Party Play

[Lee]

So my best friends are Dota nerds, but every now and then they like to jump on and play some Black Ops with me.

Now I've been very happy with the results whilst playing solo with the R1, but after they joined things got very hairy. I'm absolutely fine with this as I predominantly play solo and to be honest things weren't that bad but there was definitely a discernible difference. They live very local by the way.

I'm just interested as to why this happens? From what I understand other people's connection can drag down the quality of the entire lobby, but that's just something I've heard rather than understanding the why or how. I just assumed that because they lived local everything should be cool. But then again I am a dummy.

I'd also like to know if it's at all possible to optimise my own connection to improve things for me or even better, the entire lobby. I mean something other telling my friends to "get off that tesco internet hurr durr".

Any suggestions/info will be appreciated. Please educate my dumb ass.

[abc123]

well the answer isn't super complex:

 

When playing solo: Only people in your geo-filter can connect to you.

 

When playing in a party: People outside your geo-filter can connect to you, it simply has to make one of your party members "host" then they can send data to you and to people outside the geo-filter.  This basically negates the benefits of the netduma 100%

[Lee]

well the answer isn't super complex:

 

When playing solo: Only people in your geo-filter can connect to you.

 

When playing in a party: People outside your geo-filter can connect to you, it simply has to make one of your party members "host" then they can send data to you and to people outside the geo-filter.  This basically negates the benefits of the netduma 100%

So when I invite people to a pre-search lobby then go into matchmaking the game doesn't automatically make me the party host? That's what I assumed. If that's the case then that definitely explains it.

 

Thank you.

[abc123]

So when I invite people to a pre-search lobby then go into matchmaking the game doesn't automatically make me the party host? That's what I assumed. If that's the case then that definitely explains it.

 

Thank you.

 

correct, although you control the party (search, leave) and you are the first choice to be host as soon as people fail to connect to you, someone else will be chosen that can connect to you and those other people.  So it should start good, then overtime get worse and worse.  Of course Iain would be then best to answer this, but it is what i've experienced

[Zennon]

If you are the party host then your geo-filter controls where the host is picked from.

 

Watch the lobby leader boards it pits you against better players more of the time if you are in a party, check the leader and if you do not like the look of it back out and search again.

[Lee]

If you are the party host then your geo-filter controls where the host is picked from.

 

Watch the lobby leader boards it pits you against better players more of the time if you are in a party, check the leader and if you do not like the look of it back out and search again.

I don't cherry pick lobbies, I just play. This wasn't a skill thing trust me, I know better than that. If it was I wouldn't enquire about it here.

 

No this was most definitely a connection thing, I was connecting to people all over the place. abc's explanation makes sense.

[Netduma Fraser]

Glad to hear you've got your answer. As they're all local to you, you could try being the host and getting a good game for all of you. Just remember to add them to your allow list

[ij4xs]

I've seen similar things happen to me when playing Destiny, but it's compounded there as everyone connects to everyone else. I've played in games with people I couldn't shoot at all because they were wholly connected to someone else in my fireteam.