Does TWC actually work WELL for anyone?

[RaineMagus]

This looks like a good time to further clarify, since everyone that I speak to ingame appears very confused on this issue as well.


-The internet is a "mesh network", not a straight connection between point A and point B (there are many points of failure [not just your ISP and SquareEnix] ).
-Data is not guaranteed to reach its destination intact, at all, or even to arrive in order. (the internet is inherently unreliable)
-The path that data flows is not necessarily optimal, nor consistent (The internet is "not" connection-oriented, only protocols simulates this behavior | path can change from time to time, automatically, depending on the metrics / rules used by each gateway forwarding data). [hop count, load, loss, 'cost', a combination of the above, etc]
-protocols such as TCP buffer, re-sequence, and retransmit data (simulate a reliable connection over an unreliable one) ... if a single packet is missed and needs to be re-transmit [or arrives out of order], NOTHING at the application layer will be received "until" the missed packet is re-transmit and received by the remote end. [which can cause bursty-behavior, even from a tiny hickup of a single packet being missed]


You can argue if you want that SquareEnix picked the wrong protocol for FFXIV, and that they should've used UDP rather than TCP.. This is indeed a legitimate argument, despite that virtually no MMORPG's in existence use UDP. (yet, latency critical games such as FPS's tend to)

--If the game's netcode was written with UDP rather than TCP, then data not received on the remote end could be discarded rather than re-transmit (for example: where an enemy "was" doesn't matter, only where it "is") ... this would permit the game to continue functioning with deemed non-critical data, in addition to updates being received out of order (can reduce perceived latency, accelerate connection recovery, and grant some immunity to packet loss).


*Problems with the internet, however, are not the fault of SquareEnix and imo -- fairly out of their control.

SE can do the same thing that your ISP can in placing pressure on owners of problematic gateways (as a business their complaints have more bearing than you do as a consumer). There's not much beyond this that they can do, however, short of moving all their servers to a physically different location (different datacenter / fairly impractical).

[Noahlimits]

non relevant stuff

All I asked is if anyone with TWC on the West Coast has a good connection when playing FFXIV. I didn't ask how the game's netcode was written, nor how data is sent. Thanks for posting stuff not relevant to my question, I guess. At least it was a bump.

[RaineMagus]

All I asked is if anyone with TWC on the West Coast has a good connection when playing FFXIV. I didn't ask how the game's netcode was written, nor how data is sent. Thanks for posting stuff not relevant to my question, I guess. At least it was a bump.

The above explains how TWC in different parts of the country can have no problem, whereas they might where you live. Either way, sorry if that post came off as aggressive in any way.


Please don't misunderstand, I want everyone to be able to enjoy the game. Just this is a potentially very complicated issue and not isolated to one specific ISP.