Hi,
So, I have been testing Geofence with Overwatch 2, since I started getting put into high ping servers, even in competitive.
Geofence are pretty much IP blocking servers that have high ping, UDP IN/OUT.
Problem is, in competitive, If I am on the queue screen and I am unable to connect to a server, I get account suspended 15min, then 1hr after, instead of just a fail message or being redirected to another server. In quick play and training I just get a message failed to connect to server.
From what I observed in the firewall logs after testing, is that once you try to connect to a server, randomly, you get a pool of ips and the game retries many times the ips of that pool, usually 10-15 ips, but not really a rule there, it can be less too. If none of those work, you get a failed connection.
I think the bug is there for both situations, whether I am using geofence or not. If I am correct with the pool, and it just gives whatever ip it wants or have available. That could be why I get connected into high ping servers, which is very bad for gameplay, at least in my experience.
If the pool or whatever it is, had all the regions IPs or if you as a player had a choice to force you to connect to one or more types of servers. Like ORD1, GBR1, etc… The game would check before putting you in a server.
It would be a quality of life update to improve the experience, because when I am put into a high ping server and am unable to leave due to suspension, like in competitive, I lose interest in playing the game after.
There are times where you are put into the correct server you are expecting, it may or may not have blocks, considering the pool, and you are sent connected straight to the low ping server.
Here is an example, where it in the order that it happened, it’s a pool of ips where the last one are continuously retried, till the fail happens ingame, before even connecting.
https://i.postimg.cc/dvRwSVYt/2023-10-10-17-28.png
(If the screenshot says 503, just try the zoom or original version, it should work)
It’s like the game are not prepared to deal or a little prepared to deal with the situation.
But the same ips from the screenshot above, if I sort order the ips, it’s just 13 ips in total retried many times (20 more or less). That is one queue trying to enter training, while only having GBR1 servers allowed. But it’s the same for quick play and probably competitive.
There are times that only one IP (in the pool?) and are retried many more times. It’s all random, much like that pool theory that I said above.
It’s random to the point of sometimes many consecutive success and sometimes many consecutive failures, and in between fail and successes, in connection.
It’s clearly a problem in the game, because why would korea, japan, singapore, france, finland, netherlands, north america IPs would even be in that or any other pool if I am so far away from it. While GBR1 which is the closest, were not.
You read in other threads that has ISP related issues of routing, where why a korea ip and who knows from where else, is included there to begin it, when US IPs would even be much closer after GBR1 (in my case) as an example, there seem to be an actual implementation issue happening.
Most players do not like being put in bad servers (high ping) when there are low ping ones.
There are 3 possible fixes
- Check every user ping in the start of the game and only provide a pool of that region ips to connect. (Make no sense to include high ping servers in that pool if the entire low ping region is not offline)
- Give the options for the player to choose in what regions he would like to be connected. (Preferred, like many other popular MP games)
- Increase the pool of ips including servers from every region, always, for anything you connect in the game.
A way that would help have less players unhappy and creating threads in forums or reddit, is provide ingame or a website to know whether a region (GBR1, etc…) is online or offline, if there is no server available for it, with a status, maintainance or whatever.
From observing, what seem to still be the problem, is the pool implementation. Because if there were low ping server ips in every pool, you would never be put into high ping servers.
They should not have an implementation based on your routing availability if that is related, but offer based on your location, which is why there should have a choice option for this. e.g., I want only queues from Brazil servers / ips, otherwise I rather not play.
This even make more sense in overwatch since the game seems to break in different proportions depending on how high the ping are. Are obviously heavily server-sided.
From what I was talking to someone about ip blocking servers, there seem to have some indication of ip tunneling / proxy happening in certain locations, where it servers you an ip, but you would be connected to another instead. Who knows if it’s a part of the problem, and/or even real.