Wifi VS Wired and why I think it mattersFollow

I used to have rather bad latency, and I fixed it by going from playing via Wifi to running a 20m long ethernet cable from our router to my laptop, but that's not where this story ends: I found out yesterday just how insane my latency used to be on wifi...

My girlfriend told me last week that if I bought a PS3, she'd play the game with me. So I did what anyone would do, and bought a PS3! So yesterday we got her set up with a character and got started. The PS3 was plugged in via ethernet and I was on wifi, and holy sh*t the delay between our two screens was simply insane. I'd move, and my character would just stand there like an idiot for almost 2 seconds before moving. No wonder people eat plumes and Weight of the Land like it's made of cake.

EDIT: Ok, so people don't like my PC vs PS3 tests, and allright I guess it doesn't prove anything. BUT do still remember that I did see a massive improvement by switching to wired on PC alone, so even though you may disregard my "tests", do not disregard the fact that it still worked.

I then decided to test the difference between wifi and wired by getting a hub and running ethernet cables to both the laptop and PS3, and while I still got a slight delay (we live in New Zealand, not much we can do there) it was amazing how much of a difference it makes. Now we don't have a super awesome router, so wifi is bound to be a little bit sh*t on it, but I am definitely going to start requesting people come to EX primal runs connected via cable and not wifi.

I honestly think if people took reasonable steps (buying a cable is not that expensive really) to improve their connection, we'd get a lot more parties past Titan Ex without wiping repeatedly for weeks on end.

Edited, Feb 16th 2014 4:10pm by Tubrudi

Edited, Feb 16th 2014 6:36pm by Tubrudi

Although Wi-Fi inherently has more latency than a wired connection, the latency should be and is well within the realm of playable.

Really bad latency over Wi-Fi is either a hardware/router/settings issue.

Yes, hardwire if you can; but you don't have to go out of your way. Discrimination based on Wi-Fi networks is just ridiculous. As seen, depending on your ISP (or other factors) a hardwired connection could easily be full of latency.

I use wifi and I am usually one of the only ones dodging all of Titan's attacks.

Your connection should be more than fast enough on Wi-Fi. if your Wi-Fi is giving you gaming problems it would be connection spikes from a firewall or something.

I think this is a PS3 problem. My brother on the PS3 has a big delay between what we're both seeing and he's wired on 60 Mbps.

Edited, Feb 16th 2014 3:04pm by LucasNox

Maybe you have a good router. I certainly didn't and going wired definitely fixed my problems.



Thing is though, this was on PC. I only bought the PS3 a few days ago, yet I've been struggling with this for much longer. Wifi was definitely to blame for my bad lag, since going wired made a massive difference. Such a big difference, in fact, that I actually had to learn not to move back to behind Titan after Weight of the Land too quickly, as I got killed doing that once :P

Perhaps a "no wifi" thing is a bit draconian, sure. But is it too much to ask people attempting EX primal farming to at least make sure their connections are as strong as the reasonably can be? A hardware issue it is, I agree. But a $20 cable is a much cheaper fix than buying a brand new $200 router.

I guess all I am trying to say is, if you're having latency issues, and you play through wifi, give wired a shot. If it works, you'll love the fact that you can dodge things now, and your party members will also be grateful. If it doesn't, bummer. At least it only cost you $20.



Yeah I got that, and I take what you said on board completely. I'm still saying however, that I have seen a noticable difference in Titan Ex on my laptop after switching from wifi to wired, so I still believe the switch to be worth it.

That is true, but as anyone can tell you that have died to plumes while almost the same size as the AOE away from it can tell you, where the server thinks you are, and where you see yourself is quite different sometimes. I know that there is no way to fix latency completely (unless you were on the direct network of the server I guess haha) but I do think it is worth it to take whatever steps you can to make it as little as it can be.

Or if they're a healer and the tank is down to 1K HP, they're trying to wait until the last possible second to dodge to save the tank. Happens a lot.

FFXI was much the same way. If you have ever dual-boxed and set your alt to follow you, you will notice a difference. On your alt's screen it looks as if your stepping on your main's heels, but to your main you will appear to be several steps behind. It's like this even when you run both programs on the same PC.

What I'm saying is, regardless of what you do to improve your latency... you're still going to have the .3 seconds which you'll never be able to overcome. Yes you should do anything you can to improve what you can before you hit that wall, but you'll never be able to move the wall. Where you are(on your screen) and where the server thinks you are will always be different unless you're standing still.

This is why(when moving) what you see on another person's screen looks different than what you see. This is what leads to the frustration in groups when people get hit with AoE they think they were out of. On your screen you see yourself clearly out of harm's way, but on my screen you look like a scrub who didn't move out of the way. That's not a personal knock, just how it looks to other people and why people get frustrated.

I'm a firm believer in the "use an action the split second you are out of AOE to update the server with your position" placebo.

In reality, I think it's that if you're out of the AOE long enough to start using the action, you're out of the AOE in time. If you are still in the AOE marker when you start using your action, even if you were stepping out of it as you hit it, you were still inside it to the server. As a healer, I use Regen for this purpose. I can duck out of AOE and toss off a Regen, and as long as I am out of the AOE before I start casting, it won't hit me.

I run PS3, on Wi-Fi, through Charter who just bought Optimum, on a crap modem, through a cheap router, in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming. The fact that I have an EX primal weapon is mind-boggling.

Some days, when my wife is on the PC, I am on the PS3 Wi-Fi with tablet on Wi-Fi active on Teamspeak, and the kid is on the laptop, I literally just have to guess at plume location. I'm somewhere near 15 frames per second (or less). Sometimes my screen just stops for two full seconds, then starts back up with everybody rubber banding to their current lcoations. Good times.