Lag and packet loss issues when playing with larger group

So the title pretty much says it all. It seems like I have major issue with ping, lag and packet loss when I try to play in custom games. I tested my ping with https://ping.canbeuseful.com/#ping and got around 68 ms average. I also have no issues playing the game with 8 players in Steam version so should not be CPU issue. This is also only game where I experience such sever lag.

I would love to get some help on this issue as I would love to come back to this game. I can post more info if it helps to solve the issue (log files, pc specs etc.)

Cheers!

Upload speed?

@Khada_Jhin said in Lag and packet loss issues when playing with larger group:

Upload speed?

Hi! just checked with speedtest.net download speed seems to be 250 Mbps and upload speed 25 Mbps so I doubt that is the issue. I'm also connected to internet with LAN cable so should be WIFI issue either.

Well in that case the last thing is you dropping packets, but with cable connection that shouldn't be issue either. Good wifi connection is also just fine for playing FAF.

If you are new to the game and didn't play many games yet then my guess is that you got yourself into games with other new players who might be the cause of i,t as we are not aware of what kind of connection they are running? So basically they might be the problem, not you.

But again this might also mean that there is something wrong with connection routing from you to certain players but that is not something that we can check. Or at least I'm not aware of knowing how to. But in case it's this then VPN might be worth trying.

And btw, take what I wrote with grain of salt as I'm not from IT help, just have some experience due to my faf time with bad upload speed and trying to get rid of breaking connections.

Edit:You might also try your luck in getting help on our discord server - https://discord.gg/jj9yGUP

@Khada_Jhin Thanks for the tips. I'll try those and hope I can get this to work agian.

Apparently I still get this issue. One from the game I was in told me my Data Behind spikes sometimes to 9 and is constantly switching between 1 and 0. Would greatly appreciate the help!

Here are the log files from the session.
https://filebin.net/nhs6f07s2ir8a97w

Well first of all its important to understand, that the game creates a connection between every player, if you play 8 players game then you have 7 connections to the other players (and the other players have connections to each other on top of that). If even on of those connections lags, the game lags for everbody.

So it could for example be the case that the only connection problem is between you and a very specific player, while your connection to other players is generally fine.

So you kinda need to find out if you are packets behind for a lot of the other players (this means its your connections problem) or just specific ones (which means it could be their connection or just the specific connectione between you and them).

And when the problem happens again, try opening CMD and enter

ping 8.8.8.8 -n 100

and post the output. This will ping Google DNS 100 times and measure latency multiple times. Always do this at the same time as you have problems in the game because some connection problems are only happening at specific times (for example in the evenings).

Average ping is a useless metric for FAF.

Use something like pingplotter.

What type of connection do you have? Internet over television cable tends to have high packetloss and very inconsistent ping.

250/25 sounds like exactly that; internet over television cable. If so I suggest dumping that and getting fiber. If no fiber; for gaming you are better off with a 10/1 DSL connection..

E.g.; 15 years ago with DSL and now with fiber I get a lower maximum ping than ppl with internet over the television cable get as minimum ping. I might get 10 ms average, 9 ms minimum and 15 ms maximum where they get 25ms average, 21ms minimum and a not-so-rare 150 ms maximum. That is besides the packetloss... DSL and fiber none... cable... off the chart.

Remember that FAF requires every packet. In a shooter you might 'teleport' if some packets are lost, FAF will just freeze the game while waiting for the packet. If all packets are <500 ms from every player to every other player, the game will run absolutely smooth. This can even be the case with the 'hated' Australian players with 400 ping. In the other way around you can have everyone <100ms ping average and still be frozen 99% of the time. Long story short; the average is irrelevant. Only the % of packets >500ms is relevant for FAF.

And while Battlefield or other shooters are unplayable with 200 ping, FAF is not.

You can see latency spikes fine with ping command, it will result in noticably high average. I have quite a it of experience with bad internet. And cable can be totally fine depending on which country you live in. For example in Germany, cable might actually be better than DSL a lot of times. 10/1 DSL (i had that 12/6 for a long time) is unusable, unless you never even want to watch Youtube or Netflix, or download something from Steam.

@Katharsas said in Lag and packet loss issues when playing with larger group:

You can see latency spikes fine with ping command, it will result in noticably high average. I have quite a it of experience with bad internet. And cable can be totally fine depending on which country you live in. For example in Germany, cable might actually be better than DSL a lot of times. 10/1 DSL (i had that 12/6 for a long time) is unusable, unless you never even want to watch Youtube or Netflix, or download something from Steam.

Back in the day I fixed the downloading with friends and coworkers; everyone downloaded something and we would exchange on DVD's and later portable HDD's.
I am talking pure about a connection for gaming. Downloading on 10 mbit sucks, I agree.