Explanation of Sponge

[Infernal Enemy]

Explanation of Sponge(-ing)
Some people also refer to it as the loss of packets or the *hit* not registering.

I myself study IT networking so im very much capable of explaning what sponging is.
It depends on:

1. The location of the dedicated server/player host.
2. Your location.
3. Location of the client players.

Basically if the host is originated in the UK (which can be both the server or player host) and everyone in the game is in the UK or somewhere near that the sponging will be minimal or zero at best.
See it like this: everytime you interact with an in-game object (your weapon for example), fire bullets and move(rotate your camera, walk) a package gets sent to the host. This package then gets send to the target player or back to you. Depending on the distance between the target player or host the package sometimes returns damaged.
What happens is that the package gets *dropped/deleted* it won't register thus your shot will sponge or you will experience movement lag of some sort.

The success rate for the package to be damaged increases with greater distance.
It does not matter if you have a 120Mbit connection hell even with a 5Mbit connection you can enjoy gears, its all about the distance.
Dedicated servers are dedicated to hosting servers (just what the name says actually) they can handle hundreds of connections, it is like a place where everyone meets and shares information remotely.

If you get in a game and you live in the US and the game is player hosted in the US it will be a great connection for you (only exception is if the host is doing naug..downloading movies). Another player in the same team is living in Africa, he will get sponge after sponge, the packets that his game sends keep getting damaged so they get dropped everytime by the host but if you just send enough of them (repeatedly shooting) eventually 1 will get through thus register as weapons fire or anything.

"OMG! HE SPONGED I HAD TO SHOOT HIM LIKE 6 TIMES WITH ACTIVE!!!!" <- explained.
"Nothing wrong here, nobody is sponging for me" <- explained.
"They shoot me full red all the time but seem to sponge the last shot" <- explained.

Are there any more questions?

******* THERES ANOTHER EXPLANATION FOR SPONGING*******

when people say, "this character eats shots" or "that character always sponges" they are referring to the character and the way they show (being hit). theres a video on youtube about this. you can be chasing an enemy and hit them 5 or so times and show blood... but the point is that you did not hit them DIRECTLY therefore you did not hurt them as much as you thought you did becuase you saw blood and heard the character groan.

This is a problem with hit boxes. The thinner the character the more likely they are to sponge because you my hit them dead on... but because they are thinner, not all the gnasher bullets make impact like they would on a larger character therefore equalling out to them not taking in as much damage tho you saw them hit and draw blood.

I'll try to find the video to show you.

[Glacierstorm]

Who has been asking what sponging is recently anyway? We all know what it is and usually what's causing it. We just want it to stop, stupid Valera's and their hitbox and supersponge powers.

[Infernal Enemy]

Who has been asking what sponging is recently anyway? We all know what it is and usually what's causing it. We just want it to stop, stupid Valera's and their hitbox and supersponge powers.

Well most people think its the connection being bad but its distance most of the time.
THe hitboxes are smaller and this makes people think that they sponge but infact they just miss even though it appears otherwise.

[Bring the pain]

But if your playing in a us server with other us players ppl sponge sti and that due to there garbage ass connection.. They need to get rid of cshd

[Infernal Enemy]

Possible yeah i did explain sponge but there are so much ways it can happen.

[Gnasher4Life]

Good post. I'm sure plenty of people wonder what causes it. I myself didn't know, i just know i don't like when it happens.

[The Dom Knight]

Good explanation. It would explain why there is so much inconsistency among opponents on the same team:

Player A: not too bad
Player B: not too bad
Player C: zero sponging (you laugh at this guy)
Player D: some sponging
Player E: CRAZY SPONGING (you grow to hate this person for not going down when he should)


The worst case is when you live far away from the DS location

[You]---------------------------[A]--[B]-[C]-----[D]--[E]---[DS Location]

[Infernal Enemy]

Yeah exactly !

[Sausages and Beans]

Quinn delhoyo Multiplayer Level Designer at Epic claims sponging doesn't exist it all done to how players connect to the server. I ask him allegedly the server is in Ireland were i am so what do i always lose shotty battles the majority of them to foreign players?

[Bring the pain]

Quinn delhoyo Multiplayer Level Designer at Epic claims sponging doesn't exist it all done to how players connect to the server. I ask him allegedly the server is in Ireland were i am so what do i always lose shotty battles the majority of them to foreign players?

Hahaha what a joke... Post him some links to videos on YouTube on sponging...
The hit detection. In the game needs to be re done some video show the bullets going the complete opposite of the reticule


Epic I love gears but dot pretend there's nothing wrong with sponging and the hit detection

[The Dom Knight]

It's unfortunate he says that - he plays right at the Epic offices which I assume is sitting near the DS.

If he played it from much further away - like 10 states away, and compared his accuracy to those at Epic offices, then he'd notice it.

[chibimike]

You forgot to add that no game comes close to the amount of packet loss GoW has.

I've played many many games, I can log onto TF2 on my comp right now and pick a 330ms latency server, which is probably UK for me considering I live on westcoast US. I'll get better registration on that server then a good latency GoW3 match.

[The Dom Knight]

Quinn delhoyo Multiplayer Level Designer at Epic claims sponging doesn't exist it all done to how players connect to the server.

do you have that link? Because now rereading it, he could be agreeing with us - it's all about how we connect to the server, as in how far away we live. Maybe he had a different definition of sponging (as in the game engine itself had problems, which isn't what we're saying)

[Sausages and Beans]

do you have that link? Because now rereading it, he could be agreeing with us - it's all about how we connect to the server, as in how far away we live. Maybe he had a different definition of sponging (as in the game engine itself had problems, which isn't what we're saying)

http://www.twitch.tv/activereload/b/312979125

[Equilibrium]

wait the guy in africa eats shots? or the US players eat shots from the african?

[He Bridish]

http://www.twitch.tv/activereload/b/312979125

Do you know at what time it is?

[NP473L]

Did anyone already say 'useful liquid absorber'?

Edit: Description, not explanation...my apologies

[COGPaul]

doesn't it happen offline too though? i aint played offline for so long but i've heard some say that.

[CasualKiwiGamer]

wait the guy in africa eats shots? or the US players eat shots from the african?

US player eats the shots from the african because his distance from the server messes up the info

[Shocking]

Quinn delhoyo Multiplayer Level Designer at Epic claims sponging doesn't exist it all done to how players connect to the server. I ask him allegedly the server is in Ireland were i am so what do i always lose shotty battles the majority of them to foreign players?

Quinn should come to my house and play some games filled with Polish/German/French/Spanish players then.

he'd soon get as sick of it as i am.

[dueric]

After playing a bit in private matches today I am confident that 90% of my sponges are simply me missing.

It's weird because I always assumed it was a laggy game if the enemies were sponging my point blank shots. Now I'm not so sure if it isn't the laggy games where those sponges suddenly become gibs.

Not saying lag doesn't have a ton to do with it in most cases, it does. But after today, I have a new outlook on sponging, and more importantly my aim, in general.

[joal0503]

yep, even with dedis lag/sponging occurs. and it doesnt really matter how awesome your internet is, or the other players isnt. moreso dependent on latency to the server.

people making the claims that diving, or hitboxes are poorly coded...bleh, unless you knw code and have access to the games, you really have no proof other than the "oh man look at my youtube video, im sponging its bad code" ...

[gloves78]

Active your shots they don't sponge them.

Honestly I don't have any problem when I hit them they stay hit

[joal0503]

Active your shots they don't sponge them.

Honestly I don't have any problem when I hit them they stay hit

i think people honestly forget that the gnasher is a spread/pellet gun...meaning yes your shot might be lined up "pretty good", but its entirely possible that 2-3 pellets missing (combined with lag), gives the illusion of "sponging".

[Gnashty NaS]

Nice post, I will now say, "DAMN HOST AIN'T GETTING MY PACKAGE FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU!

[JAYSOFACTON]

I'm in the UK and yesterday was in lobby with 7 other UK players and the rest bots. Everything was going fine - hits registered both ways and the games were great.A few matches later 2 french players joined and suddenly the bots and French players became invincible, the players were teleporting and the UK players couldn't hit a thing. The bots only had to give me an angry look and I was downed. Even actives didn't do anything. How can the addition of 2 players have such a dramatic effect on a game?

[iL_Guido]

Explanation of Sponge(-ing)
Some people also refer to it as the loss of packets or the *hit* not registering.

I myself study IT networking so im very much capable of explaning what sponging is.
It depends on:

1. The location of the dedicated server/player host.
2. Your location.
3. Location of the client players.

Basically if the host is originated in the UK (which can be both the server or player host) and everyone in the game is in the UK or somewhere near that the sponging will be minimal or zero at best.
See it like this: everytime you interact with an in-game object (your weapon for example), fire bullets and move(rotate your camera, walk) a package gets sent to the host. This package then gets send to the target player or back to you. Depending on the distance between the target player or host the package sometimes returns damaged.
What happens is that the package gets *dropped/deleted* it won't register thus your shot will sponge or you will experience movement lag of some sort.

The success rate for the package to be damaged increases with greater distance.
It does not matter if you have a 120Mbit connection hell even with a 5Mbit connection you can enjoy gears, its all about the distance.
Dedicated servers are dedicated to hosting servers (just what the name says actually) they can handle hundreds of connections, it is like a place where everyone meets and shares information remotely.

If you get in a game and you live in the US and the game is player hosted in the US it will be a great connection for you (only exception is if the host is doing naug..downloading movies). Another player in the same team is living in Africa, he will get sponge after sponge, the packets that his game sends keep getting damaged so they get dropped everytime by the host but if you just send enough of them (repeatedly shooting) eventually 1 will get through thus register as weapons fire or anything.

"OMG! HE SPONGED I HAD TO SHOOT HIM LIKE 6 TIMES WITH ACTIVE!!!!" <- explained.
"Nothing wrong here, nobody is sponging for me" <- explained.
"They shoot me full red all the time but seem to sponge the last shot" <- explained.

Are there any more questions?

While you are correct that distance does affect bandwidth/connection, it still doesn't really explain why, after the DLC Fenix Rising, all this sponging nonsense happens. I too, work in the IT field and don't understand what is really happening. You have no idea how the servers are setup nor how they really handle certain connections or how many there are in each area...You just gave a general IT answer..which is somewhat correct but not the real answer. I do also think that the DLC ruined the matchmaking for the game and that it does not allow most players to connect to the closest server, but that is just one problem.. I am in the US and if I connect to a server California which is about 3000 miles away I will lag. I experienced strange things after the game was released, like seeing ammo boxes on TDM or Execution maps...is that connection too? Nope...I think the game also has trouble with the DLC since it was not originally part of the game and does not load it correctly when playing online or in Private matches, which people also said the bots sponge. Just because its a server doesn't mean its a good one either. It could have crappy NIC cards or other HW issues..All the other Gears of War games were buggy. What makes this one so different? I play other games on MP and do not have issues. Just Gears. It makes the game not fun most of the time when this is a constant thing. And a lot of people stopped playing Gears because of it.

[gold charro]

Thx for the info
so basicly theres no way by the moment we cant eliminate lag due to tecnology

[CYBERHATER]

This is why the SOS was created! One shot and instant death! Problem solved

[Master Roshi]

The problem is Client-Side Hit-Detection. If Hit-Detection were Server-Side instead the problem, while it would still exist, would exist in a much smaller capacity.

[Shocking]

I'm in the UK and yesterday was in lobby with 7 other UK players and the rest bots. Everything was going fine - hits registered both ways and the games were great.A few matches later 2 french players joined and suddenly the bots and French players became invincible, the players were teleporting and the UK players couldn't hit a thing. The bots only had to give me an angry look and I was downed. Even actives didn't do anything. How can the addition of 2 players have such a dramatic effect on a game?

sounds like just about every game i attempt to play.full of Euro-sponges ruining it.

[CeJay iZ SicK]

This is one of the explanations... Because I see sponging in private when I'm host against bots...


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[fsanta]

Thanks for this post it was very interesting and informative for me but, I'd like to ask something and idk if you have a definite answer for it. How come regardless of your own connection speed (the clients) has no factor into the probability of a package being *dropped/deleted*? And what I do on servers for example shoot the package for my bullets being shot are sent to the dedicated server, and i guess opened and read? and then the ones that didn't get dropped/deleted are then sent back to me?
Thanks again for putting this post, never knew that internet speed reduces/increase the probability of a package being lost.

[Sabbath91]

Very interesting read Proves why everytime some one sponges a good amount of damage and i look at their profile they come up as spanish/german/norwegian/ sometimes even the US!

[Infernal Enemy]

Thanks for this post it was very interesting and informative for me but, I'd like to ask something and idk if you have a definite answer for it. How come regardless of your own connection speed (the clients) has no factor into the probability of a package being *dropped/deleted*? And what I do on servers for example shoot the package for my bullets being shot are sent to the dedicated server, and i guess opened and read? and then the ones that didn't get dropped/deleted are then sent back to me?
Thanks again for putting this post, never knew that internet speed reduces/increase the probability of a package being lost.

The packages which are received by the server will be forwarded to the target client.
Sometimes delays with this process occurs, which often result in sponging.

Is that the answer you were hoping for ? i might understand you wrong though.

[Infernal Enemy]

Very interesting read Proves why everytime some one sponges a good amount of damage and i look at their profile they come up as spanish/german/norwegian/ sometimes even the US!

There are mainly 2 factors which can cause sponging:

- Overall Connection (Client to client, Client to dedicated server to client etc...).
- Game Mechanics (Not 100% about this one but glitches are a known thing in gears 3)

[dzs Awez0me]

Well Server Browser with pingnumbers ala PC > worldwide Matchmaking ala XBL

[R0gueSc0peZz]

******* THERES ANOTHER EXPLANATION FOR SPONGING*******

when people say, "this character eats shots" or "that character always sponges" they are referring to the character and the way they show (being hit). theres a video on youtube about this. you can be chasing an enemy and hit them 5 or so times and show blood... but the point is that you did not hit them DIRECTLY therefore you did not hurt them as much as you thought you did becuase you saw blood and heard the character groan.

This is a problem with hit boxes. The thinner the character the more likely they are to sponge because you my hit them dead on... but because they are thinner, not all the gnasher bullets make impact like they would on a larger character therefore equalling out to them not taking in as much damage tho you saw them hit and draw blood.

I'll try to find the video to show you.

[xEvOx IStRaFeSI]

Great info man thanks for sharing

[Infernal Enemy]

******* THERES ANOTHER EXPLANATION FOR SPONGING*******

when people say, "this character eats shots" or "that character always sponges" they are referring to the character and the way they show (being hit). theres a video on youtube about this. you can be chasing an enemy and hit them 5 or so times and show blood... but the point is that you did not hit them DIRECTLY therefore you did not hurt them as much as you thought you did becuase you saw blood and heard the character groan.

This is a problem with hit boxes. The thinner the character the more likely they are to sponge because you my hit them dead on... but because they are thinner, not all the gnasher bullets make impact like they would on a larger character therefore equalling out to them not taking in as much damage tho you saw them hit and draw blood.

I'll try to find the video to show you.

Thanks! added to main post.