Display latency ping in the UI
A ping on you UI will only tell you what you already know… that you can’t play the game. You still will not know why, nor will it fix your problem.
Have you had a look at Anet’s own troubleshooting guide?
https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/27698133-Connectivity
I wouldn’t mind a toggle-able option to display ping on the mini-map near the time, or somewhere else that is equally unobtrusive, but to be honest I don’t really think this is something that is even remotely a priority.
If you want to monitor your ping, you can already do this extremely easily through in-game means. The ping is displayed in the bottom right corner of the options menu, so open your options menu and drag the window as far off the left side of the screen as you can. It can’t be dragged entirely off-screen, but it will be almost completely out of the way and you’ll be able to play the game without interruption while simultaneously monitoring your ping.
Since we have this incredibly easy solution for monitoring your own latency, development time is probably better spent elsewhere in my opinion.
run cmd.exe (command prompt)
write “ping xx.xx.xx.xx -t” the ip will be whatever comes up when you type /ip in chat (exclude stuff past the colon)
then open another prompt and write ping www.google.com -t
- Google will have a latency of around 20ms, probably way less than your connection to the game servers. This isn’t important. What you’re looking for is latency spikes. If both spike at the same time, then that means that it’s you that’s lagging out. If it’s just GW2, then it’s them
run cmd.exe (command prompt)
write “ping xx.xx.xx.xx -t” the ip will be whatever comes up when you type /ip in chat (exclude stuff past the colon)
then open another prompt and write ping www.google.com -t
- Google will have a latency of around 20ms, probably way less than your connection to the game servers. This isn’t important. What you’re looking for is latency spikes. If both spike at the same time, then that means that it’s you that’s lagging out. If it’s just GW2, then it’s them
This is the best way to know what is going on with your connection. My guess would be that you are on a congested node, and when people get home from work (after 5pm) they are getting on the internet and using up most of the bandwidth on your node, thus causing your lag spikes.
I worked for TWC years ago and this was not unusual. This is the nature of cable internet. If you got DSL, or some variant, this would help with your lag spikes, because you don’t share your connection to your ISP with anyone. You have a direct connection back to the central office.
Regardless of what the issues are with peoples connections, we still need a ping display in the UI. I loved it in GW1 and would like to see it in GW2.
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They should have added a small indicator like GW1 when they originally implemented it. ArenaNet’s so slow when it comes to the UI however, that I wouldn’t count on ever seeing this.
A ping on you UI will only tell you what you already know
It would be useful, since you could adjust accordingly. Fall gliding for example can be deadly when a zerg is causing the zone to lag. It’s happened a few time to me in BF, where I’ll pull out the glider for a second and land, resulting in death.