Multiplayer Lag Issues

[yuripulzeff]

Been having really weird lag only in multiplayer. My friend and I have been playing multiplayer and its getting unbearably laggy, initially it wasnt so bad, just a few spikes now and then, now its nearly unplayable. It happens whenever the little clock in the top right of debug screen shows up, next to the ping.(Don't know what it means)
Heres a gif:
https://gyazo.com/bafd44f5a4fa54ed40792697f6d49ab9

We tried upping the latency, lowering the latency (Had it on ~250). Tried peer-peer connection and no peer to peer. Googled for solutions, trying to figure out what that clock means, couldnt figure it out. We cant figure out why it's happening.

Any help is appreciated,
~Yuri

[GoldenPorkchop80]

From what I can tell, one thing is for sure: it's not your computer. (probably.)

On the other hand, there are many things that could be causing your problem. Let me list a few, and scratch them off respectively if that's not what you were doing. (Also with color coding to display severity.)
1: You were using WiFi to host the server.
2: You were using a proxy.
3: You were hosting a server during High Internet Traffic hours on your ISP.
4: Your friend was using WiFi to connect to the server.
5: Your friend was using proxies.
6: You and/or your friend didn't turn off Windows Firewall.
7: Your computer was doing something that required High Internet Throughput.
8: Your friend's computer is a potato.
9: You have a bad internet package.
10: Your friend has a bad internet package.
11: Your friend is connecting to your server from another country/continent.

Let me give you a bit of a prognosis.

Those numbers under the FPS/UPS is your (and his/her.) ping. You are obviously hosting the game, because your ping is 0, meaning that the connection time between your computer and the server is 0 milliseconds, because the server is inside your computer. However, since your friend is not hosting, rather connecting, they will have a non-null ping (or non-zero ping). From what I can tell, that clock icon basically means: "A client on that server that does not have a non-null ping is trying to catch up with the server host, due to some unforeseen circumstances.". That's why whenever the clock icon shows, your friend's ping jumps up, and the rule of thumb is, the higher the ping, the worse the connection. Latency might be your first solution, but really, it should be your last.
Latency is basically a glorified timer.
"IF player_does_an_action, THEN wait ____ ms, THEN send_action_to_server, THEN wait_for_server_response, THEN display_action_on_screen"
Latency is your go-to solution if you or your friend is experiencing long-term lag, NOT lag spikes!
Say, I have a really good internet connection, but my friend's internet is a bit shoddy. I would set the latency to a somewhat-respectable delay based on his connection, and when we play together, it would look like we have a direct hardline connection to each other's computers, but in reality, the clients are actually setting a delay before sending the data to the server, to compensate for my friend's shoddy internet.
It is in NO WAY a fix for lag spikes.

Best of luck, and reply to this post whenever you finished the checklist above.