Local Host And Latency Issues

[BlackCat83]

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Issue(s)

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Lately I have noticed there are people connecting with very low connection speeds to a game that is local hosted. I have been getting a delay of around 3-8 seconds on average with people trying to host from connections that are not worthwhile.

 

Getting latency issues and rubber banding, then dying, takes the fun out of a game. Play a game to have fun, kind of hard to do when you cant aim at enemies because they are not where you are aiming, etc.

 

For those that do not know what local host means. It means that some player is hosting it. Now someone from halfway across the world has a 3 mbps connection, which simply is not enough to host. But the game system is flawed to the point where it will likely make them host.

 

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Solution(s)

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#1 Region lock players. So US players play with other US players, UK with other UK, Australia... you get the point. After that an option for "World Region." Where players can play with their friends if they want.

 

#2 Prevent players who do not meet bandwidth criteria to 'host' since it will inevitably become their turn in the future from actually connecting. Give them an error message stating system requirements not met. In other words, test people to make sure they will not cause lag for anyone else.

 

#3 Company that made/runs Warframe makes dedicated servers that players will be placed on through matchmaking. I realize this system is not cost efficient but at this point the lag issues are far out of control that it warrants some servers.

 

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Note

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For those that do not know how bandwidth works, I will explain here. The hosting players connection and computer matter more than the others. Ping is determined by the time it takes for a packet of data to be sent from your computer, to the server, and back again. If you have a bad connection as a host, the connecting players pings are going to skyrocket because your upload rate is not enough to send it back within a decent time frame. Thus their pings are higher.

 

Since most of the data is being rendered on your computer and sent back to them via your upload, where it is then rendered on theirs the host is the one causing the latency issues.

 

I would say 6 mbps connection (not throttled) is enough to host the game for your friends but not for people halfway across the globe. I have even encountered hosts on 56k connections and satellite, which is definitely not enough to play this game.

 

I have a 21 mbps connection which is throttled to a 1.2 mb/s download and 680 kb/s upload. It is more than enough to connect to Russian, or German, dedicated servers with a t1, t3, fiber, or other connection with a ping of around 90. 100-120 is almost no latency issues. Starting around 130 is where you start to see the latency issues with rubber banding, which is between a 2-3 second delay. When I have a 3-8 second delay in all actions, it means it is definitely the hosts issue and that is completely unacceptable.