RE: YoshiP Media Tour comments regarding latency.

Quote:

---

/r/ffxiv : Currently players with higher ping experience longer animation locks on their abilities, causing problems with double weaving or weaving in fast windows like Hypercharge. Are there any plans to reduce the influence ping has on the length of the animation lock?
Currently, players with higher latency will have longer animation locks on their abilities. This makes it difficult to pinch two abilities or a mechanic's hypercharge. Do you plan to reduce the impact of latency on animation locks?

---

Quote:

---

Yoshida: I'm afraid there is not enough information in terms of how bad the latency is. So if possible could that person provide us with more information on the official forums like where they live, who their internet service provider is, what world they are connecting to, and any sort of ping information they can gather?

---

Let's do this then.

Anyone else connecting from one of the non-JP/NA/EU locations please reply with your Tracert/Ping to the world you play on, and your comments on double weaving.

Maybe we'll get attention, maybe we won't, who knows. Worth a try.
Other games I've played over the years (MMOs) have had better handling of ping from a distance (either allowing client side leniency regarding ACK or lower animation locks)

(You can find data centre IP addresses on https://arrstatus.com/ )
Info:
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Server: Kujata (Elemental)
ISP/Plan: iiNet 100MBPS FTTC

Double weaving IS possible (with a VPN) but it could be better, the way FFXIV handles packets (and min delays on animation locks) is documented well even by the playerbase, and it needs to change. (500ms between ogcd locks for example)

https://i.imgur.com/6XIQUAD.png
Here is ping and tracert.

Simple-ish fix would be uncoupling spells from animations.

Can understand the appeal of "smooth" animations especially on the production of dopamine but game would benefit massively from occasional janky animation.

Example; In Swtorland you can toss lightsabers backwards and through your body. Does this look most strange? Yes. Does it allow me to taunt backwards without twirling around? Yes.

Should not need to face anything I am healing or attacking no matter how silly it looks. The last thing entering the mind when my little character spins into mechanics because the person I am healing was behind me is "Oh golly gee those spell effects sure are pretty!"

Also nope! Disabling auto turn is not solution. One, this doth not work on all abilities and two you will interrupt casts if are not facing the target using this setting. Speaking of the casting! Imagine this within your minds eye, you are playing black mage. You have three seconds of astral fire remaining but have recently relocated and are facing away from boss. You press fire 1 and your character begins to turn yet fails to fast enough. Interrupted flashes across the spell cast bar and you have now dropped astral fire.

In the end this is a video game. Gameplay > Graphics applies here.

All spells should cast regardless of animation duration and apply at the .7 second mark. Why .7 seconds you may ask? Because it is impossible to triple weave at .7 seconds as no GCD will be longer then 2.5 seconds.

Server should take snapshot of all actions occurring within each gcd that fit within that gcd window then apply them. Client should display all this as having occurred accordingly even if has not reached the server for the illusion of smoothness.

Even with Exitlag bypassing some of the failing Sacramento nodes is not possible. During prime time hours 5-10pm EST myself and all friends will suddenly and intermittently lose the ability to double weave without clipping. Especially obnoxious when playing tank or healer rolls. Will notice that rampart/raw int failed to activate after berserk nearly resulting in going splat. Cannot weave on mechanist at all. Double action registering resulting in lag bunny on Ninja. Failing to draw cards or play cards on Astro. Clipping on essential dignity during lightspeed because draw card took too long thus killing the tank.

All add up over play session to go from mildly obnoxious to I think I need break for the day.

Tl;DR

Client only communicates action completion on spell effect end > server must receive packet > client waits for sanity check from server > client processes resolved spell > client allows for casting of new spell.

Should be

Client communicates moment button was pressed then begins .7 second countdown (no new calculations for outgoing spell until .7 seconds elapsed client side) > server receives packet of all spells cast within 2.X second window > sanity check > client is updated with outcome which it has already approximated so user will notice nothing.

As time elapsed client side will be consistent regardless of ping should offer working solution until Square expands from single data center or moves away from .3 tickrate to something better. Can consult makers of forbidden XIVAlexander as they appear to have resolved this issue for the dev team.

Would recommend that Yoshi P and team attempt completing current floor savage while inducing artificial latency then make future comment about the experience. Am aware they play, should be all the information they require about the "experience".