Board Thread:LOC General Discussion/@comment-6369439-20130208035047/@comment-75.54.86.92-20130208051220

As you may know, all your data is stored on their server(s). As such, a majority of the actions you make in the game require multiple calls to the server's database(s). Given the number of different queries that can be made and the sheer volume of players, their server(s) must process a ton of data each second. Hence, the lengthy loading times.

That said, I have to agree that loading times are rather annoying. I imagine they are aware of the issue ... the frustration it may cause. The "Forge Ahead" feature was something they added to reduce loading times. The feature lumps a series of identical actions into a single query. Yet even the addition of similar such features would only offer a slight improvement.

A real solution would be to cache the players actions; then process them in another thread. That way the player is only required to wait upon real-time events (that is, actions that must complete before other actions may occur). However, I have a serious lack of confidence in their dev team considering the frequency of bugs that crop up. Such a solution may inflict significant brain trauma should they attempt to implement it ... (and besides, it's a little late in the game to go making major changes to the client ... and server code).

Also, from their point-of-view, the current system must seem to be working. I mean, obviously people are dumping large sums of money into the game. So, why change it?