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Why is the netcode in Madden/NCAA 360 so damn horrible?

F

FrenchMovieTheme

Member
Lets ignore the fact that Madden 360 was a subpar game. I'm just talking about it's network performance. It was pretty awful, regardless of game quality. It lagged like a mother****er from day 1 and never improved to my knowledge (although I didn't play it much after January).

Fast foward to NCAA's release. The game is actually a good game that is very enjoyable. But why is the online performance so shoddy? I admit I don't have a T1 line or have some INSANELY AWESOME network connection, but I always have had smooth games in non-ea online sports games on 360 (NBA 2k6, for instance).

what is the problem here? is it because there are so many more people playing NCAA 07 360 online than there were playing NBA 2k6 360? I'm trying to understand why the biggest 3rd party in the industry can't have a semi-decent online structure where the game isn't like playing under water.
 
F

FrenchMovieTheme

Member
lets not turn this into that crap again. VC, Midway or whoever else can make any FOOTBALL game they want. they just can't make an NFL or NCAA game. moving on...

it's not that EA is running it's own servers. VC/Take 2 run their own servers for NBA 2k6 360 as well and the performance online was smooth.
 
D

DMczaf

Member
what pisses me off is that Madden Xbox was like the best online sports experience ive ever had. It was JUST like playing offline.
 
S

Skilotonn

xbot xbot xbot xbot xbot
Blame EA for wanting to do their own thing with online - they even screwed up something as simple as online chat for Battlefield 2 MC for the 360...

Just leave it to MS, come on...
 
M

Mrbob

Member
My online experience has been hit and miss. Last night against Kotex we played a game online that was lag free. As smooth as an offline experience, so who knows.
 
L

Lonestar

I joined for Erin Brockovich discussion
My games against mmlemay, Malleymal, and my cousin have been pretty smooth online.

My games against Truelize, and Cloudy have been lagfest. Gstaff, we couldn't even get past the choose a team screen.

Hit and Miss is pretty much the name of the game.
 
T

Teflon

Member
I hate thier lobbies. Why is it that when I send a invite and when people don't respond I hit cancel it kicks me back to the online menu and not back to the lobby I came from. I mean, come on EA! That's a few extra thumb movements I don't need to go thru! Just send me back to the lobby and we will be friends.
 
D

DMczaf

Member
Cloudy said:
I'm old enough to remember when there was competition in football games. *sheds a tear*
Click to expand...

Even when EA didn't have the NFL exclusive, there was never any competition :lol
 
M

methodman

Banned
These new 2k games look like shit; I can't even imagine how shitty nfl 2k6 / 2k7 would've looked. That was the only thing it had going for it.
 
F

FrenchMovieTheme

Member
still having issues with ncaa 360. is it because there are so many people online? i just don't get it.

again i ask the tech heads here: why is a game like NBA 2k6 on xbox 360 so smooth online, but a game like NCAA 360 you feel like you are getting lucky if you just have a half second of lag only. any solutions for this?
 
Z

Zep

Banned
My wireless adaptor makes games shitttty. Connecting directly helps a lot...and anytime i play someone on the east coast its pretty good.
 
D

DMczaf

Member
FrenchMovieTheme said:
still having issues with ncaa 360. is it because there are so many people online? i just don't get it.

again i ask the tech heads here: why is a game like NBA 2k6 on xbox 360 so smooth online, but a game like NCAA 360 you feel like you are getting lucky if you just have a half second of lag only. any solutions for this?
Click to expand...

Because NBA has 10 players, and football has 22 players!! Use some logic, FMT! Damn it!
 
S

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
last night I was playing a gaffer (dont remember who) and we got the "disconnected" message. Wierd thing is, we could still chat to each other while the disconnected message was on screen.
 
H

hgplayer1

Member
probably the reason we havent seen online leagues is because EA knows their online play isnt stable. it would be pretty upsetting playing an online franchise or league game and having to deal with constant disconnects and lag issues.
 
B

bluemax

Banned
FrenchMovieTheme said:
still having issues with ncaa 360. is it because there are so many people online? i just don't get it.

again i ask the tech heads here: why is a game like NBA 2k6 on xbox 360 so smooth online, but a game like NCAA 360 you feel like you are getting lucky if you just have a half second of lag only. any solutions for this?
Click to expand...

Lazy/bad coding? From what I hear EA programmers are known for every questionable programming practice known to man. Magic numbers, unitialized variables, you name it. There's probably something that could be done to fix up the football netcode, but since they're on such a short time table it just doesn't get taken care of.
 
Blackace

Blackace

if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
FrenchMovieTheme said:
maybe you are right. maybe EA just doesn't give a crap about online gamers :(

and where is online franchise mode EA! ****!
Click to expand...
kanye_west_mike_myers.jpg
 
J

Juice

Member
I was so pumped to play NCAA online after getting a 3 month Live card.

I've played a couple games, but the lag has been a ****ing slideshow. It's beyond horrible. It's among the worst online gaming experiences I've ever had. And I have a ****ing monstrously great network.

Why is it that games played better online in 1996 than this? I know Xbots are a huge fan of believing that online gaming started the day Xbox Live went online, but I was playing X-wing v.s Tie without lag a ****ing decade ago, and this is the best they can do? When there are just two people and not 8 or 16? What the hell.
 
F

FrenchMovieTheme

Member
calm down juicy juice. this isn't an "xbox live is too laggy all the time!" this is an NCAA is laggy. xbox live games in general have been very good for me
 
G

Galaron

EA guy that we like
Keep in mind that EA uses peer-to-peer connection for their sports titles. So once you drop from their lobby servers and establish a connection at Team Select, it really is a matter of how direct your connection is to the other player. As some of you have indicated, a host of issues could effect netplay including firewalls on both players, local traffic, the number of jumps, each individual's ISP, etc. Since most people have indicated that their experience varies between smooth and laggy, the culprit is likely the connection to the other peer.

If one person is using DSL and has essentially a 128K connection (or possibly even 64K) while the other has a T1 line, that packet pass through is going to be throttled because of the DSL user. Sports games just do state passing, where basically the controller inputs are being sent to each user during each frame in a strict peer-to-peer connection. If one of the players has poor upload bandwidth, then some of those packets could get dropped on the way, leading to lag. It could certainly be poor netcode, but the myriad of factors makes it hard to determine. Also, the fact that someone had smoother netplay 10 years ago was likely due to the fact that you didn't have a router or as many jumps from your ISP to theirs. The backbone structure of data delivery today is wildly more crowded than it was even five years ago.
 
A

Andokuky

Banned
I haven't had any problems with the latency, just the crap gameplay.

NBA2k6 is still the laggiest sports game I have ever played online, it's even worse than playing back on the Dreamcast.
 
Q

qcf x2

Member
I've only had a few games that were borderline unplayable due to lag, and those were from people with one bar so go figure.

I actually had a worse time with NBA 2k6, since that doesn't let you sort by location.

But yeah, being kicked to the main menu because someone doesn't accept your game invite is retarded. But oh well, half the people use exploits anyways.

I swear, I love this game offline, but online it bugs the hell out of me.

When the CPU decides my team will have a bad game, there's nothing I can do. I can have USC and hit Jarrett wide open 5 times and 4 out of the 5 he'll drop it. And my running backs/QB's will fumble. And then on kick returns they'll fumble. And then accurate QB's won't throw where I want the pass to go. And I'll have my FG blocked. And my DBs won't make interceptions, manual or auto, even when they have a 3 or 4 on 1.

It is weird.
 
T

TheDuce22

Banned
Andokuky said:
I haven't had any problems with the latency, just the crap gameplay.

NBA2k6 is still the laggiest sports game I have ever played online, it's even worse than playing back on the Dreamcast.
Click to expand...

Must be some problem on your end. Lag is fine for me.
 
A

Andokuky

Banned
TheDuce22 said:
Must be some problem on your end. Lag is fine for me.
Click to expand...

A problem that only comes up in that game and MLB 06. Yea, my internet just hates those 2 games yet it's fine with me hosting a 32 player match of SOCOM. Wierd.
 
M

Malleymal

You now belong to FMT.
Lone and I had a problem connecting yesterday after having no problem connecting in the past.... you need to play with your router settings to get things to work... we tried like 20 times and nothing....

I went into my linksys settings and just played with the firewall options, then we had no problem at all... no lag or nothing, If there is someone that you ALWAYS have a problem with (I think that is the case with RAM and someone) you should go into the settings and do the same, Uncheck MAC filtering and notice your NAT settings, it makes a great difference....
 
G

Gunstar77

GAF Madden 2006 Season 1 NFC Champ
Andokuky said:
A problem that only comes up in that game and MLB 06. Yea, my internet just hates those 2 games yet it's fine with me hosting a 32 player match of SOCOM. Wierd.
Click to expand...

Socom actually has servers unlike Xbox Live which is peer to peer. Pretty fun that everyone trashes Sony for there online set up but I have less problems with online games on PS2 then I do with the Xbox & 360.
 
Q

qcf x2

Member
You know what, I just witnessed the worst game-breaking bugs I've ever seen in a football game yesterday.......in NCAA '07.

I won't say what it is/they are, but it's easy as hell for anyone to do and it is completely dibilitating.

So I'm going back on what I said about this game being so great earlier. They need to release a patch ASAP before I can take it seriously again.

Disappointment!
 
shpankey

shpankey

not an idiot
you guys can always play me (though I am not very good, and was hoping fmt would teach me more again) as i have a 9meg down 1meg upload cable connection on my 360. give me a shout on xbl if you wanna game of ncaa (or madden next week) my GT: shpankE
 
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