Diablo 2 Resurrected has been causing trouble for fans since its release because the servers keep crashing. This is partly due to the outdated code of the game, but also significantly due to player behavior. According to Blizzard, they are playing “too modern” and thus overloading the poor servers. You can find out exactly what this means here at MeinMMO.
What is happening with the servers in Diablo 2 Resurrected? Since the release, there have been massive problems with the online operations of the action RPG Diablo 2 Resurrected. There has been a whole host of issues, including:
- Login issues
- Missing characters
- Missing items
Furthermore, the servers were repeatedly down and no one could play online anymore. This was compounded by necessary rollbacks that cost players their progress. The mood is therefore quite bad, and fans would like an explanation and solution from Blizzard.
The search for problems has likely been undertaken, and ironically, the behavior of players today shares some of the blame.
These are the causes of the server problems
Overall, the developers have identified two major areas causing the poor performance of the servers. In a large forum post (via Blizzard), the devs laid out the issues.
Why player behavior is problematic: One of the reasons for the server outages has been, according to Blizzard, spikes in traffic. This has simply overburdened the servers. The reason for this is the “modern” gameplay, which is different in 2021 than it was in the year 2000 when Diablo 2 was released.
But what exactly do the devs mean by “modern behavior”? It means that players today play much more purposefully than back then:
In 2001, there was nowhere near as much content on the internet addressing how to play Diablo II “correctly” (Baal runs for XP, Pindleskin/Ancient Sewers/etc. for magic find, etc.). Nowadays, however, a new player can find plenty of good content creators showing them how to play the game in various [effective] ways, many of which involve heavy loads on the databases in the form of creating, loading, and quitting games in quick succession. Although we anticipated this, […] we vastly underestimated the scope [of these playstyles] that we gleaned from beta tests.
Since today players play much more purposefully and effectively, thus overloading the server databases, regular outages occur, according to Blizzard.
What does Blizzard mean by this? The problem appears to be “boss runs”: This is when players log in at a waypoint before a boss, quickly kill it, close the game, and create a new game to repeat that boss run.
This is an effective method for farming loot in Diablo 2: Resurrected.
The problem with the code: However, the players of Diablo 2 Resurrected are not solely to blame for the misery. Diablo 2 Resurrected is not a remake, but a remaster of the original Diablo 2. This means that in many respects, the code of the game is identical to the original from 2000.
And it should be obvious that a code that was great over 20 years ago is not necessarily ideal for responding to the network requirements of modern times. In conjunction with the changed behavior of the players, this creates an unstable situation where the servers regularly throw in the towel.
Limitations for farming runs on assembly line
How do the developers plan to fix the problems? Of course, the developers are not telling you all this just to leave you in the rain with a “Well, that’s just how it is now”. The team has devised the following measures to address the problems:
- Limits on data rates: One of the problems, as discussed, is that players create new games very quickly for certain farming runs. This will be limited for now. It may happen that you receive an error message if you start too many games in quick succession. However, this is just a temporary solution until the problem can be managed better.
- Queues at login: To reduce the simultaneous influx of players to the servers, there will be queues. This is intended to evenly distribute the player load and reduce spikes in traffic.
- Breaking critical processes into smaller units: The developers are already working on breaking down critical processes into their components so that they can be better scalable and thus withstand large data loads better.
One can only hope that with these and future measures, more stability will finally be established at the servers.
A welcome update makes it harder for you to accidentally delete your hard-earned heroes.
