Lag on my basic multiplayer server

Heya @mrjacobtaiwancoral,

It’s possible your Droplet can’t handle the actions. If not mistaken the Droplet has 1GB of RAM and 1vCPU. That might be enough to host the application but any more actions could be putting a strain to your Droplet.

It’s easy to check though. Enter your Droplet via SSH and monitor it. You can do that with w htop top. Alertnatively, you can use DigitalOcean’s Monitoring :

https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/monitoring/

DigitalOcean Monitoring is a free, opt-in service that gathers metrics about Droplet-level resource utilization. It provides additional Droplet graphs and supports configurable metrics alert policies with integrated email Slack notifications to help you track the operational health of your infrastructure.

Hi there,

In addition to what has already been mentioned, it sounds like the lag and stuttering issues on your multiplayer server could be closely related to the resources available on your current DigitalOcean droplet. Given that you’re using the $6/month plan, the resources (particularly CPU and RAM) are relatively limited, which might not suffice for a multiplayer game server, especially when handling multiple connections.

What I could suggest is:

1. Upgrade to a CPU-Optimized Droplet:

   • Why CPU-Optimized: Multiplayer servers, particularly those running games or applications written in Rust, can be CPU-intensive. A CPU-optimized droplet provides dedicated CPU resources, which are crucial for compute-intensive applications. This would ensure that your server has enough processing power to handle game logic, player movements, and real-time updates efficiently.
   • Selecting the Right Plan: DigitalOcean offers various CPU-optimized plans. Based on your current needs and the scale of your multiplayer server, you should evaluate which plan would be the most suitable. Even a small CPU-optimized Droplet could offer a significant performance improvement over a basic plan.

2. Monitor Performance:

   • After upgrading, closely monitor the server’s performance. Pay attention to CPU usage, memory utilization, and network throughput. This will give you a clear picture of whether the new plan is handling the load effectively. You can use the htop command to keep an eye on your server resources utilization:

   https://www.digitalocean.com/community/questions/how-to-find-the-processes-that-are-consuming-the-most-server-resources

Keep in mind future scaling. As your user base grows, you might need to further scale up your resources.

Let me know how it goes!

Best,

Bobby