UK Server Problems

[CarmineKiller]

I have had 2 threads deleted already for discussing this, but despite that I still want to get to the bottom of the problems folk in the UK are experiencing currently. In the past week or so there has been a sharp increase in lag/rubberbanding and generally the game has become unplayable for me and my friends. Those I don't know who i have been in a lobby with as well, have cited similar concerns about the gameplay.

So Epic please do not delete this thread, as ultimately it will benefit you in the longrun, as we need to establish just how serious a problem there is for UK players right now. It is not fair that the issue be ignored. Something has happened recently, and we need to know what.

[That british guy]

Theres been quite a fair bit of lag for me too.

There was one guy yesterday who sponged insane amounts from all of us and we were all randoms, so it can't have been just my connection. The rest of his team however, went down just fine.

[IX FlameHaze XI]

I'm in the UK, i've had abit of lag recently, i was telporting about Azura yesterday -.-

[Cobryza]

I'm in the UK, and I don't have ANY of those problems. The game works absolutely fine for me. Stop hip-firing your gnasher and actually aim it.

[coswurv]

I'm in the UK, and I don't have ANY of those problems. The game works absolutely fine for me. Stop hip-firing your gnasher and actually aim it.

Oh look at mr clever bollox

[CarmineKiller]

i have experienced some serious sponging myself, more so than usual. As bad as 3 Gnasher shots not putting down a person who doesn't even know i have come up behind him.

I'm not saying that we don't have servers etc etc, i don't want this thread to be about that, and then turn into a P2P argument. But the quality of my games have seriously declined, and i know it isn't my internet connection. That has remained the same as it always was, and i have no issues with any other MP games.

I just want as many UK players as possible to detail in here any issues they are having, with the view that Epic can at least take a look at the UK setup.

[dopemanJr]

We need better servers for Europe as a whole, not specifically UK, but yea, couldn't agree more.

When beta was out I was playing in Germany, with people from mid U.S.A. Connection was FLAWLESS! I mean flawless!

So in beta, I played on a perfect U.S. connection every day.
Now? I wouldn't even dare to join their U.S. lobby and search a match, Lagging and rubberbanding WAAY too much.

I mean, E.U. servers are laggy, so obviously U.S. would be down the ****ter for me, but what amazes me is the TOP of the LINE connection i had during the BETA.

[coswurv]

I have to agree with the above post, the beta connection was excellent, now its just pants and keeps coming up "host has quit" so cant be on servers at the minute.

[DanTheGamer11]

Ireland too please! The last time I played a match was last year and the connections were much better... I used to get a good score but now I get a max of 1 kill and something like 7/8 deaths cause of lag, getting downed in under half a second with a lancer etc. And now you need DLC to play on dedicated servers... that wasn't advertised at launch. I played a couple of matches yesterday shoulda mentioned it earlier.

Where's Quick Match gone?

[The Locust Horde]

Ireland too please! The last time I played a match was last year and the connections were much better... I used to get a good score but now I get a max of 1 kill and something like 7/8 deaths cause of lag, getting downed in under half a second with a lancer etc. And now you need DLC to play on dedicated servers... that wasn't advertised at launch. I played a couple of matches yesterday shoulda mentioned it earlier.

Where's Quick Match gone?

Its funny as the server is in Ireland apparently.
Cue the I never ever lagg posters.

[CarmineKiller]

Yes my friends and I always comment on how brilliant the Beta connection was. It's never been as good since sadly.

I think a cause of the problems could be matchmaking. I have found now I often end up with a diverse location of players in a match, whereas up until recently i found it was a solid base of UK players who would make up the match. Perhaps the server hosting the game cannot handle the mixed location base of players these days.

Whatever is happening though, it is having a detrimental effect on my enjoyment of the MP right now.

[DanTheGamer11]

Well the majority of people I played with yesterday were with French and Italians... the one with the french only ended up with the host hacking or something cause the enemy team spawned where we spawned but the were stuck and couldn't move, soon they quit... I'd rather play with and against Irish/UK people... they don't cheat as much and the connection is much better.

[dopemanJr]

i really wish we could start a kind of revolution. We have the potential power as a community, but not the discipline. We could really change things

[ThE_SpEcIaL_1]

i really wish we could start a kind of revolution. We have the potential power as a community, but not the discipline. We could really change things

So when r u running for election

[tc88 chosen 1]

Ive just been down my recent players list to see where the ppl im playing are from. And ive plyed with more germans and polish players this week than UK players ,Thats the biggest promlem match making

[robmystro]

i really wish we could start a kind of revolution. We have the potential power as a community, but not the discipline. We could really change things

haha lmfao

[Darman]

Please EPIC do something i have a 50 mbps down and a 5 mbps up and my gnasher spounges this is the reason hardle anyone plays grears also make only rank mode no quick mactch. im thinking of giving up on this game and going back to battlefield 3 sorry EPIC

[anmanci]

Please EPIC do something i have a 50 mbps down and a 5 mbps up and my gnasher spounges this is the reason hardle anyone plays grears also make only rank mode no quick mactch. im thinking of giving up on this game and going back to battlefield 3 sorry EPIC

I have 100 down and 10 up and it is a real bull**** for me too.

[x50_Spence]

i really wish we could start a kind of revolution. We have the potential power as a community, but not the discipline. We could really change things

We could all as a community only play one game type, which would force epic into making some changes! I think its evil that they mis informed us about the dedicated servers only being available to those with the DLC. Makes me laugh also that the DLC owners are completely seperate from the non DLC players.. I no longer get put up against n00bs, everyone knows how to kill. Shame really.

[E. Carmine]

Previously on Gears 3, I'd been playing on a 0.13 down, 0.05 up and 200 MS PING connection. Using that connection, the game played fine for me the first two weeks and has then gone steadily down the pan. I figured 'Hey, I'm playing on an awful connection... It's my fault'

Anyway, yesterday I BT finally upgraded my area and I have now joined people in 2005 with a fibre optic 38 down, 8 up, 15 MS PING connection. Started playing again last night. Game feels better, far less sponging until it got to about midnight and then the game just got flooded with French people... Sponging an unbelievable amount of shots. The game felt like I was back on my 0.13 connection.

A few questions:

Why do I get put with so many French people?

Why are French players (And to a slightly lesser extent Dutch and Irish players) invincible? I can literally tell where a person is located based on what happens in game. Why are people from these locations invincible? I go check their stats after they go 23-0 and they have like a 0.6 k/d.

I wasn't the only Brit complaining about these French people yesterday.

The game played perfectly the first two weeks. I'd just like an explanation as to what happened. Did you turn off the UK servers? So now the only servers we have access to are Irish and Central European ones?

Come on Epic. I bought the Gears console, the game, the season pass and at least 5 extra weapon skins. You've got your money out of me, can you please just let me know the truth?

*I have never met as many French people online as I have in GoW3. Is it some sort of pact Epic have with the French that they'll play Gears exclusively online if Epic base all their servers in France?

[NP473L]

Previously on Gears 3, I'd been playing on a 0.13 down, 0.05 up and 200 MS PING connection. Using that connection, the game played fine for me the first two weeks and has then gone steadily down the pan. I figured 'Hey, I'm playing on an awful connection... It's my fault'

Anyway, yesterday I BT finally upgraded my area and I have now joined people in 2005 with a fibre optic 38 down, 8 up, 15 MS PING connection. Started playing again last night. Game feels better, far less sponging until it got to about midnight and then the game just got flooded with French people... Sponging an unbelievable amount of shots. The game felt like I was back on my 0.13 connection.

A few questions:

Why do I get put with so many French people?

Why are French players (And to a slightly lesser extent Dutch and Irish players) invincible? I can literally tell where a person is located based on what happens in game. Why are people from these locations invincible? I go check their stats after they go 23-0 and they have like a 0.6 k/d.

I wasn't the only Brit complaining about these French people yesterday.

The game played perfectly the first two weeks. I'd just like an explanation as to what happened. Did you turn off the UK servers? So now the only servers we have access to are Irish and Central European ones?

Come on Epic. I bought the Gears console, the game, the season pass and at least 5 extra weapon skins. You've got your money out of me, can you please just let me know the truth?

*I have never met as many French people online as I have in GoW3. Is it some sort of pact Epic have with the French that they'll play Gears exclusively online if Epic base all their servers in France?

I do agree. My connection against UK players is decent, but I keep playing French people, and they are unbelievably invincible/all powerful. The weird thing is that it usually happens to me around midnight too. It most certainly did last night

[scanz]

Yep same here for myself and the other guys I play Gears 3 with. Whenever we come up against people based in France they are invincible and not even good at the game.

[yorkshireman123]

i really wish we could start a kind of revolution. We have the potential power as a community, but not the discipline. We could really change things

hi i had a friend who said up front what you lot have said plus more lol he is an idiot but still he a friend he got banned from posting and he's ip address banned aswell for ever so all i am say is please because if forums have remove it it will be because it hurts epic's rep. i know it silly and yes you are all right more server's are needed sorting out but i hope they sort it all out.

[Triqk]

I live in the UK and have a good connection. I constantly receive lag when going to cover and coming off cover and getting stuck on cover that's not there.

[fsanta]

i really wish we could start a kind of revolution. We have the potential power as a community, but not the discipline. We could really change things

settle down there lol, revolution is going to extremes over an aspect of MP
but its not like i dont experience lag playing from another continent on EU servers :C

[CarmineKiller]

lol, it is that kind of talk that will get the thread deleted!!

Seeing what some of you guys have said, and having a little scout around on the net, it appears that 1 of 3 things might be the problem.

Firstly, either UK servers are being invaded (for want of a better word) by Europeans and Americans, and it is dragging the connection quality down. This happens on games like Battlefield too, were the diversity of player location is too much for the server to calculate accurately (for want of a better phrase).

Secondly, UK players are being placed on servers in Europe or afar, which is why we keep coming up against Italians, French, Germans etc. Our connection to these servers is being affected by distance, which is what is causing the lag/teleporting etc.

Finally, there is legitimately something wrong with the UK servers, and some are either down or not working correctly. I obviously have no evidence of this, but it is this I would like confirmed by Epic either way. At least so we have an idea of what is going on.

[dopemanJr]

lol, it is that kind of talk that will get the thread deleted!!

Seeing what some of you guys have said, and having a little scout around on the net, it appears that 1 of 3 things might be the problem.

Firstly, either UK servers are being invaded (for want of a better word) by Europeans and Americans, and it is dragging the connection quality down. This happens on games like Battlefield too, were the diversity of player location is too much for the server to calculate accurately (for want of a better phrase).

Secondly, UK players are being placed on servers in Europe or afar, which is why we keep coming up against Italians, French, Germans etc. Our connection to these servers is being affected by distance, which is what is causing the lag/teleporting etc.

Finally, there is legitimately something wrong with the UK servers, and some are either down or not working correctly. I obviously have no evidence of this, but it is this I would like confirmed by Epic either way. At least so we have an idea of what is going on.

IMO, and I could be completely wrong, but i think your heavily mistaken. UK servers never existed, and couldn't get invaded by European servers, as the UK is in Europe.

Back to the point. Epic didn't give UK individual servers, nor did it give Germany, or any other country in Europe their own servers. What we have are European servers. For all of Europe, hence you getting matched up with Italians, French, Germans, etc... Completely makes sense.

The US doesn't have servers for different states. (Texas for example is much bigger than the UK) The US. has North american servers. Thats why you see all the complaints of American playing with Mexicans, and Canadians.

So sorry to bust it to you, but you complaint is invalid. UK doesn't have servers. Europe as a whole does.

My connection is usually pretty good, (yea some sponges, thats the game). The might be the reason my connection is on average quite good is because i play ranked 99% of the time. This almost ensure i play on dedicated servers (as long as they are up and running)

Could that be your reason? Do you play quick match a lot?

That could lead to a whole nother issue about all the people complaining about connection, when its obvious why.. Because 95% of people are playing quick match.

Epic said a long time ago, Dedicated servers are reserved for ranked games, quick match take up the extra room that is left over after all Ranked games are on servers.
(Theory) So I imagine RANKED TDM takes up about 50-60% of the servers in Europe. Then the other ranked game modestake another 20% , , which leaves quick match with maybe 10-20% of server bandwidth. So not all quick match games will be on dedicated.

[villaboy72]

Epic said a long time ago, Dedicated servers are reserved for ranked games, quick match take up the extra room that is left over after all Ranked games are on servers.
(Theory) So I imagine RANKED TDM takes up about 50-60% of the servers in Europe. Then the other ranked game modestake another 20% , , which leaves quick match with maybe 10-20% of server bandwidth. So not all quick match games will be on dedicated.

I understand all of the above, however...

Ranked matches are currently empty, last night at 'prime UK time', there was only 4 players in my region and 117 players worldwide playing RANKED KOTH and 14 regional and 89 worldwide on TDM

If what you are saying above is correct, then due to the lack of Ranked matches, then the QM should be getting more dedicated server coverage? As the servers will not be overloaded due to the lack of players playing ranked?

Last night was probably the WORST connections on this game I have ever experienced. It was truly awful. It was WORSE than coming up against host advantage on Gears 2.

Something has changed over the past few days on UK connections and the lack of communication from EPIC is extremely frustrating...

[CarmineKiller]

I understand all of the above, however...

Ranked matches are currently empty, last night at 'prime UK time', there was only 4 players in my region and 117 players worldwide playing RANKED KOTH and 14 regional and 89 worldwide on TDM

If what you are saying above is correct, then due to the lack of Ranked matches, then the QM should be getting more dedicated server coverage? As the servers will not be overloaded due to the lack of players playing ranked?

Last night was probably the WORST connections on this game I have ever experienced. It was truly awful. It was WORSE than coming up against host advantage on Gears 2.

Something has changed over the past few days on UK connections and the lack of communication from EPIC is extremely frustrating...

Exactly this above.

There are so few playing Ranked matches these days, that the entire Ranked population could fit on just one server. Therefore as i have said somewhere previously, i do not buy into this whole "must play ranked for guaranteed server" philosophy. There are more than enough servers to go round for both Ranked and Quick. The problem is the quality of the servers at the moment.

If as was suggested there are servers in Ireland and Italy, then i would bet that more often than not currently i am connecting to an Italian server. Hence the increased number of diversely located Europeans in my games. The distance to the server then is coming into play, and causing us UK players to lag and suffer within the game. In turn, we may also be affecting the latency of the games for everyone else too.

I don't know what the fix is, and i don't know how it happened, but in recent weeks there has been a huge increase in people talking about lag issues on here. Clearly something is going on, and Epic need to address it sooner rather than later. With the last bit of DLC due in a few weeks, continued problems may well turn people away from the game in the coming months.

[EvilTaffyapple]

IMO, and I could be completely wrong, but i think your heavily mistaken. UK servers never existed, and couldn't get invaded by European servers, as the UK is in Europe.

Back to the point. Epic didn't give UK individual servers, nor did it give Germany, or any other country in Europe their own servers. What we have are European servers. For all of Europe, hence you getting matched up with Italians, French, Germans, etc... Completely makes sense.

The US doesn't have servers for different states. (Texas for example is much bigger than the UK) The US. has North american servers. Thats why you see all the complaints of American playing with Mexicans, and Canadians.

So sorry to bust it to you, but you complaint is invalid. UK doesn't have servers. Europe as a whole does.

My connection is usually pretty good, (yea some sponges, thats the game). The might be the reason my connection is on average quite good is because i play ranked 99% of the time. This almost ensure i play on dedicated servers (as long as they are up and running)

Could that be your reason? Do you play quick match a lot?

That could lead to a whole nother issue about all the people complaining about connection, when its obvious why.. Because 95% of people are playing quick match.

Epic said a long time ago, Dedicated servers are reserved for ranked games, quick match take up the extra room that is left over after all Ranked games are on servers.
(Theory) So I imagine RANKED TDM takes up about 50-60% of the servers in Europe. Then the other ranked game modestake another 20% , , which leaves quick match with maybe 10-20% of server bandwidth. So not all quick match games will be on dedicated.

Hate to go against what you said, as it was a well written post...

But the UK servers are in Ireland, and the European servers are in Italy.

This info came specifically from HammerOfWyn's twitter account.

I live in Leeds, and never have any lag. Ever.

[dopemanJr]

Hate to go against what you said, as it was a well written post...

But the UK servers are in Ireland, and the European servers are in Italy.

This info came specifically from HammerOfWyn's twitter account.

I live in Leeds, and never have any lag. Ever.

Might have tweeted this, but i doubt its accurate.

I rarely have lag, so I'm not complaining.

Im in Mid Europe and get matched up with UK players all day, as well as Italy, Germany, NL, Spain, France. I think there are European servers. ( Not UK ) UK is obviously included in European servers.

I do not think UK has individual servers. Hence all UK players getting matched with players from random EU countries.

Im pretty sure EPIC has 4 servers zones.

North America : USA, Mexico, Canada - explains why US gets Mexicans in same lobby.

Europe: All of Europe, including UK. - My zone, diverse EU player lobbies. Eastern Block counties are in this as well ex: Russia (I've played in a lobby of English, Russians, Spanish on numerous occasions.

Asia/Australia - Australians get matched with Asians (Korean, Japan, China) confirmed by complaints on forum.

South Africa - Very small player base but growing constantly so Epic has some servers in Africa, confirmed by Epic, and my a friend who is in South Africa.


These are the 4 zones of GEARS OF WAR 3 when it comes to connections from my (and many others experience)

We have the potential to play lag free across the world if Epic straightens things out. Ex: Beta, i was playing in US lobbies ( many american friends) with a Flawless connection. Half way around the world, amazing consistency and best GOW3 connection to date. I dare not jump in a lobby with those Americans now, FAR to impossible. insane lag

[Morry]

Hold on a minute deicated server means that the Multiplayer game runs on serevers right so if your telling us they don't (!!!!!!) then epic are breaching their contract read the Gears 3 game cover on the back is says Dedicated servers. That means for all online players were do you get your info from!

[Dodgyknees]

Hold on a minute deicated server means that the Multiplayer game runs on serevers right so if your telling us they don't (!!!!!!) then epic are breaching their contract read the Gears 3 game cover on the back is says Dedicated servers. That means for all online players were do you get your info from!

I'd love to see you take EPIC to court citing the back cover as your contract. You'd be laughed out of the place.

[Bigwilkey]

I'd love to see you take EPIC to court citing the back cover as your contract. You'd be laughed out of the place.

that falls under false advertising and companys do get sued for that breach alone, plus now you have to buy DLC to obtain a place on dedis but it dont say that on the box.

If you bought a blu-ray player and opened the box to find a hd-dvd player what would you do... think about it

[x6nat]

Secondly, UK players are being placed on servers in Europe or afar, which is why we keep coming up against Italians, French, Germans etc. Our connection to these servers is being affected by distance, which is what is causing the lag/teleporting etc.

I thought that the servers are only in Ireland and Italy. So it´s normal that we all connect to the same servers. There are not enough servers for Europe and with the bad matchmaking all this BS happen.

[DanTheGamer11]

I'm a bit confused though, I don't think I ever play on Dedicated servers cause I don't have DLC, it keeps telling me this.. so why ain't I getting placed with Mainland Europeans?

[CarmineKiller]

Firstly, can you categorically confirm that there are no servers in the UK?

Secondly, the logic does not fit. A tiny minority of overall players play Ranked, so there should be plenty of room on Quick Match for servers. even more so now they have split those with and without the Fenix Rising DLC.

So the argument of Ranked vs Quick in terms of server space doesn't hold up. Plus why all of a sudden have things taken a turn for the worse. I had little to complain about in terms of this a few weeks back.

[dopemanJr]

Not sure... but i guarantee you UK does not have individual server. Can not confirm. It is that way though.

don't want to write a super long thread again.
Europe has servers, North America (not USA) has servers, Asia/Australia have servers.

Europe (us) gets matched up with All EU countries.. Proof is the players base you and I play with.
North America gets US, Mexican, and Canadian players.
Asia/Australia, self explanatory.

all above is confirmed by putting the pieces together on the forum.

I play with a lot of people from UK, to Ireland, with a very good connection. Always ranked.. so thats not the reason.

Just as a test, try some ranked games and see if connection is better. if not ok, logic flawed. But it still holds that UK doesn't no have individual servers. Microsoft holds Epic's servers, and Microsoft has European wide servers.

Sidenote: Incase you didn't know, Dedicated servers puts everyone on a equal playing field. So if out of the 10 people your playing with, 1 or 2 of them are streaming, and downloading while playing. This will make the entire game laggy, as the server will want to equal playing field. So all players get the lag of the person downloading (to make it fair). Dunno if you knew that.. later

[CarmineKiller]

thats just it though mate. They are meant to, but they don't. Which is why some players sponge, some don't. Some are unkillable, others go down in a second. COD tried to do the same thing with a lag compensation model. It just does not work. Maybe Epic had it cracked, but suddenly something has gone wrong.

Anyway, this isn't about how or why the servers work in general. This is about a decline in the UK quality of games in the past week or so. It's been sharp and it's been noticeable. Too many have commented on here and in game for it just to be a coincidence.

[III HOOP III]

thats just it though mate. They are meant to, but they don't. Which is why some players sponge, some don't. Some are unkillable, others go down in a second. COD tried to do the same thing with a lag compensation model. It just does not work. Maybe Epic had it cracked, but suddenly something has gone wrong.

Anyway, this isn't about how or why the servers work in general. This is about a decline in the UK quality of games in the past week or so. It's been sharp and it's been noticeable. Too many have commented on here and in game for it just to be a coincidence.

I have this issue all the time. I am on the WEST COAST of the USA in California. I play people from France, Italy, Spain, Columbia, and Mexico and they are almost impossible to kill sometimes, but the sponging is SO BAD!! They absorb shots like crazy. It has made the game unplayable for me in it's cureent state. Aside the lag and sponging, my whole team speaks a different language so I am not able to talk and communicate with them. Very frustrating! I just play Horde now or a different game.

EPIC- please put in a "server browser" like BF has on Judgment. Right now Im at the point where I love Gears so much but am considering NOT buying Judgment and just renting it for the campaign due to connection issues. Thanks.