Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Newbie Questions

Jan-29-2008 20:35

I just found Sleuth Noir a few days ago. I love the concept! I'd subscribe in a New York minute if only each page of the game didn't take so long to load that I forget what info I've gathered and generally lose interest in my case. I've looked over the boards and faq and don't see any reference to this, so I'm guessing my security settings may be a problem. I use a cable connection and don't generally have this trouble. If it's the nature of the game, I'll have to give up :(

Jan-29-2008 20:53

There are some technical issues involving server speed that Admin continues to address, but if you've got an advanced connection, you shouldn't be affected by that so much. I have no idea what, if any, issues your security settings may have to do with server speed, but there's those around here who probably do.

My best suggestion right now is to take notes while you're working on a particular case, so you don't lose whatever info you need as your page reloads. You can also use any of the various helpers there are available, but if you don't know the logistics behind how a case is solved, this may not be the best of options in my opinion.

As for the server speed, Admin continues to work on the problem. They update us when they make progress.

Jan-30-2008 00:32

I'll just add that Sleuth does have 1 major issue that annoys a lot of us, it's servers overload with hardly anyone on. It runs fine at certain times of the day but at others when you get 60+ people on it runs very slow. Over 70 and if you can you may as well log on later to play. Unfortuneatly for some, like myself, there tends to be 2 time slots when I can play and one is slap bang in the 60+ (sometimes 70+) period. At this point you are lucky if the pages load at quarter the speed as the faster periods.

There a lot of posts about this and there has never been any indication from Admin if they are working to fix it.

There are other issues that lead to slow down that Admin works very hard to fix such as de-clogging the servers.

On the whole I think the best solution is to vary the time you come on as much as possible. It's a problem that can on the most part be worked around.

There are calls to fix it, general concensus is that would require the servers to be upgraded at great cost.

Jan-30-2008 03:14

Dont let the game speed put you off, I started a few days ago and subscribed and I find it a great game. More to do (so im told), if you sub, and i'm certainly looking forward to finding out.

As mentioned above, try different times, subscribe and enjoy. Take my word for it (or dont lol), It is worth it.

And ......... The people here are just great.

Jan-30-2008 03:47

Also don't play around the time of a new day, I find this the slowest time there must be a batch running or something.

Jan-30-2008 04:07

Oh yes I have also noted that the images don't seem to be cached well on my browser,

although not strictly the sleuth server, it does slow down the game waiting for the images.

I have got almost 1 GB of downloads in a month thats a lot for a text only game that limits me to 18 cases a day.

an Expires tag in the HTTP header may help?

Jan-30-2008 09:35

That's true AKAs. It has been a standing joke since I started playing about how slow it gets just before and just after Sleuth turnover. And yes then it is almost impossible to play sometimes.

Jane maybe you logged on at a particularly high peak or maybe it was just pure bad luck that it's being slow for you I dunno. There was a particularly slow period of time not too long ago which affected a lot of people but right now I've had no issue with speed, in fact it seems to be as good as it used to be.

I hope things improve for you though so you can play without any trouble :)

Jan-30-2008 14:17

Thanks for the info, everyone. I played a while earlier today, and the speed was much improved though not ideal. I'll try various times of day to see if I can find my best time. I can see how the game can be incredibly addictive. It really is fun despite the demands it makes on my patience ;)

Jan-30-2008 15:56

I have also noticed that it is slow at different times, but usually when I play (lunch CST) it's really slow. But today it was so fast I was almost dizzy! lol
So I will keep playing, no matter what, and just adapt to my (Sleuth) environment :)

Jan-31-2008 23:23

Stooby in the speed post at SOM board Ben talks about the server problems and what he is doing to fix them.

Feb-1-2008 01:06

Yep that's very true Reda. What can't be fixed is that the servers can only handle around 50 people logged on, 60+ and it slows down, 70+ and they are the times to avoid playing if you can.

That's an issue that can't be tweeked, it'd need more server capacity however you do that but it sounds expensive!