8 replies to this topic

[Felbombling]

Really excited about this new game! It has been too long in coming, that is for damn sure.

One major concern I have is how well protected we will be as players from hackers who may attempt to upend the playing field. Will they be dealt with harshly, or am I dreaming?

I only ask because I had a rather short-lived enjoyment of Mechwarrior 4 multiplayer, where I remember being hit with a smaller Thunderbolt and having an entry and exit hole, front to back, in my heavy Mech. My return fire, which should have been significant, given the ranges and length of the battle, seemed not to register on my opponent at all. When I asked about it in the in-game chat, I was given a one word answer that made me want to leave.

"Lag?"

I want to be excited for this release, but there is no use getting all pumped up for this new venture if we'll see more of the same from the computer-savy community.

Thoughts?

[Pht]

It's an online persistent F2P game - the devs will have distinct incentives to make sure people want to keep playing their game - they go broke, otherwise.

I'll bet they're putting in some pretty gnarly obfuscation into the code.

[AShinySword]

Well, my friend I'm afraid you've had a rather poor sampling of online gaming. Everyone has bad experiences, some experience genuine hacking, others are the victims of their internet service provider. Lag is an unfortunate side effect of globally inclusive gaming experiences. Some studies of Counter Strike show hit-boxes of players can be up-to one to two meters away from the in-game avatar in some cases, meaning the enemy was no where near where you were shooting. So yes, there will be faults in the game, there will be exploits, there will be lag. All you can do is trust in the developers to do all they can to reduce the risk of said hacking, to provide clear and unrestricted network paths to smooth out game-play. But also to trust in what looks to be the great community, to do what they can to help isolate and eliminate cheaters and provide a stable and constructive environment for players to work together to solve problems, whether it be with your fighting style or your internet connection.

You can only do so much, you can ban cheats but still be subject to their return under a new alias, its true of all forms of gaming. It doesn't mean the other 99.9% have given up fighting them off, so don't let one bad experience ruin your expectations.

Have faith and keep up your excitement, I know the rest of us are!

[verybad]

^Pretty much this. I've found that most of the time people say cheat! It's usually lag in online games. There are cheaters certainlly.

This game will have lag, it will have exploits, and there will probably be some cheaters. All you can do is hope for the best.

[plodder]

I am a lagger. my connection is weak.It is harder on the slow internet connection guy than the great connection. When I sometimes(distant past) was on a high speed connection, my average play became good.To hit what your aiming at with no guessing was great!!

[Dlardrageth]

Lag issues may well be related to your exact location on this planet as well. Assuming PGI will not anytime soon set up servers dislocated on other continents, that would be an issue. Yes, I'm specifically looking at the guys from downunder here. Considering they (PGI) surely want to reach a global player base, I hope major effort will be put into making lag not a main decisive factor in match outcomes.

Granted, even with ping times that may seem absurd to domestic US players, hardcore players will still try to do their best. That notwithstanding, I'm really curious how PGI plans to adress that very issue.

Edited by Dlardrageth, 01 January 2012 - 08:55 PM.

[Gorith]

Lag is different in every game.
Since I am imagining that PGI will host the games themselves ofcourse those with a smaller ping will have a greater advantage. I also Imagine there will be some sort of latency prediction used to help even it out and this is the part I hope they do well as latency compensation can easily turn into a very exploitable thing if not properly implemented.

On a side note I am glad to find this thread what it is i was kinda thinking as a clicked on it that it was going to be one of those "Make casuals able to compete with hardcore" debates (again)

[Felbombling]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, it was a long time ago, and I've had some good and bad experiences with online games... but that was the worst. Here is hoping they have a heavy ban hammer to swing, should some cheese-grinder start messing with armour levels, weapon damage, etc.

[Johnathon Henrick]

my fear is the clans.......don't attack me just hear me out, when fasa introduced them they steam
rolled everything and everyone who opposed, ..after a while it took team work to stall them because their tactics ,not their tech...

that's how it was ....but when you give a that big of a edge to anyone.......no other to say it just caused havoc every thing ,,clan tech should could be controlled and slowly introduced.......fasa had a great story for the world of battletech and i luv it but i my opinion the clans really need to be thought out before turned loose in 3050 ...and crushing everything........