Host Advantage

Host advantage is pretty significant in most shooters, but I've noticed it is almost game breaking in MNC.


Most of this comes from playing the tank, but when I'm host:

-Targets hit by jet gun instantly catch on fire.
-Railgun hit detection is amazing and consistent at all ranges. I'm capable of using the railgun at medium/close range and rarely missing a target that is juking me.

Off Host:
-Targets hit by jet gun won't light on fire unless applied for 0.5-2 seconds.
-Railgun hit detection is significantly spottier, especially at close range while being juked.

I know its an issue that all P2P shooters face, but I was wondering have the devs looked into the issue at all as far as reducing the amount of advantage host grants in this game? (Or if its even possible?) Are the devs aware of the general differences between a host and non host connection when using a variety of features in the game?

If you need a definition:

(I'll attempt to define it: Host advantage is a term the gaming community uses to describe the variables in communication of data between the host and all players in the game. The host acts as a central hub of data transmission in his game, meaning that all actions in the game are transmitted to the host, then retransmitted to all other players, resulting in a slight-significant advantage in time for the host of the game. Urban dictionary also provides that "In online gaming, when the player who hosted the room or server has the upper hand due to him having no network lag to himself since he hosted the server.")

Yea I got host last night and figured I'd try out the Railgun and man was it deadly. I almost felt bad for them.

I think it's a significant advantage when using tank or assassin but with a decent connection the other classes don't suffer too bad. I've noticed hitting cloaked assassins can prove to be sometimes impossible even on decent connections. Uber said they "Improved weapon hit detection in high lag situations". I just hope they fix all the problems the assassin has with lag related issues.

Host advantage on assassin is INSANE

Grapples never miss, lunges always connect and never slide.
And as a huge added bonus things like the sprint glitch happen much less often.

You will always win an assassin vs assassin fight as host. Every time.

The thing I find most noticeable while playing host, is that somebody can grapple you, and you can come out of the grapple and grab them right back or do wtf ever you want. Even if they are button mashing till their fingers bleed, you will ALWAYS make the first move.

Nothing like playing as a support when you are host. Shotgun is death in 2 seconds, and every airstrike you throw sticks to somebody.

God, I hate how they don't catch fire from jet gun immediately when I'm not host. There's something so demoralizing about seeing your gun, which shoots fire, not make people catch fire.

And almost need two distinct playstyles as assassin: all-rounder assassin when I'm host and guerrilla tactics-harassment assassin when I'm not. It's like I need to walk on eggshells as an assassin on lag.

And yeah, I've never felt host advantage being so... advantageous in any game besides MNC.

Host-advantage Shotgun = Beast Mode

I wouldn't say it's that much of an advantage. But then again, I used to play Gears regularly, and host then was a ***** to kill.

Maybe I've just gotten used to the lag from 3 years of Gears.

How do you know when you're host?

Host advantage + hitscan weapons = raep

When you r4pe every enemy's face off while playing with one hand.

And why are you playing with one hand?!

cuz' I lost the other one in a battle to the death with a bear :cry:

Hopefully Uber will incorporate a server browser with the PC release, as well as dedicated server support.

It's absurd to pay $70 a year for Xbox LIVE when 95% of the games released only support listen servers.

Wow SXD played Gears? I use to play it ALL the time. I probably ran into you, but you played Gears 1 right? Cuz for Gears 1 veterans, Gears 2 multiplayer was terrible.

I played regularly on both 1 and 2. Multiplayer on 2 was okay. At least AR sniper wasn't OP. (OP Sniper. HAH! Who would have guessed?)

And I am a veteran on both. Got to Level 100 on 2, but never did get Srsly on 1... I was meaning to go back and finish that, but MNC took over my XBL account. :lol:

Not to say that I don't like that it did. I think I'll be sticking with MNC for a looooong time.

Ha yeah I'll be sticking to MNC for a long time. But I couldn't stand Gears 2 but congrats on level 100. But for now Gears 3 can take as long as it wants to come out lol.

My brother is a huge Gears player and I've watched him play enough to tell who has host simply by the shotgun. I also used to play the hell outta Gears1 when it first released.

I'll be watching him play, he's very aggressive, and someone would blindfire him with a shooty and will almost kill him. Or form an absurd distance away one Shotgun shot will just about kill him. I just go "Ohh that's host." lol

Gears 2 has improved a lot since it's release. He used to switch back and forth but since the updates he's been sticking to Gears2.

In general I'd have to say snipers/tanks seem to have the biggest host advantage. If there is a bad connection supports are rough considering you can't shoot them and their beam locks on you.

I've never said wow this is so much easier being host as a gunner.

i have seen this also since i downgraded my speed on my cable internet. people would leave so quick because it keeps choosing a bad host (me). the tank is amazing and i could run from any situation that i would die. i got most my streak achievements by being host.

I would actually put Assassins above both of those. A host playing as an Assassin can lunge+grapple you instantly and that will kill any class in a single combo. If done properly you can even bypass level 3 Freeze Traps using this technique.