COPING WITH LAG

ph8te

Hi,

I have a general question for players who, because of their geographical location, need to cope with a lag penalty. How do you do it and still become top level players?

I am based in South Africa and I will automatically have a 250-300 ms lag penalty. Add to that, that our ISPs are generally horrible, and it can make the game play very difficult. Not that I cannot finish a Vet HRC or SO, but it won't ever be a leaderboard run. I don't even try Mazzatun, or the new dungeons and trials.

I even moved from the US server (PC) to Euro (PS4) but it made no real difference.

Is there a plan for ZOS to eventually increase their server footprint as I am sure players in Asia and Australia suffer from the same problem?

AzraelKrieg

There is no plan and I don't think they will do it.

Unfadingsilence

Just like this....

http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/UnfadingSilence/video/36340420

Publius_Scipio

Mr. Rich "The Director" Lambert was interviewed on live stream while at Pax West and he said that the next DLC has some significant performance improvements across the board. Something like 15%-20% across the board, and that's for lower end systems and consoles.

ph8te

Publius_Scipio wrote: »

Mr. Rich "The Director" Lambert was interviewed on live stream while at Pax West and he said that the next DLC has some significant performance improvements across the board. Something like 15%-20% across the board, and that's for lower end systems and consoles.

but the will not necessarily improve the lag as that is a geographical limitation. A direct ping to a server to the US will always have a 300-350 ms ping and purpose is about 250-300. Simply because of cable limitations from Africa.

I was actually hoping for some tips and tricks from players who have learned to cope with the lag and can still pull of good numbers. I cant even get animation cancelling right due to the lag.

ph8te

purpose = Europe (Damn Autocorrect)

Niuby

lol I love the ESO lore, but..
I quit after finished VMA and farmed it abit
lag and skill stuck + AC is a huge problem turned me away, it is a design disaster IMO

anyway, comeback to the forum regularly to check if ZOS care enough to improve it...
guess not yet, but option?

dont cope with it.

play other game and wait till they fix it.

CoachPower

Hey

I'm from South Africa too, and although the lag can be quite frustrating at times it's all about adapting to it, adjusting the playstyle. I do not consider myself a 'top tier' player but i have completed most end game content (flawless vMA, vMOL, vhof etc) so yes, it's possible even with our terrible ping.

Adapt and overcome.

SlinkySlack

I'm also a PSO (portal scrolls online) player from South Africa, I started playing ESO when it launched on PS4 and played basically every day, its also the only game I currently play. Like OP said from here we start with a penalty of 250ms-300ms. Since launch I've seen the server lag increased with each update/upgrade to the point where the game turned into the portal scrolls online for it seems it is all my characters do in battle, they and everything else just disappear and reappear somewhere else on screen, its really ridiculous right now. I love 12man trials, its what I do, Vet to be more specific and thanks to server lag I'm kicked out of both my trial guilds leader board teams for not being able to do 34k dps on dummy any more

We here have learned to play with distance to server lag, it always worked like this. Its like we South Africans (Australians as well according to an ESO in game friend) have developed a predictive play style as to compensate for the distance to server lag and we're quite good at it but none of us can see into the future so the server lag makes it unplayable. FFS ZOS FIX THE DIVINE DAMNED LAG, we've been asking for a fix since launch!!!!!!!!! Server LAG is a killer for us, server lag with the distance to server lag = portal scrolls online.

I've given up on vet trials, will do them when ZOS fixes the LAG issue. So my ex 40k DPS toon is now a harvesting god running topless (no chest armor) and still melts everything in her path, to keep myself busy I've soloed all of Craglorn (except the trials and new 4 man dungeons), even caught all fishes, I must say that Craglorn is actually a very good, well developed part of the game, I love the city's under ground and also it has a great story line. Hell even my celestial sign I'm born to came down from the heavens to speak to me (The Thief). Anyway hate server lag above all else and that will one day be the reason I stop playing PSO completely...

ph8te

Maybe I should form a "LAG" guild for players who suffer from the same issues. We could then learn to play a bit predictively

Zbigb4life

Publius_Scipio wrote: »

Mr. Rich "The Director" Lambert was interviewed on live stream while at Pax West and he said that the next DLC has some significant performance improvements across the board. Something like 15%-20% across the board, and that's for lower end systems and consoles.

It's more then 2 years that there is serious lag by moments. I really doubt they finally found a solution for this: but I keep my fingers crossed, you never know...

SlinkySlack

Sorry OP, it seems all I did in previous post is complain about LAG while you actually wanted to know how I deal with it. TBO I don't "cope" with it, I RAGE and swear at everything to do with South African internet...

To following is what I tried and or do to minimize the LAG or rather the data amount that is transferred between the server and PS4:
No in game pets, no buff icons, no damage/healing amount indicators. Basically non of the nice stuff that actually is suppose to improve quality of in game life.
I'm on vdsl 40meg line with 200gig soft cap, UNCAPPED ACCOUNTS IS ALWAYS SLOWER THAN CAPPED (well in SA at least).
On the line there is only 1 PS4Pro running ESO and 1 PS4normal running COD Black ops (my son plays this but only until 20h00, then its only the PS4Pro. All other devices like cell phones is wifi off.
I've even port forwarded the specified ports like ZOS recommended in the numerous emails I get after the numerous complaints I've send them about LAG. TBO this does not seem to make anything better, in fact I now worry more about being hacked through open ports!!
I can not take LAGGING anymore so the last thing I can do from my side I'm going to do tonight... install new gaming router.
On Monday I ordered an Asus RT-AC88U AC3100 Dual-Band Wi-Fi Gigabit Router, it just arrived at work, so after work I'll install this router with the WTFast account for gaming and if this works I'll give feedback, if not then I'll have to wait 10to20 years for some company to install fiber in my area as currently the only and fastest option in my area is the VDSL 40 meg line from hellkom. What they sell as "fast internet" is barely entry level in rest of the world, I mean they rejoice about being able to give 10 meg ave, by world definition that's not even adsl speeds but hey, its SA!! I have 2 ISP accounts, one with telkom for 200gig cap and one with mweb for 200gig cap, if one seems to be slow I change to other one. Really I can not do more from my side, I'm not a hacker or comp wizz, I'm just an guy wanting to enjoy the wonders of nirn and kill monsters after a long hard day at work but then to start playing and getting more upset and frustrated is just another slap to the face for being an South African. Internet is maklik né!!

So tomorrow I'll give feedback on the WTFast router and tell what I've discovered.

Enjoy ESO!

TL;DR Hate lag, got Asus RT-AC88U AC3100 Dual-Band Wi-Fi Gigabit Router, installing tonight. Hopefully this will help.

ph8te

SlinkySlack wrote: »

Sorry OP, it seems all I did in previous post is complain about LAG while you actually wanted to know how I deal with it. TBO I don't "cope" with it, I RAGE and swear at everything to do with South African internet...

To following is what I tried and or do to minimize the LAG or rather the data amount that is transferred between the server and PS4:
No in game pets, no buff icons, no damage/healing amount indicators. Basically non of the nice stuff that actually is suppose to improve quality of in game life.
I'm on vdsl 40meg line with 200gig soft cap, UNCAPPED ACCOUNTS IS ALWAYS SLOWER THAN CAPPED (well in SA at least).
On the line there is only 1 PS4Pro running ESO and 1 PS4normal running COD Black ops (my son plays this but only until 20h00, then its only the PS4Pro. All other devices like cell phones is wifi off.
I've even port forwarded the specified ports like ZOS recommended in the numerous emails I get after the numerous complaints I've send them about LAG. TBO this does not seem to make anything better, in fact I now worry more about being hacked through open ports!!
I can not take LAGGING anymore so the last thing I can do from my side I'm going to do tonight... install new gaming router.
On Monday I ordered an Asus RT-AC88U AC3100 Dual-Band Wi-Fi Gigabit Router, it just arrived at work, so after work I'll install this router with the WTFast account for gaming and if this works I'll give feedback, if not then I'll have to wait 10to20 years for some company to install fiber in my area as currently the only and fastest option in my area is the VDSL 40 meg line from hellkom. What they sell as "fast internet" is barely entry level in rest of the world, I mean they rejoice about being able to give 10 meg ave, by world definition that's not even adsl speeds but hey, its SA!! I have 2 ISP accounts, one with telkom for 200gig cap and one with mweb for 200gig cap, if one seems to be slow I change to other one. Really I can not do more from my side, I'm not a hacker or comp wizz, I'm just an guy wanting to enjoy the wonders of nirn and kill monsters after a long hard day at work but then to start playing and getting more upset and frustrated is just another slap to the face for being an South African. Internet is maklik né!!

So tomorrow I'll give feedback on the WTFast router and tell what I've discovered.

Enjoy ESO!

TL;DR Hate lag, got Asus RT-AC88U AC3100 Dual-Band Wi-Fi Gigabit Router, installing tonight. Hopefully this will help.

Thanks for the feedback. The problem here in SA is the bottleneck on the undersea cables and that "Our Favorite Telekom Company" sells 60% of their bandwidth back into Africa.

I appreciate the settings tips and will try them out. I also know that if you get to really learn the moves of all the bosses, they will 'announce' what they are about to do. Some OSKs (one Shot Kills) you just cannot avoid, because by the time you have reacted to the block you are already dead. vTempest, vSpindle 1, vWayrest 1 and vDirefrost.

I guess for me the biggest issue is that I'll never be able to get a really good rotation with animation cancelling going. I don't even try PvP because that is just not even worth the hassle.

I suppose I'll go back to healing as it is easier to do in the end game stiff than tanking and DPS

Dasovaruilos

It can be done.

I play from Brazil with around 250-400 latency too.

My main is a healer because I think that role is the least affected by lag. You can be a high level healer with lag easier than you can be a DPS, for example.

Tanking is also not impossibly time sensitive. You need fast reactions but not half a second reactions all the time to perform well.

As DPS, you will suffer with weaves and cancelling light attacks with skills. What I do is I tend to prefer heavy attack builds. Right now I'm loving my StamDK and managed to get 36.9k DPS by myself, even with high lag. You can opt to be a support build as well.

As a "normal" DPS, you will be a little disadvantage. You can still do pretty good DPS to do all content in the game even with that lag, you just won't be able to compete head to head with an equally skilled player with half or 1/3 of your latency. If that same skilled player can do 38k DPS for example, you will do, lets say, 36k.

PvP, on the other hand, is another matter. Just go mSorc or full support because with that lag it is almost impossible to even time an execute well because most enemies will be dead or back at full health before the game registers your skill. That is the same with block, gap closers, roll dodge... I'm not a serious PvPer but I'm yet to find a build that is not almost destroyed by having such high latency.

I also have completed vMA with 6 different characters, so that is also possible. And I'm not even good. You do suffer a lot of deaths because of lag, rubber banding, attacks hitting you before the animation, but it is still doable.

TL;DR: You can still do everything in the game except be at the very top of DPS or PvP. Leaderboard runs, vMA, vDSA are all totally possible and doable if you know your limitations. Also, try support roles like healers or tanks or invest in heavy attack DPS builds, which are way less affected by lag and will allow you to reach very close to top even with 250-400 latency.

SlinkySlack

OP, you said it perfectly as it is: By the time I see a red circle on my screen, I'm already dead on server, character sort of freezes and makes a horrible sound dying and just falls to the ground dead. In PVP its the same, by the time I see an enemy about to attack me, I'm already dead on his screen, this I confirmed with an in game friend on other alliance, we tested it in cyrodiil. I told him in party chat from witch keep I'm going to another and he stealth attacked as one would under normal conditions, he said I didn't even react with block or anything where on my side when I saw the attack immediately blocked and shield up but then that sound and death...

My personal opinion is that most payers on leader board only have very low latency with medium skills. Players with great skills but horrible latency may seem to be poor players but its only because of high latency. Why is it that in a "technological" world we seem to move backwards with technology? I mean my very first ASDL line was 512kps, not even 1meg and back then I could easily host a 40 multi player game with "Resistance Fall of man" without LAG. (not comparable I know) But then why 2 years ago I had an 10meg line at home and 4 meg at work, I used ps remote play and could at least harvest matts and some overland fighting. Wanted to do dungeons so upgraded work ADSL to 10meg and home to 40 meg vdsl, remote play don't work anymore, so upgraded work again to 20meg adsl and still remote play don't work. It just keeps saying that the connectivity is to low (already set settings on lowest quality video). I gave up on remote play.

ZOS, give servers the ability to determine latency and prioritize high over low, this will at least give high latency players a better experience because right now I can not actively battle. I play catch up all the time, even just a pledge dungeon it seems I just barely keep up with team, always just in time to kill last enemy?? That is how bad lag is, by the time I see group running they are already fighting the next mob, so I run and only get there in time to kill last enemy, its actually just sad, especially if one remembers the low lag days where there was time to be playful and jump around in between fights and even in mobs. Now its hard work just to keep up.

These days my hopes and dreams is for worldwide LAG free internet solution where all of the world experience 0 lag... MMM 0 lag.

FloppyTouch

I don't i farm lag all you want I'm going to get that node

Morgul667

I live in asia, by the time the red circle appears im dead, but the good thing is we learn to anticipate a lot.

When I was in Europe for travel, I found the game MUCH easier. When I went back to asia, took me a few days to be efficient again as I had lost some reflexes :-D

It is possible to do pretty much anything but will take much more effort

Publius_Scipio

Zbigb4life wrote: »

Publius_Scipio wrote: »

Mr. Rich "The Director" Lambert was interviewed on live stream while at Pax West and he said that the next DLC has some significant performance improvements across the board. Something like 15%-20% across the board, and that's for lower end systems and consoles.

It's more then 2 years that there is serious lag by moments. I really doubt they finally found a solution for this: but I keep my fingers crossed, you never know...

I don't think it's about "one" solution. Over the last year and a half performance in Cyrodiil definitely improved greatly from where it was in 2015- early to mid 2016. Mr. Lambert didn't go into details but he seemed very pleased with what he has seen from the upcoming performance boost. Said the engineers have fine tuned the animations, making them much more efficient, something similar to that.

Edit: Don't take my word from it, you can find the Pax West live stream interview maybe still on the ESO Twitter page, or on YouTube or something.

Markdechene1

I'm in Aus, I've found using a lightning staff over flame staff makes a huge difference for some reason. Weaving actually works!

The hardest is timing your weave after a bar swap, but if you practice enough you'll get it.