Input Processing

[Shozokui]

Why are we still in the 2003 method of server/client input processing? A 1 - 3 second delay for input is silly. When every other MMO on the market doesn't have the input lag that XIV has, something's fishy. XI came out far too long ago to be considered a competitor for today's MMO society, so stop stealing from the engine. SE bragged about the Crystal Tools engine and how it was made just for this game, however it's blatantly obvious that it's XI's engine with fancy new rendering code and a new asset file format in the most basic of terms.

Don't get me wrong, I understand there's always going to be latency issues, but I normally operate between 10 - 15 MS s/r and sometimes it's the better part of 2.5 seconds before dialog input registers. You have 100 slots, selling items in 50 slots is completely obnoxious when you have to wait forever for it to actually sell.

This isn't XI, and from the press releases, SE is headed for an MMO focus. We're a society of instant gratification and control. Input lag doesn't fit in very well and needs to be addressed.



On an unrelated, yet similar note -

There's a great deal of lag between computers, even at numbers in the low double digits of latency. Specifically referring to player positions. When on the same connection with a friend, both computers less than 20 MS, both PCs getting 60 FPS steady on the same hardware(Built our PCs exactly alike, except the case *see specs below), we both see ourselves very far ahead of the other player when running. In Gridania, you can even see the other player running up walls and silly stuff like that. The map is terribly inaccurate for another player's position if they're moving. Yet another thing carried over from XI.

*PC Specs
Phenom II x6 1090t CPU
12gb ram
SLI GeForce GTX 580's
128gb WD SSD Drive as main
2tb 10,000 RPM SATA storage drive
Windows 7 pro x64

WoW has probably roughly 20x the number of active subscribers per realm that XIV has and maintains input very close to that of a single player game. Marvelous things have happened since 2003, we don't need to program like half your subscribers will have dial up.

[AngryNixon]

Well said.

[Perrin_Aybarra]

I agree with you on this post Shozokui, the server response and accuracy seems to be lacking. I will admit that I have almost no knowledge on how these things work so I cannot say what could be done to improve it, but I think that today's developers should know what to do considering how other games fare.

I think however that they are aware of the situation (as always lol aware but couldn't be bothered to fix it prior to launch) and hopefully the fix and patches for that will come soon.

[Vahzl]

I agree too.

I have always said it, that SE's games are beautiful, you cannot fault the look and feel of them, and the music is always spot on. Their technical ability though is verging on the ridiculous. They seem to be under the impression that a terrible UI and poor response time is acceptable in any game released after 1999.

They managed to have a fast response time in all their other games, I don't know why they turned back to this server side decision making for their MMo's. Even their JP MMo's don't have this issue.

SE, if you ever read this, this isn't a "I will quit if you don't fix it" or "Everyone will quit if you don't fix it", it is a warning for your own playerbase. If you don't start fixing these tech problems, people will eventually give up with being continually patient waiting for your bug fixes.

Stop announcing all this fancy new stuff that we have still yet to see, and get this basic stuff fixed asap. You are losing more and more people each day as they login for the first time, and the first thing I hear them say is "Well this is one unresponsive turd, I cba with this". I have invited around 15 people so far from RL to try it out, and the majority left after less than an hour due to the totally unresponsive UI commands.

You need to stop worrying about RMT prevention and hacking/bot prevention as it has crossed a line where your games are becoming a deterrent for any player.


Edit: I know myself I am very patient with SE games, I wouldn't have stuck with FFXI for years if I didn't think the game itself had potential, but even myself, with my unlimited SE patience is being tested now. I am already getting very frustrated with the menu adventure I go on daily. I am personally not sure if this one is worth the time investment this time, as if you cannot learn your lesson after 6 years development on XI, then it is worrying, and does not bode well.