The single biggest issue holding back FFXIV needs to be specifically addressed.

[Dux]

The discussion about distance from the servers impacting network performance piqued my interest. Not being particularly fluent in network protocols or special software tools for measuring network latency I fell back on trusty ping, even if it isn't brilliant. Hopefully I got my ms to s conversions right.

A ping from UK to yahoo.co.uk took 50ms. (0.050s)
A ping from UK to yahoo.com took 48ms. (0.048s)
A ping from UK to yahoo.co.jp took 315ms. (0.315s)

The ping to the server in the US was the fastest despite it being at least an 8,000 mile round trip (asssuming the server would be hosted on the east coast). This distance is at least 10 times more than the UK maximum round trip and 0.002 of a second faster.
The ping to the server in the UK took more time than pinging the US one, not knowing the exact location of the server I am defining a maximum possible round trip from my PC as 800 miles, the UK isn't that big after all.
The ping to the server in JP was the slowest but was still a very respectable 0.3s for a round trip of 12,000 miles.

So if the average "network problem" is 5 seconds it is questionable that saving one quarter of a second (1/20th of the observed network problem) by moving the servers from Japan to some place else is going to have any noticable impact at all.

[Rynithon]

The discussion about distance from the servers impacting network performance piqued my interest. Not being particularly fluent in network protocols or special software tools for measuring network latency I fell back on trusty ping, even if it isn't brilliant. Hopefully I got my ms to s conversions right.

A ping from UK to yahoo.co.uk took 50ms. (0.050s)
A ping from UK to yahoo.com took 48ms. (0.048s)
A ping from UK to yahoo.co.jp took 315ms. (0.315s)

The ping to the server in the US was the fastest despite it being at least an 8,000 mile round trip (asssuming the server would be hosted on the east coast). This distance is at least 10 times more than the UK maximum round trip and 0.002 of a second faster.
The ping to the server in the UK took more time than pinging the US one, not knowing the exact location of the server I am defining a maximum possible round trip from my PC as 800 miles, the UK isn't that big after all.
The ping to the server in JP was the slowest but was still a very respectable 0.3s for a round trip of 12,000 miles.

So if the average "network problem" is 5 seconds it is questionable that saving one quarter of a second (1/20th of the observed network problem) by moving the servers from Japan to some place else is going to have any noticable impact at all.

I live right on the coast of California, right near where the undersea cables go to Japan, I get 156-166ms pinging yahoo.co.jp. Though MMOs in my experience are different. With WoW, I am within 300 miles and we would get sometimes 150-300ms. It just depends. MMO's are all about how the servers are setup and the amount of people on them. After server restarts in WoW, my latency is like 30-50ms, few hours later when everyone is on it would increase to 350ms and stay that way all week. They also have the most sophisticated network and servers with AT&T.

The best thing SE can do it is just improve the servers and software. SE probably already has it setup with the tier companies for their traffic to take the fastest routes to Europe.

[Albela_Killingifritcom]

Oh please. is this newsworthy? it is the same in ffxi and has been like that for a decade now. what makes you think they will change this in FFXIV?

besides, pvp worked in ffxi despite this.

[Charismatic]

Oh please. is this newsworthy? it is the same in ffxi and has been like that for a decade now. what makes you think they will change this in FFXIV?

besides, pvp worked in ffxi despite this.

There's a difference between working and working well. Ballista and Brenner sucked.

[TonyMontana]

There's a difference between working and working well. Ballista and Brenner sucked.

Ignore the guy you quoted he logs in and tells everyone to abandon ship on his R1 character and trolls /shout. He has just moved to trolling the forums now too.

[Jennestia]

There's a difference between working and working well. Ballista and Brenner sucked.

PvP worked well in FFXI for the type it was. It wasn't a PvP focused game.

By the way, they already spoke about this among other linked issues, numerous times. The reason you never get dev responses to your "exactly the same topic over and over" is because they've already commented on it over and over. You don't need an answer to the same issue/question every week.

[Coldfire]

PvP worked well in FFXI for the type it was. It wasn't a PvP focused game.

By the way, they already spoke about this among other linked issues, numerous times. The reason you never get dev responses to your "exactly the same topic over and over" is because they've already commented on it over and over. You don't need an answer to the same issue/question every week.

I don't remember anything the devs said about the "lag" since the reduction of instance sizes. You sure you're not just imagining things?

[Gramul]

I don't remember anything the devs said about the "lag" since the reduction of instance sizes. You sure you're not just imagining things?

I think InuraBera mentioned something about it on the first page.

[Eugenics]

PvP worked well in FFXI for the type it was. It wasn't a PvP focused game.

By the way, they already spoke about this among other linked issues, numerous times. The reason you never get dev responses to your "exactly the same topic over and over" is because they've already commented on it over and over. You don't need an answer to the same issue/question every week.

Well maybe they should fix it and then we wouldn't talk about it.

[DonMega]

Yoshida has done a remarkable job turning this game around. Each and every patch things get better, yet one issue consistently remains with no end in sight. We've all experienced it, knowingly or not, because it has an influence on every single aspect of the game.

-Have you ever been running throughout town, and seen a character(or enemy) in front of you jump into the ceiling or through walls?
-Have you ever attempted to heal somebody running next to you, only to be told they're out of range?
-Have you ever seen an enemy go Red with nobody in sight, only to see a party member run up 5 seconds later and attack with a melee strike?
-Have you ever done DH and seen one of the Eyes charge up their stationary AoE far away from you, then proceed to watch it 'glide' along the floor while charging until its right on top of you?
-Or, perhaps, experienced something like this?

[SIZE="5"]*[/SIZE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJCQs-R7X4 [SIZE="5"]*[/SIZE] (I thought they added youtube embedding? :/ )

An extremely simple video that I think adequately shows the very root of the problem. While the video itself may seem 'trivial', rest assured the cause behind it is the same as in all the above examples.

I am, of course, talking about the horrid Server/Client relationship in Eorzea. These things happen to a very small extent in any online game, but to nowhere near the extremity of in FFXIV. All frustrating occurrences to say the least, and I think I'm being pretty kind phrasing it that way.

I've given nearly a year of leeway waiting for this to be fixed. It's crippling to all facets of gameplay, and quite frankly it's pretty darn embarrassing. All the content in the world won't make the game enjoyable if this has to be tolerated, and I shudder to think of the amplified effects it will have when we're moving at Chocobo speeds.

Every patch we hear about the 'server upgrades/optimizations', when are you going to get to the one that truly matters?

I've read in a translated interview that they are remodeling server/client communication system roots.