De: Today Warframe Became A Single-Player Game For Me (Experiences Inside)

[Namacyst]

I played alot today and every single game i joined was nearly unplayable laggy. I don't know what isp's most people have or if they are just idiots having downloads running in the background or god knows what but it can't continue that way.

 

Peer2Peer multiplayer is a nice thing on paper but in reality when you have take the connection speeds and traffic into account and the fact that hosting a game like Warframe has a huge impact on game performance on the host machine it does not look so good anymore.

 

The host client sends all informations based on his system, calculated for every player in "his" game back to them and that increases the lagging even more. Basically if you don't own a top notch computer and a fast internet connection... don't host a game.

 

It hurts to see a great game like Warframe with such engaging gameplay being ruined by bad connectivity when playing it together with others. DE should really look further into this issue and try to optimize performance when hosting for the host machine and maybe look over the netcode or something (i'm not a pro when it comes to this stuff) to decrease the load on the internet connection.

 

Since my Computer is running Warframe fine when i am alone or in a game as client i can't host games myself because it wrecks my framerate to unplayable low levels. I can't play as a client either because from my experience 1 out of 10 games are lag free.. the rest is unenjoyable suffering.

 

So...today is the day when Warframe became a single-player game for me. It was nice joining random people on random missions for fun, not because i needed some loot or stuff but just "for the lulz". But now i don't care about helping others and newcomers doing alerts anymore because i won't stand it anymore. I set my game to private and it will stay that way for the most part until something is done.

 

TL;DR: Performance when hosting a game is too bad and 1 out of 10 games i joined today were unplayable laggy. DE needs to improve Peer2Peer

[RunNGun]

I have definitely noticed this. Although my computer isn't the best, it still usually holds its own and I consider it to be above average in terms of processing power and gaming ability.

However, when I host three other people, the FPS takes a dramatic dip even if i turn all the settings low. It is fine when I am hosting one or two other people, but when the final man comes in, my computer starts to overload.

I would be fine with a bit of lag if it didn't affect my damage numbers and hit registration. I feel like that is what really affects the playability.

It would be nice if it was improved. I still believe in DE, though.

[Emotitron]

Some kind of system for rating connections would be useful. Even just ping/packetloss/CPU stress being displayed before committing to join a squad would work. Voting to migrate host to the player with the better connect midgame would be nice down the line as well.

 

Designing the game to run with client hosts is actually quite smart for this kind of game, I see no reason to move to a central server. Just some simple methods for screening out bad hosts would do the trick.

 

Really though, this game doesn't punish you for leaving games. If you connect to a messy server... abort the mission and try another?

Edited May 5, 2013 by Emotitron

[Namacyst]

Really though, this game doesn't punish you for leaving games. If you connect to a messy server... abort the mission and try another?

 

Sure, i do that.. alot. And when you have to abort about 5 missions until you find one that does not lag the hell out of your fun it get's annoying and is taking alot of that time you just want spending doing a mission with others online.

[Gaiters]

Your computer may be a beast, but if you have dialup no amount of coding from DE will make the game perform better. For some reason I have a better ping to servers in Chicago(even though I'm in Ontario) than some of my friends who live in Illinois. :/

Really it's up to you to find friends and create your own circle of people who don't lag. And enjoy the game. 

[Saifon]

These are issues that can't be solved by the developer. I for one have found the design of Warframe to be brilliantly elegant. As it has scaled greatly from my rig that can melt the sun to the living room guest rig running on a APU.

 

So wheres the fix? Get a better rig buy a GPU. If you're going to be complaing about your gaming experiences not only with warframe but in general you should take the first step and improve your gaming set up if you really care about it. DE has already walked with you halfway there by making such a smooth client. Trust me they could do much worse and from what I've seen so far they take patching and updates very seriously. 

[BenMorgan]

I feel like this is a very important topic in Warframe, especially because I met some kind of A****** today that KNEW that he was on of the S#&$tiest hosts ever, but also admitted that he actively TRIED to be host, so that he can feel better than other people who lag even more thanks to his rig (Probably an Intel Pentium II that he inherited from his grandfather and a GTS6600). True, thats the extreme and very uncommon, still it is really, really annoying if you build yourself a decent gaming pc (others would say definitely overkill, but who gives a S#&$?) and then a normally great game that you enjoy really, suddenly feels like it is completely killing your pc because it can't deliver enough performance? Just because there is no option to actually say: Play Online, but only as host. Or the alternative: Play Online, but only as client!

 

And as for the "to many players in my game crash my pc"-problem: That isnt the client/server that is badly coded(because it isn't, at least as far as I noticed), just your rig not being able to handle that much input/output. Meaning: Upgrade it, play only as client, or tell your friend number 4 to get stuffed because he is killing performance for everone else (not friendly, but at least honest). I can host for 4 people without losing to much fps (no impact on playability), without any of the people complaining about lag.

 

So yeah DE could (and should) implement a function to avoid/remove bad hosts, but a central server would be very costly (its still a f2p game, they haven't got infinite ressources like WoW where the income keeps coming every month), so it maybe wouldnt be a good solution.

Edited May 5, 2013 by BenMorgan

[basiliskeye]

Never had anyone complain while I have hosted.

But yeah, most connections I have played with are crap, and hosting 3 people oddly puts far more strain on game performance then hosting 2.

[Supernaught]

And as for the "to many players in my game crash my pc"-problem: That isnt the client/server that is badly coded(because it isn't, at least as far as I noticed), just your rig not being able to handle that much input/output. Meaning: Upgrade it, play only as client, or tell your friend number 4 to get stuffed because he is killing performance for everone else (not friendly, but at least honest). I can host for 4 people without losing to much fps (no impact on playability), without any of the people complaining about lag.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm in Calgary,AB Canada(for those who can't Google maps) I play with consistant frame rates and almost nil lag with friends from West Virginia, and Florida, while having Skype, Winamp or Grooveshark going and I have found no problems in respect to laggy gameplay. Other than the few times I've connected in a Public game and someone is either running dial-up or some other S#&$ty connection or rig problem. Disconnect...try again...rinse..repeat. OR find a good group of consistant players.

Edited May 6, 2013 by Supernaught

[arisaka]

A co-op PC game such as Warframe should have a more reliable multiplayer system. Peer-to-peer simply isn't reliable enough. This is something the devs can fix if they want to - they can put up some servers in different locations and use those as hosts. It would take work, but it would benefit the game.

[Slaskia]

A lot of the time, what causes lag is out of both the Devs and the Players control.  Some players may be limited on what internet service they can get.  Another cause could be a bad 'sector' somewhere between your computer and the hosts (degrading lines, faulty routers, etc). Then there's good o' mother nature.

[Loswaith]

There is also the factor you could be connecting to someone across the world.

 

Given in general low populations for specific missions, its likely that you simply are connecting to people a super long way away from you.  200ms lag is enough to cause noticable lag, while even 100ms lag is enough to cause shots to miss.

[Namacyst]

I heard that Alerts are global and not bound to zone.