Why the netcode issue exists, and why it cannot be fixed.

[Arcaloid]

This kind of statement should really be announced by SE, if they don't plan to fix it, they can just say this could take an awful long time to fix.

[Dedayius]

I believe this is why there was talk of adding buffs to a party if they continuously die.

Interesting. Is this a community idea or one that the devs tossed out?

[Baneus]

I don't have an issue because I am an IT Guru/ IT Generalist Jack of all trades and my PC is a Beast, and my ping to the datacenter is 30-40 ms. I don't lag at all and have about 2500$ in my gaming PC.

Well, aren't you precious.

Unless that was sarcasm, in which case let me inform you - it doesn't work in text form.

[whilke]

While I'd like to think they could add in some fixes specifically around AOE avoidance, even though they do implement a server-state architecture, there are so many other areas that cause problems because of this. I have a bad feeling that this is going to cause ARR to never really break out of the niche market.

The server-state implementation is why sometimes you heal someone, but they die anyway, or why benediction goes off and on CD, but they still die, etc. You don't know they've already taken that final blow, so you cast send the command to the server. On the server that target died 300+ms ago, so the spell has no effect.

[Ryios]

Well, aren't you precious.

Unless that was sarcasm, in which case let me inform you - it doesn't work in text form.

I posted and then immediately edited my post to add more, sorry, I wasn't finished.

[IzumiRaito]

2. Do you know of any other games that are also based on such a server live-state architecture?

Path of exile is like this. And suffers from desyncs and rubber banding. Although its not same game type. Diablo 2 and 3, but its blizzard so problems are minimal.

[Baneus]

I posted and then immediately edited my post to add more, sorry, I wasn't finished.

I see, then I apologise.

I'm pretty much the same as you with a single difference, my connection is on the other side of the planet from the servers and goes from here to Australia, to the US and then to the servers. 200ms is the absolute best latency I ever see, which is actually amazing considering the shoddy cross country infrastructure of the aforementioned nations.

[Astarica]

When you hit spacebar (or whatever you mapped jump to) your character immediately jumps. If it was controlled by the server you would lag between when hit you space bar and when you jump. There's nothing unusual with the way your client renders any of the information. The only thing unusual about this game is that server gets to call all shots. Otherwise, the speed of light travels 3000km in 0.01s, which is greater than the distance from west coast to east coast. So let's say all other MMORPG are processed by infinitely powerful computers on both end, so that the only limiting factor is the speed of light. Your server is still going to lag behind the client by 0.01s and we treat it as if the server just polls data every 0.01s (because faster than that has no use due to speed of light being not fast enough) compared to FF14's 0.3s. This means we should encounter the same problems in other MMORPG about 3% of the time compared to FF14.

But there's no way this is true. That'd mean we'd have cases where you pop an invulnerability ability (say, Ice Block), have its CD charged, and still die. Can you imagine the amount of crying in a PvP forum if there's even a slightly chance that you use your 'save self' ability only to see it not only not work, but you're charged the CD for using it? So the only conclusion is that other games do not use the same kind of design.

While superficially having server take control of everything is safer, it's not like you hear WoW or any other MMORPG getting hacked every day, so clearly it is not that important, either.

[Allyra]

Thank you for this well put post, however, I don't completely agree with this:

Can it be changed?
Short answer: No.
Long Answer: Technically, yes, but it would be extremely costly and time consuming. SE Would lose millions and it would take months to over a year to accomplish.

As others mentioned, they don't need to change the live-states in this scenario, they need to split up the data servers.

As someone else mentioned SE US headquarters are in LA. And Euro headquarters are in the UK AT MINIMUM, they could add some servers to each, to help split up the congestion/distance issue with having so many countries going to the same spot.

If you are going to do server live-sate, you have to split up those servers.

[Sinth]

When you hit spacebar (or whatever you mapped jump to) your character immediately jumps. If it was controlled by the server you would lag between when hit you space bar and when you jump. There's nothing unusual with the way your client renders any of the information. The only thing unusual about this game is that server gets to call all shots.

No. Your character jumps on your screen, but does not immediately jump on the server. Whereas, in the client live-state you hit the space bar, and when the command resolves with the server, you then jump on your screen.

Basically speaking, everything you see on your screen is a lie. None of it is real-time on your screen (except for maybe turning your camera angle, which is not negotiated by the server).

But there's no way this is true. That'd mean we'd have cases where you pop an invulnerability ability (say, Ice Block), have its CD charged, and still die. Can you imagine the amount of crying in a PvP forum if there's even a slightly chance that you use your 'save self' ability only to see it not only not work, but you're charged the CD for using it? So the only conclusion is that other games do not use the same kind of design.

You can test this on your own by saturating your connection (start a bunch of downloads). When you hit an ability, the animation instantly goes off, however, the cooldown is not proc'd until the server responds. You can sit and spam abilities that would normally have a 2 minute cooldown repeatedly (while seeing their animations) until the server receives the information and tells your client to pop the CD timer.