Right after the hotfix patch I could hit stuff really well. Hitting moving lights and mediums was no longer a problem and damage was registering to the proper armor secton on moving targets. For about 6 hours. Since that first bit it's actually gotten worse.
The secret to the lights is that you have to lead them(even with lasers, shoot in front of where they are). It varies from light to light, player to player, but basically, slowly increase your lead on the target until your "hits" register damage on the paperdoll(sometimes this is a silly amount), and keep in mind that on your screen you will be missing, you'll have to watch the paperdoll. But once you figure out the lead amount, taking a light out is just a matter of 1-2 well placed leg shots. Most of the time. There are some times when no matter how you lead or what you do, that no damage will be assigned tot he mech.
You just have to be aware that all mechs have lag shields at the moment(even assault mechs). Even you have your own lag shield. Until PGI fixes it, you will take extremely reduced to zero damage if you constantly stay moving. Also, randomly varying your speed, walking forawrd and backward is enough to make most shots miss(even if on your screen they are hitting you directly).
It's bad, personally, I blame lousy hit detection(and what honestly seems like reduced damage to lights/mediums) for only coming in 11th place in the medium bracket.
Like, I don't give a damn how fast you are, if an AC/20 hits you, and registers ANY damage at all, it should register the full 20. But it's not, I've seen lights hit in the arm with dual AC/20 blasts and it barely turns yellow. Even assuming that just 1 of the 2 AC/20 shot connected, the arm should have been deep orange(from having taken 20 damage). This is from spectating people tho, I don't use AC/20s myself. But I can observe that something hit the light mech, because it took damage to the arm, there were only 2 mechs fighting, and on my screen the shot looked like a clear hit(both rounds connected and exploded in mid air, leaving a smoke puff). So how did the light mech take the shot but take less than 20 damage? That seems to happen a LOT, even with lasers.
I ran a BJ-1X during the tourney(Also a BJ-1DC), and I saw many lights take 200 damage to the CT and keep walking...
And here's the real kicker to it, the thing that makes me believe that it is a real problem. One of the matches the only thing I did was rush back to defend the base, and fight a light mech, and die. My total damage for the match was 198. How the hell do I die to a light mech(spider for this specific instance I'm thinking of) without having fought a single other mech the duration of the match, get credited for doing 198 damage(which HAD to all be on that spider, again, as it killed me and I fired on no other mech) but yet the spiders armor is all bright yellow still. Not a single section is even orange. Where the hell did that 198 damage go? Because to the best of my knowledge, if a spider takes 198 damage(hell, even 2 spiders) it's(they're) gonna be beat to hell. In fact it should have a MAX of 12 armor left, since the absolute max a spider can have is 210. And this was with me leading the target with the lasers and watching for paperdoll flashes. I was hitting it, and it was taking damage(I think, I don't think it flashes if no damage is done). I might even have that match recorded, as I was streaming some, I'll check out the vids and see. But that seems to be the exception rather than the rule. Most of the time, once you figure out the lead time on a light, its just 1-2 shots from death.
TL;DR: I agree, hit detection is broken. They don't have too much armor, they have lagshields.
Edit: Forgot to mention that my ping is about 65 usually.
Edited by Dude42, 24 June 2013 - 03:19 PM.