Re: Ping is between 6 an 8 ms but always lag

@Codo37 

I'm very sorry, but I'm out of ideas. We're not aware of any issues with the servers currently. If we have any new information on this, we'll post an update. I really don't have anything else to suggest as you've tried everything already. Other than replacing your equipment. That was the issue with me several years ago when I was getting a lot of lag. Having my ISP provide new equipment also didn't resolve it so I purchased my own separate modem and gaming router. That resolved it for me. It's definitely an odd situation you're in since your ping and tests are fine. If I can think of anything else, I'll let you know.

@Codo37 

If you had 183ms ping, your video would show it. There is a quick response to your inputs, but I agree it looks like there is a very slight amount of lag. The network connection meter in-game doesn't detect input lag. It measures the connection to the server. 

Again, I don't have any other ideas on this. I wish I did. I feel for you for sure. Lag is incredibly frustrating. There are a ton of variables that go into a solid connection. Our servers are only one part of it. Should we get a flood of messages about bad pings in your area, it'll be investigated, but that's not been the case so far.

It’s there servers or the path to there servers it has nothing to do with my isp or yours .. do a ping traceroute to google.com and compare it with easo.ea.com 

Come on EA, this has been the same for years, don't act suprised. People have called ice tilt, skating in mud, scripted games, etc. This is what your paying customers have been trying to tell you for a long time.

In my chel club games me and my team often have a ~7ms ping and in most of those games we can't skate, can't pass, can't hit, can't intercept. One of my teammates often see a 2ms flatlined ping graph. I seriously doubt it reflects reality.

@dexieland 

Games are not scripted and there is no ice tilt. Can you get me some video of the issues you're experiencing?

Well, I'm not saying there are ice tilted or scripted games. I'm saying that in many games players feel they have no control in the game due to the input lag and horrible AI for one team and exceptional speed and AI for the other team. Since you won't do anything about and don't even take the complaints serious, people will come up with names for it.

@dexieland 

Input lag is not the same as ice tilt or scripting. As far as lag goes, we have moved to dedicated servers (except for Online Versus) as well as have added a few new servers. This has greatly helped many players, but there are of course still some that are experiencing lag. We have to troubleshoot those on an individual basis.

As far as one team's AI being faster than the other, the only thing that would contribute to this would be fatigue. If you are constantly hustling and don't manage the energy of your lines, your players will be more tired which will slow them down. The AI is also reacting to how the human is controlling their team. The biggest contributor is skating out of position. This forces the AI players to move around and cover the open ice. They won't be in the best positions to make the right plays in that case. If none of this is happening, get me some video showing one team's AI outskating the other when they shouldn't be. That will be reviewed.

I only play chel, mostly with my club and the occasional drop-in game. In most games there are a couple of AI players on the ice but the speed difference I talk about is between the players. The enforcer defenseman in one team is quicker than the sniper for the other team, and this is from first puck drop.

One team can intercept, hit, shoot and pass, the other team struggles with it.

One AI goalie is fantastic, the other manage to put the puck in his own goal. If this is intentional, bad programming or poor server setup; I don't know that. But I do know complaints about this has been made for many years and we have seen no improvement. 

@dexieland 

Can you get me some video of these issues? There is nothing built into the game that forces one team to play better than the other.

Well, why should I send a video? I don't believe you will do anything about it. Most of the bugs and glitches from previous years are still in the game, so my conclusion is; you probably can't fix any issues.

@EA_AljoSorry but you are agein completly wrong cause you never played a game with that disadvantage, if you had you know what we talking abaout. If the lag is there (and I mean the lag that I have in the video where it was the 11 frames behind if the player reacts … thats 183 ms) the the it affects the CPU a lot like @dexieland said too. The CPU is passive, always behind the play, makes everytime a move first in the wrong direction and reacts to late and start to hustle cause they are in the wrog position cause they lag too and read the plays of the opponent wrong. That is why they always fatigue. The gap control is wron, they play the stategies not right, dont forecheck or check an oppnents player cause they are behind the play. With my user contoled player I must close the whole time the holes the CPU leaves to the opponent. It results in late pokecheks and many penalties. Everytime you touched by an opponets player you wiil magicly lose the puck and everytime you touch or hit the player of the opponents if they carry the puck nothing happens or the lose puck will magicly collect by a magnetic stick from the other player. The opponent will deflect or intercept all passes, my player will let every pass slide through in perfect positions to interceot a pass. Goalies are the same, spiderman on one side, beerleagers on the other. Rebounds and boardplays were taken/won 95% of the time by the opponent cause they react correct ot the puck and the lag team did not. Thats what many player calles icetilt, scripted gameplay or momentum. ITS LAG. Why can EA not send a techican to check this? If they found out the problem, many players would be happy. That is what custumer support should be and not the answer I have no solution. The problem is real for a long time and has nothing to do with my own connection cause they are perfect. I tried yesterday a online versus game to check a peer to peer game and it was terrible, from 60 to 128 ms in one game but this time both teams were affected and it was even bad for both teams so I had no disadvantage and won 9-4. DO SOMETHING, IS THERE NO COMETENT TECHNICAN THAT CAN CHECK THAT SERIOUSLY???

@dexieland 

There have been many issues resolved based on video from the community. All good though. If you change your mind and can provide some video, let us know. I'll make the dev team aware if you do.

@Codo37 

We are not able to send a technician to your house.

As far as high pings go on peer to peer connections, that's definitely possible. You're not on our servers at that point. Either you or your opponent are the host. So, if your connection is perfect then your opponent is having trouble with theirs. If every single Online Versus game has ping times that high, the issue is probably on your end. Especially since our servers are taken out of the equation.

@MaraSGc 

They will need to contact us so we can go through troubleshooting. At this time, we're not aware of any issues with the servers. You can probably poll the community of any game with a large population and find thousands of players that face lag. That's a relatively small number compared to those that are not lagging. There are many variables with connections that are beyond our control.

@EA_AljoCan you please answer thes questions?

1. Have you ever played a game yourself with that problem? If not then you can't understand how terrible that is.

2. Had only one EA Techincan checked this problem out at home by a user? If not then it only showes they don't care. To fix this problem they must play and feel it to understand it.

3. Why do you not believe how many players have the same problem? We all want an even playing field and not the connect that decides who wins.

@Codo37
That sums it up, I totally agree.

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!!-Attention RANT alert-!!
For many years I only played Online VS, I first started to notice the delay/lag in NHL15.
The game could run great for a month, then suddenly after a tuner set update the delay/lag came back. And suddenly after a few weeks the game could run smooth ang good again for about 14 days, and then the lag came back again and so on, every ***ing year NHL15,16,17,18,19 and 20.

However, due to the fact that Online VS is still peer-to-peer I thought that this was the problem, so in NHL19 I tried out HUT for the first time (only science HUT has dedicated servers) I played for like two months I believe, and it was ok without delay/lag. But as a “die hard” Online VS fan I came back for NHL20 only playing Online VS, I bought the game on release date and the game was like playable for like two months, the delay/lag was unbearable. Soo this year I finally decided to be “all in” for HUT, but now with the game only been out for about three and a half months the game is pretty much useless. I was stupid to believe that science HUT was a severer based mode and not 2P2 it would solve the delay/lag problem. (And by the way, It’s 2021 and an online gamemode in this game is still based on 2P2! Unbelievable!)
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@EA_Aljo
I did carry out UO Trace, no packet loss and everything looked good.

You are quoting user @MaraSGc stating that: “You can probably poll the community of any game with a large population and find thousands of players that face lag. That's a relatively small number compared to those that are not lagging”. But if you do a simple google search typing: “EA Sports NHL fatman lag”, “EA NHL online lag” or similar you will find tons of posts from various forums about this problem, dating back to as early as 2015!
The fact of the matter is this: People around the world are paying money for your company’s gaming software and it doesn’t work properly. Now, the real question is this, how much money and resources does EA free up to solve problems like stated in this thread?
My guess is this: The EA NHL sports gaming community is too small, therefor EA sports don’t prioritize problems like this for this game. Just imagine, if a game like FIFA which is EA sports own “golden goose” had a problem like this, then EA’s tech specialists would be “all over it”, if not the competitor Pro Evolution Soccer would steal all EA costumers. The same goes for EA Battlefield, since that game has its competitor Call of Duty.
Please don’t take my criticism personally, I can imagine its difficult to be a forum community manager with all complaints and stuff.

@Codo37 

Your ISP is responsible for your connection. EA doesn't provide your internet.

I have had lag in the past, but it's extremely rare now. To resolve this, I upgraded my equipment. However, we live in completely different parts of the world and have different ISPs. Our connections are not going to be the same.

I believe there are thousands of players with connection issues. I'm not going to debate that with you. The issue is that it's a low amount when compared to the rest of the population of players. If everyone was being affected by this, that would most likely be an issue on our end and we'd be investigating it.

@Knuten21 

Can you post a screenshot of your UO Trace?

I just played a Rivals Game with Max Average Ping Search setting set to 30ms, took me 15 minutes to find someone (anybody still playing on Xbox One in Europe?).

Before the puck drop I checked the connect as usual, Avg Ping Response 51ms, Highest Ping Response 77ms, Lowest Ping Response 32ms.
Game was unplayable, I quit after the second periods being down 5:9, my Bishop didn't even react at times, he had a shooting percentage of 80%...

Why do I have to spend my time with something like this? It's just not fun anymore, why are we being forced to abandon this game?

@EA_Aljo 
I've known @Codo37 since NHL09, it's not his ISP's fault (1Gbit connection by the way). We had no problems until the True Skating Engine was introduced and he (and me), we've tried everything over the years (I installed CAT 7 network cables, my Xbox is in the DMZ, I once even disconnected all my Wifi and LAN devices when playing HUT Champions...), the fault is clearly with EA, no doubt.

@Knuten21
It's not exclusive to the NHL-Series, check the Top Post on the Fifa Subreddit from Today, I just think the Net Code on EA Sports games overall is broken. But as long as there is no transparency about the servers and the way the connections work one can only speculate. In the end you can just quit the game (or play VS, that's P2P)...playing competitively like the guys in Finland, I don't know how they do it.

@prospero99c 

What did you want to know about how connections work? Your console connects to your router, which goes through the network your ISP routes you through. We don't give out specifics about our servers since that's a security issue. 

I agree, @Codo37 pretty much said it all. But, just to make it it clear and rule out routers, ISPs and TV game mode, we are often 3-5 players in the team experience the the same input lag and all the other stuff at the same time.

As always, a thread about this slowly dies. EA, with a Trump-ish attitude, blames everebody except themselves and nothing wil be done.

But if you, EA, do address this issue, investigate it and hopefully solve it, please let me know in this thread so I can convince my team to start playing again. If not, good bye.