9 replies to this topic

[UXB]

OK, so we all know about the lag shield, but this wasn't a lag shield problem.

An already damaged Commando overheats and shut down right in front of my Atlas. 50 meters range, tops. I give him an AC20, 2 MPLS, 1 LPL, and 2 SRM 6 packs. All hit (he wasn't moving after all). Should be dead Commando, right? Nope, he powers back up and runs on his merry way.

Rapidly losing interest in Invulnerable Lights Online.

[Adrius91]

Heard others complain about this.

Projectiles apparently have the ability to warp as well... sometimes through your target.

[Boogie Man]

I have had so many lights shrug off dual SRM6 at point blank range and only take minor damage. I think a lot of damage disapears into the void in this game when it comes to hitting lights even stationary ones.

[DeadlyNerd]

it's called "lag shield". It's even worse when something like a surprise shutdown occurs. While the mech is moving, the server is somehow handling the lag shield well, but when this occurs it seems to leave the position of that mech on the spot where it triggered the shutdown. Because the mech takes a step or 2 forward before completely stopping, its appearance moves outside of his hitboxes and thus your shots miss even if it's standing still. Had it happen and it was also a light, maybe even a commando.

[Irreverence]

I had a commando come to a stop 40 meters in front of me. His CT,LT,RT were all cherry red. I fired two SSRM2 and 5 medium lasers to his CT. He started moving again. It wasn't a shutdown though, since he continued to fire at me.

I actually never had a problem like this except for this last patch. Most of the people in my merc corp have noticed it getting progressively worse the last couple days, more so at certain times and with very light drops.

Edited by Irreverence, 15 December 2012 - 09:12 AM.

[An Individual]

A little while ago (pre-ECM) I was playing my Jenner running around in the Volcano at top speed shooting at a laser catapult. I miscalculated my heat and went into shut down mode. I then watch the cat line up and unload a shot several meters behind me. You would have to be a pretty bad shot to have spent that much time setting it up and miss. I'm pretty sure that he wasn't seeing my actual location even though I was stationary. The net code in this game needs some work.

[The Jove]

I think there might be something strange happening when a mech shuts down.

I've witnessed what you said, only my target was a hunchback. He shuts down, I alpha him, he powers back on, and then warps about 10m backwards! No damage, obviously.

Perhaps when a mech shuts down, it's location isn't being properly transmitted to the server?

[Laniarty]

I don't know if any of you were involved in the closed beta, but when there were collisions the same behavior would occur. The mech that fell would animate falling down, warp 5-10 meters forward, warp 5-10 meters back and animate standing up. When firing at it you'd have to really sweep a laser across that entire area until you found the mechs real location with a red crosshair, and then unload on it, or even just wait for the entire animation process to complete before firing just as the mech started to move again.

Even then it was a crapshoot. It's why it was removed before OB (rightly imo) to work on it and make it better.

Edited by Laniarty, 15 December 2012 - 09:50 AM.

[Elizander]

UXB, on 15 December 2012 - 08:50 AM, said:

OK, so we all know about the lag shield, but this wasn't a lag shield problem.

An already damaged Commando overheats and shut down right in front of my Atlas. 50 meters range, tops. I give him an AC20, 2 MPLS, 1 LPL, and 2 SRM 6 packs. All hit (he wasn't moving after all). Should be dead Commando, right? Nope, he powers back up and runs on his merry way.

Rapidly losing interest in Invulnerable Lights Online.

It's part of lag shield. When they power down, they still slide forward a bit so you still need to hitscan with a laser or tag before letting them have it.

[Lin Shai]

What people call the "lag shield" ... isn't.

It's really a "PGI can't write a predictive algorithm or network code" shield.

That commando? It wasn't really where your screen said it was. Even though it'd stopped moving. And shut down.

It happens just as much when playing a light. Sneak up and come to a stop behind a stationary atlas, unload an alpha strike into its back and .... nada. Zippo. No damage. Shoot 10 feet to the right into thin air? Bingo, direct hit. Though I'm almost suspecting that the client has lost track of where you actually are rather than the atlas in that situation.

Usually when predictive algoritms are bad (or there's actual, high network latency involved), what you see is "warping" where the client gets the authoritative position of a player from the server and decides "Hey, that's so far away from where I currently think it is, I need to make a big correction and place it where it is right now, otherwise ... it's never going to be where it really is".

It's like they forgot that part. Or ... left it out because their network code was so bad it it would be happening constantly.

Then ... they use server-side hit detection. I literally don't know how they expected that to work.

The entire point of predictive algorithms in network games is to reduce network traffic by allowing what's displayed on the client to differ slightly from what's on the server, but eventually become consistent through minor corrections. It makes things smoother and not "warp" or be jumpy.

Theirs isn't slightly, and doesn't become consistent.