I know I’m not alone in this matter. I have a fairly good basic high speed connection. Nothing fancy but it allows me to play Matchmaking without teleporting and black screening every match.
BUT, It, in no way, allows me to compete fairly against ‘online warriors.’ I’m sure many have been in a situation with one of these players. Can’t kill that guy sprinting away even though he’s one shot? Can’t get that snipe even though you clearly blood shotted the guy in the visor? Getting sniped yourself just after you make it around the corner? You know who I’m talking about. The players that pull host like their box is a dedicated server and eat your bullets like a buffet.
Currently, Matchmaking is a seriously lack luster experience for me many games because I’m left being a support player due to having to dish out 7,8 even 9 shots sometimes to kill an opponent in many of my battles. Which I could deal with if I had a consistent team that would help clean up enemies, but I don’t. In the event I’m pitted 1v1 against an ‘online warrior’ I’m usually dead. Rest in pieces. Because of that split second difference in matchmaking time, A few of my bullets won’t register and it’s over for me. Granted, my connection is shared and someone getting on netflix in another room (which is often) doesn’t help me at all, I’m sure.
But, in all honesty, is paying the extra amount each month to help your chances in these types of situations really worth it? Will any difference be made?
And FTR, I’m not saying one would end up winning all these battles in the event their connection is improved. Of course you’re going to choke sometimes, everyone does.
Upgrading your internet speed barely will help with matchmaking hit registry. I upgraded my internet from 5 Mb/s to 50 Mb/s and can barely tell any difference except when downloading large files. What you cannot upgrade is your ping and that is what affects online gameplay a lot more than internet speeds.
I live in a rural area far away from my ISP and my ping is 30-45. You can take a ping test at “pingtest.net” to see what your current ping is, but remember upgrading your internet speed will not help with ping.
So, essentially, there’s nothing I can really do aside from moving somewhere else. . . God, I miss living in the city.
Well it’s good to know, at least. I won’t be wasting any money.
As far as connections go, there are several things you can do to help your connection:
#1: Plug in an Ethernet cable, it’s always faster than wireless.
#2: Set your Xbox as the DMZ, this will pass all connections through the 360 first, effectively prioritizing it over other devices which may take care of many NAT and general connectivity issues.
#3: Open all applicable ports for XBL’s services, without these ports set to be open, your NAT may be set to something other than ‘Open’ and will likely hinder your online experience.
#4: Buy a Microsoft and/or XBL certified router, these routers have been optimized for use with Microsoft’s products and gaming services.
#5: Upgrade your connection, a higher Download speed won’t improve your connectivity, but it’ll help sustain more of your family members online at once without having any sort of noticeable impact on your in-game performance. A higher Upload speed however will help you significantly.
#6: Live near an interchange, the closer, the better.
#7: Live near a city-center for generally better connectivity to your country’s internet services.
It gets more extreme as you get further down the list, but still, these will all impact your connection. As the majority of XBL’s members are American players, you’re also better off living in America than anywhere else in the world for generally better connectivity.
For more information, check this post.
I do live in America. Smaller town, though, atm with no chance of getting any closer to a major city. I have also port forwarded my xbox and don’t have any NAT issues.
I suppose investing in a better connection might help a little but I’ll have to see the difference in price first. I’d opt for a fiber optic connection but it’s not available in my area. I may also look into going wired, (Though it’ll be difficult, my router is at the other end of my house)
It’s a real bummer that matchmaking slightly caters to players in certain areas over others. Just another imbalance in gameplay.
Many of us wouldn’t be experiencing so many connection issues, had 343i run Matchmaking through dedicated servers. P2P was a stupid idea.
There wouldn’t be no point in you upgrading your connection. Since this is Halo where basically a player with a Dial Up host box can still pull Host over a player with far better connection, you would just end up spending extra money on a connection you never get to use as intended.
Not quite relevant but not worthy of a new thread.
For the first time ever last night I noticed I had host (I can only tell from PODs though, don’t know the other methods). Excitedly wait as my Sword of Doom swirls to appear. IMA GONE OWN THESE GUYS.
Game black screens, come back, I’m not host and the Sword is hidden below the floor on Adrift. Actually below the ***** Floor.
Maybe next time …
What everyone should know is this game is coded to give players with crap internet a (UN)fair advantage. I know I have tested it . You don’t need the best or fastest internet just what they(the devs) considered an average residental connection from like the early 90’s LOL. The lag compensation is weighted too heavily against a good connection. Why do you think people who play on a 3G/4G connection(yes their cell phone ) can play or even better be host in this game. This is why this game is a lag fest.
They didnt want to alienate anyone so this is what we got, someone thought it would be a good idea not to have Timmy asking mommy and daddy for better internet so that he could play the game they just spent sixty dollars on, but so did the rest who have good connection and their reward is lag to the point its just not fun or fair. But they might have figured that out now as the amount of players who left because of this and all the rest of the issues with this game.
I think there is an element of lag comp despite the host advantages that happen. Look at all of the trading (both players die) of headshots that happen in a DMR/BR encounter.
I’ve played on a 20mbps connection and a 100mbps connection - didn’t make any difference off host.