Connection errors in Splatoon 3

[KarlF12]

Good afternoon,

On Splatoon 3 (Nintendo Switch) we have frequent communication errors.  A little info about my setup... I'm running OPNsense 22.7.6-amd64 on VMware ESXi with plenty of resources (running currently at 7% CPU and 22% RAM), with an interface on the host connected to my cable modem.  I have 200 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up with less than 1 Mbps in use while the game is being played, and I can get the full bandwidth on a speed test.

Nintendo Switch has a "NAT Type" (a classification Nintendo made up) that is A/B/C/D/F.  I currently have NAT Type B which I achieved by setting a DHCP reservation for the console and a NAT rule for it to not randomize the source port.  Without this the NAT Type I believe is D and causes Splatoon 3 to be more or less unplayable online.  With NAT Type B most things work fine, but about one in five Splatoon 3 matches will either fail to connect or end midway with a connection error.

To my understanding, the only way to achieve NAT Type A is to forward all unsolicited incoming ports to the console (like you can do on junky DSL routers).  This is a step I'm not willing to take due to security concerns.  We'll just deal with the connection errors if it comes to that.

My wife also has some connection issues with Rocket League on her laptop, but I think this is unrelated and just because that game is kind of a crapshoot anyway.  Other online games don't seem to have any issues at all.

Anyway, I'd like to know if there's anything I can do to improve it, or if it's not a problem on my end.  I don't think the problem is on my end personally, but I told my wife I'd ask because she gets really irritated with the connection drops.

Thanks