Host detection is dysfunctional

Games Other Halo
1

Playing from Australia here and wanted to start a new thread to be absolutely clear about the multiplayer performance of Halo 4. Other threads have been made about similar issues however don’t seem to be getting any attention from 343i.

To summarise the main problems:

  • In-game host detection is dysfunctional.
    A group of 7 Australians playing together will be ok, but if someone closer to, or from the US joins the game, it will change host to that single person lagging everyone else out. This makes the majority of games unfair, frustrating, and not enjoyable.

  • Matchmaking continues to join Australian players with players from the UK, the US, or the Moon.
    This ultimately makes the first issue above more prominent and frustrating. I’ve currently found only a 2 hour window where I can play after midnight with a high success rate of all local players only.

  • With a poorly selected host, lag is FAR more noticeable than previous games.
    Certain weapons behave radically different to how they are intended (scatter shot is practically useless), weapon damage occasionally does not register, and call me crazy but I’m sure I move slower as well or it is less responsive for changing directions.

Ultimately these issues make the majority of games horrible experiences and some unplayable. When it is worst and unplayable, my friends and I will just quit the game and try again. The few times an all local game appears and a good host is found the game plays fantastically!
I (and many others) want to play more Halo 4 without the simulated play over dial-up experience.

In the Issues being investigated thread, 343 currently have these issues listed as “resolved”.

> Latency/lag issues when matchmaking with non-regional players
> UPDATE: This issue has been resolved.
> We are aware and investigating this issue.

The problems HAVE NOT been resolved.

It would be so very helpful for 343 to:

  • Acknowledge our complaints.
  • Inform us if these issues are being addressed.
  • Share a video of Frankie O’Conner doing the robot. Perhaps whilst wearing an Australian flag.

I will endeavour to update this post with any news or updates regarding these issues.

Much appreciated,
SpartanGrug

UPDATE 5/12/2012: Appears 343 have acknowledged the issue and that they are continuing to work on it on Twitter.
Source tweet

> ‏@SgtScotto03:
> @HaloWaypoint Aussie lag and lack of communication from 343 is killing the game locally. I want to keep playing but it’s impossible
>
> ‏@HaloWaypoint:
> @SgtScotto03 We’re continuing to work on that issue. We know it’s frustrating, and we apologize for that. :confused:

UPDATE 19/01/2013: I didn’t have Internet for a month whilst moving and have finally come back to test things out. My new internet is HFC (Essentially NBN speeds for Aussies in the know).
Speedtest for those interested:

According to speedtest.net I have internet faster than 99% of Australia. I have also configured my router with the correct ports and Xbox shows an “Open NAT”.

Whilst there is a noticeable improvement over the matchmaking player selection, there is still the frequent overseas player who seems to automatically get host. Whilst it is great the frequency seems to have dropped, it is disconcerting there are still a large number of matches with noticeable connection issues, foreign players, and lag.

343i still has the issue listed as:

> Latency/lag issues when matchmaking with non-regional players
> UPDATE: We have pushed out a fix for this issue and we are continuing to monitor the situation and make changes as necessary.

The fact I have the best internet available in Australia (100Mbs/8Mbs) and still experience in-game errors from lag and poorly implemented network code is quite disappointing. I come here after playing 3 games in a row where the games were unplayable and I finally just gave up. Shotgun and bolt shot blasts hitting players dead on (even in kill cam) with no effect is just beyond frustrating. I don’t see myself continuing this series if this is the quality being delivered along with the complete lack of quality community interaction on 343i’s part.

I’m not raging or being uncivil, all I have is a deep disappointment and sadness to see such a great series drop in quality and the near sociopathic manner in which the fans are treated. Especially those fans from overseas.

2

Listen to this bloke 343i. Fix my matchmaking… every 4/5 games is American host and laggy.

3

Yeah, it’d be nice to get the connection filters back. Us Americans don’t take kindly to being linked up with you Aussies and Brit’s. I’m sure it’s quite a bit more common on your side than ours though.

4

I don’t mind playing against yanks and brits in a game that doesn’t lag so horribly. But it seems Halo 4 has none of the latency optimization the previous Halo games had.

The seemingly easiest way to improve a good portion of matches is to bring back the “Prefer Good Connection” option.

If 343 really came through they’d patch the game to improve the network performance in laggy matches and improve the host selection to a point where it doesn’t just choose the closest person to the XboxLive.

5

Canadian here.

I’m a huge fan of Spartan Ops, but Halo 4’s host detection is making the entire thing very unpleasant. Two of my friends and myself both run on wired connections, live within the town, and have generally fast internet. Our third friend lives out of town, has a wireless connection, and can barely classify his internet as 21st century acceptable. Oddly enough, almost every game, our friend who lives in the country manages to obtain host, thus, giving everyone else extreme amounts of lag plus severe latency.

Then again, even during the odd time when one of my friends from within the town manages to obtain host, we still suffer from latency, just less severe.

Get this figured out asap, 343.

6

This needed fixing 3 weeks ago.

To let a new game hit the deck in this state is one thing. To allow it to go unfixed and thereby cause damage to the brand goodwill that Bungie built up over a decade is terrible.

343 needs to send a representative/s to Australia to see just how broken their matchmaking system is when trying to play online here. Actually not even sure that is going to work as it would require people knowledgeable in online MP P2P networking - something which is evidently not to be found at 343 “or” is given a very low priority.

Halo Reach’s MP search worked like a charm on good connection or on fastest search. Something 343 (specifically) have done has royally upset the apple cart. It appears to be terribly unbalanced auto connection parameters in combination with sloppy hit detection off host. One thing you could always do off host in Reach is connect with precision weapon shots because the hit detection was unaffected by latency in the way Halo 4’s is.

Would go a long way to fixing a rapidly ailing player population if 343 showed some leadership and communicated with the growing list of people trying to point out to them that their search is broken.

7

At least you find games with people in your country, I’m in japan atm and have played around 700 games, and I can remember every game I played with players in japan. There have been 6

8

Its definately disfunctional because I have a relatively quick internet speed for the UK and yet I am never selected as host when playing with UK players. Infact it seems to chose the person who has the shortest hop from all other players rather than the one with the highest quality connection.

I mean if most of us are from around the UK with fast connections it will pick someone in the Midlands with a low grade connection speed but with the most average of pings to each player. Instead it should select the fastest and best quality connection as host, rather than simply ping based which it appears to be.

9

> Listen to this bloke 343i. Fix my matchmaking… every 4/5 games is American host and laggy.

Listen to this kid 343i. Fix matchmaking… every 49/50 games is some 56k host and laggy.

10

It was a deplorable choice by 343i to remove the filter options. That alone can alienate entire regions from enjoying the game.

11

Host detection is dysfunctional
very much agree with that…their system gives me host too much in Spartan Ops.
it can’t handle hosting.

12

I wish I could play Halo on the moon.

13

> > Listen to this bloke 343i. Fix my matchmaking… every 4/5 games is American host and laggy.
>
> Listen to this kid 343i. Fix matchmaking… every 49/50 games is some 56k host and laggy.

Heh, I’m nearing 30 mate. Halo is the last game I play on console these days. I just want to play some non-laggy Halo games to blow off some steam and keep in touch with my mates from around Australia. I’ve put plenty of hours into the series over the years, some of my fondest memories from organising Halo CE LAN parties with my mates.

Sadly, if 343 won’t even acknowledge there is still a problem, I do not see myself following the series much further. I’ll resign myself to falling back to PC land.

Played a few games tonight and the same things are happening still. Our party of 3 dumped into an all US game, later playing in a local match until someone joined mid game, stole host, from the US. Sigh, it just gets old quick.

Re. Lunar citizenship, I hear the moon has pretty horrible latency though. Perhaps it’s still better than playing from Australia or New Zealand though…

14

Tried Twitter XboxSupport without success…

> @XboxSupport I’m having trouble playing Halo 4 online from Australia. Also my LTD edition game did not come with a manual?
>
> XboxSupport> The game did not come with a manual actually. What seems to be the issue exactly? Are you seeing a particular error? ^AD
>
> @XboxSupport Online games appear to be excessively laggy, I keep getting games with US players (who always have host).
>
> XboxSupport> Depending on the time of day you may see better luck connecting with gamers in your region. ^AD
>
> @XboxSupport I’ve tried various times of day during the week and weekend with little success. US players join mid match, steal host and lag
>
> XboxSupport> That would be an issue that would be best handled by 343i honestly. Your best bet is likely to wait on a reply on the forums. ^AD
>
> @XboxSupport Ok, I’ll keep trying. Thank you for the quick replies.

I’ll have a look to find some 343 accounts to get some attention.

Edit: Looks like they’ve acknowledged they are working on it via Twitter.

Link to source tweet

> ‏@SgtScotto03:
> @HaloWaypoint Aussie lag and lack of communication from 343 is killing the game locally. I want to keep playing but it’s impossible
>
> ‏@HaloWaypoint:
> @SgtScotto03 We’re continuing to work on that issue. We know it’s frustrating, and we apologize for that. :confused:

Will try and confirm!

15

> Edit: Looks like they’ve acknowledged they are working on it via Twitter.
> [/color]
> Link to source tweet
>
>
> > ‏@SgtScotto03:
> > @HaloWaypoint Aussie lag and lack of communication from 343 is killing the game locally. I want to keep playing but it’s impossible
> >
> > ‏@HaloWaypoint:
> > @SgtScotto03 We’re continuing to work on that issue. We know it’s frustrating, and we apologize for that. :confused:
>
> Will try and confirm!

The obvious question is if they are working on it why have they listed the issue as resolved only 1.5 weeks ago?

Epic fail on public relations / community communication right there.

I sincerely hope 343 (if they are actually working on a fix) realise that the auto connection system needs major changes to make it’s search parameters even remotely workable. The minor tweaking they did 2 weeks ago did NOTHING.

If they really wanted to abate the rapidly growing frustration amongst the international players they would reinstitute a good connection toggle which over rides auto connection search. The current auto connection search operates like fastest search but is combined with the sloppiest hit detection off host I’ve seen since Halo 2.

16

I agree Colossus, a “Good Connection” toggle would go a long way to help the issues. They really need to bring back the network profiling Reach implemented though to make sure the best host is always selected for the majority of players.

I’m chasing up 343 staff to see if I can find the engineers responsible for it all. Hopefully they can do more than just improve matchmaking. The way it just discounts shots if you lag > x amount from the host is really frustrating.

17

agreed, incompatible internet quality usually leaves aussies getting the short end of the stick, even when were the majority of the people in the game.
would be nice if we got the host every now and then, especially when only one or two other people in game are from outside australia.

18

how many threads will it take for 343 to stop being such *************************************** about everything

19

Updated first post with the latest info:

UPDATE 19/01/2013: I didn’t have Internet for a month whilst moving and have finally come back to test things out. My new internet is HFC (Essentially NBN speeds for Aussies in the know).
Speedtest for those interested:

According to speedtest.net I have internet faster than 99% of Australia. I have also configured my router with the correct ports and Xbox shows an “Open NAT”.

Whilst there is a noticeable improvement over the matchmaking player selection, there is still the frequent overseas player who seems to automatically get host. Whilst it is great the frequency seems to have dropped, it is disconcerting there are still a large number of matches with noticeable connection issues, foreign players, and lag.

343i still has the issue listed as:

> Latency/lag issues when matchmaking with non-regional players
> UPDATE: We have pushed out a fix for this issue and we are continuing to monitor the situation and make changes as necessary.

The fact I have the best internet available in Australia (100Mbs/8Mbs) and still experience in-game errors from lag and poorly implemented network code is quite disappointing. I come here after playing 3 games in a row where the games were unplayable and I finally just gave up. Shotgun and bolt shot blasts hitting players dead on (even in kill cam) with no effect is just beyond frustrating. I don’t see myself continuing this series if this is the quality being delivered along with the complete lack of quality community interaction on 343i’s part.

I’m not raging or being uncivil, all I have is a deep disappointment and sadness to see such a great series drop in quality and the near sociopathic manner in which the fans are treated. Especially those fans from overseas.

20

The host selection is definitely poor, even when playing only with other West Australians I often see friends with the worst connections in 3G/4G wireless or those with poor networking hardware/lines pull host resulting in laggy gameplay for everyone.

When the majority of players in a match are from NSW and Victoria I don’t see why Queensland players pull host so often when they offer inferior latency to the majority of players.

Some Queensland hosts I find unplayable and Queensland, NSW and Victorian players are all complaining about lag in many of these games so it isn’t my geographical location.

The in-game connection monitoring is simply abysmal, some matches were lag isn’t an issue initially degrade as the game goes on. People will be teleporting, shots will be delayed and ordinance may not spawn correctly in the game world but the host won’t be changed.