MMORPGs moving to 1-10 MS server side polling

[Shurrikhan]

I feel like ISPs are still the leading problem ever since the improvements done to FFXIV's connectivity. However, it seems that these end up with their notorious routing problems far more often in FFXIV than in WoW. For example, each time I enter a new instance server in FFXIV I have a chance that my connection will switch from perfectly fine to having 10-second freezes and speed-ups about a third of the play-time (essentially unplayable), and the connection seems far more prone to bog down due to bandwidth throttling. In WoW, regardless of what server I'm temporarily transferred into, the route stays the same except when my ISP changes routes for 'prime time' usage (which merely causes occassional position-offsets, making pretty much only Backstabs and melee attacks on charging enemies annoying). Additionally my average (though easy enough to make up for) ping in FFXIV is around 320-480 ms, while it's around 20-45 in WoW.

[Roris]

If 3rd party programs help improve latency for a lot of people, you'd think they'd work to apply some of the same principles behind those 3rd party programs on their infrastructure, especially now that ARR is so profitable like they always keep implying, surely they can afford it.

[Fornix]

If 3rd party programs help improve latency for a lot of people, you'd think they'd work to apply some of the same principles behind those 3rd party programs on their infrastructure, especially now that ARR is so profitable like they always keep implying, surely they can afford it.

The third party programs do nothing on SE's infrastructure. The only thing it does is change the routes by which you connect to the server. It's like a TomTom navigation system with traffic congestion notifications.

You can have a congestion from city B to city C. So rather it'd direct you from A to X to Y to D.

[Tupsi]

If 3rd party programs help improve latency for a lot of people, you'd think they'd work to apply some of the same principles behind those 3rd party programs on their infrastructure, especially now that ARR is so profitable like they always keep implying, surely they can afford it.

If 3rd party programs fixes your latency that's ...undeniable proof it's your connection's route. All 3rd party programs like battleping or whatever does is tunnel your connection around hiccups - nothing SE "can put into practice" because the connection is fine, the servers are fine...the route is not fine - SE doesn't own the route inbetween you and them.

[ApolloGenX]

Trust me, guys - Even though you might not have these issues in any other games... and even though a much older game can pull off a much faster and superior polling rate - It's the internetz

Seriously? I don't really care if it's because of bad data center placement, badly coded telegraphing processes, or whatever - this game still has performance problems that are massively outperformed by a much older game.

Some people will defend ANYTHING. (Or blame others)

[Tiggy]

Trust me, guys - Even though you might not have these issues in any other games... and even though a much older game can pull off a much faster and superior polling rate - It's the internetz

Seriously? I don't really care if it's because of bad data center placement, badly coded telegraphing processes, or whatever - this game still has performance problems that are massively outperformed by a much older game.

Some people will defend ANYTHING. (Or blame others)

Some people prefer to understand why so that they can blame the right people. Blaming square won't solve anything if 90% or more of the problems are caused between you and the server.

Some people will refuse to understand ANYTHING. (Or just blame someone anyway)

[ApolloGenX]

Some people prefer to understand why so that they can blame the right people. Blaming square won't solve anything if 90% or more of the problems are caused between you and the server.

Some people will refuse to understand ANYTHING. (Or just blame someone anyway)

There is absolutely no argument to be made for slower polling. To what degree it might help or not help players is another conversation. So, please feel free to deflect with the back and forth about impact (which I think we all know would vary greatly from player to player)... while ignoring the fundamental point that their methods are outdated and perform at an inferior level to a much older game.

What I do think is fair to claim is that "that other" company thought the impact of faster polling to be worth the investment to improve their rates.

Yes, it is true that it might impact people more in that other game, since there might be fewer people suffering because of that companies badly placed datacenters that cause terrible data transmission.... but I am not sure why that would be the fault of players, either. To be fair - when that other game launched and there was massive lag, you had the same kind of people blaming it on people's internet connections and routing... but miraculously, the other company still managed to fix things....

[Teryaani]

There is absolutely no argument to be made for slower polling.

It was done to help alleviate performance issues on the servers themselves. So while there is no excuse for the hardware to be that bad, there was a reason for it. To Roris' point, SE should allocate resources to put better infrastructure in place. I completely agree with that.

It's a pain to migrate, even so they need to, before the game gets more bogged down.

To what degree it might help or not help players is another conversation.

No, it's the main premise of the OP's post. It's the conversation we're having right now. The argument being had is that this would fix lag issues when largely it won't.

What I do think is fair to claim is that "that other" company thought the impact of faster polling to be worth the investment to improve their rates.

You are comparing an MMO that has been in place for ten years with a development and infrastructure team to match and which has a much smaller footprint than FF does with an MMO in it's first year (ARR is a nearly complete re-write of 1.0, so this is it's first year) which has a green infrastructure team.

They need to fix the problem, but we can't pretend that because Square made an MMO that resembles WoW that they are suddenly Activision/Blizzard.

also:

Trust me, guys - Even though you might not have these issues in any other games... and even though a much older game can pull off a much faster and superior polling rate - It's the internetz

You chose to ignore this, but as others have said, this is happening in other games too. Not just FF.

[Tiggy]

It's not the fault of the players. It's ISPs. Stop trying to act like everyone is blaming the players. We are blaming ISPs and backbone providers. Keep up.

Secondly, the game updates 10 times a second despite the OP pushing false 300ms information. It updates at 100ms a second. 10 times a second is plenty and it made a noticeable difference immediately. This was updated months ago. Keep up.

Lastly, you're cherry picking one game in one scenario largely ignoring many games who didn't have things go so smoothly. Also, It doesn't prove anything since it's a badly picked example. For you're reading comprehension here is a google search showing you all the level3 related lag problems people are talking about in WoW. https://www.google.com/search?q=leve...m=122&ie=UTF-8

Funny how this "other company still managed to fix things" yet still has issues with the SAME EXACT backbone provider that square does. Wow that's some nice poorly picked data you got there. It took me literally less than 5 seconds to google search this and see it was a problem in WoW as well. Doing research is hard because reasons.

[reality_check]

Secondly, the game updates 10 times a second despite the OP pushing false 300ms information. It updates at 100ms a second. 10 times a second is plenty and it made a noticeable difference immediately. This was updated months ago. Keep up.

FFXIV updates at 100 MS intervals in PVP and only in specific instances (coil & certain extreme.)

Everywhere else in the world updates at 300 MS intervals. This information comes directly from what the developers have told us.