Tickrate or "netcode" problems are killing the game. Video inside.

Before you watch the video and go full , a bit of info: according to what people are saying on Reddit, the tickrate of PS2's servers used to be 10 hz and was recently nerfed to 5 hz. An official statement on this would be helpful, but the devs have been quite quiet on networking.

Tickrate is, essentially, how many times the server refreshes per second. Every time a "tick" happens, the server finishes simulating everything that's happening in it, and players (or "clients") receive all game info from the server and their effects. (a hertz (hz) is, indeed, 1/s, so 5 hz is 5/s, five times per second). Damage taken is part of this info, this means that if the tickrate is 5 hz, you only receive info on how and how much you were damaged 5 times per second - if someone is shooting you with a high-ROF weapon, multiple bullets worth of damage may end up clumped in the same tick, and you may instantly lose your entire shield or even be killed because of that.


(not mine)

This is an example of Planetside 2's bad netcode and low tickrate. At 0:05, we can see 7 bullet tracers popping up out of the blue. The enemy had time to fire seven bullets before the server ticked and sent that info to the client - had those bullets hit him, he would have been instagibbed. Then we can see bad netcode when he takes damage after being well out of line of sight, and only being exposed for a very short time.


This is killing the game!

Now, of course, this is a bold statement. But think about it: this is worse than any balance issue, worse than any graphical glitch, worse than any implant or P2W nonsense. Players will not be willing to play the game because this is an omnipresent problem that affects people all the time. There is no escaping from low tickrate - it's always there, breathing its laggy breath on your neck, whispering "7 bullets all at the same time" in your ear. Players will be discouraged from playing the game because they will know that they will always be victim to the filthy claws of this unescapable predator called bad networking.

Its a Free to Play game that tries its best to generate revenue. Of course it wouldn't be perfect and SOE doesn't have the resources to perfect it on that level just it. They can pad the experience but not fix it.

That is not really normal IMO. Someone must have been lagging bad.

There is no excuse for this kind of problems.

As a F2P game, it is absolutely vital that you offer the most enjoyable experience possible to keep players hooked to the game so that they keep buying Smedbucks - having crappy netcode and low tickrates is radically failing at that.

It's true, this is much worse than any balance problem atm. I'm experiencing this everyday, it's litteraly killing the game as OP says.

It's pretty horrendous, but your video is about double of what it normally is for me.

<Insert my usual personal anecdotes here regarding similar negative experiences with this issue>

So, what the OP said. It's indeed a problem, and the past few months it has gotten a bit worse. Or maybe I'm just becoming more acutely aware of my actions and surroundings to realise the Game is actually at fault; it's not just me miscalculating or misinterpreting.

It's like when you spot an obvious hacker, the type that nail 10 headshots in 10 seconds from the very top of a Tower at 300m away with a Carbine. Well, sometimes you just know the Game is shatting on you.

100% agree. I canceld my membership because of lag and bad hit detection ... Im not paying money for a buggy and laggy game.

Not normal? Its always like this! I have a stable 100mbit connection and i still get killed behind cover a lot.

I also made a thread about this: [BUG] Bad, Random Hit Detecion

Tickrate can have an effect on the game.

Take the latest pile of EA rubbish that was Battlefield 4 for example. Long seen as a failure because something was wrong with the "netcode". Well it turns out that the real problem was actually the tickrate.

BF4 had a tickrate of 10Hz, or that the servers figured out who shot who 10 times a second. CoD generally has tickrates of 30Hz, and Counter-Strike goes up to 60Hz.

They "fixed" BF4 simply by changing the tickrate to 30Hz, and all of a sudden the game got tremendously better (who knows if it will get good enough to recover all its lost players).

We don't know what the PS2 tickrate is (most people guess over 10Hz but under 30Hz), but improving it may be an option... unless it would put too much strain on the servers.

But please, go on... you were saying something about netcode?

If you're gonna criticize the indeed ****** netcode you might want to use something as evidence where it is actually properly seen in action.

I fully support upping the tickrate if it's possible for SoE as one of the things I hate most is dying after taking cover/running around corners etc. all stuff that higher tickrate improves

No, on further review I think I'm wrong: The LA wasn't on the roof. You can see him jetting up from below at 0:12 on the lower left.

Still has nothing to do with tickrate though.

I have fiber optic connection with a ping of 17 on most games including mmo's and fps games. My ping in planetside on EU servers is around 40.

Yet.

700+ hours of gameplay filled with double kills, dying behind cover and shooting directly at a player at close range while getting no hit register. Either the net code for this game is really shoddy causing additional connection problems/latency for all players or the tickrate is below 30. My guess it's both these issues.

I'm willing to bet the tickrate is 5 and the net code needs a massive over haul.

Where does that "Outstanding" comment come from?

Edit: I don't really trust a Youtube video for displaying real time discrepancies involving things that happen in milliseconds, because I know how their compression algorithms work. The example of being shot around the corner, at the end, is better because you can observe the interval. Even then, though, you can't rule out the other person having server connection issues by drawing circles with your mouse around your ping.

Yeah, I agree, got tired of dying in cover and kill trades. They happen a lot more often than they realistically should. 5hz sounds just about right. They do have some stuff incoming in the next PTS patch though, which seems to be somehow related with the "response rate", maybe that's what they're talking about.

Recursion stat tracker, probably.

The disappointing part is that infantry gameplay has gotten progressively worse over time. Now i cant set foot in a fight without it looking like all my opponents are hacking.
I was enjoying playing infantry a year ago, now its not worth the frustration.

This game is SOEs head revenue maker at the mo! they are making CRAP tons of cash from this game! So saying the reason its not fixed is because its F2P and so not making much money is complete BS!

You ever heard of H1Z1? They might jump ship to make that game successful. This game was done to show off their new engine and also as a promotion of their new engine. It has nearly served its purpose and they'll do it again with H1Z1.

Everytime I see one of your posts I feel like I just want to leave PS2 and go become a GM in Chess.