Ping rate changes for bad gaming experience

@CapeBretonIslndr 

You can probably look up any competitive, online game and see people complaining about connections. It's one of the biggest issues with games today if not the biggest. Connections can vary wildly. In my home, there are very often 2 people playing a game online along with 2 devices streaming media at the same time as well as having a dozen devices connected to our network. Yet, my connection is fantastic and I'm often playing on northern servers. close. Also, every game is different. For example, shooters have a very different mechanic than a hockey game that has 12 players with a single object constantly in motion. If there was a huge issue on our end with connections, we'd get a far higher number of reports than we do. That will happen when we have an outage. Our forums and support are flooded with contacts about it.

I'm not going to say we're perfect. I'm sure somewhere there could be improvements made on our end, but that also goes for everyone. I have looked at thousands of connection tests over the years from people that say their internet is perfect. A very large amount of them come back saying otherwise. We can't survive without having dependable connections and do all we can to make that happen.

@EA_Aljo What it comes down to is EA says we’re monitoring it. It literally makes no sense to me how other games can provide a smooth online experience, yet over a decade into online play and the titan is still monitoring while other games do not hear these complaints.

Again, I love to pit NHL against Rocket League because it’s played equally competitively, there’s nothing more simple about it, you have a flat ground arena vs a 3D arena where cars are blasting off into the air with extreme precision. RL I’m playing people from Canada, USA, Mexico, Europe, etc. NHL I’m playing North Americans coast to coast. People will suffer from lag here and there, but it’s very seldom unless your personal internet just sucks.

Playing chel, it’s exactly like this other guy stated, it’s always a skill vs connection game. Centres aren’t necessarily faceoff gurus, connection will ultimately decide who’s winning faceoffs and that’s a literal fact. If I Goalie has a slight lack of connection vs the shooter, goalie is mainly relying on auto reactions and you won’t save a thing not because your internet sucks, but because buddy shooting has a better connection to the game.

And speaking of automated actions, such as being pulled into a pass, the infamous auto shot that I can’t even believe has to this day not being adjusted, these only get worse as pings get higher.

That said obviously there’s not going to be any drastic changes to connectivity in the near future of this game. So at least have ping rates accurate, consistent, and should never be heightened or dropped down as to what is a reasonable connection to play on.

I hate to feel like in a month from now, I’ll still see this new ping rate system. Having you guys say things like “well monitor for similar complaints” means you’re not catching my drift. The complaints won’t necessarily resemble mine, they’re going to come from people simply not enjoying online play, but you guys already know we think the online play is horrendous, and this change that “hasn’t even happened” will get completely ignored.

I’m trying to be constructive and helpful, rather than stand offish and over it. But this is how we find ourselves back to why do we even bother.

@southpaw86 

Of course someone with a bad connection is going to have a far more difficult time competing. I'm just saying this isn't always on our end. Other games get reports of lag as well. A quick search of the RL's reddit will show people complaining of it. Chances are good you can look up any online game and see people reporting lag/disconnects.

I think RL is a fantastic game. It's incredibly fun, but it's also very different than NHL. The mechanics and physics are very different than NHL. Especially when it comes down to using a stick to play. You're not just bumping in to the puck. Players are carrying it, making moves with it, doing all they can to keep control instead of just angling their bodies to move the puck in a direction. All of this is going to contribute to the amount of data and how that data is sent/received. NHL also has 12 players on screen with the game making calculations based on player positioning, speed of the puck, behavior based on strategies being used, fatigue, the cone of vision each player has and assessing various threats on the ice, stat tracking, etc. There's a ton going on in the background and that all has to be sent/received through an online connection. While these 2 games have the same objective, they play very differently and that's going to have an impact on what kind of connection you need to play lag-free.

I get how easy it is to make the assumption that because other games are fine, the problem is on us. I'm not saying we're 100% perfect all the time. We have our own server issues now and then, but to make the assumption we're solely responsible for people having high pings just isn't accurate. There are way too many variables to single out the problem being only on our end. Especially when so many are playing without issue. I'm typically playing on a 40 - 50 ms ping and haven't had a problem winning faceoffs. I'm not saying because I don't have this issue that it means all is well. Everyone's experience is going to vary based on many variables outside of our control. We are always working to provide as stable a connection as we can.

Can you show me video of being pulled in to a pass? I'd like to understand that better. 

@EA_Aljo Haha EA NHL23 is not even comparable to RL as far as a skillfully competitive game. Sure hockey has a lot of moves, dekes, yadda yadda. But it also has aim assist, your player effortlessly can carry a puck, passing assist, synergy’s, hut is pay and have the better team, built in momentum shifts, abilities, exploits.

RL is an even playing field every game, you cannot dribble a ball without having an insane amount of skill, there is no assist on passing, shooting, or maneuverability, no abilities or builds, no pay to boost your team or player, and controlling a ball in the air with a limited amount of boost, is much more difficult than mastering a zegras goal or pass. And above all a fraction of the network issues EA has regardless what people complain about on Reddit.

I would kill to see a game mode even remotely close to as competitive as RL in NHL. Less assists, no built in momentum, capped team abilities in clubs per amount of players readied up. If you join 3rd party leagues you can find some pretty awesome hockey, but again this isn’t offered by EA and the whole playoff layout in chel clubs is just a mess. Doesn’t matter what you rank, you play whoever. That goes for club all around. RL if you’re gold or plat, you’ll play players ranked as good as your top player. you would never be thrown into your first game against a max level team. They keep it as fair and competitive as possible. EA does not focus on this at all. You simply play who you play, and if your team is weak and you don’t know how to look teams up prior to advancing, you’re not going to enjoy clubs. Not because there isn’t teams at your level, but because this game isn’t focused on being played competitively.

@southpaw86 

Apologies for the misunderstanding. RL takes a tremendous amount of skill to be good at. I'm just saying, they shouldn't be compared when it comes to connections due to the very different mechanics these games have. That as well as the overall differences in what you see on screen and what is going on in the background.

There is no built in momentum shift in NHL. That is akin to the idea of Ice Tilt. If this discussion continues to go down that path, I'll have to lock it.

It's been a while since I played RL, but connections issues were extremely rare, if at all. Which is how it is for every other game I play. I only bring this up because if we truly had a world-wide issue with our servers, we'd be getting a far higher number of complaints.

@EA_Aljo Well the point of this thread is not in regards to servers or rocket league. I can agree to disagree as I really enjoy both games, but RL takes the cake on a more thoughtfully developed game for competitive play hands down. I have no problems with anything in game like synergy’s that do shift gameplay. shooting, passing, and maneuvering assist, but It would be nice to see a more advanced level of competitive gameplay where it’s not just a cluster bomb of silvers vs champion teams. Not only does it take away from the competition, but it makes it harder for you guys to get more new people to enjoy this game. Even as a div 1 club, it’s really not fun to play teams you’re going to beat 12-0.

I deleted rocket league four times before I got beyond the learning curve. Imagine playing top tier players on top of that. The way this community grows is an even balance of a trickle in and trickle fallout.

So back to the original point of this post. The inaccurate ping rate meter that I’ve proven to you guys that exists, which also hurts community members, is still in full swing. Do you really need an army of people to point something legitimate out before taking action?

This is exactly why these newer developers are crushing aged titans like EA. They listen, adapt to the needs for their games community, I can’t tell you how many actual developers I’ve had the chance to talk 1 on 1 with about their game.

People like myself have great ideas for this game we love. We’d love to share them and see this game develop rather than get copy pasted every year with same hut layout, same broken chel club system. This game is awesome offline. But this is 2023 and most people aren’t playing offline anymore. The online community deserves to see more love and thoughtfulness going into the game. Make it competitive, adjust the ping meters, and don’t sell us NHL23 part ll next year. We’re sitting on new genre consoles and waiting to see something outside a terrible controller sensor tweak that I literally had to turn off it’s so bad. You guys should take a run at Astro boy, they came up with a great idea in regards to ps5 controllers and skating on ice compared to what we got this year.

@southpaw86 

We'll keep an eye out for other reports of inaccurate pings. Currently, we're not seeing any issues on our end that would be causing this. Thanks for all the feedback. It's very much appreciated.