Something's amiss online. Am I the only one?

[SChaseGarrett]

Hello! As were many, I was very excited to find that Roy returned to Smash in the latest patch, however with the new characters came some strange developments. These issues are as follows:

1. Starting on match No. 2 with any opponent in 1-vs-1 the game progressively gets laggier and laggier to the point of only a few of my attacks actually registering. Rolling and jumping are almost always spot on, but input just fails from the buttons. In single player this is not an issue, and in the practice before the start of a match this is not an issue. It does not seem to effect my opponent.

2. Certain characters do not behave the same online as they do off, observing different properties altogether. Roy in my case is much faster offline than on. His attacks have much greater startup land end lag than they should.

3. None of this was an issue before 1.0.8, and I've always been able to play dozens of matches without finding one that has even the slightest of lag. Now every single match is horrifically crippled to the point where I can be playing, but my character just stands still for the most part.

I have a 60mbps Down and 10mbps up internet connection and my ping from anywhere in the USA is usually about 10ms. I've had no problem connecting with players from everywhere in the world. I should not have these issues constantly with everyone I face, including people from my country. Could there be an issue with my game or my console, or is this a know problem. It has unfortunately made online unplayable for me.

The programmer in me wants to claim this is a memory leak effecting performance, however I highly doubt that is the issue as it would be quite sad for something like that to get overlooked.

 

[Dokokashira]

How many matches does this occur on at a time? Like, hundreds of matches, or just about twenty or so? I think you might just be getting very unlucky with the people you meet.

1. Starting on match No. 2 with any opponent in 1-vs-1 the game progressively gets laggier and laggier to the point of only a few of my attacks actually registering. Rolling and jumping are almost always spot on, but input just fails from the buttons. In single player this is not an issue, and in the practice before the start of a match this is not an issue. It does not seem to effect my opponent.

Do you usually win or do exceptionally well in the first match? If so, you might be a victim of lag switching. Some people have devices called lag switches that can basically control their Internet speed, and since Smash is peer-to-peer-based, it has devastating effects. There's nothing I can think to do during battle about this; you'll have to wait it out and then leave as soon as the match ends.

2. Certain characters do not behave the same online as they do off, observing different properties altogether. Roy in my case is much faster offline than on. His attacks have much greater startup land end lag than they should.

Are you positive this isn't just an illusion brought on by the lag? Try saving a replay if you encounter a battle where you feel this applies and then compare it to offline Roy play.

3. None of this was an issue before 1.0.8, and I've always been able to play dozens of matches without finding one that has even the slightest of lag. Now every single match is horrifically crippled to the point where I can be playing, but my character just stands still for the most part.

The only possible explanation I have for this is that people who stopped playing Smash came back to play Roy, and they just so happen to have horrible connections.

I haven't experienced any of this myself (except for lots and lots of Roy), so the only thing I can really say is that you're unlucky in who For Glory pairs with you.

 

[SChaseGarrett]

Thank you very much for your reply and surprising lack of skepticism! My experiences are rather odd and I expected to be greeted with disbelief rather than someone genuinely cooperative.

This occurs on most of my matches. I don't know how many I've played since 1.0.8, but i'd have to say around 50% of them. And of those 50% that don't do this, 25% start doing it during the second match. (These are rough guesstimates)

1. I have a rather poor win rate (hovering around 40%) so I haven't noticed such a pattern, though that is something I have been aware of and will continue to look out for.

2. By being slower I'm not referring to the actual character's movement, rather the time between hitting a button, the attack happening, and being able to start moving again. It's like having constant input lag that only effects a few buttons.

3. Yes, that's likely.

A lot of this most likely is just poor luck, but something just seems off. Have you ever had a controller that's so old that it doesn't always act 100% correctly? It's a similar experience to that, but with a brand new controller and it only happens online.

 

[Dokokashira]

Your situation seems really weird... I've gotten really bad one-second frame delay before, and I've gotten bad enough lag that it causes the Smash symbol to pop up, but it's never been on only a few buttons. Do you have the Wii U version of the game? If you'd like, we can add each other and you can test on me to see if it's a problem with your connection or just rotten luck. My Internet isn't the greatest, but most matches I have are lagless, and it's almost always not my lag.

 

[Dark Phazon]

I agree..Ganon feels slow....

 

[SChaseGarrett]

For the most part this seems to have passed within the past few days. I'm still having it occasionally, but seeing as it's becoming less common I guess I was just getting paired with the players still using AOL... For two straight weeks...

Anyway, thanks for the comments. I'll be sure to let you know if anything weird starts happening again.

By the way I do have the Wii U version.

 

[Swampertrulz]

Yeah, some characters that I have used do feel a bit slow.

 

[Dokokashira]

Glad to hear your problem has gone away! If it ever arises again, I'll be happy to help you test.

 

[SChaseGarrett]

Glad to hear your problem has gone away! If it ever arises again, I'll be happy to help you test.

Well, this issue seems to have returned as of a few days ago. Once again, the same symptoms this time with a few more. Opponents have teleported slightly in game, while it doesn't effect replays. I'm also being hit by attacks that seem to have their hitboxes extended, or offset somehow. I've also been able to be hit mid-air dodge, and my attacks have connected with the opponent without phasing them, or with delayed effects. I think there's some major desync issues causing and I'm really starting to think there's a problem with my WiiU or my game.

I was just up-smashed by a Marth. I was nowhere near his hitbox, yet I randomly teleported to the hitbox and got sent flying. I have a replay of that one which I will upload tomorrowish. I've also been killed while traveling at a very slow pace, as if DI wasn't working. This again leads me to believe that some inputs aren't sending properly.

A few hours ago I had a win percent of over 50%, and now it's just over 47%. I've won 33% of the last 100 matches. This is not normally the case for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be a hotshot or anything. I know I'm not very good at the game, but it did NOT play like this when I got it. I just want to play a match for once without thinking "what the hell was that" and feeling like the game screwed me over.

Is there any way I can have my WiiU checked for damage? Or is there something I can do to restore it while maintaining my data?

EDIT: Ok, I don't even care now. A Lucas just teleported from near the lower blast zone to the ledge. I'm going to just wait until there's an update because something is seriously ****ed up with my Smash.

 

[GhostUrsa]

Are you on Wifi? If you are and live with close neighbors (Big city house, apartment, etc.) then you could be getting interference from competing Wifi in your area. It could also be other things in your place causing interference, like phones, PCs, etc. Reason I bring it up is because you mention how it comes and goes, which means you are either the unluckiest person in the world when it comes to your opponents (which is possible if you got black-listed via the Ban hammer, and were stuck fighting with all the poor combatants in that list) or your area is having extra interference due to your neighbors being extra active.