Favor System penalises players with latency

I have been meaning to write about this for some time.

Gathering, much like any other action in this game, and more specifically the speed at which you can gather, is directly (and adversely) affected by latency. From the time it takes when I first click on the node until it bring up the DoL window, to the time it takes to register that I have told the game I want to harvest from X slot on the current node, to the time in between mining attempts... even the time it takes to mount and dismount with mounts to travel in between nodes, or my favorite where it lags slightly so my screen shows me getting on my mount so I move forward and then the game registers it as an action cancelled and I jump off the mount again....

With a system that is all about getting as many mining attempts in within a strict time frame (and those opportunities costing us the time and effort of capping red scrips weekly), having to also compete with a force that is outside the players control is not a fair system.

I have a friend that lives really close to the servers, and we tested several times how many extra nodes he was able to complete in a 5 min window. The result? He was able to completely deplete an extra 4 nodes on average every time. That may not sound much at first but if you consider the sheer number of extra favors I would have to burn over time to make several pieces of gear just to compete with someone without latency issues is disgusting.


Typically you need 40 botany and 40 mining items per piece. Say that I would average at 2 items per favor, that would be forty favors (approx) to get one piece of armor... Now, if we multiply the number of node attempts per favor that I miss out on by the number of favors I need to spend for a single piece (on average) that's 160 missed opportunities PER PIECE to have additional hidden nodes spawn. That's not an insignificant number at all....

I'm not saying the concept of the system is flawed, but utilising a system that gives people an advantage over others simply because they live closer to the server and experience less latency is not a fair nor just system.

4 full nodes is 50-60s worth of gathering time. Either you're playing this game on a 2400 baud phone modem or you're not exploiting the node system.
Try taking 2 sets of 2 nodes down to 1 hit remaining, and then use your favor.

Still doesnt detract from the fact that people with latency are disadvantaged over those with little to no latency in regards to favors

This is a legit concern, it's understandable that you feel this way. It probably can't be easily fixed though. Bad latency will result in a poor experience in an online game, in a number of ways, and favors is one of those things. If they add other methods of getting the materials then you could spend your scrips on gathering gear instead of favors, or just do that anyway and save gil for favor mats instead.

This is a wild suggestion from one who's not touched to favours all that much but.. limit the spawns the favour can give and increase the time frame. In similar way as the papers that give exp boost. They have limited time and exp they can give and go poof when you exhaust either. This would still benefit players with less latency by maxing the favour hits faster but gives a fighting chance for those with worse connection to reach the same.

Who CARES how close you live to any server, Mayo. That has ZERO bearing on the route the data takes to reach your game console. Sounds like you have a problem with the speed of your provider, and it has nothing to do with the game. I used to live in the condos next to KNBC studios in Burbank, but that doesn't mean I saw Jay Leno any quicker than some guy in Toledo. It sounds more like your buddy is just mining more efficiently. BTW, if you're counting seconds, a 3 node sweep is quicker than a 4 node (as long as one of the nodes gives 2).

sorry to say it but everything penalises people with bad latency :p