https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Input-Lag-Unresponsiveness/td-p/11949320

In what is becoming an annual tradition since January '22, NHL24 plays with the same exact input delay, player freezing, etc. I don't need to repeat myself with the quality of my hardware, internet, and non-delay on every other game. 

During the pre-release period, I would say the connection was mediocre with regards to the delay/lag. But it has noticeably gotten worse since the full release last weekend. As it was last year, I played one night until 4am EST last weekend, and after an entire night of delay, it suddenly resolved to normalcy. If it ever resolved last year, barring the once in a blue moon day, it would occur around this same exact time. To date: still unexplainable. It's been varying degrees of atrocious since that night. This delay occurs in every mode, per usual. One resolves, they all resolve. 

The silver lining is I got this game for free. So, at least while I shout into the void this year, I do it with more money in my pocket and a clear conscience in not supporting this dreck. 

Dont think a video will do much…

i have have a log for you to examine…

i just played two games in hut champs on ps5. My gamer tag is same as my forum name.

between 19:30 and 20:00 CET on 14/02/2024.

max ping was set to <20ms for match making…

game#1

- first game i won 5-0 and the opponent quit. According to profile he was from Finland

- this game felt really smooth… no complaints

- the network graph showed 20ms, flat line

game#2

- next game i won 8-3. Accordin to the profile the opponen was from Germany.

- this game was one of the laggiest games i ever played.
I got the feeling that my opponent was warping due to lag.

very unsynch. Players were not responsive. Accelerating and turning felt like stuck in mud.

- the network graph showed 19ms, flat line

you should keep network logs pf all games played, please fetch the data, and come back to me with an explanation?

If you cannot check logs for these kind of problems, plan this in your next sprint.

imo

you have two clear samples from me to study… should be enough.

There was nothing indicating that i had a worse connection in game #2

if this lroblem is due to matchmaking, you should give me the options to customize who I face.

So i can avoid these ”slow performance games” , right?

Dont think a video will do much…

i have have a log for you to examine…

i just played two games in hut champs on ps5. My gamer tag is same as my forum name.

between 19:30 and 20:00 CET on 14/02/2024.

max ping was set to <20ms for match making…

game#1

- first game i won 5-0 and the opponent quit. According to profile he was from Finland

- this game felt really smooth… no complaints

- the network graph showed 20ms, flat line

game#2

- next game i won 8-3. Accordin to the profile the opponen was from Germany.

- this game was one of the laggiest games i ever played.
I got the feeling that my opponent was warping due to lag.

very unsynch. Players were not responsive. Accelerating and turning felt like stuck in mud.

- the network graph showed 19ms, flat line

you should keep network logs pf all games played, please fetch the data, and come back to me with an explanation?

If you cannot check logs for these kind of problems, plan this in your next sprint.

imo

you have two clear samples from me to study… should be enough.

There was nothing indicating that i had a worse connection in game #2

if this lroblem is due to matchmaking, you should give me the options to customize who I face.

So i can avoid these ”slow performance games” , right?

The last couple days have been so excruciating -- beyond unplayable, even by my standards -- that I was enraged enough to get clips. It'll lead nowhere, but it's therapeutic. 

I re-downloaded the game and changed zero settings going right into WoC free skate. First 2 videos you can see how snappy the cuts are, how quickly I enter sprint (literally 1 step with 95 speed/acceleration), and just a general fluidity. This is how people normally play the game. It's how I used to play. 

It should be pretty easy to see the sluggish difference in the videos below. My player stops when I turn (2nd video more so, which is from a few weeks ago); the cuts don't look like elite edges; and there's a general laggy look. I counted 6 strides from holding sprint to actually sprinting.

Sometimes stoppages OFFLINE help until it crops up again within a minute or two. Honestly, in the top clean clips, it felt as good as ever tonight. Normally, it's worse, even when I'm not de-syncing. Online? Forget about it. I've played 90 ping on a very rare lag free night, and I can only describe this as far far worse in latency, along with the input anomalies. On my 20 ping, I see people I know on 90 ping animate/input so much faster than me they might as well be on LAN. 

As always, it's not even just what my player feels but the entire physics of the games being......wrong. Like it's not synchronized with my opponent and their actual animations are a second ahead, even in non-input situations. Clean pokes miss, easy pickups don't happen, my skating being as I've described, severely unbalanced incidental contact each way, etc. I have a lot of friends who experience this, just not to my degree. But I can see when they are also delayed. 

The last couple days have been so excruciating -- beyond unplayable, even by my standards -- that I was enraged enough to get clips. It'll lead nowhere, but it's therapeutic. 

I re-downloaded the game and changed zero settings going right into WoC free skate. First 2 videos you can see how snappy the cuts are, how quickly I enter sprint (literally 1 step with 95 speed/acceleration), and just a general fluidity. This is how people normally play the game. It's how I used to play. 

It should be pretty easy to see the sluggish difference in the videos below. My player stops when I turn (2nd video more so, which is from a few weeks ago); the cuts don't look like elite edges; and there's a general laggy look. I counted 6 strides from holding sprint to actually sprinting.

Sometimes stoppages OFFLINE help until it crops up again within a minute or two. Honestly, in the top clean clips, it felt as good as ever tonight. Normally, it's worse, even when I'm not de-syncing. Online? Forget about it. I've played 90 ping on a very rare lag free night, and I can only describe this as far far worse in latency, along with the input anomalies. On my 20 ping, I see people I know on 90 ping animate/input so much faster than me they might as well be on LAN. 

As always, it's not even just what my player feels but the entire physics of the games being......wrong. Like it's not synchronized with my opponent and their actual animations are a second ahead, even in non-input situations. Clean pokes miss, easy pickups don't happen, my skating being as I've described, severely unbalanced incidental contact each way, etc. I have a lot of friends who experience this, just not to my degree. But I can see when they are also delayed. 

@mturesson I agree. I have the same problem.

Ever since Thursday the online gameplay has been horrible. I gave up when my 94 ovr McDavid got outskated by the “Style Icons” 86 ovr Rob Blake card.
I don't know what happened to this game, but something happened last week.
I live in Norway, I'm usually connected to the Stockholm server or the server in Finland or Germany.

Also worth notice, I have never had any problems for online gaming with any other computer games except EA's NHL. It’s like one day the game acts fine, and a couple of days later It’s like I'm playing a whole different game (I have ready explained my problems on the first page of this thread)

@mturesson I agree. I have the same problem.

Ever since Thursday the online gameplay has been horrible. I gave up when my 94 ovr McDavid got outskated by the “Style Icons” 86 ovr Rob Blake card.
I don't know what happened to this game, but something happened last week.
I live in Norway, I'm usually connected to the Stockholm server or the server in Finland or Germany.

Also worth notice, I have never had any problems for online gaming with any other computer games except EA's NHL. It’s like one day the game acts fine, and a couple of days later It’s like I'm playing a whole different game (I have ready explained my problems on the first page of this thread)

---

@Knuten21 wrote:
\n

@mturesson I agree. I have the same problem.

\n\n\n

Ever since Thursday the online gameplay has been horrible. I gave up when my 94 ovr McDavid got outskated by the “Style Icons” 86 ovr Rob Blake card.
I don't know what happened to this game, but something happened last week.
I live in Norway, I'm usually connected to the Stockholm server or the server in Finland or Germany.

\n\n

---

Can you get some video of this?

---

@Knuten21 wrote:
\n

@mturesson I agree. I have the same problem.

\n\n\n

Ever since Thursday the online gameplay has been horrible. I gave up when my 94 ovr McDavid got outskated by the “Style Icons” 86 ovr Rob Blake card.
I don't know what happened to this game, but something happened last week.
I live in Norway, I'm usually connected to the Stockholm server or the server in Finland or Germany.

\n\n

---

Can you get some video of this?

@mturesson 

How often is this happening? 

Same thing is happening to me constantly. I'll get 15-20 matches where I'm hitting buttons multiple times or passes are registering a direction from the previous click.  It's a mess.  This is the 2nd time it's been this bad, the last time was after a patch as well.  

I've reset router, reinstalled game, reset after each game, changed my online settings and it's just input delay.  I run on 800mbps and usually between 12-18 ping so it's not my connection.  

@brendank78 

Thanks for all the details. I'll relay any updates we have on the servers.

Its random, one day i can play 10 games in a row which all have the ”slow performance” feeling.

On a day like that, i can lose 7-8 games vs opponents with less real-skill and low average team rating, this is how big the impact is.

another day, i get smooth games in a row and i usually win 6-7 out of 10 games vs more skilled players and higher team average.

Its not that often that i get an occasional good or bad game, like the sample i sent you, but it happens.

if i would estimate how many slow performance games i get, i would say between 40-50%

i can grind such games and adapt a bit, but its no fun when you know how smooth the game play can be,

to narrow down this issue, i really think you should look at specific games, like the two i game you as an example. Do a deep-analysis