27 replies to this topic

[Jun Watarase]

Earlier today, I was playing a match on the oceanic server and noticed that my ping was about 120ms. It used to be about 250+ ms, I guess my ISP or someone along the route finally fixed the problem.

I was instantly reminded of how much I missed 120ms ping. On paper, 250ms isnt much for a round trip...that's only about 1/4th of a second. In practice, the difference is massive.

For example, shooting moving mechs with lasers actually hurts them. You know how every now and then you will see someone in a cicada or raven running around at like, 64 kph or some insanely slow speed? I could alpha them 3 times and they wouldn't even lose a side torso. With 120ms ping, mechs were just popping like balloons with a mediocre laser vomit build.

Everything is so snappy and responsive. There is no noticeable delay between pulling the trigger and the weapon firing, instead of the usual 0.5-1 second firing delay. This is a pretty huge deal when you are using something like SRMs. Weapons firing instantly when you want them to is just amazing.

Damage calculation happening instantly is also amazing. With 250 ms ping, there's about a half second delay before the shot actually registers (and your shot can be nullified if someone with lower ping kills you or takes out your weapon, even if you fired first on your screen). There's no delay with 120 ms ping. If someone has a red CT and i dump some SRMs into it, he instantly drops dead instead of clinging to life for an extra half second. It's like an entirely different game. With just 3x SRM-6s, people actually take significant damage...it no longer feels as if i'm throwing spitballs.

And the amount of damage I am suddenly able to tank from players in the 250ms range also makes a huge difference in survivability. I've had assault brawlers round the corner and hit me with a massive spread of SRMs, and all it did was scratch my armor. After every shoot out, I look at my paper doll and am amazed to see how little damage I've taken.

I can only imagine what the holy grail of sub 50 ms ping feels like.

I'm not sure if this is just something unique to MWO or something that is common to all similar games. From a technical standpoint, is it normal for a difference of 130ms to make such a massive difference?

[Davers]

I usually have about a 40 ping, both when I was in Canada and now the same in Virginia. It's pretty great.

[jjm1]

250 ping minimum.

I fired that Gauss round into your back before you were even conceived.

[Bud Crue]

Sheee-itt...250 ping? I'd give serious $ for consistent 250 ping.

My middle of nowhere, rural America, internet connection fluctuates randomly and wildly between 50 (oh boy the kids are in bed! no one is on line! I can play MWO!) to over 2000 (wtf?!!! its 1:00AM no one is using the internet, why is my ping off the charts! is my 6 year old downloading porn? WTF!!!).


Yes its better than satellite, but not by much. The fact that the fluctuations are seemingly totally random drives me nuts.

[The Amazing Atomic Spaniel]

Bud Crue, on 29 November 2016 - 09:36 AM, said:

Sheee-itt...250 ping? I'd give serious $ for consistent 250 ping.

My middle of nowhere, rural America, internet connection fluctuates randomly and wildly between 50 (oh boy the kids are in bed! no one is on line! I can play MWO!) to over 2000 (wtf?!!! its 1:00AM no one is using the internet, why is my ping off the charts! is my 6 year old downloading porn? WTF!!!).


Yes its better than satellite, but not by much. The fact that the fluctuations are seemingly totally random drives me nuts.

I get exactly the same phenomena playing here in rural Somerset at the end of a very long copper cable. On the EU server my ping is usually 60 - 70, which is fine. But on occasions it goes to 1,000 - 2,000, which is about what I might expect if I was routing my connection to the server via the Moon. No idea why it does this, but it's incredibly annoying.

[Aiden Skye]

10-40 ping from New York. No lag shields for me :/

[El Bandito]

I love lurming people who have 250+ ping. It takes at least +0.25 second for them to receive the "missile incoming" warning.

That said, my match performance would be much higher if I had 50 ping instead of 200+ like I have currently, in NA server.

Edited by El Bandito, 29 November 2016 - 06:49 PM.

[a gaijin]

Yes a serious difference with the lower ping, which why I love matches on Oceanic server with 88 ping and have European server deselected!

[MOBAjobg]

Firing 2xerppc piloting a SMN-M(L) on Oceanic with 30 ping is sheer bliss and I'd observed damage dealt that can exceed 1k in matches however no such luck when dropped on NA with 285 ping usually damage dealt don't surpassed 600.

[Jun Watarase]

Why does just 130ms difference make such a massive difference though?

[Red Shrike]

MOBAjobg, on 29 November 2016 - 11:12 PM, said:

Firing 2xerppc piloting a SMN-M(L) on Oceanic with 30 ping is sheer bliss and I'd observed damage dealt that can exceed 1k in matches however no such luck when dropped on NA with 285 ping usually damage dealt don't surpassed 600.

I dunno, with 50ms or less ping on EU server, my dual PPCs don't even scratch the paint off of mediums.

[Intrepid]

Something else that makes a big difference is staying connected the whole match. How is not disconnecting working out for you?

[mogs01gt]

El Bandito, on 29 November 2016 - 06:42 PM, said:

I love lurming people who have 250+ ping. It takes at least +0.25 second for them to receive the "missile incoming" warning.
That said, my match performance would be much higher if I had 50 ping instead of 200+ like I have currently, in NA server.

I have a good ping and that **** still happens...

[Almond Brown]

Jun Watarase, on 30 November 2016 - 03:39 AM, said:

Why does just 130ms difference make such a massive difference though?

HSR re-calcs are substantially reduced thus making hits actual hits way more. That would be the main benefit I can think of right off.

[blood4blood]

Jun Watarase, on 30 November 2016 - 03:39 AM, said:

Why does just 130ms difference make such a massive difference though?

If your ISP fixed something, and based on your description they did, you're not just seeing a ping fix, you're seeing less packet loss.

[Appogee]

Every now and then, my ISP re-routes traffic to Oceanic and my ping goes from its usual 250 to 80.

It's worth about +30% to my damage score, every match.

(Ironically, I usually become aware of the better the ping because suddenly my damage seems more than I expect.)

After a few days my ping goes back to 250 and I once again am left to dream of what could be if I lived somewhere closer to the servers.

[Rhialto]

Appogee, on 01 December 2016 - 09:20 AM, said:

I once again am left to dream of what could be if I lived somewhere closer to the servers.

12-14 constant here...

Dunno if servers are in Montreal or Vancouver, if the latter I'm 3500 Kms away.

[Appogee]

Rhialto, on 01 December 2016 - 09:50 AM, said:

12-14 constant here...

Dunno if servers are in Montreal or Vancouver, if the latter I'm 3500 Kms away.

I think NA is in the US. They have to be in your suburb for you to be getting 12-14 ping.

[Angel of Annihilation]

In this game ping makes a huge different in hit registration or at least that is what I have found. Even the difference of between 50ms in NA for me and around 100-120 ms on the EU server has tremendous impact and I have seen my average damage go down by as much as 20-50% when trying to play on EU. Trying to play on Oceanic where I see around 200-250ms means nothing seems to register correctly at all.

Actual, visible gameplay isn’t a problem though. I mean it looks like everything is working fine but the damage number just don’t add up with the number of hits I visually landed in game and there are times when I know I have landed a solid hit with my lasers only to not see it reflected on the enemy’s target info display. Seems to effect mostly lasers

[Rhialto]

Viktor Drake, on 01 December 2016 - 10:27 AM, said:

Actual, visible gameplay isn’t a problem though. I mean it looks like everything is working fine but the damage number just don’t add up with the number of hits I visually landed in game and there are times when I know I have landed a solid hit with my lasers only to not see it reflected on the enemy’s target info display. Seems to effect mostly lasers

Unless I'm wrong, if the rticule turn red, it mean the server have registered the hit and is returning this visual indicator to you so you know it has registered.

This mean on a server with high ping some players get used to compensate by firing next to a target in the air when looking at screen and hit register and reticule will turn red.