In a day with all these high end connections. How is it that at times it picks the worst possible host or shortly after the match starts it appears to pick a new on that is even worse. I have heard all the excuses. Honestly I think we are getting 56k reasons and have a ban system to try and keep things in check. I could be very wrong. But the same problem remains since Halo2 over a decade ago and we get the same reasons though peoples connection have gotten 20 times better.
Now it seems as though every match is reselecting the host in the middle of the game.
This could easily be your connection as well. Issues with yours will frequently display as you’ve described if they’re severe enough.
I believe the host system in Halo 4 selects host by choosing the player with a cleaner connection record (or something like that). That doesn’t mean they have the best connection though, hence why lower leveled players regularly pull host. A newer player has a much cleaner record (they start with a fresh one). I can’t remember where I read or heard this however.
A host record is kept on your xbox, every time you pull host the data is recorded. If people lag on your connection, that information is stored. Even on the worst possible connection a brand-new xbox will pull host over nearly everyone for at least a few days to collect data.
If you want to pull host every game, get a new xbox, have a good connection and play about a hundred games of team doubles. Team doubles gives you the best chance for others to not have any lag. After a 100 or so lag free games you will pull host for a long time.
> A host record is kept on your xbox, every time you pull host the data is recorded. If people lag on your connection, that information is stored. Even on the worst possible connection a brand-new xbox will pull host over nearly everyone for at least a few days to collect data.
>
> If you want to pull host every game, get a new xbox, have a good connection and play about a hundred games of team doubles. Team doubles gives you the best chance for others to not have any lag. After a 100 or so lag free games you will pull host for a long time.
How does this system even exist?
And that is what is wrong with Halo 4 from day one for Network play and why I gave up on H4 and went back to Halo Reach for PvP or Co-Op play. No games (GTA 4, GTA 5, COD II BOPS, Sonic, Halo Reach, Halo Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3 ODST etc. etc.) I play lags as badly and consistently as H4 does ALL the time (which is 0.5+ seconds of lag 70% of the time).
The sad part is this methodology is flawed from the start - anyone with a brain would say this makes ZERO sense to implement. A competent dev team should have it picking host based on lowest ping time and bandwidth throughput testing for each game - while we are waiting in the lobby - as is done in other FPS’s.
The player matching system doesn’t filter people by location and tosses players from all over the world into games. I’m not talking about the sad state of player numbers now - I’m talking within the first month when we had 80,000 to 500,000 people playing each day. If I’m host in Canada and the system “matches” me with the united nations of players (i.e. Antarctica, Mexico, Germany, Japan, France, England, Scotland, Peru, China etc.), then it will find that everyone lags against me. Despite having a 50 Mbps down, 11 Mbps up and < 20 ms ping time to server - having the players tossed around the globe will make it seem like I am laggy. So I will never pull host again - but my nephew on wireless internet (his tower is 80 km away from him) - with maybe 2 Mbps down and 0.1 Mbps up and 300+ ms ping time pulled host in every game we played together - cause he’s a newb.
Secondly, if you had a bad connection, pulled host and then upgrade your connection - it will not make any difference as your not going to pull host again.
I still strongly suspect that the reason this method was implemented was to make people new to the franchise feel good about playing. A Newb will pull host regardless of their connection - therefore giving them the advantage in every match - which is pure BS. Each match, the game should see whom has the best connection (ping time, up bandwidth and down bandwidth) and pick them.
The really sad part is that 343 said multiple times that they were happy with the network code - and never once did anything to fix it.
The host doesn’t even have to have a “bad” connection for you to lag. If there is significant geographic distance between you and the host, you will experience lag even if you both have 150 Mbps fiber optic connections. Before every game, I check the host’s country by pressing X to view the roster and the looking at the gamer profile of the player at the top of the list (that player is the host). If he’s not from my country, I back out.