Let's talk about the netcode

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
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So I’ve seen a lot of people talking about performance and crashes - which are both very important - but the biggest thing impacting my quality of life right now is the lag. Yes, I have pretty bad wi-fi because we’re out in the boonies (I’m lucky to get 2 mbps when downloading), but I don’t have these kinds of problems with any other online game. VT2, DRG, Destiny 2, RDO, Payday 2, L4D2, and many others - none of them lag for me the way that Darktide does, even at peak hours.

The lag isn’t constant; it tends to come and go, but my god does it interfere with my ability to function. Let’s talk about some of the more egregious examples:

  • Attacks not… attacking. I have had moments of holding left click to do a heavy attack with my force sword, raising the weapon like I’m going to attack, and then just staring lovingly into the eyes of the scab in front of me while he runs me through with his bayonet. This also happens with staves; I can start charging up with my Purgatus, left-click… and nothing. I lurch for a moment like I’m going to let loose, but it just doesn’t happen. I have had this happen as many as three times in a row and it can be absolutely devastating if I’m trying to line up a burst on an incoming horde, especially if the resulting delay gives an enemy the opportunity to shoot me, which wastes my charge.
  • Rubber-banding and ice-skating. I have had my movement leave my control multiple times, and I just kinda slide around like I’m roller-skating on an ice rink, usually either at an angle or in circles. Very fun. I once made a full circuit of a room doing this - during which time my left hand was off the keyboard, for reference - and then when I got control back I took a solid ten seconds’ worth of poxwalker hits all at once and went 100-0.
  • Active skill not activating. Basically the same problem as item #1, but potentially even more life-threatening. I have had several times where I started to explode from peril and hit F to vent… it plays the animation and the voice line, but no one gets knocked back, my skill does not go on cooldown, and no peril is vented. Every time so far I have noticed and just started mashing F and it eventually goes off, but I feel like one of these days it’s going to kill me.

I love how skill-based and precise the Tide games are, but that very thing makes problems like these so much worse. It’s difficult to settle into a rhythm when you’re constantly accommodating for the possibility that your attacks might just… not work thanks to lag.

Anyone else having these problems?

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Yes, I have experienced similar issues with all types of attacks seemingly not working properly and I wondered if they were network related.

Push attacks not being responsive, chaining heavy attacks.

I am curious as to where the servers are located and what my ping is to them

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For me it’s just CONSTANT hit reg issues. I’ll shoot an enemy upwards of 5 times with a revolver and get the headshot notification sound every shot, but the enemy will just brush it off like he’s got 2+ invuln saves. It’s really frustrating. Also heavies that just charge eternally despite me letting go of left mouse.

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It’s generally been reasonably stable for me, but there’s definitely times where something is running noticeably worse than usual.

Like, most of the time I’ll be able to dodge an attack, but occasionally I’ll hear the alert noise or time a dodge against a mutant or whatever, clearly dodge it, then get whacked or have the enemy do a 180 and grab me.

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