I'm so tired of poor server performance

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
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Not sure if this should be in bug reports, performance feedback, or whatever. But I’m so tired of attacks disappearing into the ether.

In particular Psykinetic’s Wrath seems to just fizzle out way too often where nothing happens. Targets do not get pushed or staggered at all and no soulblaze attacks get applied from Ascendant Blaze. Heck, I have even some very rare occasions been able to fire PW two times in a row with like a seconds delay between them, because for some reason the server didn’t register I already used it (though enemies got pushed and started burning).

It feels like a sort of packet loss is going on, though I’m sure that’s not really the true explanation. I also have trouble with strange delayed behavior when using primary fire on Purgatus staff to stagger enemies. Often times I have to SPAM the button to get a response in-game.

Weirdly it doesn’t seem to conincide with low fps or large amounts of enemies, or anything like it. But something is going on either server-side, or in the communication between client and host where some button presses on my side gets lost, delayed, or downprioritized server side.

I find it most noticeable when PW gets “lost” and nothing happens. But other times it also affects delayed or not-even-occurring primary fire on Purgatus staff, when I try charge a force-sword or use chainweapon special attack, I press to activate the special and then attack, but it’s then a normal attack as if the game didn’t register I pressed the button.

Some days are much worse than others. I can have days where I almost never experience the issue, and other days when it’s really bad.

On a related note, I really have trouble with how the game interprets input priority. For example if I am channeling brain burst and I get attacked by a melee dude, I want to change to my sword and start attacking or blocking to defend myself, but as I press to change weapon nothing happens, and since I’m basically acting on muscle memory (I need to be fast) what happens is I press to change weapon and then to attack very quickly in a row, but it’s like the 2nd button push overrides the 1st one so my char starts trying to brainburst and forgets I pressed to change weapon first.

No, I have to sort of let go of all buttons, then press to change weapon, wait to see if it does, and THEN can I start attacking with sword. This whole weirdly delayed chain really makes the difference between life and death. I often find myself SPAMMING weapon change and then attack, but all my character does it keep trying to attack with brainburst and completely ignores the weapon change button pushes. Again, it seems like some sort of input priority where the 2nd button push to attack, overrides the first button push to change weapon. Hugely frustrating.

9 Likes
2

Quoted for emphasis, please fix Fatshark

6 Likes
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This has killed me in games when hotswapping between shotgun (quickdraw) and melee and attempting to block. I know i pressed and depressed all the right buttons in the right sequence with the right timing but suddenly i’m shooting my shotgun instead of push-attacking.

Lately i’ve even had issues where i’ll swap from my gun to my melee, hit special, and load the special shell as my melee weapon vanishes from my hand. Not great when i was trying to stun the rager.

For me its chain axe special shreds and thunder hammer bonks. I have plenty of these on video.

6 Likes
4

THIS. TOO. MANY. TIMES.

And forget about pushing poxhounds, I can’t do that anymore, and it was easy.

5 Likes
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Very long OP in the wrong area. There is a performance area.

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yeah, i thought its skill issue but it turns out that weapon switches are not always registered

the same applies to:

  • grenades - no matter how i aim granade falls out of my hands
  • medkits and ammo crates - deploy animation gets cancelled midway multiple tjmes

seems like some inputs are not registered or registered multiple times in bursts…

4 Likes
7

Its the server reverting your actions and informing your clien side NU-UH.

It’s because the netcode favors serverside consistency over clientside consistency. So if the serve didn’t see you do it, it will just change actions you’re actively taking and tell you to go die. Most shooters solve this problem by leveraging “favor the shooter”. Wherein the actor’s actions are prioritized over what the server thinks might have happened in the case of target hits etc. This is why there are so many “ghost hits” in darktide. When latency gets high the game will decide what you thought you saw wasn’t what was happening in its simulation and so you actually missed.

7 Likes
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yes, thats correct but this has horrible feel, different than other games.

the 2 net frame differenences breaks whole chain of actions making whole granade throw or ammo crare deployment logic instead of just delaying action by these 2 frames

poorly implemented, i have never had such problem in other games…and shooting part is also a joke, easily could have been fixed by honoring player hit reg input if it does not varry too much from server side

3 Likes
9

i bet the netcode tests are done on lan :wink:

4 Likes
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especially when I try push Poxhounds or Bursters. The Push goes into nothing and BOOM or baitybait.
If Hordes appear my game goes crazy and right after that I disconnect.

3 Likes
11

I actually rage-quit for the first time earlier today because of server issues lol. Lost two missions in a row because of un-dodgeable poxhounds. After a while I tried playing again and the first match I loaded into I lost a teammate to a hound that ran through a wall and pounced him.

Honestly wouldn’t be opposed to them just outright disabling hounds until they get the server ping dealt with, they’re debatably the most dangerous special in the game and also happen to be the least consistent because of issues that have nothing to do with skill or player-side connection. Snipers, bursters, trappers, mutants, all have their issues re: server connection but I think the speed and leap distance of the hound is what makes them so much more unreliable to shove or dodge, and that’s not to mention they can literally walk through walls. Also the mutant pins you temporarily, the burster doesn’t pin you but adds a lot of corruption, and the sniper doesn’t pin or add corruption but does a ton of damage, the hound pins you indefinitely and adds corruption and does a ton of damage. The fact that their first move with dogs was to make a modifier that spawns swarms of them is… beyond comprehension

Also a big irony is, if they improve other aspects of the game first, and more people start playing again, the higher player count will surely make servers slower, and make hit reg even worse, so they’ll in a way be shooting themselves in the foot if they fix other things before fixing the servers. I remember on launch Damnation difficulty was effectively unplayable because the servers were so laggy they couldn’t handle all the enemies that were being spawned. Not sure what they intend to do about it but, I think this is honestly a way bigger issue than pretty much any other the game has.

3 Likes
12

On top of the feedback and criticisms here I want to add that North American servers are really terrible for some reason. I may be in EU but even my NA friends are having a worse time playing on NA servers compared to EU, NA servers are noticeably worse in performance and unstable for some reason compared to EU servers.

The server-side dictating everything in a co-op action game is outdated and needs to go.

5 Likes
13

Servers in Asia are ass.
The only good thing is there are just a handful people on them now.

But as soon as a patch is released and a few people come back to see … Flying mobs and desync galore.

4 Likes
14

Want to throw my “hat” in the ring here too… the number of times the game wouldn’t let me swap the weapon when i wanted to swap the weapon is ridicilous.

As psyker this can lead to blowing yourself up, when you are near 100% and want to swap to melee, and instead the Server is like “nope, gotta do staff attacks” and suddenly you clicked two Lmouse attacks and boom.

Or the number of times my Ogryn gets stuck in a heavy attack animation because i want to chain in the uppercut of the shovel to stagger an enemy. Suddenly the server is like “oh you wanted to do a heavy attack?” No, i did not!.. and the worst of it is… that heavy attack doesn’t even auto release or releases on anything unless i let go of every button and then deliberately charge another heavy attack… it is ridiculous.

1 Like
15

So much this. Lost count of how many times this dumshit latency ended up getting me milled due to weapon doesn’t want to swap.

1 Like
16

TIL why my Zealot randomly does heavy attacks when I’m spamming lights in a horde

17

Bold of you to assume they were tested at all :slight_smile:

3 Likes
18

I’ve put up a post on hit registration issues myself before too. Netcode is ass IMO, so many hit registration and ghost input shenanigans that it can often feel like the game is trying to gaslight you into thinking you suck if it’s a particularly bad day.

2 Likes
19

I’ve had games like that. The other day I had a no-good-very-bad game and I went back and watched my footage and realized I had visually dodged sniper shots but been hit anyway or dodged the trapper net only to be forced into it anyway. I thought I was just having a bad and unlucky run but it was actually just latency the whole time. No audio sting hits were common that round too.

4 Likes
21

Quoted again for double effect :roll_eyes:
Has happened to me enough times to realise its not me, it’s the vm/kubernete or whatever they’ve spun up to serve the game.

I’m sure the insta-snipes are part of the same issue.

I can’t see that this will be fixed without a client side game, and actually that was worse imo looking back at vt2.

1 Like