The online feature in this game is horrible

[friendlyone20]

When it's not lagging, it's dropping the connection mid battle. I just tried a For Fun battle online and it just dropped in the middle of my battle. What's the point of the online feature if it doesn't even work? Never again am I doing online. I'll stick with CPUs as boring as it is sometimes.

Edit: I do like spectator mode though. I enjoy watching other people battle. So I'm not going to give completely up on online.

Is there a chance they are ever going to fix the online feature or is it a lost cause?

 

[Crystanium]

When it's not lagging, it's dropping the connection mid battle. I just tried a For Fun battle online and it just dropped in the middle of my battle. What's the point of the online feature if it doesn't even work? Never again am I doing online. I'll stick with CPUs as boring as it is sometimes.

Edit: I do like spectator mode though. I enjoy watching other people battle. So I'm not going to give completely up on online.

Is there a chance they are ever going to fix the online feature or is it a lost cause?

Maybe you need better connection. I'm not having this problem. Also, if you're a casual gamer, go ahead and fight CPUs. If you're competitive, CPUs are bad for your improvement.

 

[TheDuke54]

Is there a chance they are ever going to fix the online feature or is it a lost cause?

Given that the game is now in its third year, I highly doubt they'll ever fix it. The problem with the lag is that they can't really allow lag to go on as they would with other games...say like Splatoon. If you ever played Splatoon, sometimes you'll come across a lagger who looks like they're idling, but they aren't. They aren't even in the spot you're attempting to ink/attack and suddenly they're somewhere else and you're magically dead. Yet, the game continues uninteruppted without frame loss.

In Smash, that'd just look like you were beating up an idling and indestructable fighter, as the game continued as it should. It defintely is annoying and as of lately, I've been running into a lot of laggy games. If someone in the match has bad internet, everyone is going to suffer from it.

I kind of find it hard to believe that you haven't witnessed any lag der rabe...but man if that's true, I wish I found the matches that you do lol. I keep getting paired with people who (when I check out their profile stat in the finish screen) are way too far away for a proper connection to begin with.

 

[Ze Diglett]

I've all but given up on this game's online, at least the With Anyone section. Nobody on For Fun actually wants to play the game, For Glory has been long overrun by trolls and disrespectful tryhards, and both modes are plagued by a practically nonexistent matchmaking system that makes TF2's look good by comparison and connections that are unstable at best and unplayable at worst. It's literally gotten to the point where watching people play on Spectate is more fun than actually trying to play the game on For Glory or For Fun, which is a real shame, honestly.

 

[link2702]

I’m pretty sure smash’s online is p2p based, where Nintendo’s servers only really handle matchmaking and making sure you weren’t hacking or anything at the start...

... in other words it’s either your fault or one of your opponents for the extreme lag, but Nintendo’s servers have little to nothing to do with it. Remember since you’re connecting with up to 3 other people, even if you’re not the source of the lag, any one of them could be, or multiple players could, also keep in mind the game is trying to communicate between 4 game consoles from around the region, with multiple different security settings, firewalls, etc.

Be careful what you wish for, if Nintendo decides to go the splatoon 2 route in smash switch and immediately start booting people at the first sign of an unstable connection by them and then eventually start banning them, and you happen to be the source, you might just find you won’t get to play online at all very often. I’ve already had moments where my connection has acted up just a little bit (usually early mornings) where smash would still be playable, just not ideal, but splatoon 2 boots me almost immediately and bans me for awhile.

My recommendation is when you play smash, put everything else connected to your network on airplane mode/turn off their wireless. If you have an app or program downloading, and you try to play, you’re likely to be a source of extreme lag for yourself and opponents.

If you’re 100% absolutely confident that you aren’t the source of your lag(which.... everyone seems “sure” it’s not them) then chances are it’s one or all of your opponents faults. I’d recommend staying out of ffa matches and go to either for glory 1v1 which decreases your chances of encountering an extreme lagger, or better yet avoiding the random online modes altogether and playing against people on your friends list.

About the only thing I would say Nintendo could actually change would be how it handles matchmaking, like, don’t pair me up at all with someone from south or Central America, pair me up against USA players only, even if it takes slightly longer.

 

[IronChar]

....its 10 billion times better then it was in brawl.

I only mess with 1 on 1 FG