Server Tick Rate Is Holding the Game Back

[Firebrand]

I remember when in Endwalker people cried on forums how they want to more focus on fights and less on jobs because "I can't play job that is hard and simultaneously look at the boss and mechanics". Like a lot of crying was about this. Including in game where people agreed that they want easier jobs so they can focus more on fights lmao.

So now we have this where job complexity doesn't exist and most are same and boring copy of each other.

Yeah, unfortunately I think those complaints have always been around. It's sad to see how jobs turn into shiny button whack-a-mole one after another, and there's less hope for any meaningful change considering that.

[CuteBucket]

This has been bothering me since I started raiding and began to see mechanics that had precise enough timing and movement to see it. It was something I eventually started adjusting to, learning that the animations lie and things happen before you see an animation go off but it does feel like it's been getting worse. For me, it's been an absolute nightmare in M8S. I cannot count the amount of times my static had wipes where we all stopped and tried to figure out what went wrong, because everything looked correct on all of our screens, and yet somehow one person was counted as out of position and cascaded the pull into a wipe. It's extremely frustrating and demoralizing when it's clear that we all know the fight, know where we need to be, but still get punished anyway.

I have run off the edge of the platform at the beginning of phase 2 because the server never registered my character on the teleport pad. I have been doing my burst on a wolf head, which has a gap closer in it, that somehow managed to convince the server I was in both cone AOEs despite the position of my character and the graphics on all of our screens indicating otherwise. I used a gap closer that somehow went off *after* I died, so I just flung my WoL's dead body at the boss. And while the last one was quite funny in isolation, these kinds of errors have been getting more and more frequent the longer I've been raiding with how the fight design has been changing. I don't mind some fast-paced fights, but if the game infrastructure can't support it, then there's two very easy answers here:

1. Design fights to work within the limitations of the system and be less reliant on exact positions in space at very precise times.
2. Upgrade the infrastructure to allow for faster paced game play with shorter server tics.
But my guess is that SE will continue to do option 3: Ignore the problem and do nothing.

[Umbrasin]

This has been bothering me since I started raiding and began to see mechanics that had precise enough timing and movement to see it. It was something I eventually started adjusting to, learning that the animations lie and things happen before you see an animation go off but it does feel like it's been getting worse. For me, it's been an absolute nightmare in M8S. I cannot count the amount of times my static had wipes where we all stopped and tried to figure out what went wrong, because everything looked correct on all of our screens, and yet somehow one person was counted as out of position and cascaded the pull into a wipe. It's extremely frustrating and demoralizing when it's clear that we all know the fight, know where we need to be, but still get punished anyway.

I have run off the edge of the platform at the beginning of phase 2 because the server never registered my character on the teleport pad. I have been doing my burst on a wolf head, which has a gap closer in it, that somehow managed to convince the server I was in both cone AOEs despite the position of my character and the graphics on all of our screens indicating otherwise. I used a gap closer that somehow went off *after* I died, so I just flung my WoL's dead body at the boss. And while the last one was quite funny in isolation, these kinds of errors have been getting more and more frequent the longer I've been raiding with how the fight design has been changing. I don't mind some fast-paced fights, but if the game infrastructure can't support it, then there's two very easy answers here:

1. Design fights to work within the limitations of the system and be less reliant on exact positions in space at very precise times.
2. Upgrade the infrastructure to allow for faster paced game play with shorter server tics.
But my guess is that SE will continue to do option 3: Ignore the problem and do nothing.

Yes, I feel this, and these problems are why I created this post. My group has also seen the M8S dragonhead tankbuster cleave go backwards into the light party somehow. There's too many oddities to count, and they definitely increased since Panda. It’s a growing issue that can be alleviated by the lever SE already has at their disposal - increasing the server tick rate. I wonder if these problems occur over on the Japanese servers as well.

Personally, I lost much of my faith in SE after their mishandling of the 2023 Fanfest. Yoshi-P keeps encouraging feedback, so this is my (perhaps vain) attempt to throw a bone: "Here’s a real problem with a relatively easy solution."

I also agree that choice 3 is the likely outcome. We already know SE has been reallocating CBU3 off to other projects for years, which suggests they're divesting from FFXIV. They aren't able to deliver the same amount of content as before. Bozja had both normal and Savage DR raids, but Yoshi-P cited "lack of (development) resources" for OC only having a harder mode in Forked Tower.

[Fawkes]

It's funny how you had to pre-dodge mechanics at launch because of how bad it was, so they increased the server tick rate, and now they've increased the speed that mechanics resolve so you need to pre-dodge again.

[Shistar]

It's funny how you had to pre-dodge mechanics at launch because of how bad it was, so they increased the server tick rate, and now they've increased the speed that mechanics resolve so you need to pre-dodge again.

Full circle! They need to reintroduce interesting mechanics from ARR and the use of role skills besides Arm's Length/Surecast.

[MAJRIS]

It's funny how you had to pre-dodge mechanics at launch because of how bad it was, so they increased the server tick rate, and now they've increased the speed that mechanics resolve so you need to pre-dodge again.

proof of it is those fight sequences where explosions follow player - you can walk into the telegraph of the explosion, if you know the "check" for it already happened and it's basically safe zone now but just with orange circle

[MuraBoy]

It's funny how you had to pre-dodge mechanics at launch because of how bad it was, so they increased the server tick rate, and now they've increased the speed that mechanics resolve so you need to pre-dodge again.

We really came full circle, eh?

[Valence]

Meanwhile pvp potions be like "nope".

[RedLolly]

I've been leveling trusts and it's so weird seeing the NPCs just barely clear the AOE and not explode in the against the final level 91 dungeon boss while I can get wiped from the teeniest hiccup because of how fast unavoidable hits follow the avoidable ones. But the fact that NPCs are designed to react and move like that means, to me, that the weird server ticking as it is absolutely not considered in the design of these fights.

Just how much better is Japan's internet, anyway?

[Amarande]

Just how much better is Japan's internet, anyway?

It's certainly not even just the objective quality of their connections.

It's also the fact that Japan is a geographically small, densely populated country, so pings are consistently short nationwide. Compare Europe or the USA, which span thousands of miles, imposing unavoidable delays (it might be worth mentioning the old "500 mile email" classic internet story here)

Yes, some people live near a game datacenter in EU or NA and get a good ping (if I play WoW on a Central datacenter server for instance, I'll get a 15 ping!) but in a team game (especially a team game as heavy with full team jump rope mechanics as FFXIV) the advantage of being able to count on nearly everyone in the player pool having the same good ping is palpable.

And this isn't even before considering human logistical factors, such as time zoning and the effect it has on group scheduling in a wide country like the US.

IE. Japan has several advantages here - and before even thinking about actual player skill.