Massive FPS drops with skeleton spawns

I submitted a support ticket and they just closed the ticket saying they have passed on the information to their team or whatever.

but don't they get it? the game is unplayable because of this issue, I go to a skull fort or skeleton ship and I'm playing at like 2 fps.. and the game starts freezing sometimes up to 5 to 10 seconds and then when it starts moving again I'm dead...

and I know I'm not the only one with this issue, my friends have it as well.

I can't even get a refund on steam because I've exceeded the hours.

Still no fix or solution...

@kid4844 try to disable steam overlay and see if that fixes it

@souldem0ted tried that during my last play session, didn't work..

I have the same problem. When some types of sceletons are spawned, FPS go down from 60 to...15? 10? and freeze for few seconds.

@r4n74r said in Massive FPS drops with skeleton spawns:

I have the same problem. When some types of sceletons are spawned, FPS go down from 60 to...15? 10? and freeze for few seconds.

3 of my friends have the same issue, one of them purchased the game on the microsoft sore. so I guess it's not only affecting steam users.

it's really annoying because this issue is game breaking and the devs are keeping silent about it. starting to feel like I paid money for a defective product..

One of my friends has this issue as well. Most noticeably, whenever a skeleton sloop spawns to attack us, their game locks up for about a minute. Just a solid minute of one member of our crew standing at whatever station they were at when the music started playing while the rest of us try to handle the fight down one. Since we've only gotten sloops and haven't gotten into any PvP so far, it hasn't gotten us sunk yet, but it is still very frustrating and is a huge detriment to especially the one friend's enjoyment.

I get this as well any time I get near a skeleton event island. FPS goes from ~120 to 40 and the game becomes so juddery it almost makes me sick. Very frustrating that there's no info on this.

I have also been seeing FPS drops on islands, especially when skeletons are spawning. Just did a fort the other night, and as soon as the last skeleton died, my FPS returned to normal. As soon as the next wave spawned my FPS dipped again. Usually get 80-100+ FPS, it fluctuates all over the place when skeletons are around.

Seems like certain islands are really bad for FPS, some islands run perfectly. I'm on steam version with a 32gb ram, 1080ti, and an i5 6600K overclocked.

@nopunintend0 What's really weird is I'll get it even if I'm sailing off shore of an active skeleton event. Something about the skeles spawning just destroys my FPS when it's fine otherwise.

@rodsnax said in Massive FPS drops with skeleton spawns:

@nopunintend0 What's really weird is I'll get it even if I'm sailing off shore of an active skeleton event. Something about the skeles spawning just destroys my FPS when it's fine otherwise.

same here... the other day we were being attacked by players and a skeleton galleon spawned close and our fps just dipped and the game was freezing, next thing we know the ship is sinking...

even just a few minutes ago we were trying to do a fort and it was tedious.

the devs are not even acknowledging the issue, that's the worst part. if it's not fixed soon I'm gonna just uninstall and be done with it. I got scammed 12 bucks I guess, whatever I'll deal with it..

@kid4844 Very frustrating. Oddly, for me it only happens near the skull islands; skeleton ships cause no issues. I hope they can address this soon since it is completely puzzling and makes one of the more fun parts of the game almost nauseating at times.

Same for me. I'm on steam version. Usually I get 90-120 FPS, but when the skeleton spawns, my FPS go down to 25-40 fps.

still no fix for this.. was hoping with the new update they would have shadow fixed it. but nope.

everyone's support tickets are just getting closed sayin the info has been passed on, I don't think they get how critical the issue is.

@gleaminx said in Massive FPS drops with skeleton spawns:

I had a freezing issue that would hiccup for 3-5 seconds and I narrowed it down to a mechanical hard drive. I run SoT on my SSD, but for some reason the game would lock up when my PC or the game accessed the mechanical HDD. I removed the power to it and all has been well for the last six months.

definitely not my ssd or hdd since I switched the game from the hdd to the ssd and it was the same, plus it only happens when skeletons are around. if they are not the game runs silky smooth. it's something to do with their code I'm guessing, or some server side issue..

also I'm not the only one with the exact same issue, there's multiple threads on the steam forums too.

I had rock solid 75 FPS before the update. Haven't experienced a single lag or framerate drops. Now FPS drops like crazy, lags are extremely common, despite having constant 60 ping.
New patch is a piece of technical garbage.

same problem here...
running perfect 90-110 fps... then it drops real quick when fighting skeleton crews on islands to 40-50 fps and causes my gsync monitor to flicker because of this big frames variation..

gtx 1070
i5 6600k
16gb ram
W10
Steam version

@christizzz said in Massive FPS drops with skeleton spawns:

same problem here...
running perfect 90-110 fps... then it drops real quick when fighting skeleton crews on islands to 40-50 fps and causes my gsync monitor to flicker because of this big frames variation..

gtx 1070
i5 6600k
16gb ram
W10
Steam version

i wish mine would drop to 40 or 50 fps.. mine goes down to slideshow mode.. even the game freezes for up to 10 seconds, when it starts moving again I'm dead... only happens with skeletons.

still no fix....

@dyfrin said in Massive FPS drops with skeleton spawns:

@kid4844 @Christizzz @ZVom7933 @Sneqins @Rodsnax @nopunintend0 @r4n74r
Open support tickets.

This is not a universal issue with steam, as I (and others) do not experience it.
So it isn't just a game coding issue, rather a driver/hardware issue that the game is referencing. A support ticket will let them find out the commonality and get a fix.

Below is proof that it isn't everyone:

Stream soloing a fleet, setting everything max.
I will get a fort fps report stream to show as well soon.

I did submit a support ticket and they closed it stating they will pass it on to their testing team or whatever.

Just by that I don't have much hope for the issue being resolved, I mean they could have asked for my dxdiag, compared it with other users who are having the issue to pinpoint what's causing it (if it's something to do with the system). but nope.

On a different note myself and a friend managed to do the fort of the damned today, and everything was smooth, no lag or fps drops at all. So that shows that the issue is to do with the regular skeletons.

Update: still no fix and the mods have removed my post regarding the issue which was on the steam forums.

@kid4844 I'm getting dramatic fps drops to ~20-30 on skeleton forts when the skeletons start spawning and sometimes freezes of up to 20 seconds (also steam version). Once the wave is cleared the lag disappears, and then repeats of course. Any solution yet? Absolutely unplayable

@fruitlust said in Massive FPS drops with skeleton spawns:

@kid4844 I'm getting dramatic fps drops to ~20-30 on skeleton forts when the skeletons start spawning and sometime freezes of up to 20 seconds (also steam version). Once the wave is cleared the lag disappears, and then repeats of course. Any solution yet? Absolutely unplayable

no solution, I've tried everything but I don't think the problem is on the players end.

@borschig said in Massive FPS drops with skeleton spawns:

Same thing here (Steam). Reported it with a ticket. Hoping for a fix.
Game is unplayable near active forts and skelly galleons.

surprisingly it doesn't happen at Fort of the Damned.

@kid4844 Would be nice if this was addressed since it's actually game breaking for steam users

I opened a ticket and referenced this post. Please continue posting here if you see this issue and consider opening a ticket yourselves. It's a bit confusing to do so at first but go to support then attempt to search for a topic and then from the following results page it will give you the option to open a ticket.

2 weeks and no response from the devs

Same problem here. Hinders my gameplay extremely. Made a ticket, hope the issue gets enough attention.

Same goes to me Fps drops and etc... Yesturday I found something that increased fps for me in SoT settings then video settings and change "buffering" to the max. For me Fps increased like 30 and near skeletons i had a 15 fps more then usual. I hope this helps for someone.

GTX 1060 6Gb
I5-7500
16Gb Ram
(steam version)
Win10

Got the same issue.My FPS locked on 60, max settings, i got spawns of 6-7 skeleetons with no lag, and lags with 3-4 skeletons. Fort's, Galleons the same. Frame rate count shows 30-45 FPS, but it's unplayable, like i have 10 fps.
I53570k
GTX 1660S
16GM RAM
Steam Version