Fix the lag and microstutters (from a long time player of the GW series)
I am sick and tired of the game lagging and stuttering. I have ~20ms ping on East Coast servers, so it's hard to say "lag" but it's the term that best fits what is occurring. I have played GW1 and 2 to max rank and am typically top of the leaderboard. In BFN, sometimes I'm on top, but typically not due to character imbalances or more specifically the technical encounters I will detail below.
- Similarly posted on these forums and on the PvZ GW subreddit; the game/servers cannot handle turf takeover (24 players). The screen freezes (stutters) every now and then, but is the worst on the final stage. From what I have read from others, the lag is much worse with those with lower internet speeds or higher ping than myself. Everything mentioned below occurs on any game mode.
- Hit registration is horrendous. I have recently read a post comparing GW1&2 to BFN hit boxes, where in the previous titles the hit boxes were more cylindrical, while BFN is more exact (meaning the hit box is near exactly the limbs and body type). So, the characters that are smaller or skinnier are much more difficult to hit. Compound this difficulty now with bunny hopping (which helped some in the previous titles, but is near necessary to survive in BFN). On top of that, you now have sprinting in BFN, making hit detection difficult. Add on any microstutters and lag to where now 75% of an ammo clip is going to miss on a moving, jumping target with near perfect tracking. Also, sniping is extremely difficult to try and hit someone due to any microstutters or lag. Props to the developers for adding in diminishing returns on jumping and a slowing effect if hit while sprinting. That's a head in the right direction.
- Chomper deserves his own bullet point. This is tied to above hit detection. It makes sense that if someone notices a burrowed chomper coming at them that they jump onto a barrel or box to avoid being chomped. Good for them for being aware. It also makes sense that if a player notices a burrowed chomper coming for them that they turn and sprint (while jumping) away. Their sprint is just as fast as burrow (meaning it's required to have improved faster burrow skill equipped to catch those sprinting away). But what breaks the game for chomper and makes him extremely tiring to play is that if you burrow up on someone, they start bunny hopping while moving around. Every time I have the red reticle under my target, I smash the trigger to eat them. No dice, because they are jumping. I would have 3-4 missed eating opportunities wasted because of a jumping player because the game doesn't register my trigger pulled while the target is within eating height. Fix this by allowing chomper to jump out of the ground to higher heights from burrow to eat those abusing the jumping system.
- Automatic fire sometimes slows down or skips shots (corn, soldier, rose, citron are the most noticeable). Even semi-auto fire sometimes screws up and doesn't fire by rapidly pulling the trigger (I have used 3 different controllers [one wired] with the same result). I have no solution or idea what is causing this other than the server is not in sync with my xbox (or controller); thus, blame lag and/or stuttering.
To think about how these small inconveniences turn a win into a lose situation for me may be drastically impacting the rest of the gaming community in BFN is astounding in that these problems have not been addressed since the closed alpha/beta. Others (typically the younger generation) may not notice these issues because they're trying to enjoy the game. Picture how much more enjoyment they may have if these problems are fixed (which should turn into more money because more people would buy DLCs to support the company). However, I will not be spending any money on the game in its current technical state.
I'd like to see how many others are experiencing these technical problems that are impacting their enjoyment for the game.
