Constant 2 second delay online..

[Jasam]

Is it just me, or is the a constant delay online (I'm bettin 90% its me ^-^')

Whenever I use an attack, the damage hits 2 seconds latter, break a box, pick up and item, both happon 2 seconds later..

Knock an enermy into the air, 2 seconds before it begins moving upwards...

And most annoyingly, dodge an attack and get hit as you were standing there 2 seconds ago.

Any ideas?

[Redeyes]

Sounds like your getting lag m8

[Maskim]

I've been having this problem as well. Coming from the 360, with no delay whatsoever, I'm having trouble getting used to it on my pc now. The game runs smooth, the character's move fast, but I can't dodge without taking at least two hits from delay once I'm well away from any danger. My comp gets a greater share of bandwidth than my 360, so this lag is really puzzling me, and I've basically just been playing to feed my PM. Only lvl 7, when judging from 360 experience, I should be about 20 by now. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif

Any ideas on a solution or reason, I'd also very much appreciate.

[Wallin]

That sounds more like internet lag than system lag. Usually mine is no more than a second, and there are often times in parties when I'll be hitting something and someone else is hitting the same thing from across the room, but the damage still immediately registers either way.

[Jasam]

The thing is I have a 2meg connection, The game runs perfectly smoothly at full speed, no slowdown at all...
But there is ALWAYS a 2 second lag, I can't see any logical reason for it...

[Redeyes]

are you wireless? coz im runnim 8mb wireless and although i dont lag i do d/c alot

[Mikaga]

It is indeed lag to the server. Unlike PSO where hit detection and damage calculation was handled client-side, in PSU it seems to be a collaboaration of both client-side and server-side detection, thus the more you lag, (a) the harder it is to hit monsters, (b) the easier it is for monsters and their abilities (read: Megid) to hit *you*.

In order to adequately deal with it, you'd need to note a few things and try to work out the source of the problem:

• Your geographic location (the servers are in the U.S. and the further you are, the more lag. But shouldn't be more than 0.5s).
• Your ISP.
• Your Router and/or it's settings.

In my case, I live in the UK. This means I should *never* get a delay any better than 1/6th of a second. But when I first started out, I was getting arbitrary delay of anything from 1 second to 5 seconds, which was horribly unplayable.

After a staggering amount of fact-finding, I discovered that the router used (which is through the magic of godawful ISPs required) had a secret menu with a bunch of speed-limiting settings, seemingly intended so said ISP can host more users with the same kind of bandwidth.

Underhanded like heck, but after I found this out, I was able to fix my issues. As of now my delay is typically between 1/6th of a second and 1 second.

Which I still believe to be pretty atrocious. A traceroute to the game's servers (198.176.10.x where the x seems to be 6, 8, 10 or 11) shows that after the route gets to some hop in New York, the response time randomly changes from almost-nothing to a full second.

So thanks to a couple of TERRIBLY unreliable hops between me and the game, I can't enjoy the game to it's fullest. It kinda sucks, but I've got to put up with it for the time being >.<

[Jasam]

I'm Wireless, But its a very good connection and I never d/c, and has not caused me any problems before

The Router is also one I bought myself, so there shouldn't be any secret menu stuff ^-^'

This is making the game very hard to play.... You think ST would do something about it...


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Jasam on 2006-11-26 16:13 ]</font>

[Mikaga]

Wireless is attributed with too much. For a couple of months a year for the last few years I've been stuck with a wireless link to my router (which then cables to a wired internet) and while it does cause problems with connection stability, for the most part the Ping is not adversely affected.

Now if you're on a wireless internet connection directly (as opposed to a wireless LAN to your modem/router/whatever), I wouldn't know about that, but I'd have serious doubts it'd be as quick to react as a wired connection.

[Mikaga]

This is making the game very hard to play.... You think ST would do something about it...
No, because this is by design.

When you hit a monster, the game sends up a message to the servers to say "He's hit this monster!". The server then CHECKS to make sure you really did hit the monster and weren't just using some sort of infinite-range or rapid-attack hack, and on confirmation* of the hit, will calculate the damage. THEN it'll send a message back to your client to say "Yes, he did hit it. Show this damage." and the client will present to you the damage you dealt.

(*This is why sometimes you DO get a clean hit on worms but no number is displayed. Server-side, the worms were buried when you hit them, so it's not considered a valid hit.)

Similarly, the server keeps track of what hit you, not your client. If a monster attacks you, then it'll be shown on your client later than it will the server. The monster's movement is sooner than you can see, and so is that of the various ice streams and energy balls.

Even if you "dodge" them, the server will detect a hit because the message detailing your movement to get out of the way took longer to reach the server than the attack took to hit the position the server still believes you are at.

Thus in this instance, the server will send a message to your client saying "He actually was hit here, display this damage and stun them." and your client will think "I don't really agree with this, but okay." * and proceed to do so. As a result, you can't use any kind of teleportation/hit nullification hacks on your client to fake dodging of EVERYTHING and make yourself immortal.

(*it won't really, but I like to think the game client is "on my side".)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Mikaga on 2006-11-26 16:27 ]</font>

[VelosofLight]

I have maybe a one-quarter second lag, and it's not even all that common. Maybe either your system or the internet in your area is rather... ungood.

[Mikaga]

Not to be bitter, but "Maybe your system/internet is bad" is a response so unhelpful that you normally expect to pay some tech support for it.

Yes. We know. I've detailed that. Thank you.

[Xbob]

On 2006-11-26 17:41, Mikaga wrote:
Not to be bitter, but "Maybe your system/internet is bad" is a response so unhelpful that you normally expect to pay some tech support for it.

Yes. We know. I've detailed that. Thank you.




More often than not, it IS the issue.

[Mikaga]

Ugh. You miss the point.

We know this is the issue. My massive posts above detail this. The original post *states* he expects it to be at his end.

What good does some random person saying "It's ur comp hur hur" do anybody?!

[Xbob]

What good does him not posting any significant details to hint as to what it WOULD be do?

[Mikaga]

For one thing it doesn't waste anybody's time. For another, it doesn't aggrivate those of us who are busting our brains trying to work out how to cope with this problem even if we can't actually fix it.

And I saw no "significant details".

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Mikaga on 2006-11-26 18:16 ]</font>

[VelosofLight]

On 2006-11-26 17:54, Mikaga wrote:
Ugh. You miss the point.

We know this is the issue. My massive posts above detail this. The original post *states* he expects it to be at his end.

What good does some random person saying "It's ur comp hur hur" do anybody?!



...your face. -.-+

[Jasam]

I don't need a long explination of the obvious fact that everything is calculated server side, thus thats why it appears...

What is more pressing, is if there is anything I can do to reduce the effect, or if we need to give ST a kick up the rear to get something done about server positions.

[KirinDave]

On 2006-11-27 08:40, Jasam wrote:
I don't need a long explination of the obvious fact that everything is calculated server side, thus thats why it appears...

What is more pressing, is if there is anything I can do to reduce the effect, or if we need to give ST a kick up the rear to get something done about server positions.



Everyone is trying to be optimistic with you. I'll spare you that. Usually there isn't much you can do about it short of switching ISPs.

Work with your ISP. A 2000ms ping to anywhere on the internet that's not dialup is pretty unreasonable. Use netstat to figure out where you're connecting to and then use traceroute to identify if its your ISP or a remote location. You can IM me if you need some help doing this (but don't expect a laundry list of shell commands http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif).

Also, see if it has to do with the time of day. If you're on cable, you're sharing a lot of bandwidth with your neighbors. There may be a torrenter that's ruining your block's ping. If you're on a T1, there may be a junction that's experiencing some kind of failure state due to the environment (electrical, chemical, thermal). If you're on DSL, you may be one of those unlucky people who is so far from he damn switch that you really have 56k.

And all this homework may net you nothing. You might end up finding out you live in a place that just has a crap ping for gaming (or just PSU, it happens). Nothing to be done, move or accept it. The internet really wasn't designed for realtime gaming, but it gives a best effort.

Good luck, though.