Consistent & Constant Rubber-banding
I've logged 341 hours of playtime in Marathon, and I do really enjoy the game. But ever since I started playing since launch, there's been constant and consistent rubber-banding and lag. By this point I've adapted to it and stopped noticing it but whenever someone else plays on my setup they're like WTF. I do often get frustrated by it, especially in those heated moments where it made me lose a lot of good stuff.
I do believe it is related to my internet, however it's quite inconsistent and not on all online shooter games I've played. So far, Destiny 2, Valorant, Team Fortress 2, and Deep Rock Galactic do NOT have rubber-banding. The only games that DO rubber-band for me are Deadlock and Marathon. That's really what has me confused and makes me think that there might be some server-side solution for it.
I recorded a video compilation of a typical run on Marathon, showcasing the issue in-game: https://youtu.be/U55e4a9OYNU
Variables that I think could cause/affect it:
- I'm on OCE Servers.
- My connection is part of a campus-wide university Wi-Fi network.
- My Wi-Fi connection has no IPv6 address.
- In all of the games I tested above I had low ping, but high packet loss.
I made a post only now rather than earlier because I saw that Bungie was wanting to hear more about issues in this space when they occur, and figured now would be the best time for it. I'm completely open to any questions, or just tell me that you can't do anything about it, I'm kind of expecting that nothing happens with this. I no longer get this issue if I log in on another Wi-Fi network, but that's kind of obvious and doesn't really help people who can't simply change their ISP on a dime (like me right now).
Comments
Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out.
We're sorry to hear you're dealing with this frustrating situation.
The red connection icons you saw typically indicate network instability during the match. This can happen because of packet loss, latency, issues with local network hardware, or interruptions between your connection and your ISP.
To help improve connection stability and reduce latency or packet loss, please review our troubleshooting guide here: Optimzing Connections guide.
If you haven't already, please post in this thread as we are tracking issues like yours.
I went through the guide, and listed a few notes about it.
- I'm unable to enact any of the main troubleshooting changes, as I do not control my ISP or what devices connect to the network.
- Because my Wi-Fi connection is campus-wide, there are large amount of devices connected to the network at the same time.
- I am unable to swap to a wired connection as my dorm room has no ethernet compatibility.
The only thing I have control over is that I usually have Discord open in the background when playing Marathon, but that's pretty obviously not the cause of the issue. It's pretty clear that the university Wi-Fi has something going on where either due to the sheer number of connected devices, poor upload/download speed, distance from the modem, or a combination of all/other variables, that it's causing that high packet loss and unstable connection.
It took me a while to want to make a post for it because I knew that there is seemingly nothing I can do, so it felt like it'd be kind of a waste. But after testing those other games (such as Valorant), where I didn't have the rubber-banding, it had me curious about what server-side difference there is between those other games' host servers that fixes this issue.
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