As was said on stream, devs are trying to fix the desync issues and are looking for more info about how and when it manifests, so let's give what we can.

 

From my observations:

 

The issue is that sometimes we see other players become desynced for several seconds, usually around at least 4s. They become untargettable, and sometimes they appear to stand still or shake in the same spot or fall through the floor, and sometimes they become invisible (if they are carrying the huttball, one can see the beam of the huttball shake on the spot). Then after some seconds they appear in their actual position.

 

It has a very high chance of occurring when observing another player change vertical position, such as jumping off a ledge, walking up a ramp, leaping to a target etc.

 

This can vary between clients. Sometimes one client can see a player desync like that, while another will see them fine. (May have something to do with relative vertical positioning, but need to gather more info.)

Edited December 17, 2018 by Neulwen

Also all kinds of speedbuffs make desync much worse (predation, hydraulic override, force speed,countermeasure with utility, etc) couple those speedbuffs with leaps& rolls& pulls& knockbacks and you got a nice game where nobody can target anyone, worst case scenario is any huttball with team that consists of few inquisitor classes, oper or 2 , a mara for predation -> say oper in regular huttball gets ball mid with predation up and rolls to a ramp after poison pool, at this point hes desyncing already so badly i cant target him anymore until he has scored / is 1 meter from line which of course... ruins whole match for me. that was just 1 basic scenario that happens often and it has just gotten worse and worse after every patch, vandin is the worst, its just desync from start till end.

even if they find out how to lessen this desync , there will be still ppl using the lag hack switch .

even if they find out how to lessen this desync , there will be still ppl using the lag hack switch .

 

Lol, what is "lag hack switch"? xd

Also, can anyone confirm whether this happens at all in arenas? I realised I can't remember any specific occurrences, but I don't do much arena. Played several arenas yesterday and didn't notice the issue. People were going up/down platforms and using speed buffs and it looked fine.

 

It does happen mostly in huttballs. Prominent examples I remember:

 

In Queshball:

- after a player grapples up to the middle platform, when viewing them from below (seems to happen less (if at all) for an observer on the middle platform)

- the goal line ledges, shortly after a player gets up there

 

In original huttball:

- a player leaping to the upper ledges

- a player mad dashing/rolling or just walking down from the upper ledge

- player rolling/mad dashing across the last fire (but I'm pretty sure this can also happen when they just walk across it)

- a player leaping to the goal line ledges, viewed from the goal line ledge or down in the pit

 

In Vandin:

- a player leaping to the goal line ledges, viewed from the goal line ledge or down in the pit

- player jumping from the lower ledges into the pit

 

It does also occur in Civil War and Yavin Ruins, but much less frequently, when a player goes up/down the platforms on the side turrets.

Edited December 18, 2018 by Neulwen

The gimmicky traps in Huttball may also contribute to the massive desync. All that acid and fire, especially in Vandin, makes fps crash.

Lol, what is "lag hack switch"? xd

 

It’s called lag switching and is where you use either software or a mechanical switch to interrupt your “data” to the server for a instant. This allows you to still see and interact in the environment. On your screen it looks normal, but when the connection is reestablished it appears to others as if they are lagging and often abilities don’t hit you and yours can all hit them in one go.

This sort of cheating is widely used in first person shooters because it allows people to look around corners and see the other player first. Which allows them a kill before the other guys even sees them.

It is extremely hard to do in a game like this.

I have never seen that in swtor, only hacks i saw were ppl getting in textures. I think its just desync, 99% of cheat reports on this forum is ppl have no idea what is going on or desync.

I've seen SWTOR desync matchmaking. It ends up putting 2 tanks and 2 healers on one team vs a team with one healer.

I've seen SWTOR desync matchmaking. It ends up putting 2 tanks and 2 healers on one team vs a team with one healer.

 

LoL, I really hope you were trying to make a joke.

LoL, I really hope you were trying to make a joke.

 

Well, yeah, but only because they already know all this.

 

Whenever you jump you force the server to resync you just before you land. They briefly had really good synchronization back when the servers were first merged recently, then scrapped it.

Edited December 19, 2018 by RACATW

Well, yeah, but only because they already know all this.

 

Whenever you jump you force the server to resync you just before you land. They briefly had really good synchronization back when the servers were first merged recently, then scrapped it.

 

I believe the visual affect of desync has lessened since 5.10, but it’s had a side affect that is hard to quantify, especially if you have reasonable ping speeds.

 

For those of us with higher ping above 150ms (mine is 230ms), we are experiencing abilities not activating (like happens when Ive had to play with 280-300+ms lag) and players disappearing and reappearing (not rubberbanding).

I suspect Bioware have added a small amount of input lag for everyone to allow the servers to sync our input and movements, but it’s had a nasty affect on higher ping players because we already have high ping.

 

People with low ping shouldn’t even notice any difference if they did actually add some artificial input lag.

I hope I’m wrong and this fixes itself soon for me and other high ping players. It really does feel like we are playing with higher ping than usual even though the ping meter is the same.

I believe the visual affect of desync has lessened since 5.10, but it’s had a side affect that is hard to quantify, especially if you have reasonable ping speeds.

 

For those of us with higher ping above 150ms (mine is 230ms), we are experiencing abilities not activating (like happens when Ive had to play with 280-300+ms lag) and players disappearing and reappearing (not rubberbanding).

I suspect Bioware have added a small amount of input lag for everyone to allow the servers to sync our input and movements, but it’s had a nasty affect on higher ping players because we already have high ping.

 

People with low ping shouldn’t even notice any difference if they did actually add some artificial input lag.

I hope I’m wrong and this fixes itself soon for me and other high ping players. It really does feel like we are playing with higher ping than usual even though the ping meter is the same.

 

Trixxie, when will you join our club of SWTOR quitters? With all of the issues you find with the game I am surprised you haven't come to the light side. Seriously. When a game is no longer fun, is it still a game?

Guys they asked for proof, so instead of talking just upload some videos of desync.

It happens like every game... Don't they have QA for that, or does QA not play PvP?

 

I mean, if they want to give us an in game reward for doing their in game job, maybe it'd be ok if we did?

 

 

I'm sure there will be a volunteer though, a paying volunteer.

Edited December 20, 2018 by RACATW

There is proof aplenty if they bothered to ever check the livestreams of the people who regularly promote the game through Twitch. Every time ANY of them get a huttball match of any variety, there is desync all over the place. Just find a pvp streamer and look at the vods.

I doubt its desync in the sense of 2 clients running at different delays against server time and the server having to choose which of the clients is "correct". I fire at you because my client says you are in the open but on your client you have moved behind cover. We're both "correct" in our own little time delayed bubbles but the server has to choose who wins the desync war.

 

This "desync" seems to be about a rapid change in X,Y location (10m+ in one GCD) losing track of the Z axis. The player is still in a correct X,Y position (you can usually see their huttball "searchlight" effect moving sensibly around the map) but the Z position has been lost and seems to reset to default ground level. After several seconds, something triggers the Z position to reset to their correct location. It can have a massive impact on fast moving, multi level maps which is why Huttball suffers the most.

 

However what's most interesting about this is that either the devs are unaware of this long running and extremely embarrassing defect or they are unable to fix it.

 

I suspect it was initially the former. Nothing I have seen in SWTOR suggests that this is a dev team that is engaged with either their product or customers, I give you CxP and the current gearing shambles as proof of that. However now I suspect it is the latter. Given their inability to roll out even the simplest of bug fixes without introducing new defects in what should be completely unrelated parts of the system, it seems likely that the codebase is now simply beyond their control.

 

To join the band wagon, game is dead.

 

Not because of gearing, unimaginative roadmaps or low quality, sparse content. Those could all be fixed by more or better staff. It's dead because the code is a ball of mud upon which it is impossible to reliably build any new content. Bring me your best and brightest and they would still be trudging knee deep through labyrinthine functions rusted with the residue of multiple, conflicting architectural visions and left tearfully coaxing compliance from nervous subsystems that freeze and tumble at the gentlest whisper of a minor data change.

 

The only way forward would be to start a completely new game on a completely new engine and its unimaginable that EA would make that sort of money available. They've bet the farm on Anthem and it looks like that is yesterday's game delivered tomorrow. Bye bye farm.

 

Relax and enjoy the twilight days of SWTOR.

This "desync" seems to be about a rapid change in X,Y location (10m+ in one GCD) losing track of the Z axis. The player is still in a correct X,Y position (you can usually see their huttball "searchlight" effect moving sensibly around the map) but the Z position has been lost and seems to reset to default ground level. After several seconds, something triggers the Z position to reset to their correct location.

Most often the x, y positions are also out of sync.

Well here's a little clip of a sorc pull desync:

 

Pulled him up, thought he missed the ledge and fell back down, then there was a lot of jiggling. Some nice moves from the operative who grappled up too.

 

Edit: And another one

 

Edit2: A little one (watch the Jug)

Edited April 28, 2019 by kukumburr