The games on The Role-Player's Vault are admittedly agonizing to play if moves aren't made quickly enough. If the games are running slow for you, there may or may not be something you can do about it. Check below to see.

There are four factors that determine how fast a move may be made: the speed of your Internet connection, the computer you are using, the browser you are using, and how busy the web server is at the time you play.

Your Internet Connection

The Role-Player's Vault is best played with DSL, a cable modem, or equivalently fast Internet service. However, a dial-up modem certainly may be sufficient.

Your Computer

If you have a fast Internet service but a slow computer, it's going to take time for the browser to render each page. There may be another browser you can use that is more efficient with your computer's resources, though, so check everything else before you give up.

Your Browser

Mozilla Firefox performs the best with The Role-Player's Vault, although we've not extensively tested all the newer browsers. The tables required for the game's display are rendered quickly and the layouts of the different views tend to look best. Sometimes there is a distracting flicker between moves, but this problem can be entirely eliminated by adjusting a configuration setting.

Server Load

During the day, RinkWorks' web server is (sometimes) noticeably busier than at night. If the game is running slowly and most of the delay appears to be from loading pages, try playing in the evening or early morning. Peak hours are roughly 9am to 8pm EST on weekdays. The further away from those hours you are, the faster the server is likely to be running. Nights and weekends are noticeably speedier.

On the main page, you'll see a line that says "Current Server Load." This is where you can find an estimate of how busy the server is at the time the page was loaded. If the server load is "light" or "very light," then you should be able to play without too much trouble. If it's "moderate," the speed of the game may or may not be acceptably fast. If it's "heavy" or worse, you will probably want to try again later, although you're certainly welcome to play anyway. You can reload the main page to get an updated report of how busy the server is. Note: Server load is the primary bottleneck for speed, but it's not the only one. Consequently, expect somewhat slower performance during peak hours even if the reported server load is light.