input delay kills the game

[KikodeYusaku]

You're talking about ping, which is a problem caused by your distance from the server and the quality of your internet connection.
If you can't handle server latency then you could look into upgrading your internet, or find a game whose servers are closer to you.

[Awful]

You're talking about ping, which is a problem caused by your distance from the server and the quality of your internet connection.
If you can't handle server latency then you could look into upgrading your internet, or find a game whose servers are closer to you.

OP isn't talking about ping he's talking about how everything is server side whereas most MMOs are client side, meaning games like WoW, TERA, SwToR etc, your inputs are based off your own ping whereas FFXIV you're at the mercy of their servers where using abilities like Rescue have a delay when they should be instantaneous.

Same goes for boss moves like Titans line moves/AoEs, threat generation if someone pulls and you pull threat back it isn't a quick snap, the mobs have to turn around, target you, and then run at you, even after playing the game for years I find it annoying still but I can look past it but there's days it absolutely frustrates me.

[Squintina]

I've always experienced that delay regardless of ping, and I've played on multiple connections with powerful home-built computers that easily play the settings we have.
There is a very small amount of time in which abilities and their ground/cast markers don't match up. So sometimes a person thinks they just made it and...nope.

I've done plenty of MMO hopping to have never encountered this anywhere else. at all. ever. They may have had random spikes, but not a constant delay that is noticeable in every incoming and outgoing casts (I see it in the heal cast too, I can start moving about 0.5 seconds before my cast ends and not interrupt myself)

I've adapted to it because it's not a huge delay, but then again I play a ranged character.
My husband plays a tank and a few times he thought he got out of a major swing attack in time only to be hit. It frustrates him a bit, but I'm sure he'll adapt over time.

It wouldn't kill them to at least look into it. Whether they actually do anything about it or blame the player, well, that's up to them. But to imply that a NA person on an NA datacenter with 100/75 Mbps needs an internet upgrade for this one particular game and no other game at all just seems silly.

[XiXiQ]

latency is certainly a huge issue with this game (and why SE thinks reduced cast times in some battles makes it "harder" is plain silly.) anyone with pings over 80ms is considered second class by raiders, and they will be seeing dps loss in the 10-20% range no matter how good they might get. One thing I did notice way back when I first started, is that if you're using a TV to display, the TV itself can be adding about .5 sec just with post/pre processing. check re your specific TV model, you should be able to turn that stuff off.

[ShanaHeartilly]

i have no clue what you any of you mean i have never had that problem. and deffantly not with someone running past? maybe its just you have a really bad ping/net connection? the only time i can think that this is a problem is if you use a summoner/scholar because the enkindal ability when you use it if the mob dies soon after the skill wont go off and still goes on cd. but that would seem to me a problem with your timing. it shouldnt be cast if the monster is about to die. and i use whm alot for my healer benadiction i have had no issues from?

[NephthysVasudan]

<snip>

Before you start yammering away at "its not true blah blah your wrong" consider the following facts:

1: I'm a IT Professional with 20+ years of experience in a wide variety of computer issues ranging from computer desktops to servers.
2: I work at a Datacenter where I'm responsible for building servers/management at maintenance of a 3000+ Server facility.
3: I troubleshoot/diagnose hardware and networking issues.
4: I sit on a 30 MEGABYTE (not bit...BYTE) Backbone (thats 30MB/s) which is tied into the greater Seattle regional internet backbone here (Westin)
5: I'm 2 network hops from SE's front door....less than 30ms ping. That's damn fast as its gonna get.

Now that you have the facts..allow me to share with you what I've observed.
At home I have a reasonably current gaming rig - but the internet connection is not as good as the one at the datacenter....its a fiber yes - but id say 10-15Mb/s (that's bits...not bytes) - more than adequate for FFXIV.

Generally I don't see anything like what your describing...unless there's latency off the server.
Now here at my work place? I see it ALL THE DAMN TIME. I make due.

Explain that!
I can....its two things.
Server Lag (With the obvious reasons attached - not all the time) - Like when I'm taking on Ixion with 75-90 people - its stupid insane - but only in those specific conditions!
Or the rig sitting here which has a 10-15 year old graphics card and a crappy AMD 3core? (whatever the hell it is) CPU I salvaged from a server. I blame my old gaming rig here at work :P Obviously. it sure as hell aint the connection and its not SE (Cause at home I don't see this AT ALL :P )

Again..if your paying attention - server lag is only a good excuse if the conditions are right. Otherwise I blame my computer.

Whats the point?
Your lagging seriously bad - and your computer has a problem.

This isn't the games fault.
Granted the servers have been ddosd' 16 different ways from Christmas....but its all you...I suggest you look elsewhere for your rant.

GL HF.

[RylaBee]

Nephthys

In my opinion, if you play several different online games on the SAME rig and the SAME connection and only one of them is constantly experiencing significant delays in responsivnes
, then the ONLY way this in problem on player's side is:
1) said game is hardware-wise clearly more demanding than his other games (is FFXIV in your opinion significantly more HW demanding then say SWTOR, TERA, Overwatch, Secret World ??)
2) game servers are - unlike for your other games - much "farther" for you (this is discutable - are for example EU FFXIV servers not located in EU ??)

Appreciate if you have any thoughts on 1) or 2)

[NephthysVasudan]

1:You'd be surprised how utterly stupid windows can get (as most PC users are on windows) when it comes to day to day use/gaming.
That and older hardware. - And not all games are the same - this is a major myth in terms of game A being lag free and game B and game C so therefore FFXIV is bad! - NOPE. Each game is a different personality. Granted - many share the same engine/platform - but they all use different servers/different designs/different methodologies. EVE Online for example is likely the most efficient game on the planet in terms of client vs server side latency issues. - And they have to be - when you enter a star system and you have 3000 players in one place - your going to need all the speed you can get. (And even the servers have to use something called "Time dilation" to keep the lag to a minimum (1 second == 30 seconds for example). Literally slowing the game down so everyone can get their I/O commands in. The heaviest aspect of EVE Online is the graphics - everything else is server side.
FFXIV seems to use an entirely different system - more client side than server side...as evidenced by the files I have to push/pull to go between my rigs. But I can't say that for sure.


bottom line - this game requires an efficient rig - and if your system is not there/like an older graphics card? While good - just not that fast? You WILL encounter weird situations - but I don't think the OP is telling all the facts. I'd say he's ranting over something that just started happening.

As for FFXIV - Id say it's not nearly as demanding as say EVE Online....but there is obviously a lot overhead when it comes to server communication traffic. I don't have a packet sniffer handy to tell you - and I would strongly advise you don't do that >.>;;;; - but its rather obvious when your tackling Ixion for example.

2: I'm obviously on the NA Servers (Seattle WA is my regional location) - The funny thing is Adamantoise when traced is geo-ip'd in the Sacramento region..yet my network path is going through a datacenter belonging to SE in the Seattle area....obviously a VPN/Prxoy tunnel between SE's datacenters throughout the west coast - but as its a dedicated pipeline for their traffic...latency is a non-issue. - If he's playing on a server outside his country - then yeah..your going to have serious issues...some can get away with it..some cant. ideally a ping you want for gaming is less than 150ms (lower the number the faster (1000ms = 1 Second - note what the OP said about the delay he observed? Funny that!) - Anything higher and your going to see weird things.

As for demanding hardware wise? Cant say for sure as I've not played those games - best guess - don't know! FFXIV at times looks less complex - and other days its more complex in graphics. I can say that you need a good setup if your going to run max settings. Also keep in mind FPS's are more demanding on timing and processing. So its Apple Vs Orange.

That said MMO's like FFXIV are not very dependent on pings as opposed to say a first person shooter. - But it will impact you in major events like dungeons/raids/etc. the higher the population count in your immedate "instance/area" - the worse your going to see the effects.

That all aside - my whole point is you could have the best damn connection on the planet....but if your hardware is not up to snuff or your OS is overloaded with garbage (and you'd be surprised how many people think they got this nailed when they are no where near that level of cleanliness) - your going to see this sort of problem (input delay). there's just not enough info honestly.

And like everyone else - I've not see nor heard of this problem with everyone else. Which is why I blame the hardware....my work rig is not nearly as nice as my gaming rig...one of these days ill drag my tower here and try it out - likely will find that the connection is rock solid and there's no delays...but I don't like risking my hardware ^_^;.

I've seen some weird latency spikes on my home connection - but it was within reasonable expectations (high population count etc). Its especially tricky when doing cross world connections - but not seen anything seriously bad yet.

There are just too many questions - is he torrenting? is he using foolish apps like limewire? (is that even still a thing?) - is he watching movies? streaming? how many people on the same connection? It all adds up and you'd be surprised how stupidly taxed it gets. Especially if someone has an infected machine on the same network blowing your bandwidth out the window. ti gets very complex at that point. The littlest things can mess up your FFXIV gaming experience.

EDIT: PSN users - Playstation has their own network/layout - I can't tell you for certain what its like or how efficient is - I cant tell you however its not known for being that great. Yes it works - but I've known too many people complain about the weirdest things. Lets be frank - how many times have we seen PSN notices from SE? I'll stop there. As for games on playstation - they tend to be consistent but some games still use their own servers. Its less a problem as they are strictly enforced to a standard of coding/design/expectations. PC however - the sky isn't the limit - everyone does their machines differently. FFXIV being a cross-platform gaming environment is very different as well - Most games DO NOT permit cross platform - by being cross platform - they add a whole new level of complications to network issues. This is something else to keep in mind. After all - PC's are subject to infections/problems - Playstation is a gaming console - therefore - that issue is a bare minimum - if at all.

[RylaBee]

And like everyone else - I've not see nor heard of this problem with everyone else.

Number of people are commenting on this issue, would not assume to speak for everybody.

Personaly I see it too, but as others have mentioned its mostly managable by adjusting your expectations and automaticaly assuming things you see on screen are already ~0.5-0.7 seconds late compared to the servers.
This seems more pronounced in FFXIV as opposed to my other online-gaming experience.

[NephthysVasudan]

Well if this is a RECENT thing - keep in mind Comcast/Level 3/ various Internet backbones have been attacked frequently as of lately...

This is bound to make things iffy.

Right now? I dont see it....only here at work.

And even then id say its not the game...at least not yet.
He's speaking in terms of long term....not recent.