Increased natural lag on EU due to no local servers.

I have been living with this issue for a while, but it is starting to interrupt raids.

A lot of the mechanics in game are time sensitive (for example, all of titan's abilities on HM). With the servers being so far away and prone to lag, players are often experiencing issues that make the fight impossible for them. They are not being throttled, and they are not reacting slowly.

Sometimes his abilities appear and "detonate" at the same time, leaving literally no time to move out, and this is not the only place it appears. Many people are reporting constant "skipping" of players during and out of fights. For a game where the mechanics often rely on your reaction time, having to deal with unplayable server issues is starting to weigh on some.

I am using Fibre with the following DL/UL/Ping on a US server (Washington DC):

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2975675422.png

And I sometimes experience these issues myself. My ISP is not throttling my connection to the game, so there is really no reason that this should occur.

Are there any plans for you to give the EU more local servers, and reduce this? Or improve the servers to they can handle the load they need to experience with this many players working on the same content at once?

I dont intend to make excuses for SE, but I think its not quite that simple. While doing instances you are not playing on an EU server; you are playing on a DF server. As it stands now they seem to want EU and NA players to be grouped together in DF. (They listed which servers group together when they broke DF down to smaller numbers). As long as that strategy is in place one side or the other will always have a trans-atlantic latency.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by svann

I dont intend to make excuses for SE, but I think its not quite that simple. While doing instances you are not playing on an EU server; you are playing on a DF server. As it stands now they seem to want EU and NA players to be grouped together in DF. (They listed which servers group together when they broke DF down to smaller numbers). As long as that strategy is in place one side or the other will always have a trans-atlantic latency.

---

I do understand this, but when we're playing as a group within our Free Company, it is frustrating to have people lag from server distance and server inadequacy.

Right now, the DF servers are prone to congestion. This is why you'll have an easier time avoiding stuff in the world than in instanced battles. Granted, instanced battles do require more information to be transmitted, but with your connection speed, you should NOT have any issues with that...

However, it's not just lag alone (even though a LOT of players, both EU and not, are dealing with it). Your character's position doesn't continuously update. I read in another thread that the dev teams admitted that the server does 'location checks' every .3 seconds (300ms). That's VERY long in an MMO world where you have less than two seconds to get out of something successfully. It's even more frustrating in a fight that is so unforgiving, like Titan. My suggestion to you is to memorize the ability list of Titan. It fluctuates with every phase (after every jump). Memorize when landslide and weight are coming... and move preemptively. I won't make excuses for SE, but this seems to be the only work-around until the positioning issues are fixed. =/

And I could eat cake every day too doesn't mean it's good for me. In a game where reactions are so important it is unnaceptable that one side experiences this kind of latency.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ryuko

Right now, the DF servers are prone to congestion. This is why you'll have an easier time avoiding stuff in the world than in instanced battles. Granted, instanced battles do require more information to be transmitted, but with your connection speed, you should NOT have any issues with that...

However, it's not just lag alone (even though a LOT of players, both EU and not, are dealing with it). Your character's position doesn't continuously update. I read in another thread that the dev teams admitted that the server does 'location checks' every .3 seconds (300ms). That's VERY long in an MMO world where you have less than two seconds to get out of something successfully. It's even more frustrating in a fight that is so unforgiving, like Titan. My suggestion to you is to memorize the ability list of Titan. It fluctuates with every phase (after every jump). Memorize when landslide and weight are coming... and move preemptively. I won't make excuses for SE, but this seems to be the only work-around until the positioning issues are fixed. =/

---

I've already memorised everything about the fight. It really doesn't help when he drops AoEs on the ranged and you can't see where they are until they detonate. It barely happens to me, but with an unforgiving fight it's frustrating to wipe because random raid members experience lag like this.

I got this problem too, its really hard for me to avoid any aoe because lag issues, in my screen im always out of the aoe cyrcle but i get the damage anyway, sometimes worked running really far away from it if i get enough time , the last story quest boss with a lot of aoes, was impossible for me plus being a melee, more aoe incoming, even got no more help or raid invites from my fc because i was the only one with those issues and cant help in raids so now im stuck on content , having to pug as a DD waiting 40 mins per run , its hard to keep up playing like that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by svann

I dont intend to make excuses for SE, but I think its not quite that simple. While doing instances you are not playing on an EU server; you are playing on a DF server. As it stands now they seem to want EU and NA players to be grouped together in DF. (They listed which servers group together when they broke DF down to smaller numbers). As long as that strategy is in place one side or the other will always have a trans-atlantic latency.

---

I think they make us EU players and NA players group together at DF because actually there is no server on europe, both EU & NA servers are hosted in Montreal.

Would be nice to have real EU based servers so we EU players can minimize the impact of lag on the game.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EvelynTitania

Are there any plans for you to give the EU more local servers

---

Ping times are nigh on irrelevant here, 120 or so is perfectly playable, I've done it for years in WOW, Rift and LOTRO, not to mention playing on FFXI servers in Japan.

The problems are SE server tech. and the way they've architected instances more than anything. It's stupid design to put FPS-style twitch time-critical skills into an MMO like this, NOT because of 'ping times' but because of server design problems/limitations.

As other have posted here, NA players with 30-50 pings (which is typically what you'd get from an EU-based server farm looking at WOW, Rift and LOTRO when it was EU-hosted) are also having big problems.

I love these whine-fest my-ping-is-too-high threads.
You whine because ZOMG you have a ping of 120.........oh no end of the world.
Well try playing from Australia........
We have ping of 300+ in EVERY game we play. And we manage to play them quite fine. We PvP, we sit on world's top teams, we do just as well as most people do.
So get over it....if you find you have issues with a ping on 120, then it is the crappy player, not the ping.

By the way my ping is consistently 350-800ms, and I don't often die. Granted I'm not lvl 50, but my son is, and he has no issue playing either.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Helli

I love these whine-fest my-ping-is-too-high threads.
You whine because ZOMG you have a ping of 120.........oh no end of the world.
Well try playing from Australia........
We have ping of 300+ in EVERY game we play. And we manage to play them quite fine. We PvP, we sit on world's top teams, we do just as well as most people do.
So get over it....if you find you have issues with a ping on 120, then it is the crappy player, not the ping.

By the way my ping is consistently 350-800ms, and I don't often die. Granted I'm not lvl 50, but my son is, and he has no issue playing either.

---

Well congratulations to you and Australia then, and if you're content with the situation, that's fine.

However, for the rest of us it's unacceptable to die far outside of aoe rings just because the server hasn't noticed we have moved yet. It's ridiculous that you are constantly grilled by dragon breaths while standing *behind* the dragon. Or getting whooped by Garuda because the game hasn't realized you're already standing behind a pillar.

The community as a whole doesn't have much choice but to open those "whine-fest" threads, otherwise SE will just assume that we - like you - are happy as it is, and they won't improve anything.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JiaYow

Well congratulations to you and Australia then, and if you're content with the situation, that's fine.

However, for the rest of us it's unacceptable to die far outside of aoe rings just because the server hasn't noticed we have moved yet. It's ridiculous that you are constantly grilled by dragon breaths while standing *behind* the dragon. Or getting whooped by Garuda because the game hasn't realized you're already standing behind a pillar.

The community as a whole doesn't have much choice but to open those "whine-fest" threads, otherwise SE will just assume that we - like you - are happy as it is, and they won't improve anything.

---

Notice the bolded parts of your quote? Yeah that would be because it's not that we are happy with it. We have put up with self-righteous arrogant people from both Europe and US telling us to suck it up because that is just the way it is/too expensive to put servers in Australia/we should play on Asian servers (love this one.....we don't even speak asian here) or any other of the myriad reasons we are supposed to just accept that is the way it is.
And now it is hilarious to see people from those parts of the world whining because they have latency. Poor EU/US gamers no longer have servers right on their doorsteps. Learn to play better and you won't need them on your doorstep. After all that is what you (EU/US) have been telling us for years.

By the way, it is not the community as a whole, just a few self-entitled gamers that can't move out of stuff unless they have 0-30 ping. The rest seem to be doing end-game just fine.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Helli

Notice the bolded parts of your quote? Yeah that would be because it's not that we are happy with it. We have put up with self-righteous arrogant people from both Europe and US telling us to suck it up because that is just the way it is/too expensive to put servers in Australia/we should play on Asian servers (love this one.....we don't even speak asian here) or any other of the myriad reasons we are supposed to just accept that is the way it is.
And now it is hilarious to see people from those parts of the world whining because they have latency. Poor EU/US gamers no longer have servers right on their doorsteps. Learn to play better and you won't need them on your doorstep. After all that is what you (EU/US) have been telling us for years.

By the way, it is not the community as a whole, just a few self-entitled gamers that can't move out of stuff unless they have 0-30 ping. The rest seem to be doing end-game just fine.

---

Wow, someone is mad.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Elazu

Wow, someone is mad.

---

It's normal for fanbois and white knights get mad when someone presents completely legitimate issues of their idolized game.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Arrack

It's normal for fanbois and white knights get mad when someone presents completely legitimate issues of their idolized game.

---

Oh so sorry. I didn't realise that pointing out your whining and self-entitlement issues over a little bit of latency equalled being a white knight. You people come here complaining that 100ms latency is too high so you need servers on your back-door step. Yet there is a bunch of people in this game that play with 300+ms and none of us are screaming like spoiled brats because we can't get out of AOE damage. You will never find an Australian (or New Zealander) that has any sympathy for your piddling 100ms latency. That does not make us white knights or fanbois.
Learn to compensate for latency, it will make you a better player.

Or whine and demand a server in your backyard. Because 100ms is hard right?

94 second ping in that speedtest....that alone is proof that the servers being across the ocean is not a problem. NA players don't get much better pings sometimes. THe more relevant number would be your ping to the game servers. Looking at the traceroute info some people have been posting in other threads the path to the game servers takes some crazy hops and in some cases a LOT of hops. No reason to have a hop that crosses the ocean when the server is on the same continent yet it happens...

I have 400+/3000+ Receiving latency from the server just standing around. If I am in an in room it is more like 45/60 which I can handle, I am just curious why it spikes up SO much in the open world? Almost 100x more in certain areas. My PC is pretty damn good and my ISP is solid too. Every port that FFXIV needs out of a "netstat" is forwarded properly as well as the listed ports on the site. Worldwide, this is a problem.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Helli

Oh so sorry. I didn't realise that pointing out your whining and self-entitlement issues over a little bit of latency equalled being a white knight. You people come here complaining that 100ms latency is too high so you need servers on your back-door step. Yet there is a bunch of people in this game that play with 300+ms and none of us are screaming like spoiled brats because we can't get out of AOE damage. You will never find an Australian (or New Zealander) that has any sympathy for your piddling 100ms latency. That does not make us white knights or fanbois.
Learn to compensate for latency, it will make you a better player.

Or whine and demand a server in your backyard. Because 100ms is hard right?

---

I am sorry for what you seemingly have endured so far, but you need to understand that it was not us here who were ignorant to your problems. It is neither fair nor mature to rant here - a thread closed or ignored by SE because there are only flame wars helps neither you nor us.

That being said, it's not that we complain about a little big of lag or some sluggy reaction from the server. 300ms are hard to deal with, but tolerable.

The problem is that, due to the lag (which is FAR more like 300 ms sometimes, I'd guess like 1-2 seconds), you very often happen to stand outside of a circle, count "1 missisippi, 2 missisippi" and still die.
Casting seems to affect this quite a bit. When I start running while I cast, the toon will still complete like 1 second of cast animation, then send the signal that the cast was interrupted, and then starts running. Which means that while my client shows me that I'm out of the circle for 2 seconds already, the server considers me still inside. And this - not 300 ms ping - is unacceptable. Regardless of whether you're in Australia or not.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Helli

I love these whine-fest my-ping-is-too-high threads.
You whine because ZOMG you have a ping of 120.........oh no end of the world.
Well try playing from Australia........
We have ping of 300+ in EVERY game we play. And we manage to play them quite fine. We PvP, we sit on world's top teams, we do just as well as most people do.
So get over it....if you find you have issues with a ping on 120, then it is the crappy player, not the ping.

By the way my ping is consistently 350-800ms, and I don't often die. Granted I'm not lvl 50, but my son is, and he has no issue playing either.

---

Congratulations if you can avoid all the AOE's from titan HM with such a ping. In other games, detection of AOE's is done by the player computer, in FFXIV seems like its the server so you are screwed.

I have to agree with this. I'm on a UK 160MB internet with Virgin Media, yet I'm suffering 440Sending/1200Recieving whilst stood in Gridania. When I'm on Titan it's 780Sending/1900Recieving to a staggering 3700. I can go on a multitude of other games and log into servers situated in America and Asia and not even see 5% of that, ever.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Helli

Oh so sorry. I didn't realise that pointing out your whining and self-entitlement issues over a little bit of latency equalled being a white knight. You people come here complaining that 100ms latency is too high so you need servers on your back-door step. Yet there is a bunch of people in this game that play with 300+ms and none of us are screaming like spoiled brats because we can't get out of AOE damage. You will never find an Australian (or New Zealander) that has any sympathy for your piddling 100ms latency. That does not make us white knights or fanbois.
Learn to compensate for latency, it will make you a better player.

Or whine and demand a server in your backyard. Because 100ms is hard right?

---

Yes, clearly you are better players than all of us, since you win every major gaming tournament out there.

Other than the ridiculous lagspikes every evening, I have no latency problems as well. This is still a legitimate complaint.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JiaYow

The problem is that, due to the lag (which is FAR more like 300 ms sometimes, I'd guess like 1-2 seconds), you very often happen to stand outside of a circle, count "1 missisippi, 2 missisippi" and still die.
Casting seems to affect this quite a bit. When I start running while I cast, the toon will still complete like 1 second of cast animation, then send the signal that the cast was interrupted, and then starts running. Which means that while my client shows me that I'm out of the circle for 2 seconds already, the server considers me still inside. And this - not 300 ms ping - is unacceptable. Regardless of whether you're in Australia or not.

---

What you are referring to here is an already known and accepted bug. See this post: Link here: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...s-everybody%29 It has absolutely nothing to do with ping/latency. Having a server in your backyard will not fix this.
This bug affects everyone, regardless of geographical position.

But this is also quite different than what some others were complaining about, which was their latency/ping. For those....I have no sympathy at all.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KremlinDusk

I have to agree with this. I'm on a UK 160MB internet with Virgin Media, yet I'm suffering 440Sending/1200Recieving whilst stood in Gridania. When I'm on Titan it's 780Sending/1900Recieving to a staggering 3700. I can go on a multitude of other games and log into servers situated in America and Asia and not even see 5% of that, ever.

---

I suspect your issue is a completely different issue and has to do with how UK ISP's are dealing with FFXIV:ARR. There have been numerous threads about it, and I think there is a sticky as well.
If it is not that, there is an issue affecting SOME players all over the world giving them horrendous lag spikes. Again having servers in Europe will not fix this issue.