Discuss the Ping Advantage (crosspost from ENSL.org)
Golden
Join Date: 2004-09-01 Member: 31169Members, NS1 Playtester, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, WC 2013 - Silver, NS2 Community Developer
Join Date: 2004-09-01 Member: 31169Members, NS1 Playtester, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, WC 2013 - Silver, NS2 Community Developer
Over the weekend, we saw the impact of the ping advantage, contributing to the numerous marine wins. Forcing marine rounds to have the advantage in intercontinental play is the wrong approach and needs to be discussed. In my opinion, playing with over 150 latency is unplayable as you begin warping through enemy players, attacks do not register, and you can be killed before the other player is visible on your screen.
The best solution I have come up with is to play the match on the server providing the lowest average ping difference. This avoids playing rounds on two different servers (decreasing the time required for matches to be played as well), and preventing one team from having a larger advantage than the other.
Ex.
A team comprised of mostly US West players is scheduled to play against a European team, mostly located in Germany. Under the current ruleset, the first round would be played on a US East server resulting in ~80-100 pings for the US team and ~130 for the German team, an average difference of 40. The second round would be played on a UK server with ~40-60 pings for the German team and ~180-200 for the US West team, a difference of 140. Clearly there is an imbalance here.
With my solution, both rounds would be played on the US East server since the ping difference is lowest. I believe this would result in the most even gameplay.
Discuss.
Crossposted from ENSL.org.
The best solution I have come up with is to play the match on the server providing the lowest average ping difference. This avoids playing rounds on two different servers (decreasing the time required for matches to be played as well), and preventing one team from having a larger advantage than the other.
Ex.
A team comprised of mostly US West players is scheduled to play against a European team, mostly located in Germany. Under the current ruleset, the first round would be played on a US East server resulting in ~80-100 pings for the US team and ~130 for the German team, an average difference of 40. The second round would be played on a UK server with ~40-60 pings for the German team and ~180-200 for the US West team, a difference of 140. Clearly there is an imbalance here.
With my solution, both rounds would be played on the US East server since the ping difference is lowest. I believe this would result in the most even gameplay.
Discuss.
Crossposted from ENSL.org.
Comments
Out of curiosity, can some EU/West coast players try pinging to the NS2 servers at ns2cmod.com? You can go to the steam browser and click add server to see the servers and ping them (or just ping the address).
a good netcode wil be optimized for 100% accurate gameplay around 50ms.
pll change town and isp for a reason :P
but yeah, intercontinental... always a big problem
interp could probably be fixed too
US east servers are ideal for pings since it provides the lowest difference between teams. I don't see many teams agreeing to this though, not that I would expect them to.
That's the other viable solution I have considered. However, this doubles the time needed for matches to be played and brings to question where the tiebreaker should be played.
I cannot ping either server as they are not up at the moment.
I think the current style of USEAST (Virginia or NYC) for NA games and London/germany/france for euro games is the best compromise for cross continent matches. I also like the alien + marine -> switch -> alien + marine setup over the marine -> switch -> alien.
Gotta get some greenland servers ;p
Also the servers are up and have been for a while, not sure why you cant ping them (could just ping ns2cmod.com in command prompt :X).
That or found the north american league...
Also, I can't seem to ping your website. However, I pinged a few of the NSL servers to see what I get
NSL Match - NA Central - #1 (IP: 69.39.239.30) = 59ms
NSL Match - NA Central - #2 (IP: 69.162.110.234) = 52ms
NSL Match - NA East - #1 (IP: 108.61.71.50) = 77ms
NSL Match - London - #1 (IP: 85.236.100.56) = 165ms
NSL Match - Frankfurt - #1 (IP: 85.236.105.23) = 183ms
I'm US-West (Seattle) so that's probably the worst you'll see from NA players.
Edit: Updated with NA Central #1 and #2 pings.
There's always the win-2 in a row option, but that can go on for a very long time as well.
Dragon's servers (76.72.172.196) - 71 ms
NSL Match - NA East - #1 (IP: 108.61.71.50) = 79 ms
NSL Match - London - #1 (IP: 85.236.100.56) = 192 ms
NSL Match - Frankfurt - #1 (IP: 85.236.105.23) = 217 ms
From Arizona.
NA East is located in NYC.
out of interest could you also test NSL Central (chicago) ? 69.39.239.30:27715.
and NSL Central #2 (texas) ? 69.162.110.234:27915
always good to see how ping changes
NSL Central (chicago) 69.39.239.30:27715 - 74 ms
Damage Networks Private Central 69.39.239.34 - 74 ms
NSL Match - London - #1 (IP: 85.236.100.56) = 36
NSL Match - Frankfurt - #1 (IP: 85.236.105.23) = 21
NSL Central (chicago) 69.39.239.30:27715 = 121
NSL Central #2 (texas) 69.162.110.234:27915 = 144
cant ping to @xDragon server
and yes i double checked the NA results
I live in West Germany (1 hour to Cologne and Frankfurt)
Warping? Don't worry - so is the other team.
NSL Match - NA East - #1 (IP: 108.61.71.50) = 15
NSL Match - London - #1 (IP: 85.236.100.56) = 82
NSL Match - Frankfurt - #1 (IP: 85.236.105.23) = 98
NSL Central (chicago) 69.39.239.30 = 36
NSL Central #2 (texas) 69.162.110.234 = 53
Dragon's (Philadelphia?) 76.72.172.196 = 17
(actual pings in game are typically +15-30 from what is listed here)
Added pings to the NSL Central servers to my list.
but my internet connection shouldnt be representing the majority of eu players ^^
What about you find the server that has the lowest highest ping (think that makes sense) and then everyone else uses the net_lag command to increase their ping to that level?
Flame on!