Frustration

[moudoka]

I'm new to the forums, but I browsed around and couldn't find very much relative to my issues, so I'm posting a new topic on the subject. It's about heavy lag spikes, disconnects, and load screens that take almost four times as long as they used to, before the most recent patch.

Our FC spoke on people having these issues, but they didn't start for me until after the most recent patch. When loading into a duty, it takes nearly a minute at times to clear the screen. When doing the duty roulette, I am guaranteed at least one, sometimes two or three disconnects during it, especially on the end-game duties. The loading screens are never-ending it seems, before cut-scenes, after revives.

I love the game, but these issues are growing worse by the day, and now I am finding myself wondering if I should continue paying for a game that is apparently broken in some fashion. It's no fun staring at a black screen, while listening to everyone else battle, or move on. It's difficult to run a duty as a tank, when you are so prone to disconnecting after massive lag spikes. This stuff really should be fixed, considering we are PAYING customers.

[AmyNeudaiz]

I had a severe lag spike issue since 2.15 and the only way I could fix it was getting WTFast. They have a free trial and if that doesn't work then the problem could be with the actual game servers.

[BamDeafPie]

Pretty sure OP is on ps3. I have exactly same issue during day but lag free at night. Weird.

Battle ping won't work on ps3.

[Raist]

There are two known issues, one of them outside the scope of SE's influence to address. SE has been working on issues with server stability for roughly a week now. The maintenance scheduled to kick off at midnight (PDT) is another attempt to address some of that. The other is related to issues in route to SE's ISP--that is something your ISP needs to get involved with to get it addressed. In some cases, it has been along our ISP's segments, but for the most part it has been with the ISP's they partner with to carry their customers data across the ocean(s)/country(ies) to Canada. It is not an uncommon problem, and rears it's ugly head on a regular basis. It is not something unique to Just FFXIV, as it happens across a long list of games and other web based services like Netflix and such. The problem is that not enough people do a little research to forward good enough information to their ISP's for assistance, so it often never gets properly addressed.

There are lots of threads on the lag situation covering the process, with lots of data demonstrating this. In the vast majority of cases, it has been shown that there are congestion issues in segments before SE's ISP (Ormuco), and is thus outside the scope of their influence to have it addressed effectively. If it were purely within Ormuco or SE's segments, then they would be much more instrumental in resolving the problems. Unfortunately, the majority of cases have shown it to be known offenders like TATA, XO, Level3, i-Web, and Cogentco just to name a few. Your ISP compensates these other ISP's to carry your data to SE's ISP, so you should fair far better getting them to work on your behalf towards resolution. You are paying them for your internet service, and this is a major part of it. If they did not enter into agreements with these partners, your internet service would be limited to their own network segments. For instance, TWC users in Charlotte, NC would not be able to access content not hosted on their localized TWC network...no access to Netflix, Microsoft, or Blizzard Entertainment, because they are hosted on someone else's network segments.

To test against this, you need to find the IP for the server(s) your game client is using while in game (can use resmon from Run or Search box, or netstat from a CMD prompt), then trace the route to it a few times both when connectivity is good as well as bad to find the points where the response time is highly erratic or timing out with asterisks in the report. Traces can be run with the tracert command in a CMD prompt. If found, also gather traces to something more common and popular like Google/YouTube to see if you get similar results. Then pull all that together to forward to your ISP.

This gives them not only clear examples that there are issues in the route your are being given, but also a road map as to where they need to be investigating or who to contact to investigate it on your behalf. Routing issues are something completely under your ISP's responsibility to address--it is part of what you pay them to maintain when you subscribe to their internet service. THEY are responsible to address such issues, not Square-Enix.

[Fizzie]

I'm on a laptop and originally had to fix this problem by turning my graphics settings down. But since the last past, the problems are back again and there's nothing more I can do to fix it.

[moudoka]

I appreciate the responses posted here. No, I am not on the PS3 version, I am on the PC version. I've attempted to check a few things, compare other games to this one, and such. I've found that honestly, these issues cropped up after the most recent patch. It was then that I started experiencing the lag, the very long delays in loading screens, and the constant disconnects. Today, while in Tam-Tara Deepcroft, I had the entire game crash out. Complete and total crash, then it took another 2-3 minutes before it would even attempt to restart, popping up an error box with 3 different error codes. It's gotten to the point where I can't play a duty, which oddly enough, is the only time the game has serious issues. Duties.

[Raist]

I appreciate the responses posted here. No, I am not on the PS3 version, I am on the PC version. I've attempted to check a few things, compare other games to this one, and such. I've found that honestly, these issues cropped up after the most recent patch. It was then that I started experiencing the lag, the very long delays in loading screens, and the constant disconnects. Today, while in Tam-Tara Deepcroft, I had the entire game crash out. Complete and total crash, then it took another 2-3 minutes before it would even attempt to restart, popping up an error box with 3 different error codes. It's gotten to the point where I can't play a duty, which oddly enough, is the only time the game has serious issues. Duties.

Since your issues seem to be falling within the scope of the investigation SE announced on March 5th in both the Lodestone and the Status Forums, you should submit your concerns in the proper channels as requested in those posts:
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...57ffe3d0abdc78
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...f-%28Mar.-5%29

This forum is not meant for addressing SE for support issues... it is for players to assist players to find solutions:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...Support-Forum!

You may still want to investigate the quality of your route just the same though and forward your findings to your ISP's tier3 support if you find something questionable between you and Ormuco's lines at SE's end. While some of us have been making some progress getting our ISP's to clean up some corridors, there are many that are still having issues. Internet usage is steadily on the rise with things like increased gaming traffic, increased online retail flow, more social media chatter (remember, smart phones eventually send data across the same lines as well), and increased streaming from sources like Netflix/Hulu as more people are firing their broadcast providers:

Akamai Real Time Web Traffic Monitor
(can drag the little window on the big map over an area to see a zoomed in view in the lower pane)

Akamai Net Usage Indexes by Industry Comparisons Against Average Usage
(can change the "Net Usage Index" in the blue band to see volume deviation from average for different industries like Gaming and Social Media, and can filter results by region)

All this increased demand can create some serious choking points that flare up from time to time in specific corridors.