Tue Sep 05, 2006 6:13 am
Plagatus wrote:Survey Shack: Majority Rules: http://www.neopets.com/games/globalmark ... ame2.phtml
Do the "Take a Survey" option, do it 3 times, and you'll notice the curtains will hardly move, and if you play the game itself, it takes a long time to display the questions and accept answers.
Survey Shack: Super Daily Survey: http://www.neopets.com/games/surveyshack/game1.phtml
Drop one ball. Notice instant slowdown. Weep. Note that this slowdown does not happen in any of the other drop ball games until a long time of play has occurred.
Ditto, and ditto. Super Daily Survey is completely unplayable.
varii wrote:Oh, and Defender Trainer, that game has the most frustrating glitch when moving targets come up. Sometimes the thing they ask you for isn't there, sometimes it's there, but they pretend it's not what they asked for. I can't play that game anymore because I lose all my lives on nonsense questions.
Ditto again. This is a recent development. There's no way not to lose a life on every moving targets question.
Other than the above, I've noticed a general flash slowdown and have had problems submitting scores, but I couldn't give you specific games offhand.
Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:30 am
Daze wrote:Update for Faeriebubbles. I re-booted and the game is back to normal speed.
Yeah, that's the thing with most games... when you start playing, they're okay, but they get worse and worse the longer you have them open. Since Faerie Bubbles is a long game (20 levels), I can't make it to the end before I have to abort the flash script.
allnameswereout, it could be our computers, but I doubt it. These things started affecting everyone around the same time. I know I haven't changed anything on my computer, and all the games I've mentioned ran perfectly fine before.
I just searched old chat logs to find out when this started happening. Looks like sometime around June 16/17. That weekend, flash games were totally screwed up, not giving out any NP or anything. That was fixed, but all these lagging problems were not. The lagging and some other weird things like text not showing up properly in game menus may have been happening for a couple days before that bad weekend, but that's around the general time.
Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:06 am
Before all the game problems a few months earlier, I would easily score 4000+ on Volcano Run, and could play Zurroball for a half hour before messing up. Recently, its not so easy. Both games are jerky and hard to control. Plus, I still dont see text on Meerca Chase I (Though admittedly I stopped playing it a couple weeks ago, because it was too frustrating with the jerkyness.)
On IE, Volcano Run seems 'floaty,' kind of like the controls are delayed, so that when I release the mouse button, the Scorchio will continue to fly up for another half second. Sometimes I'll release the mouse button, and he'll keep flying up until he hits the ceiling and dies. On Firefox, Volcano Run moves at unexpected rates, hindering gameplay. Sometimes it will run smoothly, then out of nowhere, it will freeze for a second, and then start moving again. Then freeze, then move, over and over. Its gotten to a point where Im used to the jerkyness, and have learned to compensate. But its still annoying to do everything right, and run into a flame because the game froze for a split second.
Zurroball is terrible. It has jerky gameplay as well, which is even harder to compensate for when trying to do grounders. To play that game well, you need to have a rhythm with the clicks, and thats impossible if the stupid Grundoball freezes up for even a half second before dropping. I used to be able to score 7000, now Im lucky to get 340.
Also, on TROTRODS, the game goes okay with minimal problems, but after I send my score, the NP goes through, but I have to click completely out of the window to start a new game. The link that would normally let you click and start isnt there. Just some jumbled numbers with all text missing. The movement during the game also get progressively slower, especially if I play with all the special effects on, but since I get the max 1000NP fairly quickly, its only bothersome when Im bored and feel like playing for fun.
Ive stopped playing a lot of games because they're all jerky or completely freeze up. Ive tried shutting down all my windows and playing, Ive tried different browsers, I've closed all unnecessary things running in the background, but theres still a problem. We bought my computer in 2004, I run virus scans every week, and though my computer isnt brand new or top of the line, its not crap.
Other games I play that share the jerkyness/slowdown problem are Bouncy Supreme, Ice Cream Machine, Wack-A-Kass, Turmac Roll, Meerca Chase II, and Pterattack. These were the core games I used to play, but dont anymore because I get frustrated. I used to be good at them and they were my favorites and everything, and now Id have to struggle through them.
On IE, Volcano Run seems 'floaty,' kind of like the controls are delayed, so that when I release the mouse button, the Scorchio will continue to fly up for another half second. Sometimes I'll release the mouse button, and he'll keep flying up until he hits the ceiling and dies. On Firefox, Volcano Run moves at unexpected rates, hindering gameplay. Sometimes it will run smoothly, then out of nowhere, it will freeze for a second, and then start moving again. Then freeze, then move, over and over. Its gotten to a point where Im used to the jerkyness, and have learned to compensate. But its still annoying to do everything right, and run into a flame because the game froze for a split second.
Zurroball is terrible. It has jerky gameplay as well, which is even harder to compensate for when trying to do grounders. To play that game well, you need to have a rhythm with the clicks, and thats impossible if the stupid Grundoball freezes up for even a half second before dropping. I used to be able to score 7000, now Im lucky to get 340.
Also, on TROTRODS, the game goes okay with minimal problems, but after I send my score, the NP goes through, but I have to click completely out of the window to start a new game. The link that would normally let you click and start isnt there. Just some jumbled numbers with all text missing. The movement during the game also get progressively slower, especially if I play with all the special effects on, but since I get the max 1000NP fairly quickly, its only bothersome when Im bored and feel like playing for fun.
Ive stopped playing a lot of games because they're all jerky or completely freeze up. Ive tried shutting down all my windows and playing, Ive tried different browsers, I've closed all unnecessary things running in the background, but theres still a problem. We bought my computer in 2004, I run virus scans every week, and though my computer isnt brand new or top of the line, its not crap.
Other games I play that share the jerkyness/slowdown problem are Bouncy Supreme, Ice Cream Machine, Wack-A-Kass, Turmac Roll, Meerca Chase II, and Pterattack. These were the core games I used to play, but dont anymore because I get frustrated. I used to be good at them and they were my favorites and everything, and now Id have to struggle through them.
Tue Sep 05, 2006 10:50 am
See, rebooting and its fixed seems suspicious. Has anyone investigated the CPU and/or RAM usage?
It may also be related to Flash versions. I'm running Shockwave Flash 9.0 r16 according to about:plugins in Firefox.
My system is so non-standard I'd almost say my analysis wouldn't matter for this. I'll consider at a point when its slightly more standard. Received my new NVidia videocard just an hour ago. Yay! Who wants a Radeon 9800? Lol. Gonna soon see if any software affected.
Now, my theory (its just a theory) is that the games have been changed. One possibility is that internally they now contain a kind of encryption, attempting to defeat cheaters. This may be experimental, and only be active in some games. Since the games run on your computer you are basically able to 'crack' them. In fact, my girlfriend found out cheats for Neopets games are sold over the Internet a few months ago. I've always suspected this to be a flaw especially if you consider something such as WC.
Zurroball has been featured game a few times last weeks. This was the first time I tried it but the game is so incredibly hard for me there is hardly any time to react! Could very well be my gaming ability though. The iron ball seems best I manage to at least keep one of my three balls in the air for a small while grabbing 20-30 pts.
It may also be related to Flash versions. I'm running Shockwave Flash 9.0 r16 according to about:plugins in Firefox.
My system is so non-standard I'd almost say my analysis wouldn't matter for this. I'll consider at a point when its slightly more standard. Received my new NVidia videocard just an hour ago. Yay! Who wants a Radeon 9800? Lol. Gonna soon see if any software affected.
Now, my theory (its just a theory) is that the games have been changed. One possibility is that internally they now contain a kind of encryption, attempting to defeat cheaters. This may be experimental, and only be active in some games. Since the games run on your computer you are basically able to 'crack' them. In fact, my girlfriend found out cheats for Neopets games are sold over the Internet a few months ago. I've always suspected this to be a flaw especially if you consider something such as WC.
Zurroball has been featured game a few times last weeks. This was the first time I tried it but the game is so incredibly hard for me there is hardly any time to react! Could very well be my gaming ability though. The iron ball seems best I manage to at least keep one of my three balls in the air for a small while grabbing 20-30 pts.
Tue Sep 05, 2006 10:59 am
ive had major problems wiht kou jong, script errors everytime i complete a stage, very slow always.
quasalan caper i have found slow and jerky at times. that and kiko match seem to choose not to load in firefox frequently but work in ie or vice versa.
other game si dont play often anyway.
quasalan caper i have found slow and jerky at times. that and kiko match seem to choose not to load in firefox frequently but work in ie or vice versa.
other game si dont play often anyway.
Tue Sep 05, 2006 11:06 am
allnameswereout wrote:See, rebooting and its fixed seems suspicious. Has anyone investigated the CPU and/or RAM usage?
Yes, I had a friend test it, with Faerie Bubbles. Memory usage would spike to 100% while the game was frozen up for a second between levels. And remember, this started happening literally overnight -- one day the game was fine, and the next it wasn't. None of us changed anything on our computers.
And I agree, it is odd that many games are fine when you first start playing, but get more laggy and unresponsive the longer you keep the window open (although not all games are like this; some are bad immediately). I think something must be buggy with the games themselves or with flash, because they are obviously eating up resources at a rate higher than they should. I just want an answer from somebody on staff who knows what's up.
Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:52 pm
I would just avoid most games today, glitches about and scoring issues. And no, they're not cheating to get those scores.
Tue Sep 05, 2006 1:38 pm
Okay, I kept the NVidia in package. While I unplugged my Radeon I noticed a lot of dust and after unplugging it I cleaned the fan. It was literally full with dust. I couldn't unscrew the fan case as the screws are too vast screwed so had to use a various q-tips. Replugged Radeon. WC3 didn't crash, I not tried ET yet. So far no effect on Neopets games afaict.
If it changed literally overnight it would make the theory that its Flash unlikely as not everyone's Flash version changes from one day to another.
In any case no matter the application memory usage should not spike to 100% (whatever number of MB 100% may be except on very ancient computers). Such denotes a serious software flaw! If this happens either your computer becomes dog slow because it'll swap the memory (using your harddrive; substantially slower than your RAM) or the application which allocates the most memory (usually the faulty application) is killed hence it appears the browser crashes. Perhaps the footprint of memory usage increased and people with older computers with low RAM suffer from that. I think what I noticed was 100% CPU usage (also a serious flaw) but I'm not sure.
So you basically say my theory is nonsense while there seem to be applications which allow one to cheat on Neopets games. Care to point out why my theory is flawed?
If it changed literally overnight it would make the theory that its Flash unlikely as not everyone's Flash version changes from one day to another.
In any case no matter the application memory usage should not spike to 100% (whatever number of MB 100% may be except on very ancient computers). Such denotes a serious software flaw! If this happens either your computer becomes dog slow because it'll swap the memory (using your harddrive; substantially slower than your RAM) or the application which allocates the most memory (usually the faulty application) is killed hence it appears the browser crashes. Perhaps the footprint of memory usage increased and people with older computers with low RAM suffer from that. I think what I noticed was 100% CPU usage (also a serious flaw) but I'm not sure.
mogster500 wrote:I would just avoid most games today, glitches about and scoring issues. And no, they're not cheating to get those scores.
So you basically say my theory is nonsense while there seem to be applications which allow one to cheat on Neopets games. Care to point out why my theory is flawed?
Tue Sep 05, 2006 1:46 pm
Oh wow, I thought most of these were just me/my computer.
I knew Moon Rock Rampage had problems (someone else posted about it here last month), but for the sake of details:
Moon Rock Rampage - will run more or less normally until I try to fire, then everything slows to a crawl for several seconds.
Jolly Jugglers - Runs jerkily, also slows way down while I'm firing my gun, and when trying to switch between characters.
Survey Smash Majority Rules - will run fine the first two times I play, but slow way down on the third. Also sometimes freezes between questions and nothing will fix it other than closing and reopening the flash window. Also seems to have some kind of issue where the percentages will not show up and I can't advance (the field will turn yellow as if there's an answer there, but it's blank; it thinks I've answered because it says Last Guess with my last guess, but I can't move on to the next guess because it doesn't think I've actually answered. If that makes any sense. oO)..
Berry Lucky Charms Triple Track - did this game get taken down? I can't find it. Anyway, it ran extremely slowly/jerkily, and slowed way down when I would try to jump or duck.
I knew Moon Rock Rampage had problems (someone else posted about it here last month), but for the sake of details:
Moon Rock Rampage - will run more or less normally until I try to fire, then everything slows to a crawl for several seconds.
Jolly Jugglers - Runs jerkily, also slows way down while I'm firing my gun, and when trying to switch between characters.
Survey Smash Majority Rules - will run fine the first two times I play, but slow way down on the third. Also sometimes freezes between questions and nothing will fix it other than closing and reopening the flash window. Also seems to have some kind of issue where the percentages will not show up and I can't advance (the field will turn yellow as if there's an answer there, but it's blank; it thinks I've answered because it says Last Guess with my last guess, but I can't move on to the next guess because it doesn't think I've actually answered. If that makes any sense. oO)..
Berry Lucky Charms Triple Track - did this game get taken down? I can't find it. Anyway, it ran extremely slowly/jerkily, and slowed way down when I would try to jump or duck.
Last edited by TiCup on Tue Sep 05, 2006 2:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Tue Sep 05, 2006 1:50 pm
If you check their scores, they got perfectly normal ones. I was talking to one of them earlier. I think they did nothing wrong.
Tue Sep 05, 2006 1:53 pm
Bumper Cars have problems as well. Sometimes you can't get to next level although other cars break down.
Tue Sep 05, 2006 1:58 pm
See, rebooting and its fixed seems suspicious. Has anyone investigated the CPU and/or RAM usage?
Closing the old game and re-opening a new game worked just as well, I didn't have to reboot. I just decided to, just in case it was my computer.
Most people think it is their computer and do what they can on their end before realising it is Neopets causing the problems.
Tue Sep 05, 2006 2:49 pm
mogster500 wrote:If you check their scores, they got perfectly normal ones. I was talking to one of them earlier. I think they did nothing wrong.
Uhm I don't think you can make such global statement about thousands of people just because you talked to one. Here is another one who also wins WC pieces regularly who claims not to be cheating. All you have is my word. I could be lying, how can you verify? I've seen several odd scores, odd tallies, noticed various bugs, but nevermind all that.
The cheats for games as well as the theory stand for themselves. Even if its not used for WC I'm sure there are some zeals who wouldn't mind thousands of NP for free via cheating without Neopets having any way to check wether its cheating or genuine.
Still interesting in hearing about more CPU and/or RAM observations...
EDIT:
Orhonjan wrote:Bumper Cars have problems as well. Sometimes you can't get to next level although other cars break down.
Oh gosh, it is so long ago since I've played that game it must have been last year around novembre. And then I stumbled regularly upon this very bug. This is certainly not a new bug.
Tue Sep 05, 2006 3:52 pm
Survey Smash Majority Rules - .... Also seems to have some kind of issue where the percentages will not show up and I can't advance (the field will turn yellow as if there's an answer there, but it's blank; it thinks I've answered because it says Last Guess with my last guess, but I can't move on to the next guess because it doesn't think I've actually answered. If that makes any sense. oO)..
I forgot about that! I get that too
Tue Sep 05, 2006 4:30 pm
oh no, not faerie bubbles! that's my favorite! 
Oh well, thanks for the warning!
Oh well, thanks for the warning!