Does high ping help you?

Game Discussion Realistic Battle
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27

I play exclusively on 200 ping minimum, from New Zealand. I can tell you I have extensive experience being stuck playing at high ping in many different games. I get 200 ping to US and SA servers, and ~320 ping to EU. 350ish to CIS.

High ping is absolutely a disadvantage in almost all situations.

This game is server side, so the server is deciding what happens, and telling the client what is happening. With high ping this is obviously more delayed. Your ping has no effect on whether the game decides a missile or round has hit the target, or how much damage it does. All that happens is that the high ping clients reporting of that action is delayed more than low ping.

In other more client sided games (like many fast paced FPS games) the client has some input and tells the server what is happening, which CAN result in high ping players getting advantages in some situations. (Though even then its almost always a net disadvantage in the long run).

In war thunder specifically, I have died to missiles or rounds that on my screen missed me by miles. I have a video somewhere even of me dying to an SPAA whos tracer rounds were literally flying off 90 degrees to me on my screen.

Rounds spark on enemy planes fairly often.

In situations where me and another tank fire at each other at the same time, I always lose that trade, I can watch my round fire and even hit their tank, but if their round kills me or does damage that prevents me from firong my gun, time effectively rewinds and its as if I had never even fired that round.

I have had situations where say, in tanks with bouncy guns, I wait for my gun to settle and then fire, only for the round to fly off randomly, because on the servers end the gun hadn’t quite settled yet due to ping catching up, though this is quite rare in WT.

Peekers advantage isnt a thing in WT. You will probably see me peek out before I see myself peek out. I have also had this happen in reverse where I was SURE I had gotten into cover before being hit, but the ping delay said no I hadnt.

If you are playing from a region you get low ping in WT, I recommend switching and trying a different region where you get over 150 ping. War thunder is slow enough that its mostly playable up until around 300 ping, but the effects get more and more noticable and exaggerated the higher you go.

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28

Ping never helps me at all:

I get killed by tanks I shot first.
I don’t hit things I clearly shot.
My ghost shells get me killed.
I get killed by darts when I’ve gone behind buildings.
I die by missiles that are well away from me.
My missile seekers take 5 tries to initialize.

There isn’t a single advantage I can seriously ever recall that lag has helped me. Only if you’re lag switching like consoles back in the day. Not sure if you can do that in this game.

29

Thanks for your input.

Although I do think there is peekers advantage in WT. I am not sure of it, but when I played arcade ground I did fast pushes around corners that enemies are holding and “pre-fired” to center mass, it worked very often unless I fumbled the shoot. Sometimes I even reversed for a bit to get some momentum going to get a faster peek. For this I assume low ping is better of course.

I never intended to say that high ping users have an advantage overall, just that it may have some advantages in specific situations.

Even if the game is server side, the server has to choose between 2 clients right? Since both clients are never 100% in sync.

I was a r6 siege player which is also mostly server side except some minor things and there is definitely peekers advantage, for example.

30

If there is peekers advantage, it favours low ping players. If im staring at a corner waiting for you to peek, you are going to roll around and see me before I see you do that on my screen because of the delay. If I did the same to you, you will probably see me at the same time I see you, since my inputs are delayed.

This game is server side, the clients decide NOTHING as to what is happening. The client has zero input, its basically just a TV screeen outputting what the server has decided.

When you make any inputs, you are asking the server to do that. The server then decides if you actually are doing that or not, and tells the client to output the results. Thats why I can fire at someone, see me shell hit them, and it do nothing because they have shot me at the same time and broken my barrel or killed my gunner or something. This is because the server has received the other players request to fire, fired the shell, its hit my tank, and the damage was calculated before the server received my (200ms delayed) request to fire.

The client is probably predicting what is happening to an extent to reduce input lag and smooth out gameplay and the connection, hence why I still see my gun fire and my shell fly towards them, but as soon as it receives the servers decision, that is what takes over. There is no having to choose between clients, because the clients have no say in what is happening.

Other games, mostly faster paced FPS games, have clients that can tell the server whats happened, because doing it all server side is too slow for the pace of the game. Thats where you’ll find things like Peekers advantage. The worst game for this Ive played was PUBG. The peekers advantage was huge, but it effected both the high and low ping party equally. So if a low ping player peeked a corner on me in that game, Id die before even seeing them. But if I peeked on THEM first, Id kill them before they even saw me. If used right it could be an advantage to the high ping player, but in that game I still found it a net disadvantage because it meant I ALWAYS had to be pushing. I couldnt sit and hold a position, or play defensively because Id lose the fights 100% of the time. I always had to be the one running around the corner first. It sucked.

The only other game Ive played with “high ping advantage” was Battlefield 4. Which “allegedly” gave an advantage to high ping players because hit registration against them apparently sucked. But having played on high ping in that game a fair bit especially as the game got older and Oceania servers became rarer, I havent felt it, because my hit reg also sucked ass. Every advantage I had over them, they also had over me in the same way, so it sucked equally for both the high and low ping player. I dont really consider that to be a net advantage for high ping personally

32

Does that even make sense? With an lower ping you are basically ahead in time to them; so if you shot someone before they shot you but you die first it simply means your server connection at that moment was worse and or he shot you way earlier so you would have died regardless if it was someone with an high or low ping

33

Technically you are behind them as 200 ms prior to you being shot at, they had already said to the server they had.

It’s a technical thing to comprehend.

34

As a high ping player my experience is opposite to what you describe.

I shoot, my breach goes, my shot vanishes mid-air. My average to EU is 120 to 160 and 220 to 260 to US.
Gun aim in jets I have found is a pain in the neck if you have good internet but high ping. The slower the fight gets the easier it becomes to engage. Props are fine-ish. In jets I have seen my rounds phase through the defender so many times.

Also, just need to clarify for some -. Low ping does not = good internet. You need to look at Latency (ping), stability (packet loss) and jitter (inconsistent data exchange times).

EDIT : It also depends on your connection type. Some people us UDP and some TCP. TCP is better at retransmitting lost data making it better for gaming with an average of 5MS increase in latency, but this increases jitter making it bad for shooter games. UDP can not or usually does not retransmit lost data leading to more packet loss.

35

Doesn’t feel like it. I play on both EU and CIS and when i play on CIS with an ping of 90-100 its a noticeable disadvantage to playing on EU; never had the issues i get on CIS when playing on EU

36

On the air side of things, with full-real controls I found high-ping (150+) to lead to unwanted oscillations when trying to make minute adjustments. It’s not impossible to work with, just need to rewire brain for higher ping match and let the plane settle on its own more liberally. With instructor controls, these issues do not appear.

37

Not exactly.

200ms ago they told the server that they are firing their gun. The server then fires the gun, and tells both you (the low ping player) and them that they fired the gun. The information that they have fired their gun also gets to the low ping player before the high ping player.

So you are still technically ahead of them at all times, as the server is what tells every client what is happening and when it happens, but that information takes longer to get to them than it takes to get to you.

Edit: best way I can describe it I guess, This is in Ground battles, air battles is a lot more complicated.

Let server time start at 0.00, Player 1 is on 50ms ping, Player 2 is on 200ms ping.
Ping is round trip time, so the time it takes the information to get there and back.

0.00s server time: Player 2 clicks to fire their gun
0.1s server time: Server receives request to fire gun, and relays to everyones client “Player 2 has fired their gun”
0.125s Server time: Player 1 sees Player 2 fire their gun.
0.2s Server time: Player 2 sees that they have fired their gun, and then whatever results they get from that round they fired.

If you flip it around, and say that Both Player 1 and 2 see each other and click to fire their guns at 0.00s Server time:

0.00s Server time - Both players click to fire their guns at each other
0.025s - Server receives Player 1s request and says “they have fired their gun”
0.05s - Player 1 sees that they have fired their gun
0.075 (guesstimate for example) - Player 1s round hits Player 2 on the server, and damage that is calculated means Player 2s gun cannot fire
0.1s - Server Receives request for Player 2 saying they have fired their gun, It rejects it because they have just taken damage preventing their gun from being able to fire
0.1s - Player 1 sees result of their hit
0.125s - Player 2 sees that Player 1 has fired their gun
0.2s - Player 2 sees their shell magically return as server updates with the information saying they haven’t fired. (because the client had initially assumed they could fire and so showed the animation of the gun firing)
0.225s - Player 2 sees themselves take the hit from player 1 that knocked their gun out.

38

First off, high ping doesnt help you, second of all, 250 and even 300 isnt high ping, thats normal. As someone who has been playing on 300 ish ping since my account began, its not really an issue nor is it a benefit. The only issues happen in GRB and missile thunder, as when an enemy launches a missile at you all aspect from 1 km, you dont see yhe thing till its at 0.2 km away, but thats easily negated by pre flaring which I do. Ground RB is a little bit tricky because often you’ll shoot at enemy and “ghost shell” it because someone hit you before your shot and you died, which on your screen shows you hit the enemy, it did nothing, then you got shot and died.

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39

You notice this not because of the effect, but because you’re changing the ping you play on.

You get tuned to the ping you use.

40

You are jocking right?
It is huge and you probably are having also packe loss.
FYI the other low delay players probably see you flying and while their reactions are faster they can’t aim at you.
They also experience ghost rounds if you are moving fast.

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42

How the heck can you function in a game at all with ping like that?
I have issues when my ping reaches 50.

43

Uhh quite easily? I just have to lead my shots a bit more than you do honestly. Warthunder is slow enough that the delay isnt as big of an issue as other games.

Do still occasionally die to ping though - mainly in high BRs where its faster paced and more reaction based.

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44

Damn bro, he just asked a question, and a valid one since in some games (CS2) high ping helps you. Maybe take a break and go outside to clear your head if this is your first reply to a harmless question.

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45

I fly ASB with 144-180 ping quite regularly myself. Beggars can’t be choosers.

It works just fine.

My standard ping is ~80-100. Very rarely 60.

46

WT is one of those games that works well enough with high ping at the cost of mismatch client-server shenanigans that sometimes makes the low ping player pay the price aswell (ghost shells etc)

47

I have played the game with 10 to 200, usually I am at 40~45.

It all depends on the game, with tanks battles affected more.
I have actually noticed that 100 to 140 against Asian players (assuming they have 200+ ) on EU servers is eliminating ghost shells and game goofiness while keeping the faster reaction advance.

I remember an experiment I did like a year ago.
Tried some games with ping 280 and as long I was moving shots were passing throught or bounced away.
Guess what tanks were more benefited, lol

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48

300 ping is fairly good, I live in New Zealand, and am forced to use US or EU servers, I used to get 300 ping before using Ethernet and its honestly fine. The biggest issue would be ghost shells were much more common

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