Lag problems in Odyssey for western players, why it happened

[Pixela]

The lag problem with FFXI in Ody and Dyna D was because:
A) lots of western players use Gearswap that automate gear swaps fast
b) everyones client has to be updated with all the changes from gearswaps (HP/MP)
c) you keep adding random hp / mp to armors when you don't have to

Suggestions to fix this going forward:

1) Stop adding random hp/mp stats to gear, there should never be +/-hp or +/- mp on gear unless it needs to be there as the main function of that gear. Equipping a accuracy neck should not also take -10hp. Every time anyone in my group puts that neck on my (and everyone in the alliances) UI has to be updated with that -10hp and then back to normal. If that's in a weapon skill macro they are going to be doing that every few seconds.

2) Make all players MP bar to ZERO if their jobs have no spells and are not using a mage subjob. A sam/war should not have an mp bar at all (merits should not count either, nor should gear), because having it is feeding my ui worthless information that needs to constantly updated and when the game has a 56k data connection cap that's a big deal.

It happens whether players use gearswap addon or not, because one person in the group using it will spam everyone elses UI with the constant stat changes sent to us by the server to update our UI. I don't use gearswap but when I do dyna D I lag cause my party ui hp/mp bars are bouncing around constantly from people who do use it.

[Alhanelem]

I don't think HP and MP being on gear has anything whatsoever to do with this. It's just the volume of data and the distance, and changing little things like that isn't going to affect the situation at all.

capping a job's MP at 0 also would do absolutely nothing (the game still has to send the status of this variable, it can't just not send it because you don't think it matters). This tells me you really don't understand how this kind of stuff works. The game will update the core parameters for all clients every tick, it does not matter if they are being "used" or not. Also the reality is just because a job has MP they can't use doesn't mean its existence has no effect on anything. Monsters can cast aspir and take MP from you even if you have no spells.

[Pixela]

The server is capped at 56k, the constant (and it is constant if someone is using gearswap) stream of data being sent to update the MP / HP bar is significant when added to everything else.

[Alhanelem]

The server is capped at 56k, the constant (and it is constant if someone is using gearswap) stream of data being sent to update the MP / HP bar is significant when added to everything else.

As I explained, there are reasons that information has to be updated, even if you don't personally think it's relevant. Deleting one or two bytes from a few items is not going to make a dent in the problem and also limits the levers available for them to change and upgrade stats on gear.

Even when your MP is zero it is still getting updated. The game sends the HP MP and TP for every visible monster, player, and NPC whether it's actually important or not at any given moment Because it will be relevant at least some of the time, and sending it some times and not others will lead to a more inconsistent experience where the lag will fluctuate up and down, which is not a good thing.

Those contents lag more than others because of the additional content-specific information. Changing stuff that's common to all content isn't the solution. The content itself should see improvements instead.