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Area of Attack and LatencyFollow

#1 Jul 29 2013 at 5:18 AM Rating: Excellent
Response from the man himself:

â– Area Attacks and Latency Issuesâ– 
Producer and director Yoshi-P here.
Thank you for all of your feedback on latency issues and the evasion of enemy attacks. As we continue working to address these issues in time for phase 4 and release, I'd like to inform you all of the current situation.

This post will focus on area attacks that are difficult to evade, or still connect even if you appear to have avoided it.

Damage taken when Ifrit uses Eruption.

When Ifrit used eruption in phase 3, the animation had a momentary build-up before the explosion. Because of this momentary buildup, there was a slight delay between the server's check and the explosion. This has already been corrected for phase 4 and release.

Damage taken for what looked like a near miss.

1. Registering Player Damage

In phase 3, when judging whether a character was standing in an attack's area of impact, your position was checked using a circle around your character to represent the space your character stands in.

Furthermore, to keep the different races balanced, the radius of this circle was the same for all characters. Because of this, even if you appeared to have barely escaped the area of effect, a portion of the circle was still within range. This created the illusion that you barely evaded attack, with varying results depending on your race.
For phase 4 and release, this circle has been reduced to a single point at the center of where your character is standing to more accurately determine your position.

2. Enemy Progress Bars and Area of Impact

Being an online game, there will always be a minimal delay when input is received from the player and sent back after being processed by the server.
In FFXIV: ARR, your position is checked by the server once every 0.3 seconds. This timing is synced and processed according to the servers to prevent lag between your input and what you see.

During phase 3, however, this syncing did not take place due to stringent server checks that took place, causing lag between what you saw on the enemy progress bar and your character's positioning. As a result, even if you appeared to be outside the area of impact when the progress bar was filled, damage was still taken.

Adjustments are being made to reduce lag as much as possible, and syncing should improve the timing between enemy cast bars, area of effect markers, and the actual attacks.

Rest assured that we're doing what we can to make sure players can safely evade attacks by watching enemy cast bars and markers for area attacks.

Players overseas were also affected by having to access the Japan data center in Version 1.0, as this further delayed the relay of data from the server. With the establishment of a regional data center and the above measures being taken to improve syncing with the servers, we will continue working to ensure an enjoyable gaming experience for all of our players.
(Even with a great connection, I think there's still maybe a 0.1 second margin of error with the cast bar, so make sure to get out of the way when playing with your party. )

Edited, Jul 29th 2013 6:19am by Wint
#2 Jul 29 2013 at 5:28 AM Rating: Default
Lol sounds like they are saying they fixed it but didn't at the same time.

I remember running 30ft outside of a circle and still getting hit. The Goblins that throw bombs are the biggest show of that. I always wondered why some games can't get that flow that successful MMOs have when it comes to things like these.

Edited, Jul 29th 2013 7:30am by Mopdaddy
#3 Jul 29 2013 at 5:34 AM Rating: Excellent
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^ Probably because the game is still in beta...? You being 30ft outside of a circle likely had to do with severe lag. I remember doing a guildleve and being obscenely far from the circle and getting hit. Lag spikes everywhere. It's nice to know that our character won't have a circle anymore, just a set point in the center for the server to check our position.
#4 Jul 29 2013 at 6:17 AM Rating: Good
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Read again. There were two problems that compounded on one another very simply.

One, that the server sync wasn't functional during phase 3 - meaning, positionally, the server wasn't sure where you were.

And two, that your radical for receiving damage is not skin tight, meaning you can -look- like you are just out of range, but you are not.

The result? You run a distance that the server diddn't check and thinks you're still at least just barely in range - you take damage.

In other games if you were out of position during a lag spike, you'd get pulled back into position - we called this rubber-banding. It appears that ARR's servers do not force correct the players position, but rather the server registers damage on last-checked position then updates based on client side at every sync.
#5 Jul 29 2013 at 6:24 AM Rating: Good
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Now I feel better about not beating Ifrit at the Bowl of Embers mission. I thought there was something going on there... I kept killing the add when it popped, but he kept wiping my group every time regardless.
#6 Jul 29 2013 at 6:39 AM Rating: Decent
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I assumed it would be something like this as they're running metrics in the background so I'm not really surprised. Personally I didn't have the massive issue people did with circles, Bomb Toss, or even Eruption, yet I realized it is beta so figured since a lot of the checks were moved to client side (versus 1.0's slow as hell everything server side) that some would be turned off.

I realize it makes POS hacks possible and "easier" to design, but I prefer the "updates from the client" positioning method that ARR, FFXI, and WoW use. If the server lags you're not rubberbanding and no matter how prepared they are the servers are going to lag the first couple of weeks. I could not continue to play LotRO because of the massive rubberbanding that still exists to this day.

Edited, Jul 29th 2013 8:41am by Viertel
#7 Jul 29 2013 at 7:20 AM Rating: Excellent
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I hope this fixes the issues that I had. Got so tired of people on the Beta Forums telling me that I needed to learn to play (when I repeatedly mentioned this to draw attention to it) because I got hit from the charged attacks when I would be a good distance away when they went off.
#8 Jul 29 2013 at 8:11 AM Rating: Excellent
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My friend will be happy to hear about this. So many times, I'd hear him adamant that he'd avoided an attack, when on my screen, he was still inside the area of effect circle. The same happened with me a couple of times too, when a Bomb's Explode would hit me, but I was a good three or more steps outside of the radius, but my friend would say I was still inside of it.

I look forward to not stupidly being hit by an apparently arrant AoE in Phase 4...
#9 Jul 29 2013 at 8:26 AM Rating: Good
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Hmmm, he didn't mention the chat delay (9 seconds for me), but I am hopefull that since they are addressing delays, that will be included.

Cheers!
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#10 Jul 29 2013 at 8:26 AM Rating: Good
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princessary wrote:
I hope this fixes the issues that I had. Got so tired of people on the Beta Forums telling me that I needed to learn to play (when I repeatedly mentioned this to draw attention to it) because I got hit from the charged attacks when I would be a good distance away when they went off.


This is why no one goes to the Beta forums. Smiley: nod

Basically, the issue was a combination of input delay and wonky hitboxes. Ifrit specifically was due to animation delay.

I'm glad the Dev Team found the problem. We'll see if there's any more trouble in Phase 4. If not, it looks like we'll have a fully functional game on release.
#11 Jul 29 2013 at 8:51 AM Rating: Excellent
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I was honestly getting so sick of people telling me it was my bad play style; I already accept that! I upgraded my PC because of this problem thinking that I could at least try and do everything from my side to fix it. Well at least now I have a newly upgraded PC and SE are fixing things so it's all good. :)

Edited, Jul 29th 2013 4:12pm by EdyNOTB
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#12 Jul 29 2013 at 10:29 AM Rating: Good
I'll enter my 2 gilz here because this is my field. I'm trying to determine if Phase 3 testing had the regional servers operating yet at maximum efficiency. The reason why we always had lag in the past with FFXI was due to the ping from the JP servers which is why mobs popped claimed to us.

http://xivstatus.com/

This site was great at illustrating the ping differences between the JP server and NA servers. JP servers including the patch server are typically over 300ms(milliseconds) ping. To put the lag into prospective, a cell phone has a latency of 20ms and at worst case scenario, 150ms. The NA servers were running at around 78-80ms during phase 3. So to sum it up, playing on a JP server is 2x as bad as the worst cell phone call you ever had(300ms). A Euro server(depending on where it's located) for Americans like Ragnarok should be slightly faster than a JP server such as Aegis.

Now what does all this mean? That SE was testing load balance and stability issues for the servers and that latency especially during AoEs like the Ifrit fight were more noticeable to players. A 0.1 delay is much more in line with "real time" we expect from a cell phone than the 0.3 delay. I also suspect the QoS(Quality of service) will emphasize on the fastest response time as possible when Phase 4 begins. If we still notice the lag during phase 4, you'll know SE hasn't fixed it yet, not that it's been fixed and you still notice it. If we see any network problems in FFXIV, it will be the instances of cross server play in dungeons most likely.
#13 Jul 29 2013 at 10:48 AM Rating: Good
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Hope they fix the ridiculous lag that Bind has before it actually... Binds an enemy.
#14 Jul 29 2013 at 11:32 AM Rating: Default
ShadowedgeFFXI wrote:
I'll enter my 2 gilz here because this is my field. I'm trying to determine if Phase 3 testing had the regional servers operating yet at maximum efficiency. The reason why we always had lag in the past with FFXI was due to the ping from the JP servers which is why mobs popped claimed to us.


Yeah that's what people always kept repeating to themselves like a mantra. FFXI had always lag of 1000-2000ms and it applied to everyone regardless of region. The game simply was not coded to take advantage of few hundred milliseconds differences in response time.

ARR lag is hardly 300ms as it stands, we are talking about thousands of milliseconds of lag here too. JP or NA server, you'll get the same lag.

This game isn't an FPS; 100-300ms is still hardly noticeable to anyone.
#15 Jul 29 2013 at 11:48 AM Rating: Excellent
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Hyanmen wrote:
ShadowedgeFFXI wrote:
I'll enter my 2 gilz here because this is my field. I'm trying to determine if Phase 3 testing had the regional servers operating yet at maximum efficiency. The reason why we always had lag in the past with FFXI was due to the ping from the JP servers which is why mobs popped claimed to us.


Yeah that's what people always kept repeating to themselves like a mantra. FFXI had always lag of 1000-2000ms and it applied to everyone regardless of region. The game simply was not coded to take advantage of few hundred milliseconds differences in response time.

ARR lag is hardly 300ms as it stands, we are talking about thousands of milliseconds of lag here too. JP or NA server, you'll get the same lag.

This game isn't an FPS; 100-300ms is still hardly noticeable to anyone.


It's very noticeable when you came from games with instantaneous reactions to your button pressing. There was definitely a pause, however slight, between when you pressed the button and when the effect went off in FFXIV 1.0.
#16 Jul 29 2013 at 11:53 AM Rating: Decent
very excited there looking into this... i was more than ready to throw my controller at certain points throughout beta for this reason alone...

Edited, Jul 29th 2013 12:53pm by Mmoderator
#17 Jul 29 2013 at 12:04 PM Rating: Good
Wint wrote:
Response from the man himself:

When Ifrit used eruption in phase 3, the animation had a momentary build-up before the explosion. Because of this momentary buildup, there was a slight delay between the server's check and the explosion. This has already been corrected for phase 4 and release.

...

For phase 4 and release, this circle has been reduced to a single point at the center of where your character is standing to more accurately determine your position.


Wooooohooo! Dancin' in the streets. *Dance* *Dance*

/use item "Brilliant Snow" <me>
/wait 1
/panic motion

#18 Jul 29 2013 at 12:13 PM Rating: Decent
Hyanmen wrote:

ARR lag is hardly 300ms as it stands, we are talking about thousands of milliseconds of lag here too. JP or NA server, you'll get the same lag.

This game isn't an FPS; 100-300ms is still hardly noticeable to anyone.



While I agree that the lag in FFXIV isn't as much as a factor compared to FPS, there are elements that show themselves like the AoE circles and why stun fails to take effect due to lag. A 300ms delay is noticeable under those conditions. That's why the NA servers are 78-80ms.

I suppose a 0.3 second delay isn't that much in a game like FFXIV. However, if you examine the 80ms metric, that's a delay of 0.08 seconds.

0.3 vs 0.08

Hmmm, I'd rather have the 0.08 myself personally.

It's interesting to note that I just tested a few NA servers and a couple JP servers. The ping was averaging 33ms on NA servers and 188ms on JP servers for me. The Euro servers are pinging 36ms for me too. So like I stated in my previous post, there will be a penalty of latency if you decide to play on a JP server. Regardless if you think it's minor or not, it's real. I'm going to assume the delay will increase as the servers are mostly in testing mode. I can't elaborate past that for now.
#19 Jul 29 2013 at 12:16 PM Rating: Decent
Ravashack wrote:


It's very noticeable when you came from games with instantaneous reactions to your button pressing. There was definitely a pause, however slight, between when you pressed the button and when the effect went off in FFXIV 1.0.


Can I ask how long you played 1.0? I never got the chance and was curious if the game was as laggy as people claim in these old threads. I'm liking what I see for ARR though. I think SE has done a great job so far with their new system.
#20 Jul 29 2013 at 12:16 PM Rating: Good
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Wint wrote:
Response from the man himself:

When Ifrit used eruption in phase 3, the animation had a momentary build-up before the explosion. Because of this momentary buildup, there was a slight delay between the server's check and the explosion. This has already been corrected for phase 4 and release.

...

For phase 4 and release, this circle has been reduced to a single point at the center of where your character is standing to more accurately determine your position.


This looks like a good change, but I am a bit cautious given server lag. Wondering if this is going to be relying on the Client for the position or the server. This will be especially important in PvP, though I am not going that route for this game.

The halo thing was kind of a cool work around for latency, but based on character size, I could see that being wholly a pita for the Roeg's. Wondering if they adjust that after P4 to a halo again but much smaller than what they were using. Just not convinced a single point is optimal - though the error is on the side of the player in NOT getting hit with the AoE.
#21 Jul 29 2013 at 12:21 PM Rating: Good
As far as getting hit by Eruption, I think that characters being located by the center of their circle will do more to make it seem like the AoE range is correct than the reduced server latency will.

Now that they have explained the way character locations ranges were equal for all races, and having played both a Lalafell and Roegadyn in Ifrit, I can see why the Lalafell seemed to have far more trouble avoiding AoE.

At any rate, they are addressing the issue from two angles, so it sounds great to me.
#22 Jul 29 2013 at 12:35 PM Rating: Good
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I'm glad they are trying to fix this. I personally didn't have much of an issue with this other than in phase 2 of the ifrit fight. I saw a gif that someone had in their signature on the official forums where they immediately moved out of a bomb toss and stood at least a full character width away from it for 2-3 seconds and still took damage.
#23 Jul 29 2013 at 12:37 PM Rating: Excellent
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Mopdaddy wrote:
Lol sounds like they are saying they fixed it but didn't at the same time.

I remember running 30ft outside of a circle and still getting hit. The Goblins that throw bombs are the biggest show of that. I always wondered why some games can't get that flow that successful MMOs have when it comes to things like these.

Edited, Jul 29th 2013 7:30am by Mopdaddy



The message stated that basically everyone running out of the circle was calculated as though they had a tall male Roegadyn's fat ***, since that is the worst case scenario, so even if it looked like your character made it out, had you been such a Roe, you actually didn't. They were trying to make it fair regardless of race but the theory did not hold up to the practice. So in order to fix this, they will change the reference point so you'll be able to tell if you made it out or not regardless of your size.
#24 Jul 29 2013 at 1:08 PM Rating: Decent
ShadowedgeFFXI wrote:
Hyanmen wrote:

ARR lag is hardly 300ms as it stands, we are talking about thousands of milliseconds of lag here too. JP or NA server, you'll get the same lag.

This game isn't an FPS; 100-300ms is still hardly noticeable to anyone.



While I agree that the lag in FFXIV isn't as much as a factor compared to FPS, there are elements that show themselves like the AoE circles and why stun fails to take effect due to lag. A 300ms delay is noticeable under those conditions. That's why the NA servers are 78-80ms.

I suppose a 0.3 second delay isn't that much in a game like FFXIV. However, if you examine the 80ms metric, that's a delay of 0.08 seconds.

0.3 vs 0.08

Hmmm, I'd rather have the 0.08 myself personally.

It's interesting to note that I just tested a few NA servers and a couple JP servers. The ping was averaging 33ms on NA servers and 188ms on JP servers for me. The Euro servers are pinging 36ms for me too. So like I stated in my previous post, there will be a penalty of latency if you decide to play on a JP server. Regardless if you think it's minor or not, it's real. I'm going to assume the delay will increase as the servers are mostly in testing mode. I can't elaborate past that for now.


0.08 vs 0.3 only matters as long as the servers even react to such negligible changes in latency. Even if the latency to a server in US is 80ms doesn't mean you can take advantage of it in-game. Both XI and XIV 1.0/ARR have in-game lag that is a lot higher than 0.3 seconds. It is not related to ping but the way the game and the servers interact.
#25 Jul 29 2013 at 1:19 PM Rating: Default
Hyanmen wrote:

0.08 vs 0.3 only matters as long as the servers even react to such negligible changes in latency. Even if the latency to a server in US is 80ms doesn't mean you can take advantage of it in-game. Both XI and XIV 1.0/ARR have in-game lag that is a lot higher than 0.3 seconds. It is not related to ping but the way the game and the servers interact.


Let me ask you a simple question, why are there NA servers?

I don't know your background, but this is my field and I know what I'm talking about here. Maybe the difference isn't a big deal to you, but it is to me and many others. We don't know how ARR will run, it's not running as intended yet. There are bottlenecks with the throughput if that's what you're referring to here, but I'm not going to guess. So please come out and say what exactly you're referring to because there are too many factors to discount anything at this point.
#26 Jul 29 2013 at 1:25 PM Rating: Good
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ShadowedgeFFXI wrote:
Ravashack wrote:


It's very noticeable when you came from games with instantaneous reactions to your button pressing. There was definitely a pause, however slight, between when you pressed the button and when the effect went off in FFXIV 1.0.


Can I ask how long you played 1.0? I never got the chance and was curious if the game was as laggy as people claim in these old threads. I'm liking what I see for ARR though. I think SE has done a great job so far with their new system.


I played for the first 6 months or so and it was absolutely as laggy as everyone claims. If there were more than a couple people on screen, you'd be at slideshow FPS. It would take over a minute for all models to load in places like uldah, and the second you moved more than a few yalms, it started all over. Multiple second lag between menus, trading items to retainer, selling items, etc. It was a nightmare. ARR I haven't really had much issue in terms of these issues, but I'm aware they exist. I am close enough to the Toronto servers that I have an excellent ping so that might be why. Regardless, anything they can do to improve the game for everyone is a win in my book.
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