Huge multiplayer lags

[UneXp]

We tried to play in multiplayer mode, there were 3 of us and we tried literally all possible combinations with 2 and 3 players switching hosts, and in all cases ping jumps like crazy from 10 to 1000 and that makes the game totally unplayable. Speedtest shows ping about 1-10 (max 20) ms with the speed 50(friends`) and 90(my) Mbps (also, they live ~3km away from me) . I`m just wondering what connection does this game require? All other games work without problems.

UPD: So the main purpose of this post is to understand whether we have good but for some reason not so stable connection or this is a game connection / data sync issue that should be dramatically optimized. I see single mentions about lags in Steam discussions and in Discord but this seems like not a known massive game issue (unless 90% of players have super stable internet connection and do not face any issues. Or they just play singleplayer lol)

[Anonymous Helper]

Unfortunately don't have any advice to give you as I play solo only and have very little experience in multiplayer problems in general. There isn't anything useful in the help center either beside stating that larger the raft gets, the more demanding the game becomes.

Maybe ask on Raft Discord as there may be people around with more knowledge on the issue and multiplayer in general: https://discord.gg/raft

[Mice-stro]

but have you gotten the glitch in multiplayer where the people who join the game have the raft yeeted to the ocean floor yet... making you suffocate while standing on your raft while it slowly floats to the surface...

[UneXp]

Originally posted by Anonymous Helper:

Unfortunately don't have any advice to give you as I play solo only and have very little experience in multiplayer problems in general. There isn't anything useful in the help center either beside stating that larger the raft gets, the more demanding the game becomes.

Maybe ask on Raft Discord as there may be people around with more knowledge on the issue and multiplayer in general: https://discord.gg/raft

Thanks for the reply! Yes, I've joined discord and try to solve this problem.

[UneXp]

Originally posted by Mice-stro:

but have you gotten the glitch in multiplayer where the people who join the game have the raft yeeted to the ocean floor yet... making you suffocate while standing on your raft while it slowly floats to the surface...

I have tons of glitches related to the ping unfortunately. But there's also a positive in this situation! I tapped E while trying to gather flowers with any luck, and then when I returned to the raft I saw that I'd gathered 23 flowers instead of 2 :D

[Anonymous Helper]

Originally posted by UneXp:

Thanks for the reply! Yes, I've joined discord and try to solve this problem.

Good luck! Do let us know if you find a solution that helps with the issue. I'm sure there are others here who'd like to hear about it.

[IIFritzyII]

rather than looking at speedtest's ping results to a specific server, you should ask your friends for their public ip address, open command prompt then type "ping {insert their ip address}" without the quotes and brackets. this will give you a far more accurate ping result, as you may find your ping to one of your friends is the cause, despite you having a great ping. despite you living 3 kms apart, the internet isn't a straight line between your houses, it bounces between multiple isp network switches and potential faulty sections of network before connecting you to each other.

[UneXp]

Originally posted by IIFritzyII:

rather than looking at speedtest's ping results to a specific server, you should ask your friends for their public ip address, open command prompt then type "ping {insert their ip address}" without the quotes and brackets. this will give you a far more accurate ping result, as you may find your ping to one of your friends is the cause, despite you having a great ping. despite you living 3 kms apart, the internet isn't a straight line between your houses, it bounces between multiple isp network switches and potential faulty sections of network before connecting you to each other.

We tried this and the average ping is 19ms, I know how networking works, thanks anyway for your info :)
As I mentioned, I don't deny that it may be a connection problem, I just try to localize the problem. Will try to join another people also today.

[UneXp]

As a result, we've created virtual network using ZeroTier application and were able to play without huge ping problems and lags related to it. Also we tried to play once again as-is (without the private network) and the situation remained the same: totally unplayable. Anyway, using the private networking solves the issue for us.

[R4D20]

So over a virtual lan network like hamachi? How do you join a lan game in raft?

[UneXp]

Originally posted by A-10 goes BRRRRRT!:

So over a virtual lan network like hamachi? How do you join a lan game in raft?

Yes, like Hamachi. We join within the game as usual

[MOMO]

Originally posted by UneXp:

We tried to play in multiplayer mode, there were 3 of us and we tried literally all possible combinations with 2 and 3 players switching hosts, and in all cases ping jumps like crazy from 10 to 1000 and that makes the game totally unplayable. Speedtest shows ping about 1-10 (max 20) ms with the speed 50(friends`) and 90(my) Mbps (also, they live ~3km away from me) . I`m just wondering what connection does this game require? All other games work without problems.

UPD: So the main purpose of this post is to understand whether we have good but for some reason not so stable connection or this is a game connection / data sync issue that should be dramatically optimized. I see single mentions about lags in Steam discussions and in Discord but this seems like not a known massive game issue (unless 90% of players have super stable internet connection and do not face any issues. Or they just play singleplayer lol)

What worked for us is I changed my Graphic option to GOOD, then my friends were able to play with me with no Lag at all. If your the Host set your graphics to a lower option. Hope it works.

[Antoine Vidal]

[mr_pogey_bait]

For those who suggested ZeroTier, it isn't likely that the app helped your ping times. When you join a ZeroTier network you are assigned managed IPs but that IP is not your forward-facing IP to the rest of the internet. That forward-facing IP is the one that is used when your friends join your game and that IP is the one you are assigned by your Internet Provider, not ZeroTier. Cases where this might work are games that allow you to join to a specific TCP/IP address or older games that could only be played multiplayer via a LAN connection.