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When I play Gears of War, I host.
MVMosin
__BANNED USERS regular
__BANNED USERS regular
I play on a DSL connection, and not a particularly good one. If I'm not hosting the game, it is broken. BROKEN. I can not fire a Boomshot or Longshot with any amount of precision off-host. I can not get those delicious pistol headshots. The only hope I have to defeat an opponent is to use the chainsaw, grenades, or to just spray and pray with the Gnasher or Lancer.
So I must host, and I for one am sick of people attempting to strip me of my victories because of it. There is no host advantage; there is, however, an off-host disadvantage. The host's game is slightly less broken. That seems like less of an advantage and more of a common sense decision for someone with normally bad lag.
If I'm playing GRAW, or Rainbow 6, or Splinter Cell online, I don't host games, because it's faster to just jump into an existing one and I don't have to worry about having to shoot like a blind person in a battlefield because of latency.
I consider myself to be a particularly good player. My scores in other shooters (In which "host advantage" is a much, much lesser issue) are, on average, just as high as in Gears of War.
So why the bitchin'?
So I must host, and I for one am sick of people attempting to strip me of my victories because of it. There is no host advantage; there is, however, an off-host disadvantage. The host's game is slightly less broken. That seems like less of an advantage and more of a common sense decision for someone with normally bad lag.
If I'm playing GRAW, or Rainbow 6, or Splinter Cell online, I don't host games, because it's faster to just jump into an existing one and I don't have to worry about having to shoot like a blind person in a battlefield because of latency.
I consider myself to be a particularly good player. My scores in other shooters (In which "host advantage" is a much, much lesser issue) are, on average, just as high as in Gears of War.
So why the bitchin'?
MVMosin on
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Otherwise things are pretty equal.
When I play with my brother-in-law he has to host because his DSL is teh sux and he lags when I host on cable. Us playing on his DSL though is smooth.
I don't bitch about the brokenness as an excuse for losing; if I'm not hosting for whatever reason, I do what I know will work. I spray with the Lancer and Gnasher. I grenade tag. I melee. If I lose, I don't whine and say things like "I would've won if I was hosting, I just lost because I have bad lag." Unless the opposition happens to just be a team of jackasses, I just say "Good game" and then prepare to play another match.
Besides, I've had the pleasure of playing on a faster connection before, and I'm given the impression that an awful lot of on-line gamers have those types of connections. I think the guy with the DSL hosting and the guy with cable being off-host is about as even as this quirky game can get.
How is the shotgun "better?" This is not a rhetorical, I've heard this a lot and would like to know why so many people say this.
advantage
noun
1. the quality of having a superior or more favorable position; Antonym: Disadvantage.
Secondly:
Have you tried accounting for being off-host and not complaining? That may be the hang up.
Yes, I know that facing a disadvantaged opponent is an advantage. But a lot of people make it seem like the host is God, and I phrased it that way to make a point that he isn't.
Tried accounting for being off-host? You mean, like, figuring out how much I'm lagging and leading my shots by extra distance to account for it? If that's what you're asking, then let me just say this: You have not played on my connection. Keep in mind, that I'm in a flat, and this isn't my own private connection or anything. There are hiccups galore.
Even when I'm playing GRAW, or FEAR, there is the occasional FUBL, but it's tolerable. Gears is the only one that forces me to host.
Thus a slight advantage. Say, a half a millisecond to get that shotgun just a tad closer to the head before firing.
This is correct. However, when you're on a DSL connection, the difference is much more drastic. It's the difference between a sniper round passing right through your opponent's head, and a sniper round blowing your opponent's head off.
It isn't just that. For some reason the shotgun is vastly more accurate and powerful when used by the host, way more than the effects of lag.
I am here to say that it is my opinion that your connection does indeed suck. I know you just said it does, and I understand that my connection is nothing to brag about either, however, I have never experienced any severe lag playing GoW. My shots have always rung true, and I have never hosted.
See? We can all play the anecdotal game.
-edit- To be serious, I would wager a fair amount that the reason you can clean up when you are hosting is because your connection isn't good enough to host-- causing the other players to lag around. GoW hides the lag for all intents and porposes, so you don't know it's happening until you shoot them in the back of the head with impunity because you are gimping them with your connection.
The reason the host HAS an advantage is somewhat latency, but mostly how networked games work. In most games, and I'll use an example of Halo 2, this is how it works
(assume the client has connected to the host)
ClientXbox: The player pressed the L button, so I'd like to generate a grenade now.
HostXbox: Okay, the player has more than zero grenades. You can generate a grenade.
ClientXbox: *generates grenade*
When the host throws a grenade:
HostXbox: Hey, my player just threw a grenade, spawn one in his position!
ClientXbox: *generates grenade*
every time a client wants to do something, they ask the host if they're allowed to, and the host replies with what to do. when the host does something, they just send the command out - they don't need to make a round trip. This is why 1 v 1 favors host, because if you both fire your shotgun at the same time, the host will always win because your Xbox will recieve the "you just fucking died" command before the host recieves and sends back the "you just fired the shotgun" command.
edit: and yes, shotguns are killing machines in the hands of the host in Halo 2 aswell.
Now do the same as a client.
It's pretty clear that there is an advantage. When you are a client you have to lead with the shotgun at close range.
Yeah. But saying the game is broken because of your shitty connection... That's like building a computer with a 2.5 GHz Dual Core CPU and having a Voodoo 3 in there and complaining that the Intel sucks. With normal people, the host has a 100 ms advantage over everyone. Does that break the game? Not at all. Does it give a slight advantage? Yes. But that's the way online gaming always has been, and always will be.
So I'm good at GRAW, FEAR, and Rainbow Six, Day of Defeat, Red Orchestra, Half Life, Half Life 2, and Counter Strike, but I just, for whatever reason, blow chunks at Gears? Come on, you really think that's likely?
I usually ask people if they've having trouble with lag after the first round, just because it seems courteous. I get a complaint about it now and then, but only now and then.
So many things could be different-- Do those other games have voice chat? That takes up some connection, both up and down. Sometimes ports can be an issue. On the small broadband pipes, you can max our your upload by just speaking in a game.
And yeah, dots, they really should have at least a handful of dedicated servers for their A+ games. There would be no way to serve everyone with dedicated servers, it's far too many players. But they really do need to make an effort with at least some dedicated ones.
Exactly; those other games do not give me lag issues, but Gears does. That is exactly what I'm saying.
Do you not know that hosting a game means everyone else but you suffers from your lag issues?
These responses don't fly here anymore, AFAIK.
Hence why he received an infraction.
Why can't you read?
Well you're saying there is no host advantage yet there's an off-host disadvantage and that my friend, is a fallacy.
Harden the fuck up.
The host is better big boo hoo, his shotgun is more powerfull. He also starts running before anyone else does and always takes point. It is impossible to beat the host to a weapon if it's in the middle of a map. This lets him have any weapon he wants in most maps.
I then recomend trying to kill him, you may die, you should then accept it as life then move the fuck on.
Or get 8 xboxes together and have a giant system link session.
Satans..... hints.....
Watch out for that 3 to 10 ms lag on those system link sessions. NO ONE IS SAFE!
Man I remember the days where people would segregate into two piles. HPBs and LPBs.
1. The host's shotgun is more powerful.
FALSE.
2. The host always takes point.
FALSE.
3.The host begins running before anyone else.
FALSE.
You should do more research. I recommend playing the game.
In fact, I've been a Telus DSL customer for 8 years and the only thing they've raised in that time is the amount of money I have to pay for it.
I can tell you right now that the host's shotgun is more powerful, or at least gibs more often than anyone else's. Do I care? No, but that doesn't mean it's not true.
If you stand right next to the host, and you both have shotguns, and you both fire at the same time, the host is going to kill you.
Your DSL provider sucks. Qwests advertises up to 7MB down for home connections for DSL here in Omaha. I hit 4MB/sec on mine.
Funny, I just tested that with a friend on Live. Neither of us died after one point-blank shot. We waited to heal... Tried again. Ad nauseum. Same results, after emptying our shotguns in that manner. Then we fired two shots in succession at the same time, and both died.
I was hosting, with DSL. The friend says he has cable.
Exactly. Why the hell did he make this thread? From what I can gather, he's complaining that when he isn't host, he doesn't do as well at GoW as he does in other shooters.
Has it occured to the OP that he might just be crap at Gears, and thus needs the hefty advantage that being host gives him over other players?
And it is quite an advantage. I'm not bitching, just stating fact. I relish the chance to be host whenever it comes up - the shotgun becomes a godly tool of death, especially if you can fire accurately from the hip.
Has the OP considered that his connection may just suck? And if thats the case then hosting isn't just creating an advantage, but is also being a dick. If you know you have a bad connection you should not host.