Why is online in this game so bad?

[CadenLisa]

I hit 1 on 1, I got free for all 5 games in a row. I guess I can't play online for this game, that sucks.

 

[Lyndis_]

Honestly wondering the same thing. I thought For Glory was bad, Quickplay is just straight up awful.

 

[RepStar]

So like, wtf happened to selecting stages and changing characters after matches?

 

[Beatrice]

Yeah it's pretty dreadfully bad.

 

[lucasla]

Probably consequence of the new system of priority matches. If that becomes constant, they should add a button to check to only find games with the specific rules you selected at least for the mode (1 on 1, 2 vs 2 or free for all..). Can someone at least confirm if it's running properly? Without lag?

 

[Pyr]

I have a feeling that a ton of people are just entering with default rules, which I believe is FFA. Overwhelms the system and massively increases the odds of getting paired with a few FFA people looking for a game. With a bit of time, and some patches to tweak how matchmaking works, we should be golden.

 

[SmashBro99]

You expected better from Nintendo?

RIP literally the only thing they have done right for online play with smash.

 

[Dan]

I absolutely cannot believe how bad this; how in God's name did a professional company release this? Just a matter of time before it gets patched. The absolute equivalent of Super Mario Party's horrible online. What kind of drugs are they on? Let's make the game considerably more competitive than Sm4sh, but remove FG; this is a train wreck.

 

[TheBeastHimself]

For Glory had it's issues, but at least it was a guaranteed way to be matched up in an itemless 1v1 match. What they have in Ultimate looks like a prototype or something, definitely not finished. I don't know why they thought that making Quick Match would improve upon Sm4sh online, I mean I honestly cannot wrap my head around the fact that they thought it would be an improvement.

I love Ultimate so far, but the online play is huge for me. This isn't even an exaggeration, it's actually terrible. A lot of my matches are just as laggy as Brawl, and I'm not going to go out of my way to spend more money on a LAN adapter. Nintendo should put the time and effort to make sure that their servers are stable, not the consumers. To say "purchase this LAN adapter for the most optimal connection" is the equivalent to "we're too cheap for dedicated servers so shell out more money if you actually want to play". But then even the LAN adapter isn't 100% guaranteed to fix issues.

Ultimate doesn't need a few patches, or a few tweaks to fix its online. It needs an entire overhaul. Once again, I love Nintendo and Smash Ultimate, but what they gave us for online is dare I say pitiful and lazy.

 

[Dan]

For Glory had it's issues, but at least it was a guaranteed way to be matched up in an itemless 1v1 match. What they have in Ultimate looks like a prototype or something, definitely not finished. I don't know why they thought that making Quick Match would improve upon Sm4sh online, I mean I honestly cannot wrap my head around the fact that they thought it would be an improvement.

I love Ultimate so far, but the online play is huge for me. This isn't even an exaggeration, it's actually terrible. A lot of my matches are just as laggy as Brawl, and I'm not going to go out of my way to spend more money on a LAN adapter. Nintendo should put the time and effort to make sure that their servers are stable, not the consumers. To say "purchase this LAN adapter for the most optimal connection" is the equivalent to "we're too cheap for dedicated servers so shell out more money if you actually want to play". But then even the LAN adapter isn't 100% guaranteed to fix issues.

Ultimate doesn't need a few patches, or a few tweaks to fix its online. It needs an entire overhaul. Once again, I love Nintendo and Smash Ultimate, but what they gave us for online is dare I say pitiful and lazy.

For the record mate, my connection was better handheld on WiFi than docked LAN.

 

[tonyz723]

Yeah, this makes me so sad. FG was far from perfect, but it let me get into matches that at the very least I could hone skill and matchup knowledge off of. I'm not wanting to put time into online now if it's a crapshoot on whether I can actually get a ruleset that's even remotely close to what tourneys will use.

 

[Idon]

... Is it so much to ask for a goddamned ranked online?

Other fighting games have had this **** locked down twenty+ ****ing years ago.
Why does Nintendo still not... get this?

 

[TheBeastHimself]

I don't know, it just really irritates me that Nintendo tells people to buy that lan adapter. IT'S NOT OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO DO YOUR JOB NINTENDO

 

[Idon]

I don't know, it just really irritates me that Nintendo tells people to buy that lan adapter. IT'S NOT OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO DO YOUR JOB NINTENDO

No, but...
to be fair...

Buy a ****ing LAN adapter.
It makes both your and the oppponent's experience better regardless of how good or bad Ninty's online is.

 

[Dan]

So now I'm trying to enter 1v1 stock battle arenas but am either getting an error message or half of them being password-protected... why are you showing me password-protected arenas?!

 

[Unisex]

I usually dont get annoyed with a game right out the box, and even less so when Im enjoying it.. But these online issues are just ridiculous. I just cant understand why no reviewers are really commenting on some of these problems.

Who thought it was a good idea to make it so you have to leave the Arena if you want to make any changes? Wanna have some random battles with friends online? Welp expect to remake the room 20times. Who thought it was a good idea, to not let you change your character when joining a quick match?? You find someone whos close in skill to you and wanna try playing them with another fighter? Too bad, exit entirely, please.
Want to do a 1v1? Okay, hear you loud and clear, FFA items on room, four times in a row. But dont leave the room that you didnt ask to play in, or youll get restricted. Okay, so you decide to just join an arena to skip the randomness. After click on 3 locked rooms showing up publicly, you find a room, wait in line, get to your turn... and the host leaves. Everyone disconnects. Oh. Joy.

Im not even going to get started with not being able to play with a friend next to me, with other friends online. Thats not going to effect everyone I know, but why the hell do I have to controller share with a friend with a game that allows 8 people battles?

When everything is going good, I cant be happier. But the bad is glaringly obvious.

 

[link2702]

One thing I would like to point out, all this finger pointing at Nintendo for the lag in ffas is kinda silly.

The biggest chunk of lag comes from players who have crap connections but don’t want to accept it.

This would be the same, if not possibly slightly worse with dedicated servers.

What Nintendo could and should have done is have a stricter criteria for how good your connection has to be to play online. Splatoon 2 kinda has this, where you can be barred from playing for awhile if your connection isn’t good enough.

Of course they’re never gonna do this because too many people would be furiously calling nintendo angry that Nintendo is telling them point blank that they have a crap connection and/or isp.

 

[meleebrawler]

I have a feeling that a ton of people are just entering with default rules, which I believe is FFA. Overwhelms the system and massively increases the odds of getting paired with a few FFA people looking for a game. With a bit of time, and some patches to tweak how matchmaking works, we should be golden.

Also when tournament ruleset standards are reached and everyone emulates those for competition, and when people stop being too lazy to make their own arenas with the one ruleset they absolutely want. Quickplay is just that: prioritizes finding matches fast over anything else. To me it sounds like a good alternative to For Fun as long as you understand what you're getting into.

 

[S_B]

I don't know, it just really irritates me that Nintendo tells people to buy that lan adapter. IT'S NOT OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO DO YOUR JOB NINTENDO

That's due to wired connections being immune to the interference that plagues wifi. Wifi is hampered by every appliance, every electronic device. If someone starts up the dishwasher, wifi will suffer because of it.

The god-awful matchmaking system, however, is an entirely different issue.

I tried to stream today and after enough lag so bad that the screen was stuttering and the game putting me into FFAs when I had it set to 1v1s, I gave up, apologized to the people still viewing, and turned it off. Some matches were fine for latency while others were stuttering like crazy.

Just imagine streamers like ZeRo or Nairo trying to get 1v1 matches but they keep getting thrown into FFAs with items...

 

[Arrei]

... Is it so much to ask for a goddamned ranked online?

Other fighting games have had this **** locked down fifteen ****ing years ago.
Why does Nintendo still not... get this?

Didn't they say there'd be an Elite ranked mode later?

 

[meleebrawler]

Didn't they say there'd be an Elite ranked mode later?

There probably is one already, you apparently need to get your GSP high enough to access it. Of course with people jumping online day 1 without doing much of anything else they won't be anywhere close to that.

 

[Idon]

Didn't they say there'd be an Elite ranked mode later?

No.

They said there would be "an elite mode" for "those that have achieved a high enough global smash power."

They never state if it would be even a semi-competitive environment or even if you would fight stronger and stronger players the more you won.
Hell, they never ever mention if global smash power actually considers actual skill level of fair stages than bat**** insane FFA strategies.
If it's anything like the last game, it'll be completely useless as always.

But hey, that's the data they'll draw from to make buffs/debuffs so it's not entirely godawful.

 

[BirthNote]

So judging by the comments here, my fear of Ultimate's Online Mode was correct. For Glory was a leap in the right direction compared to Brawl especially, but if this new mode scraps that momentum then Nintendo/Sakurai f****d up HARD.

I don't have a Wi-Fi connection ATM, but this is bad news.

 

[Dan]

I usually dont get annoyed with a game right out the box, and even less so when Im enjoying it.. But these online issues are just ridiculous. I just cant understand why no reviewers are really commenting on some of these problems.

Online wasn't available until today.

Just imagine streamers like ZeRo or Nairo trying to get 1v1 matches but they keep getting thrown into FFAs with items...

Speaking of this, what are all these people doing today? Unlocking the characters?

 

[lucasla]

Many of these problems can be fixed if they just add a checkbox with the text "Selected Rules Only", meaning the game will not enter in any match that doesnt match the selected rules.

I's kind of obvious that many people would preffer to wait in the line than being forced to play a mode they dont want. So, they should remove this "recomended game mode that we are actually forcing you to play" they implemented. This just will not work.

 

[RepStar]

Shouldnt need an lan adapter when my router is 4 feet away from my switch in the same room lolol. Shouldnt need a lan adapter when its their own fault that they didnt include wired ports to the dock. Only thing we should blame ourselves for is allowing nintendo to pimp us out into having to pay for the worst online service in history.

 

[SmashBro99]

No, but...
to be fair...

Buy a ****ing LAN adapter.
It makes both your and the oppponent's experience better regardless of how good or bad Ninty's online is.

Don't waste your money like I did, even with the adapter this game is **** online.

 

[meleebrawler]

Don't waste your money like I did, even with the adapter this game is **** online.

Because no one else bought an adapter, thanks to your advice.

 

[Luigifan18]

Oh, no... I can already see a certain someone ranting "I told you so"...

 

[meleebrawler]

Oh, no... I can already see a certain someone ranting "I told you so"...

I bet the vast majority of people online never venture into forums like this and are just having a blast playing whatever modes they get in Quickplay. We are the minority, always will be. At least with that, setting up arenas won't get too cluttered.

 

[Luigifan18]

I bet the vast majority of people online never venture into forums like this and are just having a blast playing whatever modes they get in Quickplay. We are the minority, always will be. At least with that, setting up arenas won't get too cluttered.

I'm talking about a certain someone who has made at least five freaking topics complaining about Nintendo Switch Online, all of which devolved into flame wars due in part to the OP being ludicrously unreasonable. I can't say more (including naming names, as much as I would like to) without the mods eating me alive; ask TheTrueBrawler or Verde Coeden Scalesworth for more details.

 

[meleebrawler]

I'm talking about a certain someone who has made at least five freaking topics complaining about Nintendo Switch Online, all of which devolved into flame wars due in part to the OP being ludicrously unreasonable. I can't say more (including naming names, as much as I would like to) without the mods eating me alive; ask TheTrueBrawler or Verde Coeden Scalesworth for more details.

He'd probably carry on doing so regardless if whether or not we had day 1 issues like this. He only needs one bad or laggy match to have an excuse (or even just claim he did).

At any rate, all this complaining just sounds to me people are just not fully using the options given to them to create a better experience for themselves. Only arenas breaking up with the host leaving sounds like a true gripe. Preferred rulesets are solved with making arenas, and wait times there can be mitigated by setting the matches to be shorter or limiting the amount of people joining a particular arena.

 

[SmashBro99]

Because no one else bought an adapter, thanks to your advice.

I've been playing with friends who have one as well, stop pretending to know anything, thx.

With or without, this is Brawl lvl trash.

 

[Christian_CAO]

Behold! This is what happens when you work in a team and everybody nods their heads in agreement and pats each other on the back.
They made what they thought was good. They tested it and it worked how they intended it to work. They had play-testers play it and they had no issues.
So what happened?

1. They didn't test anything extensively enough
2. That about sums it up actually

Yeah they should have just tested it more to really see how their online functions. Their play testers should really have done a better job at pushing the limits and possibilities of matches to get a good feel for how the online would be. There should be a bot test for this kind of thing so that they can just test the stress, because the online can indeed be cheeks.

Arena issues are the epitome of a lack of testing. They played selectively and didn't bother even trying to change anything about their matches. They played a few matches with the same characters and assumed everything was fine, because if they just tried to alter any rule or swap any character between matches they would INSTANTLY see an issue. However, they didn't.

 

[Standlord]

Here we go again. Sadly, I knew this was going to happen. I feel that for every step in the right direction, they take two steps backwards. It's like the developers are just trying different stuff in order to be "original" without thinking too much about what they actually are doing. I don't want to sound like an ass, but it's how I feel about it. People will keep glorifying Sakurai and his team as the absolute best, so nothing will change. It's like... people's critical thinking gets nullified by hype for their favourite characters and for "all that insane amount of content" the game apparently has, wich I fail to see considering its predecesor but whatever. Quality>quantity. It's quite sad after 5 games if you think about it.

Now let's see how this develops. If enough people complain, they might change it. Or maybe not, have they ever done that? as long as the game and the expensive DLC sells, they'll probably forget about it. Maybe they'll worry when people doesn't renew their online suscription, cause they don't have many more games to sell that service with.

 

[T-Donor66]

Guys, I was having this same exact issue, but i read online that most competitive players are setting their preferences to 3 stock, 7:00 time limit, 1v1, stage hazard off. I tried this and I have been getting lagless 1v1 matches 80% of the time, with a few exceptions.

The problem here is that the community has not come to a set time limit standard yet, so people are setting their time preference to all sorts of different times. And because the game values stable connection more than preferences in matchmaking, it settles for the connection rather than looking further for someone with the same time setting as you.

Spread the word everyone, the more people set their preferences to 3 stick, 7:00 time, the more likely we will be to get 1v1 matches.

 

[Darkmoone1]

And what have we learned Nintendo? Rules shouldn't be preferred, but the search requirement. If we don't find what we're looking for, keep the search going until we do.

 

[Frihetsanka]

Join some Discord servers and find games that way, that should increase your chances of finding good games.

A lot of my matches are just as laggy as Brawl, and I'm not going to go out of my way to spend more money on a LAN adapter.

Maybe they're laggy because you don't have a LAN adapter? Wireless is very risky, after all.

 

[lucasla]

Join some Discord servers and find games that way, that should increase your chances of finding good games.

Maybe they're laggy because you don't have a LAN adapter? Wireless is very risky, after all.

Not at all, I dont wanna worry about anything when I start my game. The game can search players all around the world by itself easily, instead of making me look for groups online that might or not have enough people avaiable. This is a work that we should not have when we start the game and look for some match.

 

[meleebrawler]

Guys, I was having this same exact issue, but i read online that most competitive players are setting their preferences to 3 stock, 7:00 time limit, 1v1, stage hazard off. I tried this and I have been getting lagless 1v1 matches 80% of the time, with a few exceptions.

The problem here is that the community has not come to a set time limit standard yet, so people are setting their time preference to all sorts of different times. And because the game values stable connection more than preferences in matchmaking, it settles for the connection rather than looking further for someone with the same time setting as you.

Spread the word everyone, the more people set their preferences to 3 stick, 7:00 time, the more likely we will be to get 1v1 matches.

This is what we need: problem solving and seeing what you can do with what the game offers, not immediate finger-pointing at Nintendo for an initial bad experience. That way we can narrow down the issues that really do need fixing on their part.

When I get the game I'll be thinking of posting a PSA thread on how to get the most out of Ultimate's online, assuming no one beats me to it in the meantime...