I'd like to pre-order Stormblood but...

[Callinon]

...but, since the 3.5 patch and almost constantly thereafter I'd been having horrible server lag. I don't know if it's network lag or the server choking on itself but that red circle is my constant friend these last couple of weeks.

During a dungeon I'll see my party members standing still only to suddenly rush forward as a unit at about 3 times the normal movement speed.

I'll have abilities proc, push the button, see the animation go off only to have no damage numbers, no consumption of the proc buff, and suddenly the thing I pushed is acting like it's on cooldown. This is especially amusing on BLM when trying to maintain enochian and have my blizzard iv just not count.

I've been working on leveling every job to 60 before the expansion launches. I'm well on my way but this stalls me out because I'm working on WAR right now and can't, in good conscience, tank anything when I know (I KNOW) my connection to the game could fail at literally any moment. How can I possibly tank a dungeon like that?

I've talked to my ISP and they don't see anything wrong. I've talked to SE and they don't see anything wrong. I hear stories similar to mine from other people all across the country. Some of them blame level3 for being a terrible internet backbone. Some of them think their ISP is throttling their connection (I checked, mine isn't). None of them have a solution to the problem. And that leads me to my problem.

I want to play the game. I'm looking forward to Stormblood. I want to try out red mage and have that hat because that hat is life. But how can I? How can I buy an expansion for a game that doesn't work? How can I justify spending $60 on a game that I can't play without it being a miserable experience?

People may write me off as whining. Ok. Maybe a little. But my problem is real and my dilemma is real.

Are you having this problem too? I'm curious how widespread it is. Is it affecting your decision to pay for Stormblood, or to continue paying for the game in general for that matter?

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Nope, no issues here. Havne't ever had issues unless someone in the housing is downloading stuff or level 3 craps out and the route doesn't adjust.

Otherwise, same as usual, ping under 100 with few lag spikes.

Your ISP won't see anything wrong because they only monitor their connection, and not the next level up from them.

[Saccharin]

I've talked to my ISP and they don't see anything wrong. I've talked to SE and they don't see anything wrong. I hear stories similar to mine from other people all across the country. Some of them blame level3 for being a terrible internet backbone. Some of them think their ISP is throttling their connection (I checked, mine isn't). None of them have a solution to the problem. And that leads me to my problem.

Run a path ping and tracert to the servers when it happens and it might show the problem. If the problem is going to be your ISP do you honestly expect them to hold their hands up.

[skyfox]

Hi, if you are using wireless. it is best to try LAN connection to make your connection more stable. Do a continuous ping to your server IP and see if there is any packet loss or high latency in between. Then do a traceroute see which path that cause the issue.

[Zer0]

The issue isn't your ISP, or Square. The issue is actually the connection between the two. SE uses level3 for it's core provider to the internet. Their servers are physically located in Montreal Canada, and the connection Level3 uses is well to put it plainly shit. So it's nothing either side can do. The real core main source of the problem. Square picking a horrible city to host all of it's NA/JP servers. Instead of like Los Angeles where one of the core internet hubs is and several dozen mega clusters and practically everyone hosts out of. Nobody uses Montreal except for it's Canadian server, like steam for example uses it but also uses LA, Chicago, Philly, Dallas other known mega centers for internet traffic.

[Callinon]

The issue isn't your ISP, or Square. The issue is actually the connection between the two. SE uses level3 for it's core provider to the internet. Their servers are physically located in Montreal Canada, and the connection Level3 uses is well to put it plainly shit. So it's nothing either side can do. The real core main source of the problem. Square picking a horrible city to host all of it's NA/JP servers. Instead of like Los Angeles where one of the core internet hubs is and several dozen mega clusters and practically everyone hosts out of. Nobody uses Montreal except for it's Canadian server, like steam for example uses it but also uses LA, Chicago, Philly, Dallas other known mega centers for internet traffic.

Yeah that's what I've found as well, but it doesn't change my situation. I live in Chicago, so hardly the boonies. I don't have this problem with any other online service including other MMOs.

Hell I get better connection quality playing FFXI and I have to connect to f'ing Japan for that.

I'm not expecting a solution to magically appear in this thread. I've done all the things you do including running traceroutes and continuous pings to the server while I'm playing to identify trouble spots; none of it does any good. My ISP can't/won't create custom routes for me around problem areas and SE just throws up its hands and disclaims all responsibility for the performance of their game.

What I'd like is for SE to acknowledge that the problem exists and start taking action to do something about it. I realize that's exceedingly unlikely but it really is all I want. Just SOME indication that they're aware that this isn't working and are trying to fix it.

[Naraku_Diabolos]

If you are playing on PC, this April there will be a new Windows 10 update that will make your PC run in a Game Mode, where your computer ONLY focuses on your game and nothing else; all other processes grind to a halt. It will be essentially like playing a video game console as you will get a huge performance boost.

And I have had lag, too, so it's not just you. Though I have yet to D/C.

[Akira]

If you are playing on PC, this April there will be a new Windows 10 update that will make your PC run in a Game Mode, where your computer ONLY focuses on your game and nothing else; all other processes grind to a halt. It will be essentially like playing a video game console as you will get a huge performance boost.

And I have had lag, too, so it's not just you. Though I have yet to D/C.

actually windows 10 game mode will only work with Windows Store games thus will not work with XIV

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

My ISP can't/won't create custom routes for me around problem areas and SE just throws up its hands and disclaims all responsibility for the performance of their game.

What I'd like is for SE to acknowledge that the problem exists and start taking action to do something about it. I realize that's exceedingly unlikely but it really is all I want. Just SOME indication that they're aware that this isn't working and are trying to fix it.

The issue here is that neither you nor SE is in direct contact with Level3. SE CAN'T do anything other than go to their ISP, and that will probably lead nowhere since Level3 is a huge backbone provider and has outages on almost a weekly basis it seems. They clearly do not have the want to upgrade their service.

[matteoxyz]

Have you tried using tunneling software? it seems to this for me. I use PingZapper.