Letter from the Producer LIVE Part X: Will the netcode issue be honestly addressed?

[FinagleABagel]

I find it extremely hard to believe that there are players that aren't having this issue. It is built in to the game. I have yet to see anyone prove that they are not getting latency. I live closer to the server (steady 20 ping to the NA server) than probably 99.9% of players and I am having the issue. I'm pretty sure everyone that claims they aren't having the issue just have poor connections so they are used to having latency in every game.

Not having this issue. Human reaction time is barely faster than 0.3s anyway. If I slide cast my last .3s so be it.

There have been issues with lag spikes during peak times, but...that's not exactly surprising or particularly concerning.

[Alcyon_Densetsu]

Not having this issue. Human reaction time is barely faster than 0.3s anyway. If I slide cast my last .3s so be it.

There have been issues with lag spikes during peak times, but...that's not exactly surprising or particularly concerning.

As I said in another topic,

[…] while I can always "feel" at least the .3s positional check, sometimes it gets much worse than that. Not saying that I find .3s acceptable unless they implement some form of interpolation so as to minimise felt latency, but it doesn't even seem to be the only issue […]

Often, it's not just a .3s, it's more in the vicinity of a whole second, since people can complete Esuna (1s cast) while running…

For more details, please consider the following post (and the sources I'm using, a simple overview of Fast-paced Multiplayer from Gabriel Gambetta and Valve's take on the issue) which I think paint a fair picture of the shortcomings of ARR's netcode.

[Bearssi]

With this netcode players will never see whack-a-mole minigame ;(.

[Bixby]

With this netcode players will never see whack-a-mole minigame ;(.

Sure we will. You'll just need to pre-whack.

Lag isn't the issue. The .3s isn't the issue (though it's a large part of it). It's the general lack of lag tolerance that's the issue. Too many things require a round-trip to the server for the client to even respond. There's no reason the server should need to be consulted for spell interruptions. The client knows I'm moving, the client shouldn't even let me start casting. If I've already started, it should be able to stop me immediately, and let the server catch on whenever the heck it catches on. The entire game is just infested with this creeping unresponsiveness that makes it feel clunky, that pulls the player out of the game and into this terrible meta-game of guessing how input is going to be interpreted this time.

But really, I just wanted to say "pre-whack." >.>

[MrObject]

What I want is the teleporting hacks those botters have for titan, clearly they're getting away with using them so I should too...right?

Sure we will. You'll just need to pre-whack.

<---classic

[EmiliM]

To be honest, most of the questions that were answered in past sessions of letter from the producer broadcast were from the Japanese forum (to be fair, many of the questions asked by English users were also brought up by the Japanese users), just as how most dev responses on this forum typically consists of a Japanese response to a recent thread in the Japanese forum first, and then an English mod searching for a (usually) dead English thread on the same topic created long ago and then resurrecting it by posting the translated response there.

Having said that, the lag issue was brought up in the Japanese forum before, but no official response was provided there either (the lag issue seems to be far less prominent in Japan, which might have affected the response priority, as the discussion never really took off).　

Anyway, I have added a really succinct question about network lag in the Japanese Ask the Producer X thread. Feel free to Like it if you think it'll help...
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post1564839

[TheRac25]

Enough is enough, I would like to hear why dodgy 1.0 server code was recycled when we were told it was being redone from scratch. Another zoom your camera out comment or no comment will just be a mockery.

[Wowa]

Does this netcode issue affect each instance differently? I'm a bad, but I am able to complete coil t1-4, Ifrit HM, Garuda HM with no problems, but I get in Titan HM and die to weight of the land even though it looks like I'm out of the ripples on my screen. I even use sprint but for some reason sprint even activates late when I'm in the instance. Bad player + bad netcode = I die too much.

[Doson]

It's definitely something on SE's end cuz I know sometimes people get random rubber banding that lasts for a few hours. There's usually someone in my party reporting it at the same time. Then it'll go way and someone else will start getting it. I went though a period of a few weeks after the 2.05 hotfix where I would get it every other day and sure enough, when i asked people there was always someone else getting it. There's no way that It's just a coincidence and that it's on the Client's side. Something on SE's end is causing lag spike for random people.
What's funny is the lag spikes would always go away for me at peak hours. It had nothing to do with my internet; it doesn't do it on any other game. FFXIV usually runs fine for me though. I feel bad for people that have to deal with it all the time.

[Alcyon_Densetsu]

Does this netcode issue affect each instance differently? I'm a bad, but I am able to complete coil t1-4, Ifrit HM, Garuda HM with no problems, but I get in Titan HM and die to weight of the land even though it looks like I'm out of the ripples on my screen. I even use sprint but for some reason sprint even activates late when I'm in the instance. Bad player + bad netcode = I die too much.

In my experience and that of my FC, it became much worse in Titan HM and Coil (possibly because you can't really heal through too many mistakes in these).

In our runs, 9/10 times someone dies in Titan because he/she failed to predict the next move (Landslide or Weight of the Land) and didn't move before the red zone actually appeared (hint for you: memorise the whole sequence of Titan's skills or you just can't make it alive).

In Coil, I can't dodge half these ADS's AoE even though I see myself out well before their cast ends.

Also, I must say that personally on Ifrit HM, as a stunt (PLD, DF), I must absolutely hit (complete the animation confirmed by the sound effect) before his Eruption casts reached ~75% or else the bar will keep on and eventually completes (on top of that, the bar usually appears already ~25% filled). Which means I have a fraction of a second to hit my keybind. It became trivial when I had memorised his skill rotation, but as I was learning it, boy did I fail numerous times… (and I'm used to interrupting, I did it for years in many other MMO's, with an average-to-good reaction time, and never in another game do I see a cast bar still filling up after I interrupted it).