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

[Melithea]

The reasons why SE would choose server dictated live-state:
-Prevents desync bugs (on the server)
-Prevents countless potential duping bugs
-Prevents (in theory) teleportation and other unauthorized client commands from being accepted
-If the player has a good connection to the server, little to no delay is observed by the player

You forgot:
-PS3

Also, the more things the client is put in control of the easier it is to hack and cheat.

Well thank goodness the game is so secure and there are no hackers messing things u- ohhhhh wait.

[Sadebreth]

Living on east coast I get around 70ms ping to everywhere on the eastern half of the US and between 100 and 140ms everywhere else in the country. So how is my location an issue with this game and only this game?

I live on the southern half of the east coast near florida and I don't have any issue with the game. It runs fine. I never checked my ping times because I don't seem to have an issue at all. I am with cox cable. I don't really know if that is relevant or not but it might be.

[Quesse]

When your client receives this information, it syncs to the time provided by the server

Why couldn't this read "When the server receives this information it syncs to the time provided by the client?" For your particular session anyway.

Anyway I have tested running out at the last possible instant with monster AOEs and its always right on. No issue here.

[Astarica]

The issue between FF14 and other game isn't just a matter of degrees. It's something versus nothing at all. Turn autorun on and start casting your 'mount chocobo' spell. You'll see that the spell obviously attempts to be cast and depending on your lag and time of the day it might even claim to finish. It'll certain go on for at least 0.5s or so in the vast majority of the time.

Now go to WoW or any other MMORPG, put autorun on and try to get on your mount. I'll be shocked if the game even displays the casting timer at all (unless you managed to accidentally ran into something and got stuck). You should just get 'can't do that' 100% of the time. This is obviously because FF14 chose to handle this issue totally differently, unless WoW and every other MMORPG has managed to invent teleportation of data, which is what is necessary to ensure the castbar never even starts at all if they operated under the same architecture as FF14.

[Astarica]

Why couldn't this read "When the server receives this information it syncs to the time provided by the client?" For your particular session anyway.

Anyway I have tested running out at the last possible instant with monster AOEs and its always right on. No issue here.

When the AE fires, the server is supposed to make its decision at that moment, not some time later when the client sends the next update. In theory it can wait, but that means even more lag. It's already laggy enough right now when the server doesn't bother wait for the next client update to render its decision. Imagine what happens if the server has to wait? It'd generally be in favor of players, but the lag will be even worse.

[Gooner_iBluAirJGR]

Thank you very much! I enjoyed reading this!

[Sapphic]

snip

As a thought, would extending the cast timers on the Mobs AE abilities slightly to compensate help to aleviate most of the problems?

[Shneibel]

As a thought, would extending the cast timers on the Mobs AE abilities slightly to compensate help to aleviate most of the problems?

it would, longer cast time aoe = more time to move out (if want to keep the aoe radius as it is now)

[Billie21]

Thanks for this thread that summarise the situation pretty well.

The reasons why SE would choose server dictated live-state:
[...]
-Prevents (in theory) teleportation and other unauthorized client commands from being accepted

That's the most sad with all this: they still suffer from hackers, even more so than anything I've seen so far (before you answer that: no, I haven't seen it all).


At this point, I'd rather suffer from visible lag and rubberbanding. I'll take the lag I can see (and potentially adjust to) over the lie that is the game at present.

[Astarica]

Teleport is basically impossible to stop completely because to the server, the client is always issuing teleport commands. The only question is how far are you teleporting? A server model is in theory safer against other things you might want to do with your client, but it's not like other MMORPGs are plagued with hacks. In a game with very rigid rules, it's pretty hard to successfully lie to the server for prolonged amount of time. For example let's say I hacked my client to always report 'I just healed myself for 9999', and let's say server is completely trusting here and doesn't even question how this is possible. It's still hard to do anything else useful because if I ever start trying to cast any offensive spell, the server is going to notice I somehow casted 2 spells in one GCD and will suspect I'm hacking. About all I can do is stand there and never die.