Why is online in this game so bad?

[1FC0]

even Zero is facing problems of lagging matches in the video posted by someone above.

Yeah even Zero does not get his own private super connection from Nintendo.

 

[Sunredo]

I'm just putting this out there that the LAN adapter from Nintendo is overpriced. It's not good at all and you can find a better one for $15.

 

[Idon]

I'm just putting this out there that the LAN adapter from Nintendo is overpriced. It's not good at all and you can find a better one for $15.

This.

Don't get the offiical one. You're just paying for the brand at that point.

 

[KirbyMonadoBoy]

On the first day I was thrown into free for alls a lot. Now that my GSP is much higher, I almost always get 1v1s. While the online mode has some issues, I don't think it's as bad as many people say. Just raise your GSP (to get into Elite Mode) and you don't have to worry about not getting 1v1s.

 

[Sunredo]

While I'm here, I want to stress a few things.

Firstly, regarding quick play. This is just a single thing but if you want more consistent 1v1s, wait until night in your area because less kids will be playing and goofing around at night. This is possible since it connects to the consoles closest to you iirc. This isn't a guarantee of course, and quick play still needs to be fixed and altered in lots of areas so I'd still recommend Battle Arenas over this.

And now a lesson in Battle Arenas.

Spoiler: text ahead

First off, search for a battle arena for your skill level (i.e. Veteran, Glorious, etc.).
For 1v1s always make sure to look for an Arena with a maximum of 2 people for the best connection and experience. For doubles a max of 4. If you don't find one on the list then just refresh.
Once you find a room with the sought after amount of max players, make a beeline for it. These rooms will fill quickly so you probably won't get into one on your first try.
If after 5 or however many attempts until you grow impatient and no success then it's time to make your room.

First thing you should know about making your arena:
Always,
Always,
ALWAYS,
Put your region at the end of the name of the arena. I don't care if most don't do it, it's extremely vital in telling people how good their connection will be since the quality of connections is peer to peer. Not only that, in the past couple days I've tested it both with and without the region at the end and I always got people quicker with the region than without. People clearly appreciate it.
Moving on, the title should be what you want to do in the arena. Simple stuff. You can just put "1v1 training" or "Practicing". This is also something people appreciate in my experience.

Your title should come out to something like "Practicing - MO"

Before you press okay on your title make 100% sure you're okay with the rules you set because you can't change them in the arena.
After this set the music to whatever you like, put yourself in the arena and wait. Usually you should get someone in 5 minutes tops. I've been unlucky only one time and had to wait longer but eventually someone came. Just watch something on your phone while you wait.

Every single match I've had in Battle Arenas has minimal lag, it was barely even noticeable. Even better, the people usually don't just up and leave after a match. Typically I end up fighting with people for 30 minutes at a time which lead to some pretty fun exchanges as we tried to get in eachothers heads.

Now I'm sure I've lead you on about how perfect Arenas are right? Well there's still a couple things wrong with it.
First of all, searching for rooms and not being able to join should not take you back to the search criteria menu, it should simply refresh the list as soon as this happens.
Another thing is the rules being locked which I mentioned before. I know it's to keep players who join an arena from wasting their time when the host attempts to bait them into an items on 1v1 on great cave but they could at least let you change it in a friend Arena.
Lastly is the lack of local multiplayer in Arenas. This needs to be in, as it would help online doubles significantly.
But aside from these it's mostly been fine for me. I really love doing 1v1s with this mode and I hope the competitive community adopts this as the standard one day.

Here's a heads up for WiFi users if you're really that adamant about not getting LAN, go into your MTU settings and change the 1400 to the standard 1500. This is the default for most devices and should lead to better online play.
EDIT: I was completely wrong about that last part, here's what you should do:

You were fine until you mention MTU. DO NOT set your MTU to 1500. Setting your MTU to 1500 may work out for some people, but it may cause higher fragmentation and even worse lag to you and others. Instead follow this link here to find your "optimal" MTU. When you do, set ALL your devices that connects to your router (and even the router itself via WAN) that uses MTU to the optimal value.

If there's anything I got wrong make sure to let me know because I don't want to not only look like an idiot but also spread misinformation.

 

[Shuckle89]

The online in this game is pretty good and better than it's previous games. You can either make a lobby yourself and change the setting to only 2 slots and then you can do 1v1 against whatever skill level you wish, all day every day. Or you can do the regular game mode where you just need to win a few matches and you will never have to do free for all again.

 

[GhostYB]

The purpose of the LAN adapter is to help those with naturally bad internet connections.

I know I get that but what i'm saying is we shouldn't HAVE to use a LAN cable to have stable internet. I have decent internet and still lag.

 

[Idon]

I know I get that but what i'm saying is we shouldn't HAVE to use a LAN cable to have stable internet. I have decent internet and still lag.

That's... entirely on you.
Wifi at a basic level is unstable, and especially so in fighting game where every frame dropped is noticeable.

The online in this game is pretty good and better than it's previous games. You can either make a lobby yourself and change the setting to only 2 slots and then you can do 1v1 against whatever skill level you wish, all day every day. Or you can do the regular game mode where you just need to win a few matches and you will never have to do free for all again.

First of all it isn't good.
Second of all, it's not better than 4
Third of all, those are ****ty workarounds with their own issues, and even at """"""ELITE""""""" Smash Level, I am still getting FFAs.

 

[lucasla]

That's... entirely on you.
Wifi at a basic level is unstable, and especially so in fighting game where every frame dropped is noticeable.


First of all it isn't good.
Second of all, it's not better than 4
Third of all, those are ****ty workarounds with their own issues, and even at """"""ELITE""""""" Smash Level, I am still getting FFAs.

If the problem was one or another frame lost, the game would be perfect. An entire laggy match is not a instable internet problem, even because it would happen in any online game played on the same network, but the problem of entire laggy matches happens only in Smash.

 

[Unisex]

There needs to be a PSA in game telling people to make sure they are connected wired and not wirelessly. Usually it auto conencts you, but it didnt for two of my friends, and we had laggy matches for 2days until they realized lol.

 

[MookieRah]

Basically I got the game and played a few days with the online features. At first I didn't find it that terrible, but that is cause I hadn't made the adjustment from Melee to Ultimate, so everything just felt weird at first. Now, after some time in training mode and actually learning some stuff, the out of the box online experience is just horrid. There is no way to play a proper game like that 90% of the time. It's incredibly frustrating playing against Ganon players who can side B and know that you will likely be unable to properly tech out of it due to lag, and them just abusing that over and over for free.

I found a Nordic Netplay discord group today and have played against two different people, on a wireless connection, that was really smooth and had minimal lag issues. It's simply night and day playing with people directly and not through their service.

I kinda find it frustrating that I'm paying Nintendo for an online service, when in actuality I'm just using it to connect directly to other players. They need to fix this...

EDIT:
Btw, people are saying not to get the Nintendo ethernet adapter. Are there any recommended adapters or does any USB ethernet adapter work?

 

[Idon]

If the problem was one or another frame lost, the game would be perfect. An entire laggy match is not a instable internet problem, even because it would happen in any online game played on the same network, but the problem of entire laggy matches happens only in Smash.

Yeah and that's a combination of Nintendo's 2008 netcode, and peer-to-peer networking and people's own ****ty online.
Nintendo should fix the netcode, but if you use wireless connections, then you're gonna get bouts if instability.

 

[staindgrey]

They got so close with the stage options. But nope.

I don't want always Battlefield or always FD. But when you pick "no stage hazards" you get **** like Pac-Land.

 

[meleebrawler]

They got so close with the stage options. But nope.

I don't want always Battlefield or always FD. But when you pick "no stage hazards" you get **** like Pac-Land.

I hear people are able to set random stages to legal ones only in arenas, or is that not true?

Side note, but I find it frustrating to hear contradictory complaints. The main one I hear is "I hate getting modes I didn't set in Quickplay, I'd gladly wait longer if it meant prioritizing what I choose instead!". Fine. But then when you get to arenas which let you do just that, guarantee the rules you want even if it'll take longer for others to join, they flip-flop and say that it takes too long.

 

[staindgrey]

I hear people are able to set random stages to legal ones only in arenas, or is that not true?

Unless I was doing it wrong, when going into quick play, you select one of four preferred stage rules: "Omega only", "Battlefield only", "no stage hazards" or "any". I don't know if arenas let you be more specific, but "no stage hazards" simply means any stage is fine but they turn off the stuff that hurts you, like stage bosses and stuff. Pac-Land, Big Blue, Mushroomy Kingdom, etc., are all game.

Essentially it makes it even less likely that you'll get a good competitive stage unless you adhere specifically to FD or Battlefield setups independently of one another.

 

[meleebrawler]

Unless I was doing it wrong, when going into quick play, you select one of four preferred stage rules: "Omega only", "Battlefield only", "no stage hazards" or "any". I don't know if arenas let you be more specific, but "no stage hazards" simply means any stage is fine but they turn off the stuff that hurts you, like stage bosses and stuff. Pac-Land, Big Blue, Mushroomy Kingdom, etc., are all game.

Essentially it makes it even less likely that you'll get a good competitive stage unless you adhere specifically to FD or Battlefield setups independently of one another.

Did you try setting your random stage selection, in case it carries over to arenas you make?

 

[staindgrey]

Did you try setting your random stage selection, in case it carries over to arenas you make?

Huh. I didn't think that would apply across modes, but that's a good idea.

I'll try it tonight and see if it works.

 

[meleebrawler]

Huh. I didn't think that would apply across modes, but that's a good idea.

I'll try it tonight and see if it works.

Popped by the online Q&A thread, and it says you can bring your preset offline rulesets into the arenas you make. Including random stage selections.

 

[Dan]

This is becoming a mind****, but yes, somewhere in there is the option to toggle off stages from being randomly selected within Arenas; I thought staind was referring to quickplay anyway.

 

[staindgrey]

Popped by the online Q&A thread, and it says you can bring your preset offline rulesets into the arenas you make. Including random stage selections.

Right, but arenas aren't the same as quickplay.

 

[meleebrawler]

Right, but arenas aren't the same as quickplay.

You wanna make this matchmaking harder than it already is? Especially when we don't even have a universally agreed-upon list legal stages yet? I think the consensus is mainly, people don't want more options in Quickplay cluttering up their preferences, they want consistency. And that requires some limitations to find a balance between speed and accuracy.

Fact is, arenas let you do nearly everything you could possibly want to do in online Smash, except increase your rank. Quickplay certainly needs changes, or at least time for GSP to really mean something, but with arenas you don't even need to fuss with that to get opponents on your level.

 

[Wobblerbox]

I have a perfect connection with a lan adapter, and 50% of the time i get an error joining an arena, i get 10-20 frames of input delay playing online with a friend of mine that lives ON MY STREET. i try using the ranked system and get free for alls that im FORCED to play. In my 15 years of playing online games this is the worst online experience i've ever had. Its brawl bad, and we didnt have to pay to play that. i definitely won't be buying online after my 7 day trail and you shouldn't either, infuriating.

 

[OnyxArmos]

The online isn't bad, you're just picky

 

[zipzo]

FYI, the availability of switch lan connectors is not exactly infinite, they are sold out literally everywhere ATM, so it's understandable people aren't flying out the door right now to acquire them.

 

[Redacted145]

The fact that Quickplay will sometimes throw you into a match you specifically asked NOT to participate in via your preferred settings is the single biggest issue with the online in this game right now. This behavior is simply indefensible. In what world is it acceptable to completely ignore what your end user asked for and instead force them (under threat of being banned should they refuse) to participate in something they specifically told you they DIDN'T want to do?

To put this in perspective, imagine that you were asked to swing by a grocery store and pick up the ingredients for a recipe - say, an apple pie. You go in, gather up what you need, and bring it up to the cashier. The cashier briefly glances at the half dozen apples you've set down on the conveyor belt, then informs you that the store is not going to sell you those apples. Instead, they're going to sell you a half-dozen bananas. And if you refuse to buy the bananas, then you're no longer welcome to shop in that store. You try to explain that you don't need bananas and specifically came here for apples, but the people behind you in line begin urging you to just buy the bananas, because a half dozen bananas should be just as good as a half dozen apples.

If you felt that the way you were treated in this scenario was unfair, then congratulations: you're able to recognize when a company's service is utterly unacceptable.

If you empathized more with the people in line saying to just buy the bananas, then I'm sorry, but you're either trolling or being willfully obtuse toward a legitimate issue.

And if you empathized more with the cashier in this story, then you just might have a future at Bandai Namco.

 

[Idon]

FYI, the availability of switch lan connectors is not exactly infinite, they are sold out literally everywhere ATM, so it's understandable people aren't flying out the door right now to acquire them.

There's no such thing as a switch lan adapter.
It's a usb that connects your ethernet cable to your switch. You can buy it from anywhere on the planet for like 15 bucks max.

 

[zipzo]

There's no such thing as a switch lan adapter.
It's a usb that connects your ethernet cable to your switch. You can buy it from anywhere on the planet for like 15 bucks max.

Yeah maybe bad ones, but it's actually important that it has the right chip set inside of it. Components matter as well and the most high end component ones are the ones that are kinda sold out on like Amazon for example.

 

[TheLightningYu]

I want to Point some things out:
First: It doesn't matter if your router is 4 feets away, it doesn't matter which Console, WLAN Adapter or whatever you use, LAN is everytime the better choice... I played on different Plattforms, with different Router etc and infact my Router is in the same room as i play, and i never could claim that WLAN is complete without issues. I don't argue that LAN will fix all issues, but it doesn't change the fact that LAN > WLAN, and it doesn't matter how much you hate "wired" connection.

Secondly it still kinda pisses me off, that people follow this modern myth of dedicated Server fix all issues. Sure there are Games which profit from it like as example Splatoon 2, and yes, in such cases the Critique is correct, but in Case of Beat'em'Ups like this, Dedicated Servers would deliever unneccessary delay etc etc... (and you can look this up on youtube / google there are folks who can explain this stuff more technical and better than me) so P2P is for such Games an smoother experience anyway, IF the Netcode is good and it offers an proper Matchmaking.

Third:
I want to point out, about the "new" Matchmaking concept that all of you look this only from an Competitive Perspective and even in that case i would go that far, think the only correct way to play this game (competitive) is your 1on1 no Item and such. I want to point out, there are other Peoples who want to enjoy this Game for Fun or want to try a different approach for competitive as the mere simply 1on1 barebones strip down everything which made SSB great Competitive-Scene. And don't get me wrong, i neither argue that SSBU doesn't face any issues because it does for sure, it's far from perfect and i don't say you can't enjoy 1on1, no items and such competitively... because you can (obviously) - however i experienced at different Games, the issue - mostly in social playlists, if you offer to many different Playlists(because everyone have it's own perfered mode), due it splits the Community way to much. The Approach Nintendo takes with SSBU is a good approach to try something differently for don't split the Community or long waiting times, because again, in my experience the Casual-Crowd may have they prefered playstyle, but are open enough to enjoy other Modes for the variety(as long as it doesn't get to competitive). And competitively if you look at as example; Halo - there are different Playlists for Ranked / Competitive (basically different disciplines) which you can enjoy as a comeptitive player and aren't forced to the only "one" way to play this Game. (like, if i remember correctly For Glory did, force you to play 1on1...)
The only thing they really look into it, is to give Elite-Smash the Option to toggle an option for fixed rule-set so you find only matches of your preference, because for the competitive scene it works better if you stick to the discipline you prefer...

Again i don't argue it doesn't have issues and it's far from perfect, but that's Nintendo for you, and they often tend to offer new, unique experiences because they don't close minded follow mere industry-standarts but try something differently(of course sometimes it goes the wrong way and are unneccessary creative like Voice-Chat app for Smartphone....) . And i would miss my Nintendo Switch if Nintendo wouldn't be like that and offered us an generic normal Console instead of hybrid-console like this. I like this new approach - but it simply needs more tweaking and such...

 

[Shuckle89]

That's... entirely on you.
Wifi at a basic level is unstable, and especially so in fighting game where every frame dropped is noticeable.


First of all it isn't good.
Second of all, it's not better than 4
Third of all, those are ****ty workarounds with their own issues, and even at """"""ELITE""""""" Smash Level, I am still getting FFAs.

It is way better than 4 in my opinion. In 4 I recall crappy connection, opponents running away, rage quitting and taunt spam. Here I have had mostly good matches. Only one guy ran away. Sure, it is a bit of a work around. Which shouldn't be the case, but it's better than before.

 

[1FC0]

Make sure your NAT type is A.

 

[WorDtheOnE]

In my opinion Ultimates online is a disappointment. I wish they would split the quick match into "for fun" & "for glory" again and let you change you're character after the match. Arena seems fine but the biggest issue with the lobby/arena system is that I can't use them with a friend next to me. It seems impossible to play with one friend local vs 2 friends online.

 

[Mogisthelioma]

I know I get that but what i'm saying is we shouldn't HAVE to use a LAN cable to have stable internet. I have decent internet and still lag.

If you have good internet, then your lag is either the result of your opponent having a bad connection or simply because the servers are too young.

 

[meleebrawler]

FYI, the availability of switch lan connectors is not exactly infinite, they are sold out literally everywhere ATM, so it's understandable people aren't flying out the door right now to acquire them.

There's also likely the mass influx of very young gamers online who don't even know what a LAN adapter is, or even if they do, likely can't convince their parents to buy one for their games.

 

[OmegaLurker]

Make sure your NAT type is A.

THIS is why is trash why the **** would he have to configure our router while every other online game on switch like splatoon or MK8 just work perfect c'mon I agree with OP the online is garbage please nintendo fix

 

[Luigifan18]

You fool! You'll summon Crazy Hand!!

We already have a thread for complaining about online mode, anyway.

 

[CannonStreak]

The online isn't bad, you're just picky

I don’t find it bad, either, but it is nowhere near perfect or even highly good, that is for sure.

 

[Mogisthelioma]

I honestly think Smash 4's online was way better.

 

[The Slayer]

While I'm here, I want to stress a few things.

Firstly, regarding quick play. This is just a single thing but if you want more consistent 1v1s, wait until night in your area because less kids will be playing and goofing around at night. This is possible since it connects to the consoles closest to you iirc. This isn't a guarantee of course, and quick play still needs to be fixed and altered in lots of areas so I'd still recommend Battle Arenas over this.

And now a lesson in Battle Arenas.

Spoiler: text ahead

First off, search for a battle arena for your skill level (i.e. Veteran, Glorious, etc.).
For 1v1s always make sure to look for an Arena with a maximum of 2 people for the best connection and experience. For doubles a max of 4. If you don't find one on the list then just refresh.
Once you find a room with the sought after amount of max players, make a beeline for it. These rooms will fill quickly so you probably won't get into one on your first try.
If after 5 or however many attempts until you grow impatient and no success then it's time to make your room.

First thing you should know about making your arena:
Always,
Always,
ALWAYS,
Put your region at the end of the name of the arena. I don't care if most don't do it, it's extremely vital in telling people how good their connection will be since the quality of connections is peer to peer. Not only that, in the past couple days I've tested it both with and without the region at the end and I always got people quicker with the region than without. People clearly appreciate it.
Moving on, the title should be what you want to do in the arena. Simple stuff. You can just put "1v1 training" or "Practicing". This is also something people appreciate in my experience.

Your title should come out to something like "Practicing - MO"

Before you press okay on your title make 100% sure you're okay with the rules you set because you can't change them in the arena.
After this set the music to whatever you like, put yourself in the arena and wait. Usually you should get someone in 5 minutes tops. I've been unlucky only one time and had to wait longer but eventually someone came. Just watch something on your phone while you wait.

Every single match I've had in Battle Arenas has minimal lag, it was barely even noticeable. Even better, the people usually don't just up and leave after a match. Typically I end up fighting with people for 30 minutes at a time which lead to some pretty fun exchanges as we tried to get in eachothers heads.

Now I'm sure I've lead you on about how perfect Arenas are right? Well there's still a couple things wrong with it.
First of all, searching for rooms and not being able to join should not take you back to the search criteria menu, it should simply refresh the list as soon as this happens.
Another thing is the rules being locked which I mentioned before. I know it's to keep players who join an arena from wasting their time when the host attempts to bait them into an items on 1v1 on great cave but they could at least let you change it in a friend Arena.
Lastly is the lack of local multiplayer in Arenas. This needs to be in, as it would help online doubles significantly.
But aside from these it's mostly been fine for me. I really love doing 1v1s with this mode and I hope the competitive community adopts this as the standard one day.

Here's a heads up for WiFi users if you're really that adamant about not getting LAN, go into your MTU settings and change the 1400 to the standard 1500. This is the default for most devices and should lead to better online play.
If there's anything I got wrong make sure to let me know because I don't want to not only look like an idiot but also spread misinformation.

You were fine until you mention MTU. DO NOT set your MTU to 1500. Setting your MTU to 1500 may work out for some people, but it may cause higher fragmentation and even worse lag to you and others. Instead follow this link here to find your "optimal" MTU. When you do, set ALL your devices that connects to your router (and even the router itself via WAN) that uses MTU to the optimal value.

 

[link2702]

If you have good internet, then your lag is either the result of your opponent having a bad connection or simply because the servers are too young.

There’s not any servers, it’s p2p.

Pretty much mainly others with bad connections.

 

[Sunredo]

You were fine until you mention MTU. DO NOT set your MTU to 1500. Setting your MTU to 1500 may work out for some people, but it may cause higher fragmentation and even worse lag to you and others. Instead follow this link here to find your "optimal" MTU. When you do, set ALL your devices that connects to your router (and even the router itself via WAN) that uses MTU to the optimal value.

My bad, I saw it on twitter and should've checked to see if it was correct before posting. Thanks for the correction.