[Feedback] Please fix/improve the delay in the game

[Karan_Vess]

Part of the problem is physics. You have a propagation delay from you to the server and back. Mind you, that's just for one bit over the wire. That's before we talk about the transmission delay. These add up awfully quick and only a few of them are something the server can do something about.

The "jump action" is produced client-side for the jumper. It is nearly instantaneous. It is why you can run around still when your link is lost. However, we have the client building the packet(s) to send out to the server showing you jumped (along with any other actions you might send, like your position, etc etc). It bundles all of these packets together and sends them out probably at set intervals. These ARE things they can change. Maybe it is optimized, maybe it isn't.

However, then you have the "over-the-network" time. These are all the switches/routers/underwater cables/etc that connect you to your DC. These are outside of the developer's control. For example, my ping from my location to my DC is 100ms. There is absolutely nothing SE can do about that. Some of this is physics - the propagation delay over a wire. I can't say for sure how much delay they can lower, if any. There is an overhead for each packet sent. If they doubled the frequency at which packets are sent out, the servers might actually handle them slower since they'd need to parse more packets. It isn't clear if there are any gains.

In other words - the excuse is partially physics (outside the control of SE), network transmission delay (out of their hands) and internal packet delay (in their control).

I understand that it may not be an easy fix and may require more than just flicking the "increase tick rate" switch. But other games can do it so I see no reason why this game cannot do it. Wow is a very good example. I've never played it myself but from videos I've seen you can easily tell how responsive it is. When you see another player move, you can have a high degree of confidence that that is where that player actually is.

For your edification:
From a terminal window (windows command prompt on windows), run tracert <ip address of your DC> This will show you the path(s) taken to the DC and where the delay is. You'll likely find that the delays are in the distance between you and the DC or from nodes that are saturated with other network traffic

Tracert shows the round trip for each packet for each hop individually. A game packet will not go from one hop and back and then to the next hop and back, etc. It will go straight through and that's it. Then the server will send the update.
You can get hints with tracert but it will not give you accurate results for everything.

[Imoye]

As others have been saying, the game servers have terrible tickrates. Shitty servers paired with what is probably 1.0 netcode makes for heavily delayed interactions. Honestly, I'm surprised that a game in 2022 can have such stoneage servers/netcode. This game would be A LOT better off if it was actually as responsive as WoW.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

FFXIV servers have tickrate most abysmal of .3 ticks per second. It takes roughly three seconds for server to register a tick unless this has changed (still used to calculate dot tick potency so unlikely to have changed). For added perspective a Minecraft server ticks twenty times per second.

GCD length has nothing to do with tick rate or it would default to three seconds and more to do with limiting ogcd usage within the gcd window. All animations have base delay of .7 seconds. If you multiply .7 by three you get 2.1 (the shortest gcd where one can double weave). If you multiply .7 by four you get 2.8 (making triple weaving without clipping impossible at any base gcd). The client introduces additional delay onto each queued action (50 ms I believe? Cannot remember) for "sanity checking" making even insubstantial latency increases felt.

FF14 is more sensitive to any latency increases when you consider the low server tick rate and needless additional 50 ms delay ontop of .7 second animation lock for all animations before ability/spell will register.

They could hypothetically increase this tick rate at cost of additional cpu cycles and bandwidth. Tick rate is easily one of most demanding aspects so is first thing to be reduced. Hope this assists!

Only DoTs and HoTs are on a 3 second tick. The game checks for positional updates every 300ms. (last we knew) I believe some instances have faster positional updates.

[kpxmanifesto]

I'd like to see a fix for this in the future. The delay is definitely one of the other reasons why some people that come from different MMOs feel that FFXIV's gameplay is clunky. It just doesn't have that crisp response that other games do, although it can be gotten used to.

[Karan_Vess]

I'd like to see a fix for this in the future. The delay is definitely one of the other reasons why some people that come from different MMOs feel that FFXIV's gameplay is clunky. It just doesn't have that crisp response that other games do, although it can be gotten used to.

Definitely. You can get used to a great many things. But living with a huge splinter in your foot isn't optimal.
What I'm hoping for with this thread is to get some support from the community to maybe get the devs' attention. Yoshida keeps saying they do read the forums after all. (I hope that includes the non Japanese ones)

[dspguy]

Tracert shows the round trip for each packet for each hop individually. A game packet will not go from one hop and back and then to the next hop and back, etc. It will go straight through and that's it. Then the server will send the update.
You can get hints with tracert but it will not give you accurate results for everything.

Right, it shows each hop and back. The idea is that all of these delays, aside from maybe the last one (SE's server) are outside of SE's control. The point I'm trying to show you is that the distance (and path) that your data travels between you and SE is the big culprit. Tracert was to demonstrate that if you look at the difference in ping times between hops, you'll see the the delay is between nodes transmitting your data to the DC. If I look at mine, my pings are about 20ms to get from my area to someplace in Atlanta. And then 60ms to get from ATL to CA. SE doesn't control those servers. So my ping of 100ms is mostly due to one leg between ATL and CA and has nothing to do with SE at all.

[Syln]

If only they could solve this issue ... it was even worse before for some EU region but after almost 9 years of playing the game i still wish they get rid of that.

[MiaShino]

Only DoTs and HoTs are on a 3 second tick. The game checks for positional updates every 300ms. (last we knew) I believe some instances have faster positional updates.

If any do it would be instance server but doubtful it snapshots at anything beyond 300 ms for mechanics.

Correction, meant 500ms delay sanity check on initial post for ability usage. Unsure why I put 50 other then my brain is broken.

Ability delay appears to be greatest at roughly three seconds.

Player position update packets appear to be processed roughly every one second or greater. The server may know where you are every .3 seconds but it does not share this with other clients.

Mechanics are about the only thing that appear to even attempt snapshotting at the .3 tick mark and depending on latency/server load this can wildly fluctuate.

Sometimes I feel like I am having the stroke when I type in English, please forgive. I speak it every day almost yet still feel like neophyte speaker and typer.

Ohhh right! Forgot the mentioning of this during my initial post. It may say .3 tick on the tin but that is equivalent of monitor giving black to black refresh rate. Many more systems working here and .3 tick only appears to apply to if in bad apply damage if not good. Much like Minecraft twenty ticks apply mostly to block logic and not update player position.

If you wish to test this without firing up packet monitoring software attempt making many quick but subtle movements with your character. Now watch 70% of that be dropped on second client. FF14 uses some of worst ping interpolation I have ever ever ficken seen, outright dropping certain player inputs entirely rather then estimating movement.

It is most common to be in quantum state of movement in FF14 land (I blame magic). You can be both in front of someone and behind them at same time. It is something to behold.

The idea is that all of these delays, aside from maybe the last one (SE's server) are outside of SE's control.

The majority of ping related delays occur upon entry to their network or within this network. NTT is notorious for this. Uncertain if this is traffic shaping issue or shoddy nodes but it really really exacerbates the low tick rate issue. Doubtful the tick rate will be increased any time soon. It works for them and is inexpensive. Would love at minimum thirty ticks buuuut understand this will probably never happen.

FF14 is also awful at handling dropped packets. Even handful of dropped packets (common as heck) will result in total disconnect rather then reconnection attempt.

TL;DR - Not gonna happen because one single data center is not enough for multiple countries. It works in Japan though so it should work here is mentality.

[dspguy]

So I ran a quick test between my PC and my wife's PC - same network, wired. Ability usage seems to match my ping of 80-100ms. Whether this be using abilities on a dummy or crafting abilities - I see the animations and messages at a nearly indiscernible time difference. Drawing a weapon is also as quick as other abilities.

Movement though is delayed by more than abilities. It is as if displaying movement to another client is a lower priority than other actions. It seems like they smooth movement a bit. If I strafe back and forth quickly, ultimately not changing my position by much, the other client just sees the "walking animation" but the turning is mostly negated and it can look like I'm moonwalking.

In my opinion, movement being a lower priority makes good sense. Another player's exaction position shouldn't really matter much to the client. The server figures out if a player is "in range" for abilities or stepping in the red telegraphs. If someone ONLY looks at movement, like the jump by the OP, I could see someone thinking the delay is longer than it should be. However, I think movement is a special case. Many other actions taken in game seem to be very quick.

[Jin-]

It's painful in PvP when you use Purify, it takes so long to activate while it should be instant the moment you press it