r/ffxivdiscussion: What can Square Enix do to help fix the terrible netcode of FFXIV?

[Jeeqbit]

Original post:

The netcode in this game is quite awful. Every time I see someone's character on my screen I'm actually seeing where they were 0.5-1 second ago because the client receives character position data from the server so slowly. This is especially an issue in PVP when you're a melee class trying to chase down an opponent.

This is called ping. It takes time for the information to travel from your computer to the server, for the server to process it and then for a response to be sent and received by you. If it's where they were that long ago then maybe the ping is that high.

One characters jump animation on the first computer is already complete by the time the 2nd computer even sees that character start its jump animation. Why is the time difference between seeing the character jump animations on the two computers so large? I'm assuming they're on the same network because both of those computers are in the same house.

Again, ping. It doesn't matter that they are on the same network, because SE's server is not on the same network. The information travels from computer #1 to SE's server then to computer #2. This affects all games and MMORPGs, but you wouldn't know that it does unless you put 2 computers side-by-side.

[Fiel_Tana]

It was so bad back then that even as someone who lived like 20 minutes away from the og data centre I had to memorize the mechanics to the point of predicting them before they occurred simply because of just how much latency there was due to the tick rate. You'd be a solid 3-4 seconds (give or take a couple hundred ms) out of an aoe and it'd still consider you in it and you'd be thrown off the edge without his line aoe landing even remotely near you.

I still experience having to memorise and move at least 1-2 seconds (or more) before any mechanic tells, that's the main reason I'll never do any hard content in this game. Even doing fights in normal mode is a terrible experience since I obviously can't memorise what I've never seen so I'm tanking the floor very often. I've even recorded fights to see if I missed tells and watched guides to be sure I was looking for the right things when I go back to try again and still get hit.

Spread mechanics are also terrible in this game since the locations we see other players is not where they are. Often I'll get hit hard or killed when on my screen we'd spread but am sometimes told I was "chasing" another player when on my screen they'd stopped so I continued to move for the spread. I've seen others struggle with it too.

This is called ping. It takes time for the information to travel from your computer to the server, for the server to process it and then for a response to be sent and received by you. If it's where they were that long ago then maybe the ping is that high.

Again, ping. It doesn't matter that they are on the same network, because SE's server is not on the same network. The information travels from computer #1 to SE's server then to computer #2. This affects all games and MMORPGs, but you wouldn't know that it does unless you put 2 computers side-by-side.

It is yes, but other games must do something different since it only happens to this degree in FFXIV for me. Lag is often a thing in other games but not to the degree that combat is simply an exercise in frustration.

It's not a lot of fun when the lag / latency / ping is a mechanic in itself.

[Jeeqbit]

Probably just replaced faulty hardware. Reality is the servers are some cheap crap which is why they have to give you "fake" login queues at like 4am because more than 10 people logging in at the same time makes their servers catch fire.

They were willing to pay "above market price" for new servers. They replace faulty hardware all the time when it breaks, within minutes or hours, because it often causes a few areas to go down on a certain world. The queues are to prevent bottlenecking and also to fight DDoS which if you have played the game for a long time, you will know we have had a lot of DDoS attacks.

There are queues for MMORPGs generally, you just don't normally see them unless the MMORPG is actually popular, particularly when they first release or there is a major content release.

It is yes, but other games must do something different since it only happens to this degree in FFXIV for me. Lag is often a thing in other games but not to the degree that combat is simply an exercise in frustration.

It's not a lot of fun when the lag / latency / ping is a mechanic in itself.

I do notice it in PvP and Chocobo racing but my ping is high. I don't really notice it when doing pve which is the majority of content in the game. Even avoiding aoes at high pings is not an issue for me. I don't have these snapshot issues other people do, so I always think that they don't understand that most things register when the cast bar completes, not when the animation completes.

[Fiel_Tana]

I do notice it in PvP and Chocobo racing but my ping is high. I don't really notice it when doing pve which is the majority of content in the game. Even avoiding aoes at high pings is not an issue for me. I don't have these snapshot issues other people do, so I always think that they don't understand that most things register when the cast bar completes, not when the animation completes.

I do understand how it works in FFXIV and like I've said, I've checked guides to see what I'm missing and recorded my screen to see where I went wrong and still the issue remains that the tells shown on the screen is not often what is happening. I've recorded being hit when I'd moved out of the area well before the cast bar completes for example and any spread mechanic is frustrating at best.

The animation lag does complicate things but perhaps that is a separate but equally important issue since the visual dissonance of having to watch UI not the world around the character also isn't a great experience. But like I said, even the UI at times has seemed to lag behind the actual damage and some mechanics require knowing the precise location of other players.

[Ransu]

It is yes, but other games must do something different since it only happens to this degree in FFXIV for me. Lag is often a thing in other games but not to the degree that combat is simply an exercise in frustration.

It's not a lot of fun when the lag / latency / ping is a mechanic in itself.

Not really. If you play WoW or other MMO's it would do the exact same thing as that video you posted. This is just how general networking works. In shooters they use a higher tick rate (sometimes) and use background checks server side to update information and basically take a guess on the players position. Its why sometimes you die when you were clearly behind a wall. Latency is a thing and it will always be nearly impossible to completely hide it regardless of how fast internet connections get. This games netcode isn't anywhere near as bad as people make it out to be.

Lol? People actually believe this?

Yes because I work in IT and we experienced the same problem. It was impossible to get any kind of server hardware. New cisco 9000 series switches were over 12 months out for availability and the only way to get one was to pay way over market price. Same with servers and practically everything else. We had to go after refurbed dell servers to get our new network up and running because it was all we had access to.

[Fiel_Tana]

Not really. If you play WoW or other MMO's it would do the exact same thing as that video you posted. This is just how general networking works. In shooters they use a higher tick rate (sometimes) and use background checks server side to update information and basically take a guess on the players position. Its why sometimes you die when you were clearly behind a wall. Latency is a thing and it will always be nearly impossible to completely hide it regardless of how fast internet connections get. This games netcode isn't anywhere near as bad as people make it out to be.

Are you meaning to reply to someone else because I didn't post a video. Also I have played WoW and many other MMOs and no, they do not have the same issues FFXIV does that are being talked about in this thread. Occasional lag and even rubberbanding at times, yes, that is often the connection between player and server or at times a slow computer. What is being talked about here are entirely different issues.