accidentally connecting to the wrong server but it's happened too many times when I'm sure I'm connecting to the right one for it to be a server selection issue.

Another issue I should mention is that my lag after coming back is extreme. Mobs and PCs ghost all over the place but my lag indicator shows 100% quality. I have little lag spikes very often, maybe every 5-20 seconds. Sometimes are worse than others. If it's a packet loss issue I wonder why the F11 network quality meter wouldn't report it?

My hypothesis is that the two issues are related somehow but I don't have much to back that up.

I've encountered a few other people who know folks having the same issue. This is clearly not something only I am getting and I don't think even the fact I play on a Macbook is to blame, especially considering it worked flawlessly just last year.

If there is anything I can do to help the devs diagnose this issue, I'd love to try. I am also a software engineer so maybe I could send a pcap file of my network traffic, record the time/date it happens so the devs can check for any errors in the server logs, etc. I'd love to get this issue fixed.

[ALLCAPS]

I'm glad to see I am not the only one. The only useful suggestion I have heard thus far is to restart your computer when the problem happens. This may or may not help you, but after restarting I can usually go a couple of hours without freezing upon zoning, but the problem will come up again sooner or later.

I also heard that alt-tabbing to another program will increase the chance of this happening, but I can't say that with certainty since I alt-tab often so I can listen to Howard Stern via Sirius' website. (BABABOOEY, though I doubt anyone will get that reference)

I too came back after a break and this NEVER happened before I came back, it was always smooth sailing until I started playing again. Really makes me wonder what happened to really cause this issue.

[myriverse]

Been in this boat since I joined. You're not the only one.