Why is the game so laggy for me?

[BlasterMaster555]

If they would use animated gifs instead of flash player there wouldn't be such a problem!

The biggest offender is the snow effect on the Pokemon ad. Funny that Disney would have Pokemon sponsored, I think.

[thebeez]

Memory, memory, memory. Doesn't matter how fast your processor is, if you have less that 1G memory on XP or 2G on Vista forget it. We are running 3 Laptops at a time over a wireless g/broadband connection. The 2 with XP and 1.5 G memory work great, the one with Vista and 1 G was super laggy until we added another 1G stick to it. None of them have a processor faster than 1.7ghz and all have integrated graphics chips. We do try to play on quiet districts though and can immediately tell if a system scan or windows update kicks in while we are playing.

It is so easy to add memory and if you order it straight from Edge or one of the online stores it's not very expensive. Not just POTCO but everything runs smoother.

[MariaSeaMorgan85]

I would have to agree- you can have the fastest processor in the world but if you don't have at least a gig of ram (2 is way better) and an SSD hard drive it won't mean squat.
Although, I have to say that pirates runs a lot better and smoother on my vista then on my XP.
A couple of things to keep in mind:
1. Close all processes that you aren't using (sidebars, search engines, virus scan, etc.) they use loads of RAM and even if you have plenty of it, the more programs open the less RAM that gets used for your game.
2. Are your drivers updated? Check your manufacturers sites to make sure you are using the latest software.
3. Serious lag when playing in full window? Try playing in a smaller window. It may not be as pretty to look at, but it will save you frustration!


See you on the Seas!
Maria Seamorgan

[BlasterMaster555]

I have TWO Gigabytes of RAM in my laptop! I think I have that part squared away! It uses just over half of it when running. Also, with dual cores, all the "other" processes move to the other core while the game hogs one core. Dual core does make a difference, and in fact, at times I couldn't tell if Norton AV was running its virus scan until I closed the game(s) and noticed it running. Since my dual core has one core pegged at 100% with pirates being the offending task I think it has to do with something hogging CPU power. I know it's the ads because the lag changes with the ad displayed. It almost halts the game when the Pokemon Diamond/Perl Christmas (with the falling snow effect) ad comes on, but the Pirates ad does not hit as hard. If I right-click the ad(s) and choose "Low" quality the game speeds up a lot, only to slow down once the ad(s) refresh. So every minute I am right-clicking the ads and choosing "Low" quality. I'm NOT buying something if they won't show the demo like it's supposed to run. The whole point of the demo is to WOW you on the game, but limit your ability to advance far until you pay up. This is not WOWing me at all. It's just annoying me on poor planning. Again.

[Captain]

It's still ad-supported for the free version? LOL... poor people who don't pay...

[Plo Koon]

being a video game designer. THE PROBLEM IS THAT POTCO RUSHED THEIR RELEASE!

This game is in no way ready to be released. The game will be faster when potco developers decide to buy a faster server, simple as that- Not to mention this game has MORE bugs than before... Dios mio...

[Tinabula The Brave]

I would have to agree with this. And I wish Disney would upgrade something and stop suggestiong that players over upgrade their machines to play. I have a system that can play games, online and not, that require much more graphical muscle than this game...and run much better at that. The problem isn't my machine, or many other peoples machines...it's the game. It's not the amount of players around either, as has been suggested...I can be on an absolutely dead server, not another ship in sight for sometimes hours on end...empty towns...and sure as heck, after a relatively short period of time, the game is chugging so bad, it becomes absolutely unplayable. Only thing worse than the lag issues are the complete lack of feedback from Disney.

Do they even look at these forums I wonder?

I would have thought that such a HUGE money making company would have better servers or better net-code or whatever their problem is.

Asking players to shut the game off every half hour or so is equally obsurd.

I love the game...it's the horrible lag that is driving me to abandon it.

Please fix this Disney! I don't want to leave.

[dangerousden]

I am so sick of Disney Support telling me to update my Grahpics drivers. I HAVE THE LATEST VERSION!!! My Vista laptop (Dual Core 1.8ghz with 3gb RAM and a dedicated 128mb GPU) runs PoTCO with next to no lag. I only notice a slowdown late in the day on a weekend.

The test server never lags, but then again I rarely see anyone else on there

Still lots of bugs, but in general I would say RAM RAM RAM, and a decent graphics card is what is required.

Disney will eventually get round to optimising the code for this Game. My other online pirate game has just had the code optimised and the game was so much better and no server upgrades required.

[gatechgal]

Where I have lag problems is when I board enemy ships. Then my player moves so slow that I get killed a lot.

[Angel]

Ive noticed extreme lag when I board too. However I have noticed bad lag lately....gonna talk with live chat now....

[Eustace the Monk]

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I have almost never experienced lag in the game, unless the Mem usage clears 600M, or on a full server. Maybe I should open a support ticket with something like: My PC doesn't seem to be lagging as much as everyone else's. Is there something I can do to fix this? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but it is definately playable like this. Please Help!

Loot Hard!

[dangerousden]

l m a o Eustace.