Northern IL packet loss to NA data center

[Gongan]

I posted about this on Reddit recently with a more organized post, but got no upvotes or replies until days later when I guess some guy googling about the issue replied. It made me believe I have an isolated issue, but one that I'm sure isn't an issue with something on my end.

I have this issue as well in Mississippi and also using Comcast. I had the issue during Heavensward as well. I came back to the game at the beginning of Heavensward and I don't remember any lag issues up until around when Thordan was released. I remember there being A LOT of people lagging around when Thordan came out. Around this time my static split up and I was debating whether or not to continue raiding because not only had my static split up, but I now had very bad lag every night during prime raid hours. I put raiding on hold for a bit and eventually I was introduced to WTFast.

After doing some googling, I learned about the Level 3 routing issues people with similar locations (east coast) and ISPs (Comcast) were having. Our connections would pass through Level 3 and get bogged down when going through their area to get to the SE servers, at least that was my basic understanding. Level 3 blamed SE, SE blamed Level 3, so no accepted blame and nothing ever got done. I started abusing the free trial from WTFast to be able to play during these peak hours where everything, excluding me, would begin rubber banding. When I say everything, I mean players, mechanics (A7S balls), anything that's movement was received and sent by SE's servers. Eventually WTFast fixed the abusable free trial periods and I had to start subbing for WTFast. I chose the basic plan because it was a few dollars cheaper than the premium and I really didn't need its other features other than rerouting my connection. I'd raided with it ever since Midas. I'd been subbed to WTFast ever since Midas. I used to only turn WTFast on when the lag hit, but it became a habit to just launch FFXIV through WTFast. A lot of time passed and brought us to Creator tier. I heard they were moving the data center, so I kept my remaining time on WTFast (it'd last me a week or two into the expansion) and unsubbed from it. After the server move pre SB, I wasn't really playing the game much outside of a raid day here and there with my group. I'd always have WTFast for it. I tried to raid one night without it and noticed some lag so I threw WTFast back on because I didn't have time to both testing to see if it was an isolated incident with my internet or if it were the routing issue while I was raiding. I didn't play outside of raid, so I was never really on the game without WTFast between the data center move and Stormblood.

Before Stormblood released, I fixed my sleep schedule to where waking up when the servers came up would be easier. I decided to play without WTFast and use my leveling time to test my connection without a VPN. The change in my sleep schedule caused me to play from early morning hours to early evening hours. I didn't notice any lag. I eventually started staying up later and I started lagging one night. I thought it was just my internet being bad because I'd decided the data center relocation had solved my routing issues. The next night I noticed it again and noted the time (11 PM CST) because I'd lagged the night before, but wasn't sure what time. The next night comes and I start lagging again and I noticed the time and sure enough it's about the same time. The next day it starts lagging about 8 PM CST, a little earlier than the previous 2-3 nights. The next day it starts lagging at 6 PM CST. When I say it starts lagging at a certain time, I don't just mean it starts lagging for a few minutes then stops. It lags on and off all through the night. Sometimes it lags for hours. It seemed to get progressively worse.

Around the third night, when I'd noted it started at 11 PM CST again, I went looking for VPNs. I went to WTFast first because it'd been my previous solution. They now wanted $10 a month, which is almost another MMO sub and I will never pay that much just to play an MMO that already costs a monthly fee. I went looking for alternatives that were free and found Mudfish. Mudfish isn't free, but it's a pay for what you use service. I opted for this option because at that time, the lag kept kicking in at 11 PM 3 nights in a row. I figured I'd just keep it off until 11 PM then throw it on and I'd use very little of the credit I payed for. Sure enough, Mudfish fixed it. I would turn Mudfish back off and the lag would be back. This confirmed to me that it was NOT my internet. It's was NOT because of peak hour server problems or peak hours for my ISP causing problems. It's NOT because there's a lot of people in the zone I'm in. It was not any of those issues people like to throw out because SE can do no wrong and they like to believe it's on your own end and completely under your control. I'm not going to move to play an MMO without the use of a VPN.

This is the only game I have to pay for a VPN to play. I don't lag like this in any other game. It feels like it's getting progressively worse. I'll just start lagging for 30 minutes to an hour or two every so often. It's to the point where there's no sense in me turning my VPN off because the lag will just start up again so soon after turning it off. Right now I've just been suffering through the lag while I AFK or gather or craft. Once savage comes out, I'm going to be putting more hours into the game where I NEED the game to not be lagging. I understand people can play the game with 300 ping and do "fine," but that doesn't excuse that it feels absolutely awful when that's not the norm for anything else you play. Why would I play this MMO when I can go play one that feels 10x better. I'm not someone who has these issues with every NA server they connect to because they live in another country and it's the sacrifice I have to make to play on this server. I live in the same country as the server. When I turn on my VPN, it shows a Real Time MS tracker. It usually shows my MS drop from 300 down to a little under 100. Sometimes it'll drop from 700 during slightly more intense rubber banding. Sometimes it drops from 3000 down to under 100 when it's really ridiculous.

It's really REALLY getting old needing to pay for a VPN to play this game and this game ONLY. On no other games do I lag in. On no other games do I make use of my VPN on. I felt like it was just me for a while because I haven't seen many people complaining about it, but my VPN fixes it so, AFAIK, it's another routing issue all over again. I was worried when I heard they moved the servers to California. California is the same state Riot hosted their LoL servers for a period of time and they used to have similar issues with East Coast/Comcast users that we've experienced with Level 3 and FFXIV's servers. They sought out a solution for their players, which I haven't seen SE do for their own players. Riot eventually moved their servers to a different location that was not only a more even base ping between East and West coast players, but it also fixed the routing issues that were happening with their East coast/Comcast players. This is the first thing I thought of when I heard the data center was moving to California. I was hoping at the very least it'd be with a different company than LoL's servers and the routing issues I experienced with Level 3/FFXIV would be gone as well as not experiencing the same ones that LoL's servers had when they were located in California. I still don't know if SE is using the same company as Riot or not, but the same issue seems to be there. I don't believe it's the same routing issue as the Level 3 one before the data center relocation, but it definitely seems like another issue through another route. I understand the data center move wasn't intended to alleviate anyone's latency problems, but I hoped at the very least that I would no longer experience the routing issues and no long need to pay for a VPN for the sole purpose of playing this game, and no other game, that already costs a subscription to play. I live in the same country that the servers are located. I don't live in a bad area with bad internet in my state. I have none of these issues with any other games outside of the LoL issues before they FIXED IT. It's getting really ridiculous.

At some point, I'm going to decide it's not worth paying this much for this game and to a company that doesn't seem to care in the slightest whether it gets resolved or not. I actually had money I planned to use for the physical collector's edition of Stormblood. I even preordered it when it became available, but I really don't like to splurge very often and WTFast had already drained me so much so that I didn't feel comfortable spending that much on a physical collector's edition of a game. I ended up cancelling it and getting the digital collector's edition. If my discontent can't motivate change, maybe my wallet can. That's a physical collector's edition lost because of these issues that have continued for at least a year or more. I could have used that money on the mogstation here and there. Instead it got spent paying for a VPN to even play the game comfortably. Sorry for the length and any typos. I don't have time to reread it right now. I just needed to rant about this and finally found a thread with similar issues.


TLR: I'm having similar issues. VPNs fix it. It's been happening since before the data center relocation and happening yet again after. It's getting really ridiculous that I need to pay for a VPN to play a game that also costs a monthly fee. Their losing out on money I could spend on their game that I instead have to put aside for my VPN fund.