Quote Originally Posted by Ayuhra View Post
I guess the netcode is tight for some but not for me.

Or maybe I should think about it with a game designer hat on. Network systems aren't really my thing but from what I understand FFXIV was designed from the ground up to have a server-dictated live state as opposed to a client-dictated one. When the in game actions are determined by the server instead of the client the lag can kill you. There's no observable difference in combat for people with sound internet connections but folks like me it's a bit rough. I say move and I move but the server still sees me standing where I was a second ago.

WoW has, I think, a client-dictated live state so things like AoEs etc seem to sync up better there.

Soooo I guess what I am saying is I frequently wish the game was client-dictated. But that would take SE a year or so to do and a whole lot of money, it's not happening.

There was a point to all this rambling originally, I'm sick today and forget where this train of thought was supposed to go.
Trouble with that is the more you rely on clients the easier it is to hack. If my position on my client decides if I take damage instead of the server, I only have to hack my client to adjust my position and I dodge aoes (teleport, speed hacks etc) because the server doesn't have a chance to check me 1st.

You also have issues of desyncronizing multiple clients. Right now the fight happens in real time on 1 server. Plumes go out the server decides who gets hit and insanely sends hp data out to the healer client so they can heal. If it's client based, the server sends a message 'titan casting plumes'. All 8 get the message. Plumes go off (still client), and clients individually decide who gets hit then send that data back. then whm gets a memo to heal. What happens if the server doesn't receive plume hit or not data from 1 client? Does it just guess what happened? Does it wait until everyone's arrives tell the healer who got hit? It really creates problems. Server side is way simpler with the downside of lag sucking.