Anyone Tired of Lag being the REAL Enemy?

[RemeberMe]

Anyone else notice how easy it is to be good if you have low lag? How about fixing this by setting minimum lag to 70. This would make the game so much more even.

I usually have about a 120 ping. This means anyone with a 60 or less gets twice the time to see me and shoot me. It makes the game very unfair. Setting a minimum would not make the game feel any slower, it would just level the field. Now with my lag of 120 and someone else with 70 he would only be one cycle faster than me, something I can live with.

Face it, these games won't be fair until this is done. There is no way to make it work any other way. Fiber to everyones house? First, this probably won't happen in our lifetime. Second, the person closest to the server will always have better ping. I guess nobody is presently bold enough to make this step but it will be made, someday, and for the better of all online gaming.

Hal

[Superking17]

Sorry but sniping with lag sucks no matter how much you sugarcoat it. Why would anyone with low lag who does good want to get more lag and do poorly?

[Tailsnake]

or... you could find a server in your region with less lag for you...

[eByte]

You don't fix a problem by punishing those with better connections/setups. That's just idiotic. The problem seems to be on your side. The simple solution is to get a better connection or simply play on servers where you don't have a high ping.

[RoadKillGrill]

How about fixing this by setting minimum lag to 70. This would make the game so much more even.

Ya, Epic has complete control of your latency... seriously there is no solution to latency you cannot just set you latency lower ( though you can make it higher ).

Call and complain to your isp, tell more friends in your area to play and set up servers. There is no easy solution to the issue.

[nfleming]

Well, you COULD invite over a bunch of people and play on a LAN, that has got to be better.

Pizza, beer, and UT3. Sounds like fun to me

[RemeberMe]

On a game with limited servers/players, finding a local server is not always an option. Limiting ping won't hurt or even be noticed. I've played on local net games and it's always the same, the person with the lower lag always gets the kill even if both shoot at the same time.

And, it's a fact that a machine with lower lag actually makes it unfair. Take for instance the lag of 120 to 50. The machine with the 50 gets to slow the server down because it's hitting the server more than twice as much as the 120. I've seen my lag change when the game first starts from being great to being horrible just from the number of people joining and the better ones hogging more server time.

I really don't understand why this is a problem. Believe me, a 70 ms is not bad lag. Twitch games like UT3 really needs this more than the average game. I think it would be smarter to at least push for trying this approach then shooting it down for a perceived gain that probably doesn't even exist.

Hal

[RemeberMe]

Oh, and those who think they are good with great lag are only kidding themselves. They're probably no better than the average player. Making lag more even would just force those players to actually increase their skills to be good. Something wrong with that?

Hal

[BigShott]

this has been a problem in all games since the very beginning and until the technology changes the higher ping player will always be at a disadvantage when playing against a lower ping player, thats just the way it is online.

Another problem in fairness is the pc itself...the player who has the latest and fastest computer will always have an advantage over a player with older/slower hardware, regardless of ping times.

These are 2 reasons (among a few others) why many years ago i stopped playing human vs human type game modes and switched to strictly coop style where the humans team up against AI. Not as dramatic or intense of course, but makes a much better social experience as a whole...you dont need to worry about cheaters, nobody curses you in frustration and everyone just gets along alot better and seems generally much happier while on the server as compared to playing on human vs human servers where it can get really nasty and childish.

Might not be everyone's cup of tea but it has its place...and im there:-)

[Benfica]

I'd like to experiment playing with ping compensation. Oh, if servers had UT3Comp ...

[RemeberMe]

The PC is much less a bottleneck than you think. I have a relatively mid level pc with a core2 8400 (I think) / GTX 9800 that can pull a frame rate of over 90 on UT3, so speed is not as big a problem as it used to be and at least that is easily fixed by the player.

Hal

[BigShott]

it makes a big difference when one player has older hardware which only gets him borderline playable fps (such as a range from 20-50)...and its not just frames that matter...a certain setup might have perfectly acceptable frames yet still have video lag and micros pauses. In a game where mere pixels make a difference between hit or miss it can effect the gameplay in a big way...i know...as ive been playing on all sorts of hardware for 15 years now. I'd play for a year on old hardware with good ping but getting my butt kicked online and then after building a new rig id be wiping the floor online. But yes, at least that can be remedied somewhat by the user by upgrading.

[Sotanaht]

Lower ping does NOT hit the server more often. A 60ms latency sends the same number of packets as a 120ms latency, at the same rate, the server is just seeing each of the 120's packets .06 seconds later.

My recommendation is to choose your servers based primarily on ping. I always sort my server list by ping, and only join those servers with less then 120 ping (my personal cutoff). If none of those servers has more then 6 players (team games), then I give up and try again later - no one is playing.

[RemeberMe]

"Lower ping does NOT hit the server more often. A 60ms latency sends the same number of packets as a 120ms latency, at the same rate, the server is just seeing each of the 120's packets .06 seconds later"

It's a clear fact that faster ping makes for a better score. Are you trying to dispute that? It allows the player with the faster machine to see any changes quicker and to send a shot off quicker. There is no doubt about that. I've played against others when my rate was awesome. It's like they never know where I am. You can shoot them and change locations before they even get a shot off. I actually don't like having that kind of advantage. But that might just be me because I like a challenge. I've been on the receiving end too which is even less fun. You just can't hit the other guy and he is raining shots down on you. I just give up on those days when there is a player with that much better of a connection. It just gets to aggravating and I'm too good a player to be humiliated by that.

Am I asking too much for wanting to make online gaming less dependent on lag than on skills?

[eByte]

Am I asking too much for wanting to make online gaming less dependent on lag than on skills?

Yes. You're asking other players to suffer because you're at a disadvantage due to something on your end. Should all players frames per second be limited to the lowest players to create a level playing field? Should screen resolution be limited since higher resolution allows you to see more of your surroundings at any given time? What about mice with higher dpi to give you more control and precision? Everything here will give players advantages but it's the player who has to utilize those things to gain that advantage.

What I'm getting at is that there are far too many variables to create an even playing field among all players and trying to do so will only make things worse for many players. One of the best parts about PC gaming is the ability to create and control your own unique experience and often times that means doing whatever you need to do to have that advantage over others you're playing against. It's an unique and integral part of multiplayer PC games. If you want a more even playing field then why not play on a console? Most console games utilize client side movement calculation and hit detection.

Yes... lower ping does give you an advantage over others, but so does a myriad of other things. How far should developers go to even the playing field on the PC?