[GAMEBREAKING] Ability/moving objects delay and unresponsiveness (affects everybody)

[Dilaw]

I saw all these problems with AOE circles/areas and the lag problems of trying to escape, during beta phase 3, what you are complaining about describes that behavior very well, but with Beta 4 and release, the problems have been largely addressed. By all means try to get more analysis done, but it's not like this topic has never been discussed or addressed by the Developers.

There was a problem if you moved out of the red areas only a little bit if you were playing a special race.
That one was solved in P4 already by changing the method to calculate the center of the played char but has nothing to do with the general issue Vektrat described and a lot of players seem to have.
I would suppose that a lot of players that thought that they were affected by the "Center of Character" bug, had the latency problem instead.

[HoroBoro]

The center of player fix was an attempt to get around re-programing how and what information the server takes in. We gave it a shot, and it obviously does not work. I believe the reason they haven't fixed this yet is because they will have to add more checks to the server if they allow more autonomy client side. This will tax the servers even more, and they're already having server problems.

For example instead of

if(currenthp - damage < 0) 
{
send to the client you are dead
}

you will need

Damage is 
if(currenthp - damage <0)
{
   {check timestamped actions performed on client}
   {send timestamped actions to server}
   if(no recent actions affect death)
       {send to the client you are dead}
   else
       {update information on server according to client}
}

I'm sure it's more complicated then that, and there will probably be some sort of handshaking to make sure that the client isn't tricking the server, but either way, more information has to go to and from the server.

[Xeroeth]

Same here, the toughest one for me so far were Sunken Temple and Ogre in Dzemael Darkhold ...
In the ogre fight casters don't have nearly enough time to cast their spells ... bah, I had a situation when one healer refused to cast healing spells, only buffs, becouse he couldn't avoid all the incoming rocks. This is a serious problem for everyone, especially in later fights where there are no red markers for aoe attacks ...

[StormPoet]

I'm located in WA state, fairly close to the NA/EU datacenters. I've been tanking in MMOs for a decade and, as such, I am painfully aware of mob response times, watching cast bars, and avoiding AoEs - and there is a consistent delay in every single action just as you state in your OP, and one that is independent of client hardware and connection.

The slower pace of combat and longer GCD help mask this issue for some, but all anyone who is skeptical really needs to do is go fight a bomb, wait for the AoE, then watch the interaction of the cast bar and damage to see when they have to step out to actually avoid the damage. It should be anytime before the cast ends, but in reality you need to be out almost a full second before it completes.

I am in the same boat as you and you said it better than I could have said it myself. I have seen this kind of latency and many new MMOs and as previously mentioned most companies are able to recognize and adjust this so that the response times are on point soon after the issue is identified. I hope that SE is able to remedy this soon. It's also a large part of the reason I have stopped worrying about leveling my combat classes and have been concentrating on crafting.

[Warstryke]

@Warstryke. If you're getting on for a half second ping time, then there is very, very little that SE can do to help the situation you are experiencing. Even if the latency were only 250ms, that's a half a second round trip, not including processing time at the server and client. I know that overseas latency is more, but EU players are actually getting better ping response from the NA data center than NA players. I have to wonder whether the routing your ISP is using to the SE data center might be at fault...

It's not that, my ISP is fine and I can get out of 'Red Danger Zones' in Wow & Rift just fine...
Something is weird in FFXIV, Heck i've even tested instantly sprinting out of a Red Danger Zone, and been really far away and you see the red arrow still target you and then bam, you get hit from almost the other side of the room, I should upload a video of it, then you would understand.

[Kahri]

Thanks for posting this.



I'm playing from Australia, i've been doing end game raids in Wow/Rift for many years, and let me tell you, with a 200-400ms ping FFXIV is far less forgiving than any other game i've ever played.

Even though on my screen i'm moving out in time, 99.9% you still get hit, something definitely can't be right, it feels broken at the moment.

I'm also playing from Australia, Sth Australia to be exact.

Wondering whether your problem might be due to playing on a NA based server. Generally speaking you should get a better ping from JP, unless you've got a shitty isp which connects to JP through NA ^^.

I had the problems outlined by the OP during beta when I spent a little time on a NA server. I don't have the same trouble playing on a JP server. Well, except that
- some players still have an ever so slight advantage to tagging mobs over me in FATEs (I think they're JP based so, makes sense) and
- my logging/mining action is delayed a few milliseconds longer than others.

But I haven't had any troubles getting out of the mob's telegraphed AoE, or getting PGL positioning bonuses, etcetera, since I finished trialing that NA server.

Is kind of weird to hear NA/EU players having such trouble syncing with NA/EU servers considering I would expect their connections to be shorter with better infrastructure.

[Gawan]

Is kind of weird to hear NA/EU players having such trouble syncing with NA/EU servers considering I would expect their connections to be shorter with better infrastructure.

Well this is a issue me and my friends have talked about for a while now. Some have it and some dont. For me its a every now and then issue.

This causes problems for me at the wall in amdapor keep (probably wrong spelling), cause on my screen I move in time to avoid the AOE line on the ground but still get hit. My friends tell me that they saw that I didnt move in time, but I did on my screen. It has come to a point when I see that this issue happens that I move ahead of time to make sure I get missed. But then I sometimes run into another issue and that is when the (if it is this issue) client and server catches up and moving ahead of time causes me to get hit instead.

I really hope that the upgrade they made will sort out some of this issue, cause its causing problems for half of my friends that I play with. We are a group of about 30 ppl and about 60% say they have this issue. The fun thing is that I have ppl that use the same ISP as me from the same country, that dont have the issue or not to such an extent that they have felt it being a problem.

I have lowered the graphics to make try and make the PC run smoother, but it didnt fix it. The problem is still there from time to time.

EDIT: Also after being in amdapor keep and getting killed over and over again at the wall, mostly because I got killed eventually from getting hit by the AOE line. Then directly after this I went in and did IFRIT hard mode and had no issue at all. In there I noticed myself moving slightly late after seeing the AOE on the ground and still not get hit. So in there I dont get this issue. Done the IFRIT hard mode 4 times and never had this lag issue in there.
Sure I have seen this issue come and go in diffrent dungeons, some I have had more problems in and some very little. But Amdapor keep is the one that causes me much grief on this matter.

[Korihu]

It's so terrifying for me to heal sometimes, because I need to respond like a millisecond after the red appears, so that I can run run run. Because if I'm just a teensy bit late, even if I'm way out, KABLAM.


just so happens I had a recording of titan with this
clipped it out here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5g4TM1fkCg

I should have been able to dodge that, but nooooooooooooooooope

[Starza]

You know, I was wondering why I was having such a tough time on Titan, I was obviously out of the ability that knocks you back on my screen, and yet, I was hit. I asked a close friend about it, and he has the same issue. It doesn't shock me, because I had to deal with that in SWTOR when I played that. I ended up quitting over it because it makes healing beyond frustrating.

I don't have this problem in WoW at all, from a heroic raider. I thought maybe FF14 is very very unforgiving compared to other games, but seeing a topic like this sort of worries me and I'm kinda relieved about it since I'm not the only person having this problem.

[Jamez82]

I love you OP....
Kidding.
But no, seriously.. l love you.