FFXIV has had a fixed server tick every 0.3s (~3.3 Hz) since its inception. While that may have worked well with the originally slow-paced content, it’s become a major issue as the pace of fights has increased. For comparison, WoW has a server tick every ~0.05s (~20 Hz). The game would play and feel much better if SE gave serious consideration to increasing the rate, at least halving it to every 0.15s.
I began seeing it as a serious issue in Savage fights during Pandaemonium with my static. We’d do the stack to spread mechanics. The stack works fine, then when the spread happens everyone just dies. We’re all in our correct spread spots, clearly reflected on my screen, so nobody made any last movements. The problem is the game is very slow to update positions. Ironically, stacks work more reliably since they’re client-side driven, unlike the spreads. Since FFXIV uses a zero-client trust model, the server only considers your last reported position, which may be up to 0.3s old. And don't even get me started on the healing lag.
I mostly play SGE and heal in endgame content. It’s become a bigger problem during Dawntrail Savage and Ultimate fights. I’ve killed my partner in phase 1 FRU a full 2 seconds after the spread resolved simply because the game cannot keep up with the fast movements required for the encounters. The visuals for the pizza slice cleaves are entirely out of sync with when you actually get hit. This makes the visuals useless, and I found myself having to slide into them ahead of time since they don’t determine whether you get hit or not. You can get hit even a whole second after moving out of the cleave, forcing you to adjust strategies around the bad timing of the fight itself instead of playing the game. This is also a problem in M5S during the in/out/cleave dance mechanic. The fast-paced frog dance works well because it seems to give client trust, showing that the game could be much smoother with more overall client trust. I honestly don't even know what's going on with the quicksand randomly grabbing you or letting you go in M6S. These issues aren't just limited to my group since other statics have reported the same inconsistencies with mechanics.
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I began seeing it as a serious issue in Savage fights during Pandaemonium with my static. We’d do the stack to spread mechanics. The stack works fine, then when the spread happens everyone just dies. We’re all in our correct spread spots, clearly reflected on my screen, so nobody made any last movements. The problem is the game is very slow to update positions. Ironically, stacks work more reliably since they’re client-side driven, unlike the spreads. Since FFXIV uses a zero-client trust model, the server only considers your last reported position, which may be up to 0.3s old. And don't even get me started on the healing lag.
I mostly play SGE and heal in endgame content. It’s become a bigger problem during Dawntrail Savage and Ultimate fights. I’ve killed my partner in phase 1 FRU a full 2 seconds after the spread resolved simply because the game cannot keep up with the fast movements required for the encounters. The visuals for the pizza slice cleaves are entirely out of sync with when you actually get hit. This makes the visuals useless, and I found myself having to slide into them ahead of time since they don’t determine whether you get hit or not. You can get hit even a whole second after moving out of the cleave, forcing you to adjust strategies around the bad timing of the fight itself instead of playing the game. This is also a problem in M5S during the in/out/cleave dance mechanic. The fast-paced frog dance works well because it seems to give client trust, showing that the game could be much smoother with more overall client trust. I honestly don't even know what's going on with the quicksand randomly grabbing you or letting you go in M6S. These issues aren't just limited to my group since other statics have reported the same inconsistencies with mechanics.
** Continued below **
Continue reading...