The truth behind getting 200+ ping despite having selected the best Data Center
Product: Apex Legends
Platform:PC
Please specify your platform model. PC
AMD or Nvidia Model Number AMD RX 580
Enter RAM memory size in GB 8 GB
What is your gamertag/PSN ID/EA Account name? Growth Mindset
Please provide your squad mates' gamertag/PSN ID/EA Account name if possible.
Are you using any software with an overlay? No
Which Legend were you playing (if applicable)?
Which Legends were your squad mates using (if applicable)?
Where did the issue occur? Loading into the match from the lobby
Which part of the map or menu were you in? If you don't remember the exact name, please describe the area or what you were trying to do in the menu. N/A
What were you doing when the issue occurred? E.g. respawning a squad mate at a beacon, using an ability, a squad mate left the game. N/A
Did your squad mates also experience the issue? Yes
How many matches had you played in a row before the issue occurred? N/A
When did this happen? (dd.mm.yy hh:mm) It happens very often.
How often does the bug occur? Often (50% - 99%)
How severe is your issue? Major impacts to gameplay
What happens when the bug occurs? 200 ms or Code Leaf Error
What should be happening instead? Low Ping (close to the ping of the selected data center) and no code leaf errors
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Play from non-US countries, I guess?
For months I've been dealing with this issue that is exclusive on Apex Legends. The fact that it never happens to any other matchmaking games I've played (CSGO, Valorant, LoL) is proof that the problem lies only on Apex Legends and not on our ISP. I've even done all the basic troubleshooting steps mentioned here over and over out of desperation to no avail. After a few more searches, what I found is that the most common cause of the high ping is that the game sometimes connects/routes me through US servers despite being from Asia (and having chosen Asian Data Centers).
I've used a connection tracking tool (LiveTcpUdpWatch) and found that I sometimes in a match am forced to connect to IP's such as these:
161.202.48.196
161.202.48.244
161.202.48.209
169.56.144.161
A quick lookup in infobyip.com reveals that these IP's are hosted in US by the ISP, Softlayer. I figured a band-aid fix for this would be to firewall block these IP addresses which was also the solution promoted in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=944kZCUqIXs
It became a grind to seek and block every IP connection that gives me 200+ ms which fortunately worked, however, I noticed an increased frequency in getting Code Leaf errors when finding matches (which results into me failing to connect to the server and being booted back to the home menu). It used to be around only 1 in 9 games, but after blocking a ton of IP's with 200ms, it rose to around 50% of all found matches. This isn't much of an issue for me when solo queueing, however, it's a big issue when forming a squad with my friends and my girlfriend as they're often left with 1 member missing.
CSGO has a variable called mm_dedicated_search_maxping which does well to prevent players from routing through IP's with higher ping. I'm wondering why Apex Legends never implements this. Is it because the devs are worried of longer queue times? Season 9 will definitely bring a ton of new players, so I'm hoping the devs will focus more on giving better experience than providing as much matches found as possible despite having horrible connections.
