Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Nearly a month ago, I resolutely bought a cassette version that could be sold back because of a large number of connection problems with the Eve Festival (similar to the trial version) of Spratt 3.

The cassette didn't arrive until a week after the game was released, and when I first entered hero mode (similar to a stand-alone battle), my colleagues and friends were already playing real games (similar to ranked mode).

I am not bothered by too many network problems, but occasionally encounter annoying connection errors, or wait a long time but can't find anyone. This may be due to Beijing's relatively superior geographical location, as well as a certain brand of mainframe acceleration box from a classmate before graduating from college.

There will be cases of waiting for the Standard PvP match until sleeping to death.

But my colleagues, friends, and even the passers-by and enemies I met in the game seem to be suffering from the eternal problems of the Internet.

Within the first minute of the regular 4-on-4 game, if someone goes offline, the game will be suspended immediately without any data. In the limited games I have encountered, passers-by drop the line more than four times as often as my friends and I have connection problems.

Nintendo released a patch on September 16th, claiming to have fixed several problems that led to connection errors. But from the feedback I have seen, the connection problem still exists: not only the Chinese are complaining, but also the Japanese and foreigners in Europe and the United States are complaining.

If this is a bilibili video, the next second may pop up unpreventable accelerator ads. But I do not want to advertise, in fact, there is no need to advertise, the accelerator is not WD-40, let alone a panacea for "Spratt 3" network problems.

According to some Twitter players who unpack the data, the previous two generations of "Sprattern" used a "NEX" server system from the 3DS era, while "Spratt 3" used the new "NPLN" system, which was the first game to use NPLN and focus on online content. Currently, only the rise of the Monster Hunter and the Legend of Pokemon: al Zeus are also using NPLN.

There is not much difference in the nature of the two systems. Spratt 3 is still using peer-to-peer (P2P) connections to build halls rather than separate servers.

The picture on the left shows the network connection based on the central server.

The picture on the right shows a P2P connection.

It is said that NPLN has made some improvements to matching, such as introducing a matching system based on network delay for the first time. But the core problem of P2P is far from being solved by these improvements: as long as the network of anyone in the hall is unstable or in conflict with the network of the homeowners who set up the hall, it will lead to problems in the whole hall.

Considering that my Switch version of Monster Hunter Rises also often encounters delays in monster movements and dropped teammates, I reasonably doubt that the role of NPLN is only a drop in the bucket.

I am too familiar with these six words.

Network problems seem to be common problems, but in fact they are only a large number of cases. Under the influence of operators, physical environment and computer network configuration, the network environment between different players is very different. It can be said that "the players with good network are all the same, and the players with poor network have their own differences."

Over the past two years, friends who often gang up have gone their separate ways, and their network environment may change dramatically every few months. once they encounter P2P-based games, there will always be network problems that Baidu and Google can't find the crux of the problem. In particular, the campus network is almost at the bottom of the ecological chain of online games. When players using the campus network connect to the lobby under the non-campus network environment, the delay often soars to more than 300 milliseconds.

Last year, I was listed as the "latent disease" of the game of the year. My friends and I have not cleared customs so far because of network problems. The two-week program of "Divine World: original Sin 2", also mentioned in the daytime talk column, was once unable to get into the game because of loading the progress bar. It was shelved for a long time in the middle of the game, and only recently picked it up again. Homeowners with archives happen to use the campus network, which is usually fine, once they reach the evening rush hour, there is a high probability that they will not be able to enter the game.

Move, progress bar. Why don't you move?

There is also a "board game simulator", which also has frequent delays and disconnections. In a group of 2000 people related to a board game forum, I still remember someone calling on campus network players not to buy this game.

In order to reduce the delay, various "accelerator metaphysics" with unknown principles have been derived in the group, such as connecting the nodes of "Adventure in the Rain 2", "Halo: infinity" or "lost Light" and "National Service". I tried it myself, and everyone in the room had a high delay, but hardly dropped the line. Unfortunately, these nodes can only be tested in the "board game simulator", and other games will only play a negative role.

The weirdest scene takes place in the zombie survival game "Seven days Kill". The core mechanism of the game is to refresh the body tide every seven days, but with a delay of up to tens of thousands of milliseconds, players in the same room enter different parallel universes: some people fight to the death for a chance of survival in the mountain of blood; others don't even see a zombie, watching their teammates bleed and worry.

It is amazing that the game has a high latency but does not go offline. Tuyuan "Seven days Kill" forum @ Montasa

After all, "Spratt 3" is a masterpiece that sold millions of copies in the first week, and Nintendo is also a big company known as "the master of the world." compared with the development conditions of those small studios, it should provide a better connecting environment.

But to put it another way, such a popular work, instead of setting up independent servers in various regions, is highly dependent on the traditional P2P online mode. A large number of other players bump into each other in a very different network environment, and there will be ghosts if there is no problem.

Based on the long-term experience of "playing a game for an hour" with Chinese characteristics, I would like to give Nintendo more tolerance, and I have no plans to sell the cassette in the short term. But I also have reason to suspect that Nintendo is unlikely to solve the annoying connectivity problem any time soon.

Perhaps only star chain can ensure the stability of the connection of global P2P multiplayer games. -- CaesarZX

This article is from the official account of Wechat: game Research Society (ID:yysaag), author: Zhaoyue

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.