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TYM Kommunity Project: An Open Letter to NRS Concerning Netplay

quoting myself from the other thread:

what about a thread where we as the tym community discuss how to write an "open letter to nrs concerning netplay", collecting issues, arguments, possible solutions and writing them down in a civil manner. TYM is so big, NRS wouldnt be able to simply ignore it, if it is presented as a consistent "TYM standpoint" with support throughout our whole community.
everybody who is concerned about the netcode, voice your opinion here and bring constructive points why and how it should be changed. which issues exactly are you experiencing? viewpoints of everybody are welcome, it would be especially cool if people with programming knowledge or info about the alternative "rollback" netcode could contribute.

if the community can unite behind this, i (or someone else with good writing skills) will make a letter out of it and find a good channel to communicate it to NRS.

please dont derail this thread.

Updates:

Experienced issues:
- counterpoking: sometimes i should get a punish after the opponents poke on block but he can just throw out another attack and beat mine

- blocking: sometimes i get hit by 2 pokes in a row even though i block after the first. also calculated last-second-blocks (yes i know block has Startup) never work.
- Combos: some tight links are practically impossible online
- raiden run cancel combos dont work online.
- d3 into overhead is sometimes not blocked even if gone from low to high block in time, General issue for low into Overhead
- punishes are harder or impossible
- Overall Feeling of 5f lag, so counterpoke, frametrapping and footsies dont work as intended
- some people cant even connect to online
- MKX online feels like a different game
- xbox user had a point where they couldnt play online in a month (i didnt know that was the case?)
- one user can only play on saturday, otherwise he has an hour of connecting time, then recieves "game session no t available".
- one use with a 60 mbps down an 30 upload can get 8 Frames of delay at best, while his friend with a way worse Connection claims to do better.
- Inputs can be "eaten up" by lag, so ducking into b2 becomes d2, or 33~df4 becomes 3f4 (jacqui)
- run cancel into block can be read as breaker due to delay.
- the delay can cause wake up attacks not to work, correct throw techs and anti-airs not come out in time or jump punches come out so late you almost touched the ground again.
- reversals can hardly be done with the current lag
- jump attacks become too strong online because you cant anti-air properly.
- some users claim the online experience is worse than IGAU or even MK9, ist a step back.
- multiple users report of being stuck at the "reading stats" message, or the game not progressing at the "ending game" message, which forces to restart.
- People compare the netplay on par or below games like tekken 6 or Soul Calibur 4
- People suspect it might have to do with the unreal engine, as gears of war is laggy too.
- the 4 bar system does not analyze wireless connections with inconstant performance correctly but only shows momentary state. so you can see 4 bars but have a really laggy match.

Meta issues:
- Competitive online play like ESL suffers;

- Viewers losing interest for esl because they know it doesnt represent the "real" game.
- Online is no good training for offline events which could be discouraging if you wanna attend them.
- the different timing on- and offline can lead to crucial mistakes in tournaments (we saw a lot of drops in the esl offline final).
- ambitious players feel they dont get good training at all
- a big amount of people have dropped the game after a short time and opted not to buy DLC because of their poor online experience.
- Players feel ignored and get frustrated because there are not even statements from nrs about the state of the netplay
- the pc version already has a low number of online players (27 on a screenshot)
- some players want to be competitive online, but the laggy netplay does not allow them to play at their best.
- Many usres experience NRS as greedy company that doesnt care about the quality of netplay as long as the game has good sales numbers.
- a user say hed feel better if nrs only admitted there is a problem with teh quality of netplay.
- some People feel like NRS is using resources on live action trailers and kombat pack advertisement insead of fixing the netplay

Ideas for Improvement:
- Showing ping instead of bars (or both)

- Showing if people use WiFi (so that we can evade that shit like plague)
- online beta for the next nrs game
- it IS possible to make netplay better after release, as DICE Shows http://mp1st.com/2015/05/13/dice-la-introduces-120hz-tickrate-to-battlefield-4-cte-aka-really-good-netcode/#.VafeZo8VhjR
- DICE also do constant testing together with the community to improve things like the netplay, and regular server maintenance.
- this long post explains a mixture of rollback and Input delay netcodes that might do better: (read that link on the bottom of the spoiler its a perfect explanation)
The only game I played with the ability to set your own frame delay with GGPO is Skullgirls. But here is my interpretation of how it's done.

The reason I prefer input delay over rollback is simply because it keeps your offline timing. With input delay the game takes more frames to register your input, so now everything is messed up. With rollback netcodes (like GGPO), you set the frame delay for YOUR actions and GGPO makes save states to fix any discrepancies during gameplay. So you can set it to 0 frames and get a nice offline experience but there will be constant rollbacks, or "teleporting" and flickering, if the connection can't keep up with that. With ok connections I'll set mine between 2-4 frames which isn't a big difference for skullgirls and do my combos with near the same timing as when I'm in training mode. There are less rollbacks because GGPO has more time to check the save states of both players and match up what should be happening on screen. If you want to play without any graphical oddities you would just set a high frame delay like 8 or so but then you'd have your classic "underwater" gameplay. Which is also a big problem with how some companies approach online. They'd rather it look pretty than be functional.

Say the netcode NRS uses now has an input delay of 6 frames for online matches. Everything I do will take 6 frames to even start which would make dealing with mixups incredibly hard or getting through zoning a nightmare. I press punch it doesn't come out until 6 frames later and to block I need to be 6 frames quicker. With a rollback netcode, if you set yours to 0 than everything you do will happen instantly on your screen. But if I have mine set to 4 than the game won't know what I was doing until 4 frames later. So if you see a hit then it stutters and now i'm blocking, that's because on the frame you saw a hit I was actually blocking and GGPO realizes this and sets the game back to show me blocking and then proceeds as normal.

So NRS can implement a set delay, a variable system and I think they can do a mixture of both by having a set delay but make it slight and also use rollbacks for discrepancies. I think the variable system works fine as long as people realize what it's doing. It allows for everyone to set the experience they want to have. I can tell you my experience with Skullgirls has been a much happier one compared to MKx.

I typed all this out and then realized I'm sure someone explained it way better than I did. Without a doubt here is Mike_Z explaining GGPO. http://skullgirls.com/2011/09/skull...dium=rss&utm_campaign=skullgirls-ggpo-and-you


Games with good netcode:
- Driveclub

- Titanfall
- Soul Calibur V (even just frame links and just guards possible, online players doing well in offline tournaments)
- Killer Instinct
- Tekken Tag 2
- Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown
- Blazeblue: Every Version
- SkullGirls
- Latest Street Fighter
- NRS are "the bottom of the Barrel"
 
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sub_on_dubs

Online Scrub Lord
I have to admit, when I heard that ESL was being announced, my immediate thought was that online must be godlike. Sadly, as the game was released and even with the patches, online continues to be a lagfest to the point where I actually stopped playing online. I will definitely make sure the netcode is good before I buy the next NRS game.
 
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mercureXI

Punching bag that throws fans !
IMO, since they won't change netcode for MKX now that they have our money, they still could do a few things to, at the very least, help us find good matches online (or if you prefer, matches that lag the least).

- Showing ping instead of bars (or both)
- Showing if people use WiFi (so that we can evade that shit like plague)

That could make finding ok games way easier.

-------------

About the next game to come : ask them to have an online beta like Capcom does for SFV.

See if they have any opinion about this.

-------------

Glad to see you starting this, we might actually get something good out of the old thread :)
 
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my main issues during netplay:

- counterpoking: sometimes i should get a punish after the opponents poke on block but he can just throw out another attack and beat mine
- blocking: sometimes i get hit by 2 pokes in a row even though i block after the first. also calculated last-second-blocks (yes i know block has Startup) never work.
- Combos: some tight links are practically impossible online

other issues: i have no local scene, i would have to spend quite a bit of money to go to tournaments, but the way i can train now kinda discourages me from doing so.
 

mercureXI

Punching bag that throws fans !
Sadly, we had to propose some chanting to even start that very thread in the first place ;)
 

Wetdoba

All too easy...
Titanfall on XB1 has the greatest netcode/online servers I have ever experienced personally and has set the standard for current gen online for me and I think every online game should strive for the quality Respawn has there. Titanfall and MKX are my two go to online multiplayer games right now and the difference is fucking night and day. Titanfall's servers are so good that even with it's extremely low player base all I need is 11 other people in one game mode and I will immediately connect to that lobby as the 12th man and be in a full game.

MKX is hot garbage and I can't understand how I was playing many other games almost 10 fucking years ago, while connecting to multiple people at the same time, and had it run smoother with less lag/input delays than me trying to connect to a single person at a time in MKX. It's absolutely insane they haven't caught up to 2005 standards and they should be embarrassed.
 

LaidbackOne

Scrubby nice guy
IMO, since they won't change netcode for MKX now that they have our money, they still could do a few things to, at the very least, help us find good matches online (or if you prefer, matches that lag the least).

- Showing ping instead of bars (or both)
- Showing if people use WiFi (so that we can evade that shit like plague)

That could make finding ok games way easier.

-------------

About the next game to come : ask them to have an online beta like Capcom does for SFV.

See if they have any opinion about this.

-------------

Glad to see you starting this, we might actually get something good out of the old thread :)
I couldn't agree more. Dunno if it is possible but its just a perfect idea.
 

Houndovhell

Subby-Z is my Main Man, the Man that I Main
My Biggest issue Online is frame data. (Very well could be fixed by the fixing the netcode for smoother connection) The smoothest online match ive had, felt like -5f at neutral. Meaning counterpoking strategically, and frametrapping doesnt work. You just mash and hope for the best, and when youre a strategic player that is trying to learn footsies - that isn't what you want to practice.
 

GLoRToR

Positive Poster!
The only way I believe this system could technically become better for online play is if every single thing got 10 more frames.
I could be wrong though.
 
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Eldriken

Guest
This is a much better approach than trying to do some type of chant at EVO and risk flat-out embarrassing our already mocked scene. It's akin to a bunch of spoiled little shits throwing a temper tantrum to get what they want. Don't get me wrong, however. We deserve to have a much better netcode because we ARE paying customers, but a chant isn't the way to go.

Also, I really don't think NRS would appreciate something like this. Imagine being called out at the biggest tournament of the year. I wouldn't want them to be like "Fuck the TYM community for this."
 

mercureXI

Punching bag that throws fans !
I couldn't agree more. Dunno if it is possible but its just a perfect idea.
Since it's an info you have stored in your console, seems easy to do.

They have access to our network parameters in the 1st place, so I guess they can get that info to appear somewhere.
 

Afk Skinny

3D Krusader
Injustice wireless was better than MK X wired in my experience. Ranked is unplayable. The best connection I've had with this game at all was playing some KOTH matches with some friends, and now those same friends barely touch the game at all, unless we're meeting up, then we'll play some quick matches. I avoid online as long as possible, and more often than not, realize why I do.
 

mercureXI

Punching bag that throws fans !
This is a much better approach than trying to do some type of chant at EVO and risk flat-out embarrassing our already mocked scene. It's akin to a bunch of spoiled little shits throwing a temper tantrum to get what they want. Don't get me wrong, however. We deserve to have a much better netcode because we ARE paying customers, but a chant isn't the way to go.

Also, I really don't think NRS would appreciate something like this. Imagine being called out at the biggest tournament of the year. I wouldn't want them to be like "Fuck the TYM community for this."
Part of the pb here bro.

You guys care too much about what NRS will think and not enough about the fact that NRS should worry about what WE think.

We pay their rent.

Not the other way around.
 

beepboop

Noob
The only people that should be posting in this thread are current professional video game QA testers and developers. Few other people know what it actually takes to "fix" the netcode.
 
E

Eldriken

Guest
Part of the pb here bro.

You guys care too much about what NRS will think and not enough about the fact that NRS should worry about what WE think.

We pay their rent.

Not the other way around.
I understand all of that, but there is a right way and wrong way to handle something. Doing a chant, in my opinion (and several others from the looks of it) is not the right way to go about it. You can get the same results via different methods. It's not a one way street.