Recently we've been getting reports and reviews indicating a large number of users have been having ping issues. After talking to our multiplayer networking partner, we've determined it's caused by server-side issues on their end due to the specific version of the package we're using. We've been told that upgrading to a newer version of the package should resolve the connection issues, so that's what we'll do! Ideally this should not be an extremely time consuming process, but updating software packages is inherently unpredictable, so no hard ETA.
Those curious about more details can read below.
Different multiplayer games use different ways of connecting players and moving data around a network. A first person shooter like Counter-Strike will use a very different way of networking players than a real-time strategy game like StarCraft, due to the very different gameplay in each title. Davigo uses a client-server architecture with matches hosted by the players. For games with low player counts, this has the advantage that a direct connection can be established between the small group of clients and the host player, resulting in very low ping when players are nearby.
Unfortunately, establishing a direct connection between two devices over the internet in practice is actually very challenging! Nearly every device players use is connected to a router of some sort (either through WiFi or cable) rather than being plugged directly into your home's internet port, making them much less visible to the internet at large. The technique to circumvent this is called NAT punchthrough, or Hole punching; when this works, it allows for a direct (low-ping) connection. When it does not work, Davigo will fall back to a relay server to move data between players, which can result in significantly higher ping. This is not remotely ideal, and in general should only occur with unusual network setups.
Up until recently, we found the overwhelming majority of players were playing via direct connection. Last month we started getting more reports of poor ping, but the root cause was hard to track down (did we cause a bug with a recent update; do these players just have terrible internet; is something broken server-side?). Luckily, we had a few players that reported noticing a change in their connection quality, which helped us narrow down the timeframe it occurred. Thanks a ton to everyone who helped report and track this down, and sorry to everyone who wasn't able to play the game due to this issue. Hopefully will have a fix coming down the pipeline!
- Davidevs