[Locked] Latency is ruining the game!

Hello everyone,

I am finding Halo 5 to be hard to enjoy much of the time due to the severe latency issues I have as an EU based player (Sweden). Games are almost always hosted on US servers despite there being servers available in the EU and ping to the US servers is somewhere in the range of 190-350ms for me depending on which data centre in the US I am connected to. I want to stress the importance of implementing a server selection option for players so we can chose to which servers to connect, or at least, to which region to connect if not the specific data centre.

I am by no means a very good player but I still find it frustrating to play with these unfair conditions. I am not looking to make this a US vs EU/international players topic. I just want to illustrate what latency does to gameplay and why so many international gamers are frustated. In fact most of my freinds on XBL no longer play Halo 5 due to this issue. I also see posts on here from EU players saying "it´s fine, I have no problems" and I respect that as an opinion. But fact is latency is there whether you detect it or not and for a competetive fps thats really bad news when it gets into the ranges we see in Halo 5.

Here´s a couple of examples of what latency actually does:

• Example 1 - my POV during the game.

I am not saying I should necessarily have killed the guy, and you can remark all you want about my skill, but what I am trying to illustrate here is the obvious latency when you compare it to the next clip below.

• Example 1 - what actually happened on the server

Clip recorded from the theatre mode. As you can see here my reticle is clearly behind the player as he sprints and I didn´t connect with a single shot. This means that what I see on my screen when I play does not match what happens on the server due to latency.

• Example 2 - check player movement pattern vs reticle movement pattern.

In the clip you can clearly see that my aim is not on target. Unfortunately I only have the server version of this clip as I forgot to record it in game. But as you can see illustrated by the way I am tracing my opponent with the reticle as he jumps, my actions are not synchronized with his moves. He jumps first and only after that does my reticle follow the same movement pattern with the "jump" move. Looks kind of funny but its not when you play...

• Example 3 - shot around corners and covers.

A classic example of being shot around a corner or a cover. On my screen I already made it behind cover but die from a shotgun blast. It may not be the best example, I´ve seen/experienced worse (read better examples) but its what I had on hand in my fileshare. This applies to many situations when running behind cover or a corner, or just running around a corner and meet an opponent where he sees you before you seem him. Spartan charge, sword, shotgun etc only makes the problem even more evident.

So by the above examples I wish to raise some awareness to the topic of latency and chosing which server to connect to. Many fps games give you this option today and I have to say that it is fundamental for a game like Halo 5. I can´t understand how 343 chose to not implement server selection as was clearly indicated at the time of the beta and how 343 can be so arrogant and just ignore what many international players are clearly suffering from.

Please vote for selectable servers over at the official Xbox feedback site. All players benefit from an option like this including US players. Give the power back to the players to chose if they prefer great ping over search times and/or playing inter continental matches!

Conclusion
If you can´t trust that what you are aiming on is truly where your target is, its very hard to play. You can lead shots, but a good player who knows how to strafe and use a pistol/BR or similar will always come out on top if their ping is much lower than yours. Being able to select a server with good ping is the only answer to fun, fair and truly competetive Halo 5 gaming.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

Cheers

Such a shame that an awesome game is ruined like this :(

Are all Xbox games like this online for European players, or is Halo the exception?

Accio Beer wrote:

Are all Xbox games like this online for European players, or is Halo the exception?

Not at all. We´re basically demanding the same basic service for Halo 5 as provided by other developers for their games. Selecting a local server is kind of fundamental for a competetive fps game. Some even provide the service to rent your own server.

It's the same here in Italy... I've lost my faith in a update to give us region selection...

I JohnTom I wrote:

It's the same here in Italy... I've lost my faith in a update to give us region selection...

yes, asia don't have this lag issue but its hard to matchmaking beacuse asia have lesser players of halo vs usa or eu, if is possible give us region server selection and show the ping would be great.

Don´t forget to vote people!

Foghammer wrote:

I'm seeing similar things happen here in the US, though...

People blinking in and out of existence (active camo doesn't work on Ghosts, right?), grenades being thrown on a delay (this one is weird, because when the lag is bad enough, I can watch myself throw the grenade) and sometimes not exploding at all), and then there are people who appear to be "invincible" (shot at by several teammates for long sprints, walking through splinter grenades unharmed, etc). I still manage to play at my usual level, but I feel like there are a lot of times lately that I've been cheated by some glitch in the system -- or at least the way it appears on MY screen, it feels like I'm being cheated.

That is just lag though which is different from latency. Sometimes you just have those games but latency is there most of the time for the EU players.

A1tontoyota wrote:

How much latency are you showing in the connection status (just curious).

Not sure what it shows right now, haven´t checked in quite a while as its not very relevant for the games anyway. It merely measures the latency to the XBL main servers or something like that and not to the servers hosting Halo 5 games. From what I recall it used to be/is something like 200ms+.

Using available online latency and bandwidth tests I have tried to estimate what my latency can typically be to various regions of the US and I get 190ms or so to NY and like 300 to LA.

EU players with Netduma routers have posted data from Halo 5 matchmaking and you get connected to US servers like 90% of the time (varying somewhat with time of day). Those stats have shown some 150-300ms latency. That consistent with what many players have experienced/reported.

BRs wrote:

I've yet to lag or have any sort of latency in this game since release.
I honestly mean that.
I normally always pull host, that and paired with a BenQ Monitor with 1ms response time and a great refresh rate.

Halo 5 is not a P2P game - they use dedicated servers so you cannot "pull host". Everyone has latency, its just a question of how much.