Sorry SE, but endgame won't work if you don't fix something.

[Sunarie]

SE's answer to this?

SE's answer was to address it specifically in the most recent live letter. They are beginning with small steps and attempting to alleviate the problem by reducing the delay from .3 down to .1 seconds in end game areas (which is going to cause extra stress on their servers). So the server will have your position more often.

I have been a very very heavy advocate of getting this problem fixed. I am not in any way defending it. I don't expect you to pay while it's still broken (nor do I expect anyone to return when it's fixed, though that would be nice).. but I want to make it clear that SE at least listened to threads like these ones and addressed it in a very public announcement, as well as making sure something to try and fix the issue was a part of patch 2.1.

[Goodberry]

What's surreal is that they would have to do NOTHING whatsoever, technically, to "fix" the problem. They should just stop designing almost all the encounters around this "dodge or die" mechanic, and when they absolutely want to use it, time it in order to adjust it for the latency problem. Should not be rocket science, as they say.

Problem, as always, is: do they really WANT to fix it? If they do, it's laughably easy. If they don't, it will never be done.

MY main problem with all this is that I usually detect BS whenever I see/hear it. Maybe that comes with age. :P

[Sunarie]

What's surreal is that they would have to do NOTHING whatsoever, technically, to "fix" the problem. They should just stop designing almost all the encounters around this "dodge or die" mechanic, and when they absolutely want to use it, time it in order to adjust it for the latency problem. Should not be rocket science, as they say.

Problem, as always, is: do they really WANT to fix it? If they do, it's laughably easy. If they don't, it will never be done.

The only real way to "fix" it, as it involves more than just AOE mechanics but the way that skills activate and apply as well, would be to invest millions of dollars and redesign their live-state so that it's more in line with everything else on the market. Anything less is still going to result in a clunky feeling, skills not really activating or canceling in a normal manner, and the server not dealing with positioning well, especially in times when server load is high, packet loss is happening, or latency is increased.

Even if they did make it so most the fights are not AOE centric, that would involve redesigning the fights themselves (which would likely take months to re-design, program, test/balance). The thing they are doing is the quickest band aid they can do at the moment, and at least they're trying to fix it. I'm not confident the fix will work at all (though I am willing to give it a shot), and I don't expect people to stick around. What you are suggesting in "adjusting" cast bars and such to account for latency would end up making the fight easier for many people (those that have low latency and packet-loss and don't currently see the issue), while still not even fixing it for others.

I just don't like people acting like the problem is something easy either. I was throwing up a fuss because they weren't even addressing it at all.. didn't address it at all from launch all the way until the most recent live letter, even with massive forum posts such as this (and another I had made which was 60+ pages if I remember right). Now that they are addressing it, I'm waiting to see how that goes. I don't have to pay a subscription while they fiddle around with things on their end. I am still subscribed, but not because they admitted there was a problem (though that has restored a bit of faith in the company, and will result in my actually checking back to see what's up with it if I do unsub).

[Millimidget]

and it also has the worst connectivity service of any since the EQ/DAoC days.

I had better connectivity in DAoC than in this game. This is reminiscent of dial-up. I've never seen anything like it in any MMO.

Anyway, the OPs point will echo as soon as PvP is released.

[Mhyrria]

SE wont admit it, but the reason that it is the server ticks at .3 secs of position check is due to bandwidth issues. They are not financially capable of using high bandwidth, or perhaps they simply do not want to invest. And I do not understand why they would rather spend more money on art and music for the game but not for a very core function for mmos. So unless they rake more money, they wont be changing anything soon.

[Astarica]

It'd be so monumentally stupid to ignore the problem if just spending more money on server/bandwidth would solve it that I do give SE the benefit of the doubt. It can't be the case you just need 3 times the bandwidth to check every 0.1s versus 0.3s, and at any rate the bandwidth used by a MMORPG is relatively little. I remember WoW had to change how often they checked the polarity buffs in Naxxmas during vanilia because it was lagging everyone up, and sure games were played on dialup back then, but even on a 40 man raid you'd think all the extra info you need to send to check a polarity buff would be the coordinates of other 39 players (3 integers) and their polarity status (likely a boolean).

So this problem is probably actually very hard given this game started with the wrong architecture, but just because the problem is hard doesn't mean it's not SE's fault.

[Tupsi]

SE wont admit it, but the reason that it is the server ticks at .3 secs of position check is due to bandwidth issues.

So you work for Square Enix? Funny, your post doesn't seem to have the same coloration as other SE staff

[Astarica]

One thing to keep in mind is that certain problems are very hard if not impossible with the wrong tool/strategy. A child in elementary school can do long division, but good luck doing that on an abacus (and doing it in your head doesn't count). Since SE has chosen the wrong architecture for the game, solving this problem is basically like trying to do division with an abacus, so I do understand it's hard, but it's also not my problem they chose to use an abacus when everyone else uses paper and pencil.

[Goodberry]

I'll say it again, slowly.

THE. PROBLEM. IS. NOT. WITH. THE. ARCHITECTURE.

IT. IS. HOW. THEY. DESIGN. THE. FIGHTS.

OK. THEY. CAN. LET. THE. CURRENT. FIGHTS. STAND. AS. THEY. ARE. PROBABLY. THEY. SHOULD. JUST. REDESIGN. HARD. TITAN.

BUT. THEY. SHOULD. DROP. DAMN. DODGE. OR. DIE. MECHANICS. IN. NEW. FIGHTS. AND. DO. SOME. INTELLIGENT. MECHANICS. INSTEAD.

I hope everyone gets is now.

P.S.
Getting it? Fat chance, I know. :P

P.P.S.
Another thing I know is: all this is useless anyway, as they will never change their fight design philosophy. Game companies don't do these things, ever. It would be tantamount to Blizzard suddenly favouring Alliance, or ArenaNet suddenly injecting some direction and purpose into GW2. :P

[Sunarie]

I'll say it again, slowly.

THE. PROBLEM. IS. NOT. WITH. THE. ARCHITECTURE.

IT. IS. HOW. THEY. DESIGN. THE. FIGHTS.

OK. THEY. CAN. LET. THE. CURRENT. FIGHTS. STAND. AS. THEY. ARE. PROBABLY. THEY. SHOULD. JUST. REDESIGN. HARD. TITAN.

BUT. THEY. SHOULD. DROP. DAMN. DODGE. OR. DIE. MECHANICS. IN. NEW. FIGHTS. AND. DO. SOME. INTELLIGENT. MECHANICS. INSTEAD.

I hope everyone gets is now.

P.S.
Fat chance, I know. :P

Everyone gets what you're saying.. they just don't agree with it. I like dodge or die mechanics. They can make fights challenging and fun. Yes, I would like to see more variety in the game, but I don't think they should change current fights. That also still doesn't fix the core issue (which, in case you didn't get it, effects more than just AOEs). Your "fix" is a band aid, and a poor one in that it doesn't help with other issues (skills going off even when the silence effect has been applied, such as Ram's Voice).

The core issue has to do with the game's programming. That is why in literally no other MMO is it possible to get hit by AOEs that you were out of. SE messed up with the way their game handles latency and packet loss in such a way that their game highlights and makes it worse. Every other MMO out doesn't do that, regardless of if they have dodge or die mechanics.

Your fix is your own personal opinion on how fights should be and what you personally find fun. Is that easy enough to understand or should I put periods between each of my words so you understand better?