The single biggest issue holding back FFXIV needs to be specifically addressed.

[Celeras]

Yoshida has done a remarkable job turning this game around. Each and every patch things get better, yet one issue consistently remains with no end in sight. We've all experienced it, knowingly or not, because it has an influence on every single aspect of the game.

-Have you ever been running throughout town, and seen a character(or enemy) in front of you jump into the ceiling or through walls?
-Have you ever attempted to heal somebody running next to you, only to be told they're out of range?
-Have you ever seen an enemy go Red with nobody in sight, only to see a party member run up 5 seconds later and attack with a melee strike?
-Have you ever done DH and seen one of the Eyes charge up their stationary AoE far away from you, then proceed to watch it 'glide' along the floor while charging until its right on top of you?
-Or, perhaps, experienced something like this?

[SIZE="5"]*[/SIZE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJCQs-R7X4 [SIZE="5"]*[/SIZE] (I thought they added youtube embedding? :/ )

An extremely simple video that I think adequately shows the very root of the problem. While the video itself may seem 'trivial', rest assured the cause behind it is the same as in all the above examples.

I am, of course, talking about the horrid Server/Client relationship in Eorzea. These things happen to a very small extent in any online game, but to nowhere near the extremity of in FFXIV. All frustrating occurrences to say the least, and I think I'm being pretty kind phrasing it that way.

I've given nearly a year of leeway waiting for this to be fixed. It's crippling to all facets of gameplay, and quite frankly it's pretty darn embarrassing. All the content in the world won't make the game enjoyable if this has to be tolerated, and I shudder to think of the amplified effects it will have when we're moving at Chocobo speeds.

Every patch we hear about the 'server upgrades/optimizations', when are you going to get to the one that truly matters?

[Darrkness]

wow i have never seen an example like that... thats kinda horrible i mean holy crap thats bad! yeah they really need to fix that.. one thing that i think would help is get some darn servers in other countrys.. as far as i know ALL servers are in japan that is probably why its like that.. and if anyone has got the special edition dvd they state that the AC system in there server room goes out all the time and i'm sure that has something to do with it as well...

[Charismatic]

It's gotta be difficult to design any type of content that actually requires strict timing with it like that. Due to the lag I'm like 50/50 on dodging dodo status effects by moving to the side/back even though most of the time (when I'm not locked into an ability animation or something) I 'see' myself in the proper position.
I can only hope this is addressed in a major way.

[Medura]

I play on 2 computers at once, it is a 5 second delay (minimum) between server and client, if both are following same person, i see the person at same spot with both computers, but my other character is far away on the other screen, about the same range away from eachother on both screens. Talking with my ls mate, he says he see both my characters running at same pace, but both a bit behind him, this means what i see and what he see is NOT the same! Thanks to this i didnt aggro any enemies in coerthas while following him for 1 hour when i ate dinner once, the other ls mates died 3-4 times each.

[Seif]

Yeah. What really impacts the gameplay badly is seeing characters jump over walls happens in Gridania corners all the time. Also the draw distance of other characters is the shortest I've seen in any game in the past 5 years. The game can only draw a handful of characters near you and then it starts cutting the characters based on the distance.

This is probably most noticeable in camps and in the wards.

If it really is a massive performance issue then I'd rather have the option to draw the characters in much lower resolution and to see them in the distance to make the areas seem more lively.

As a point of reference my pc runs crysis 2 with high settings without a problem so this might also be a massive lag issue as much as it is a character draw distance issue.

It would also be nice to see the enemies in the far distance to gameplay they should be prioritized over the trees the game draws before the enemies pop into view out of nowhere.

Like seen in the OP video having to deal with these lag/graphical glitches during battle is really troublesome.

[Alegis]

I agree. I rarely complain, but this is really important for the whole game.
Im sure most ppl wont accept something like this for several years.

[Hawklaser]

Wow... Just wow.

Dunno what to say other than that does need addressing somehow.

[pwnguin]

I think the real problem is the FFXIV servers are in Japan and the latency for EU/US players is quite bad. It would make sense to host servers outside of Japan but I guess that won't happen until the game becomes profitable (if at all).

[Celeras]

I think the real problem is the FFXIV servers are in Japan and the latency for EU/US players is quite bad. It would make sense to host servers outside of Japan but I guess that won't happen until the game becomes profitable (if at all).

That would be true if we were talking about lag. But lag doesn't cause a circle to turn into a 3-point triangle.

[InuraBera]

This is definitely a long term thing that they are working on, quoting Naoki Yoshida (thanks to Reinharts translation)

Basically this problem is "Player characters save data domain", and requires once the server repairs are completed t "Move the data to new designed server". And along with that to make sure it doesn't inconvenience the players when making the change, we have to make sure it's done safely. And for that reason at current situation is that; simply keep on increasing isn't easy and have to be careful.

Also, you are somewhat wrong about other games - the delay between me moving in WoW and my brother seeing me do so - on an EU server but playing from the same room, is around 3-4 seconds. I also remember (and still 'enjoy') the target too close messages when a Warrior is ripping into my Hunter because to me he is still a good 25 yards away. Often when I try to sell items they go grey as 'selling' then it can take quite a few moments for them to actually sell.

In WoW however, instea dof cutting corners, you see other players either pop next to you or speed up. I have no doubt that if you checked your log the timing of the enemy becoming engaged would be when you saw his attack in the log (in FFXIV it seems you do the animation after the fact...true in WoW as well it just shows it doing the 'damage' when it hits - it is better feedback for sure. For example, I know I'm going to crit before an animation goes off in WoW because I gain the ability to activate moves that go after a crit.

That isn't to say I don't think they should improve it of course but please stop trying to pass this off as a FFXIV exclusive when every online game suffers it (being shot through walls in a small scale shooter anyone?)

*Edit* Urgh, typing from PS3, hard to read :P