Server issues

@Healmeftw the game runs on 20hz servers (for comparison, Fortnite, PUBG, etc. are on 40-60hz servers). It doesn't matter what connection you have, as most players sit between 30-90 ping and they have insane connection issues.

I recently turned on the preformance display within the settings, and watched the numbers as the game threw latency, packet loss, and other errors.

My FPS would jump between 70-120, ping is usually 30-60 (sometimes skyrocketing to 100 or higher which is typical for most connections), choke (network congestion) seems to stay at 0 (even when lagging terribly), in/out packets 10-20 in, 7-17 out (these numbers change a lot).

Rarely would I see the ping go higher than 100. When it does, I can understand having an issue. However, I mostly see the ping go up to 67 or so and I just see players teleporting around, my shots not registering, etc.

"Ping amounts of 100 ms and below are average for most broadband connections. In gaming, any amounts below a ping of 20 ms are considered exceptional and “low ping,” amounts between 50 ms and 100 ms range from very good to average, while a ping of 150 ms or more is less desirable and deemed “high ping.” - Jan 29, 2020"

If the adverage ping is 100 and below, why are a lot of players with 20-100 ping lagging so much? Answer: Its basically the servers.

As for the 20hz part I mentioned earlier: "In online games, a tick is an update between the server and the connected computers. Tick rate refers to how many times information is updated a second, usually measured in hertz. A 64-tick server will update info 64 times a second. - Sep 30, 2021"

Apex Legends runs at 20hz, 20 updates per second, with TONS of things going on from a bunch of different players. This results in more packets being sent over a few seconds to catch up with the first second's update.

If we pretend an update is a single action (I'm not fully sure if it is or not), then the game only would update 20 actions a second. With 60 players in the game, its having to update with 60 counts of players moving. It would then have more issues with updating when people pick up items, fire a weapon, take damage, heal, take zips, use abilities, etc.

This is why the game seems more stable with less players alive in the match. Instead of updating with the actions of 60 players, it only has to worry about updating the actions of (example) 5 teams, which is 15 players.

Although it seems that Respawn has no intentions to fix the servers, by giving them a higher hz, such as 60. They rather find "more efficient improvements", such as "solving problems that directly contribute to reducing latency, getting rid of problematic servers, and more." (The source I'm looking at for this is here: https://www.dexerto.com/apex-legends/respawn-complaints-apex-legends-20hz-tickrate-servers-1562851/ (April 28, 2021) and here's another one as well: https://charlieintel.com/apex-legends-devs-respond-to-20hz-tickrate-server-issues/97606/#:~:text=Apex%20Legends%20runs%20on%2020Hz,especially%20when%20dealing%20with%20bugs. (April 29, 2021))

Which has been complained about on the fourms, such as this one: https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/Server-tick-rate/td-p/8753504#:~:text=Apex%20runs%20on%2020hz%20servers,games%20run%20on%2060hz%20servers (February 2020).

Overall, Respawn argues that 60hz servers "won't make much of a difference", this may be true, but as for their statement on optimizing the game to help it run better, it doesn't look like they are. The game seems to lag more and more with each season, and other issues (such as the audio) still persists. I'm sure working on these sorts of issues take a long time to sort out and fix, however there seems to be more effort put into the launch of, (and maintaining) Apex Mobile.

Bugs that tend to get fixed faster in Apex are ones that affect the stores, or minor ones that aren't that game breaking.

Minor "issues" include things like Wattson's "Easter Egg" emote, which used to allow Wattsons to place Nessies on teammate's heads. This then lets teammates run around in style. The Nessies (as far as I know of), didn't affect things such as the player's hitbox (AKA, you can still get shot and hurt through Nessies). (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPsWHgqh3IQ&ab_channel=Dazs)

Another minor issue, is being able to get out of bounds in the firing range. For whatever reason, Respawn has actively patched any and all glitches or bugs that allowed players to get out of bounds. The out of bounds ranged from going through openings in the invisible barrier, which used legends like Loba to get through, switching from Crypto to Pathfinder to put your hitbox through a wall, and other ways such as using Rampart's wall and Revenant's death totem to force players past the barrier. Respawn now even force you to despawn when switching characters, as well as despawn almost every tactical and ultimate ability you may have placed. (Currently some abilities like Newcastle's wall don't go away, but I'm sure it will soon enough).

The bottom line is this: With all of Apex's issues, the ones that affect gameplay don't seem to be getting any fixes, and when they do get a patch, its somehow worse than it was before, while fun and non-breaking game elements or bugs get patched out quickly, as well as any ones that affects the stores.

Like, I'm pretty sure they fixed the Wattson's "Easter Egg" emote faster than they did than Rampart's "Sheila" on Crypto's drone. Which if you weren't here when that was a thing, you can see that happening here: https://youtu.be/LajMRVMDGMQ?t=116, Granted, it probably took more time to fix an ability, than it was an emote, as I think the ability was an issue due to Rampart being able to place her ult on Tridents, and both the Trident and Crypto's drone were classified as "rides", yet it existed for a bit of time.

Another bug that existed for a bit of time, (maybe even longer than the flying Sheila minigun), was when you can launch yourself using supply bins by punching it while inside it, and then stepping out and jumping (for some reason it stored up momentum), or placing Octane's jumppad very close to a supply bin and driving into it with a Trident.

This has also been a very long winded post, but its essentially the gist of how the game been going. Little things are getting fixed or actually looked into, while the big things aren't. At the end of the day, we're more better off not playing the game. Which is too bad, because this game used to been so much fun.