So in this thread I’d like to discuss a problem with a very specific kind of disconnect issue. This relates ONLY to players who:
-have a very stable, fast, low-latency, wired internet connection with no general connectivity issues
-only get disconnected from EVE while all other internet-related apps are unaffected
-always get disconnected on all clients simultaneously with no warning signs like general lagginess for minutes prior to the disconnect
-can always immediately reconnect after such a disconnect(!)
This is NOT for you if you:
-often have general problems with your internet (or even game with a wifi connection, ugh)
-always or sometimes lose connection with some clients but one or more other EVE clients stay connected
-experience lagginess in EVE during the minutes before the disconnect
-can not immediately reconnect
If you fit one or more of these criteria, you may have legitimate issues as well, but they are definitely different from the issue I experience and want to discuss here.
With that out of the way: I was logged in for multiple hours per day almost every day for the last several months, but the vast majority of the time with only one or two clients that don’t do much, only scanning and monitoring. I NEVER got disconnected during these many, many hours of ‘low-intensity playing’.
But sometimes I use up to five clients, and in a much more intensive way, sometimes issuing a lot of orders in rapid succession. And when playing like this, I had still rather rare and infrequent, but multiple instances where I got disconnected as described above: Totally suddenly, with no warning signs like lagginess, on all clients simultaneously. And I could always reconnect immediately. It actually doesn’t really feel like a disconnect, more like being deliberately kicked by the server.
This always without fail happened at the worst possible moment: In high-end combat sites, resulting in the loss of ships.
But recently I could trigger such a disconnect in a different situation: I was undocking five characters at once and was frantically clicking stuff on all clients very rapidly. Boom, disconnect on all clients.
I have seen in reports by other players who seem to have this issue that most or all seem to share one thing: They get these disconnects while multi-boxing.
So my theory is that these disconnects are a result of new anti-DDoS measures on the part of CCP. When we use multiple clients and issue a lot of commands in a short time, it will sometimes trigger a mechanism meant to protect the cluster from DDoS attacks and kicking such clients before they can overwhelm the servers. Meaning it isn’t actually a connection issue at all.
If this is true, CCP are not going to acknowledge it because it means they are actively kicking players from the server. I’m not really mad about that by the way; DDoS is a serious problem and difficult to defend against.
In one instance some days ago I had the weird occurence that all my clients seemed to be frozen for about 20 seconds, no damage was dealt or received, or at least not displayed. Modules kept running but didn’t seem to do anything. I just waited and didn’t click anything, and eventually the game resumed.
Then some days later I had the same situation, but this time I continued clicking stuff. Boom, disconnect, ship loss.
So I encourage anyone who experiences this issue to try this:
-deliberately slow down when using multiple clients, avoiding to issue commands rapidly (one command per second or less)
Or do the opposite in non-critical situations:
-try to click madly on several clients to generate as much (non-automated) input as possible and see if you can sometimes trigger a disconnect
(but the latter definitely does not reliably work, thankfully)
Let’s see if being slow eliminates or reduces these disconnects.