Interpolation/Netcode as a whole

i'm having constant desync issues since a few days, and many of them start to occur at the moment when i heavy stun a mob/boss. maybe this is related to cancling their animation or that. though not all of them, some desyncs do seem like common lag even though the networking graph doesn't show any lagspikes what so ever. i also made a fresh reinstall of PoE2 tonight, hoping it may be some local issue, but it isn't. problem persists.

i also do think, the performance debacle isn't actually just poor optimization issues, since a friend of mine, in the hideout, can spam 7+ fireballs per cast which all bounce off walls + smaller porjectiles yet i have over 100fps at all times. but the moment we enter a map, the fps bottoms out causing heavy stutter. i bet this is due to our clients not being allowed to do any basic calculations and keep waiting for server packages, which obviously would cause severe issues on the client side. i'm aware there is some interpolation happening client-side, at least i hope so..., but it clearly is done the wrong way.

both these issues above combined do hint at an interpolation issue, or rather the lack there of. considering we can't even move a single pixel when a lagspike does happen, it feels like there isn't any interpolation happening at all.
if there would be, we at least could move some, and then get warped back. this is regular lag behaviour from client first, master-server second approach.

i'm aware you try to fight cheaters with such shenanigans, but not even allowing any basic calculations client-side, while the server still can be master that has to approve of said calculations afterwards, is a horrible way of dealing with cheaters. you're just punishing everyone for the sake of small gains.

and let's be real.
- unless you either ban the entire crafting-industry (and yes it is an industry irl)
- or introduce a proper and "meaningful crafting" system which also would make it very unappealing for chinafarmers to even spend time and effort for trading, since all they could trade would be crafting-mats instead of "the best items"

cheaters are the least of the issue in this game in this regard.



so please, for the sake of your game, us customers and frankly, at the end of the day also your own company GGG
please allow our clients to do at least some basic calculations which then has to be approven of on server side, and not have our client wait for every single bit of information to just do anything, even moving.
every fast paced game since over 2 decades does it this way, and there are good reasons for doing so.

there will still be plenty of adjustments to be done even with a client-first, master-server 2nd approach, for fighting botters and such ofc. but again, the economy in this game is trash anyway if you don't ban crafter-teams, or at least introduce a proper crafting system making it unappealing for such crafter-teams (aka chinafarmers in oldschool terms)

addendum:
and if you truely try to minimize interpolation on client-side to the bare minimum, which i would be a huge fan of, because interpolation is a curse on it's own (being the reason for getting shot behind a wall and such in FPS games), you really have to find any other way of fighting cheaters and such.

the lack of interpolation and true client-first approach would be the best for fast paced action games, but it also makes it very easy for cheaters. so yes, there is a balancing act. but is punishing every player for the sake of such small gains really worth it?

considering a proper crafting system singlehandedly could remove the chinafarmer-issue as a whole, and with that remove most of the botters in one swoop as well, there really are better approaches than a "shitty netcode" from customer PoV.

and since AFK builds are in this game anyway, and likely will always be because of the huge flexibility in building this game offers...well you get the gist i hope.

on a side-note: a proper and "meaningful crafting" system would also allow for account-wide progression.
i.e.:
-unlock the ability of adding more mods
-change more mods
-unlocking the ability of upgrading mod-tiers
and so on
this all would fight botters and chinafarmers aswell.
not only because we regular players could craft what we aim for, while also being slowed down due to the unlocking and mats-grind.
but also because all the cheaters and chinafarmers could get out of is crafting mats themself for trading (for the most part at least).

and i have more ideas of fighting such issues, and i'm just one guy that isn't even a dev...i hope you guys at GGG are smarter than me and can find more reasonable solutions than a "shitty netcode".