This was due to the massive amounts of crystal art in the sky, which I have removed.
I made the following observations:
(1) No characters who were in the temple or near the plaza could log on. These were by the crystals. However, characters in the depths of the dungeons or far away from the crystals had no trouble at all.
(2) The very last message in the client\'s debug log (displayed on stdout or stderr under linux) discussed ruby crystals before giving a cel error and then a lot of \"Sending heartbeat\" messages.
(3) There are around 200-250 spawn points in the entire world, according to my estimates. Yet there were around 350 crystals from the art floating in one area...in addition to the crystals normally there.
(4) Wedge had said that extra crystals cause lag, and Luze was suspecting the crystals as well.
(5) Some people said they had been having issues ever since the dog and cat were placed in the sky.
So I summoned up my last two characters, the only two that could manage to log on, around 684 crates, and set to work. There were only around 2-4 people actively talking, and the rest of the clients didn\'t seem to move.
By the time I had removed Jehoel\'s \"EE FLOATS MY GOAT\" (125 rubies), more people showed up and more started moving about and talking.
Eventually I managed to take down Psybur\'s dog (122 rubies), and Luze\'s cat (100 rubies); another modder managed to take down floating emeralds and Psybur\'s \"PSY\" in the temple...
And then, everyone started showing up again, able to move and talk. At last.
I returned all of Psybur, Luze, and Jehoel\'s crystals to them, keeping none for myself. I am no thief.
It took me several hours to do this.
So my conclusion is thus: Crystal art kills - Molecular Blue simply cannot handle the load. Don\'t do it. If you do crystal art, do it on the ground in the green hills far from town, and only for limited amounts of time - like for a birthday present.
Glad to have everyone back. I just hope none of that stuff comes back again.
--Nilaya