Denying and allowing

[Ian88]

I was just wondering at what sort of ping would you start to considering denying the host? At what ms would you start feeling lag? It's just that a denied a host last nIght that was 60ms ping was that a little hasty?

[BENORMOUS]

That's all down to you in my opinion,ive played on a 60ms p2p host on call of duty before and the connection was super smooth and a pleasure to play on but ive been on similar 60 ms hosts before and they have been a nightmare,if it's smooth put it into allow if it's terrible and spiky put it in the deny all up to you that's the beauty of it

[Dillinger]

It really depends for me on how the game "feels".  I have a P2P host (I play a lot of Black Ops 2 so framed there for this response) in the Portland area that has fantastic connection to me (>20ms every time), but the game plays like shit every time I get on it.  At first I refused to believe it and just figured I wasn't playing my best, but it truly is a good speed host that sucks for me to play.

 

If I get a host and the lobby is playing well, I either rate it well, or don't rate it if it's over about 60ms or so, but my final determination before I enter anything is whether the game "felt" like what I was doing, was making it across.  Were my bullets hitting, was I getting hit around corners all the time, or just a rare occasion, stuff like that.

 

When you are brand new, you are going to be asking about a thousand questions of everything.  Is it doing it right?  Why was last game so good, but this one not going as well?  Stuff like that, the important thing is to get a lot of lobbies in and see what feels "right" to you.

 

I believe you mentioned Black Ops 2 in your initial thread, I can assure you there are plenty of good P2P hosts out there on that game, both consoles.

 

Just get a solid, first set up done like the guys recommend and get in 20-30 games.  Once you have the hang of how it runs for you, start slowly making adjustments, never more than 1 or 2 at a time, and then give it 5-10 games to see the difference.  

 

Don't try to make a change, make two plays in the game, make another change, get killed and make another change.  1) - It will drive you insane  2) It takes about 2 minutes for the changes to something like the Geo-Filter to take effect.  A good sample population of lobbies should be enough information for you to make changes as you get more used to the system.

 

For Black Ops 2 on XB360, here is what I use.

 

87% for both sliders, Ping Assist set at 0. Preemptive setting.  I live near Seattle, so I set about a 350-400 mile radius with my "home" in Eastern Oregon.  This gives me a radius for most of Washington state, Oregon, a little in Idaho and Nevada, and Northern California. 

 

If it's a really busy day, like Thursday/Friday nights with over 100K players, I move the sliders to about 72% each, Ping Assist set at 0, close down the radius a bit and try to get games close to home. 

 

Give a basic set up a try and get some lobbies in playing that way.  From there make little changes until it "feels" right to you.

[Ian88]

Hey I appreciate that detailed explanation man.. Your right it does drive you crazy fiddling around with the settings haha.. I'll do as you advised thanks again

[JConnor]

To add to what Dillinger wrote...

 

Sometimes it will take a few months... not weeks... To finally dial in the settings you are happy with. Also, some of the settings may seem

counter-intuitive at first, but produce better results.

 

I've written this numerous times, but I can play on the Seattle, and Kansas City server much better than the NYC server, yet I am closer to NYC!

 

It just goes to show how unpredictable and infinite the internet is in terms of infrastructure, line quality, routing, etc. 

[ltr7]

From my experience different ISP's connect to different servers. For example I have coax cable and mostly I get connected to the Chicago or south Texas servers, and even though I have higher ping to them they play better for me. My clan mates have low speed DSL and they get pulled toward the Seattle server more often than not, I have low 20ms pings to Seattle but it's virtually unplayable for me super bad in game timing. So I would go by seat of the pants so to speak, not necessarily by numbers imo.

[cranium2001]

From my experience different ISP's connect to different servers. For example I have coax cable and mostly I get connected to the Chicago or south Texas servers, and even though I have higher ping to them they play better for me. My clan mates have low speed DSL and they get pulled toward the Seattle server more often than not, I have low 20ms pings to Seattle but it's virtually unplayable for me super bad in game timing. So I would go by seat of the pants so to speak, not necessarily by numbers imo.

Seattle is the bane of my COD existence. It drives me nuts when I connect to it.

[Dillinger]

Seattle is the bane of my COD existence. It drives me nuts when I connect to it.

 

I finally got to see what you AW guys were talking about in regards to Seattle's Dedis when I played the Blops3 Beta.  The first day (Tuesday night) not bad.  Wednesday and Thursday were about as bad as I have played and was dumb enough to go back for more.  Finally around Friday night or Saturday, there was a patch and it played a HELL of a lot smoother.

 

Now, whether they solved the Seattle dedi mystery, or it was just a lack of sleep and too much caffeine, is still up in the air.  I'm hoping they figured something out, because I have about ZERO hope of getting hosts outside of that bank in November on XB Live.  

 

Which is another reason I ordered a PS4 and BB Controller for it.

[Cajun72]

Hey Dillinger,

 

I still play blops 2 also but on PS3. What other settings do you have?

 

I currently go with strict mode on, sliders at 70% while gaming, reactive, peer ping unticked, auto ping host ticked, ping assist at 40ms.

 

Any reason why you have 0 ping assist?

 

My home location is UK and GF covers this.

 

Get mixed results with these settings and wondered what you would recommend.

 

Great post by the way

 

Cheers!

[Dillinger]

Hey Dillinger,

 

I still play blops 2 also but on PS3. What other settings do you have?

 

I currently go with strict mode on, sliders at 70% while gaming, reactive, peer ping unticked, auto ping host ticked, ping assist at 40ms.

 

Any reason why you have 0 ping assist?

 

My home location is UK and GF covers this.

 

Get mixed results with these settings and wondered what you would recommend.

 

Great post by the way

 

Cheers!

 

Hey Cajun - I put my Ping Assist to zero, effectively turning that off.  With Ping Assist ON and set to say 40ms, if there are hosts OUTSIDE of your Geo-Filter that meet that requirement, you will be put in that game. 

 

For me playing a game like Black Ops 2, I have A LOT of players based in South California and much further south into Mexico Proper, while I live near Seattle.  I don't want to play those lobbies, which is why I limit my distance with the Geo-Filter and give it all the power it needs to keep me there by having Ping Assist set to zero.

 

I have tried both Preemptive and Reactive, and for me Preemptive I get much better lobbies (in my opinion, your mileage WILL vary I am sure).

 

I adjust my settings based on how many players are on line.  If there are not a lot of players, like this time last year, I could run 87% all day and be fine.  Once the player count gets into the 90K plus, I shrink my Geo Filter to get hosted lobbies that are much closer to me, but I do allocate more bandwidth and put my sliders at 72%.  Why?  I don't like using common numbers, no other reason.  

[Cajun72]

Hi Dillinger

 

That's really helpful thank you 

 

I'll try out those settings depending on the situation. I take it you have strict mode ticked still?

 

At the moment BLOPS 2 is getting hammered on PS3.. in the week it was 116k + and it goes up to 170k+ at weekends 

 

For that reason I'll keep the sliders at 70% and shrink my GF. I live in the middle of the UK so I tend to have the GF just surrounding the UK only.

 

Interesting about the pre-emptive v reactive, my line speeds are 76 down and 20 up so it's recommended here that I use reactive, may have a play with that though 

 

It's still a really good game but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that BLOPS 3 will be good and keep my coming back.. the last 2 cods I didn't enjoy very much especially AW

 

Cheers

[Dillinger]

Hey Cajun, yes. Sorry, I always keep strict mode ticked and I always monitor the host ping and the peer pings.

 

One thing that I think gets over looked, especially for guys like us playing older games, is to take advantage of the host rating. If you get a good ping/good host, go down and rate it higher. Then if that host is available again, the Duma will try to get you in that game. I think everyone gravitates towards the low ranking of a bad host fairly quickly, but rating good hosts is actually just as important.

 

I jumped on the PS3 last night for the first time since Jan to play some Blops 2 last night and immediately noticed a lack of well rated lobbies.

 

My 360 has a gaggle of good lobbies rated, so I have a lot of games where the host shows up with a large dashed outline of a circle, meaning I had rated it highly previously. That's a known host that I liked, so if that guy is on and in a free lobby, I want to play on that host too.

 

My PS3 had two lobbies in the green when I got on last night and I found it more difficult to find a game lobby, in spite of there being 86K when I jumped on. Tonight I intend to play a few hours and rank some lobbies to build up the known hosts that are good, low ping lobbies.

 

Because really I don't care who I play with, as long as I have a good ping and the host is solid.

 

Too bad you are half a world away, I'd definitely run a few games with you.

[Cajun72]

Hi Dillinger,

 

Yes I do try and rate the hosts in a positive way when I can remember. I must admit I'm cautious about giving negative ratings for hosts, I tend to finish the game then come out of the lobby instead.

 

I didn't realise about the dashed outline for one's already rated that's really helpful, although sometimes in lobbies I get many green circles clumped together.

 

At what point do you rate the host, presumably after the game has ended? Is there a possibility then that it may search for a new host and I accidentally rate the wrong one?

 

Agreed about the ping, at the end of the day I'm sure the vast majority of CoD players just want a fair match with as little amount of lag as possible.

 

Yes overall I did enjoy the beta, I was waiting a while for a few games (left strict mode) and some were a bit laggy but if Treyarch listen to the feedback I'm sure it will be a really good game

[Dillinger]

Hey Cajun - For me, I have gotten in a habit of checking the lobby ping & peer pings after my first death in a new lobby.  If it's anything below about 40ms, I give it a high rating if it looks stable.  If it's a low ping, but has spikes and crap all through the graph, I rate those in my dead zone between Green/Good and Red/Bad.  I figure if I get to a point where finding lobbies is hard, I can extend the green ALLOWED hosts down in the middle area and increase my chances.

 

The updates on rating hosts takes about 2 minutes.  This is an anti-cheat feature that Iain and the boys built in, so you don't have to worry about rating a host poorly and getting thrown out into the Abyss.  You can rate a host as a 1% host and bounce, or you can finish out the match.  If two minutes were to go by, and you were still in the same lobby or that person joined your lobby, they SHOULDN'T get host again while you are in that lobby.  You have identified it as a bad host, so the Duma will try it's hardest to keep them from getting host again.

 

Now if you have a previously rated host that is rated high, usually that lights right up for me with the dashed circle to let me know there is a good host in the lobby.  I would say about 50% of the time that person gets host in the next game, based on the few times I have consciously paid attention.

 

You nailed for me and playing online.  I just want a level playing field.  If I am in a lobby and everyone has under a 40ms ping, then it's down to player smarts and skill.  

 

I think you are on the right track.  Get a few lobbies rated and get in the habit of checking the host ping between death and respawn.  Once you get in the habit of doing it and rating the good with the bad, I think your experience will be a lot more positive.  Both in terms of enjoyment and your K/D.       

[Cajun72]

Hi Dillinger

 

I was playing earlier tonight and at times was concentrating more on lobby host than the game!

 

There were a couple I gave good ratings to, and one had spikes between 30-50 ping but it seemed to have good hit detection so I gave it a positive rating.

 

I guess it's better to have a stable 40ms ping rather than a spiky 25-50 one

 

Thanks I will keep a look out more and rate hosts more regularly