Optimal Ping Times (Halo) ?

Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 9:47 pm

I am basically a n00b! to playing Halo using tunneling software and have played a few times on XBConnect but with so much lag it was crazy so I just stuck with Xbox Live and other games for multiplayer.

What is considered (bad, fair, good, awesome) ping times for Halo since that mostly all I'll be trying to play?

thanks for any/all answers.... Wink

Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 9:57 pm

You'll always have more lag in Halo than with other games, since Halos netcode is pre-XBL and therefore built exclusively for LAN. That basically means you need more bandwith per joining XBox to run smoothly.

Of course, lag also depends on the distance between the host and the joining player, but usually I don't join games with more than 80 ping. If you can get 40, then that's great, and obviously the lower the better. There isn't really an optimal ping time, as ping time isn't directly relational to lag, but if you take 55 - 60 as average, and work on that Smile

A part of being good at playing Halo online is dealing with lag - dont aim the reticle at your opponents head, lead it infront of them so they run into it. Also, when you join games, play very defensively, good strategy will own any weapon. If you see them before they see you and you get the opportunity, partially hide yourself and throw a nade. After the nade you only have to hit them once with pistol and you killed them - and since you're trying to hide, they wont see you right away and when they do, they don't have much of you to shoot at. Little things like this are very useful for evening out the playing field Wink

EDIT:
To expand on my "ping time isn't directly relational to lag" comment - when I join UK servers, I usually ping around 60 - 70. But when I join USA servers, a 110 ping is just as good as a UK server with 60 ping most of the time. It's weird, you just have to take your chances, join games, practice and you'll get used it Smile

EDIT #2: Here's a good way to figure out what the host will be like before you play on it, as long as you know the upload speed of the host -
You need 128 upload per XBox that joins, and an additional ~30 per player on each joining XBox. If the host meets those requierments, then the game should be pretty smooth Wink

Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 9:58 pm

Well... it's hard to answer. I have found on XBC that ping rates are not always the best way to determine lag. Sometimes I can get in a room with a ping of less than 70ms and it's laggy alot.... sometimes the ping rate will increase as the game starts. So, say you start at 60ms and than it increases to 80-120ms during the game... well, that is telling me the host is most probably maxing out his upload which is a very common problem. Like if you are playin Halo it is a huge network hog, I can't comment about other games because I play those over Live. Sometimes I enter rooms with a ping rate of 70-90ms and the lag doesn't seem bad but the ping rate doesn't go up in the game so the hosts upload can handle the traffic.

You are always going to get some kind of lag when playing client/server games... always.... of course, some types of games you can't tell as much but in shooters it's alot easier to notice. I can setup a LAN game and you can notice the lag.... lag will not be going away. Just my take.... have fun playin tonight... just don't try to worry about the lag as much... it's a game but it can be fustrating at times.

Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 9:59 pm

You beat me too it..... hehe.... good post.

Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 9:59 pm

>200 bad ~150 ok <100 great

Of course if there ar a lot of players <60 is smooth as can be

hard to really say though because it depends how many players you have on each xbox as well as how many boxes you have connected.

Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 10:03 pm

[IXS]eXodus wrote:

You'll always have more lag in Halo than with other games, since Halos netcode is pre-XBL and therefore built exclusively for LAN. That basically means you need more bandwith per joining XBox to run smoothly.

Of course, lag also depends on the distance between the host and the joining player, but usually I don't join games with more than 80 ping. If you can get 40, then that's great, and obviously the lower the better. There isn't really an optimal ping time, as ping time isn't directly relational to lag, but if you take 55 - 60 as average, and work on that Smile

A part of being good at playing Halo online is dealing with lag - dont aim the reticle at your opponents head, lead it infront of them so they run into it. Also, when you join games, play very defensively, good strategy will own any weapon. If you see them before they see you and you get the opportunity, partially hide yourself and throw a nade. After the nade you only have to hit them once with pistol and you killed them - and since you're trying to hide, they wont see you right away and when they do, they don't have much of you to shoot at. Little things like this are very useful for evening out the playing field Wink

EDIT:
To expand on my "ping time isn't directly relational to lag" comment - when I join UK servers, I usually ping around 60 - 70. But when I join USA servers, a 110 ping is just as good as a UK server with 60 ping most of the time. It's weird, you just have to take your chances, join games, practice and you'll get used it Smile

EDIT #2: Here's a good way to figure out what the host will be like before you play on it, as long as you know the upload speed of the host -
You need 128 upload per XBox that joins, and an additional ~30 per player on each joining XBox. If the host meets those requierments, then the game should be pretty smooth Wink

great answers, thanks - and everyone else as well Wink

Posted: Sun May 23, 2004 1:23 am

Actually , your ping doesnt mean everything as much as location, because my ping was 200, but i was playing a guy in the netherlands and some shit, he had an awesome host barely any bullet lag, but if you are playing someone with in a state, if you live in the U.S your ping should be atleast 40 or below... but anyways ping isnt everything, just their upload and location.