Dedicated servers in theory seem like a good idea. They mostly eliminate the old ways of cheating. But I wanna point out how they make the gameplay worse for a large number of players. #1 - distance is the biggest contributor to lag.
Most isp’s in 2018 provide the same service. Unless you are on a fiber optic connection chances are your internet speed is the same as everyone else. All electric signals travel the same speed besides fiber optic which uses light. So whether your internet is 5 mbps or 150 mbps The diffence isn’t speed but quantity of data that can be sent, basically you have a bigger tube to send data. So as long as you aren’t making out your bandwidth the smallest internet package is more than adequate for gaming. Since Xbox live doesn’t consume large bandwidth most people’s internet gives them no advantage.
So the main advantage in online gaming when it comes to dedicated servers is who is the closest to the server. With a very limited amount of servers for halo 5 unless most players will have a huge disadvantage because they don’t live as close to the server. It takes a lot more time to send a signal 1000+ miles and back than it does for your opponent to send it 100. This is where dedicated servers fail. The closest server to you will be the best server for you to play on. Well what If that server is 1000 miles away and so it fairly laggy for you? Well unfortunately that is going to be the best the game will ever perform for you, no matter if you upgrade your internet to the best package it still won’t be better because the server is too far away.
Where the peer to peer shined was if you have a lobby of people all close to each other, there really isn’t any advantage for the host because they are all significantly closer that the signals don’t have to travel very far. Obviously the cheating was a big issue. But I think it would be awesome if halo 5 made social playlist as peer to peer or even a hybrid system so you aren’t stuck playing on a distant server. Servers can still be up for ranked to eliminate cheating but providing this option for socials would make the game so so much better for most of us casual gamers.
> Dedicated servers were/are a selling point for Halo 5.Dedicated servers have gotten rid of host advantage, lag switching, black screen resets, host migration, unkickable host griefers, being slowed to a crawl because one kid had was half a world away with a horrible connection among other things. Switching back to a P2P connection would do much more harm than good. There are still issues with server placement (particularly globally) which are the kind of thing that people should be appealing for from microsoft, but the problems with P2P were and still are well known which is why H5 was marketed with dedicated servers as a selling point. Abandoning a potentially better system for something we know doesn’t work right, because of some issues is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I would like for them to eventually allow P2P connections rather than shutting the game down when they shut the servers down (I don’t like games dying from things like that), but until that point Servers are much better and less easily abused for multiplayer.
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> Going to crib from myself;
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> > Dedicated servers were/are a selling point for Halo 5.Dedicated servers have gotten rid of host advantage, lag switching, black screen resets, host migration, unkickable host griefers, being slowed to a crawl because one kid had was half a world away with a horrible connection among other things. Switching back to a P2P connection would do much more harm than good. There are still issues with server placement (particularly globally) which are the kind of thing that people should be appealing for from microsoft, but the problems with P2P were and still are well known which is why H5 was marketed with dedicated servers as a selling point. Abandoning a potentially better system for something we know doesn’t work right, because of some issues is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I would like for them to eventually allow P2P connections rather than shutting the game down when they shut the servers down (I don’t like games dying from things like that), but until that point Servers are much better and less easily abused for multiplayer.
I understand all of those things. Which is why I mentioned it should be a social playlist thing. Because for most of us the game is currently unplayable on these servers. Sure you can get a game but it’s extremely unfair when you do because you are lagging so far behind. Atleast with p2p you have a chance at a solid connection. I mean halo mcc provides better matches for me than halo 5 and mcc with all its bugs was a total flop. I’ve played when I was vacationing down in Southern California and it was literally unfair being that close to a server. I went from struggling to get a perfect kill up in Utah, to consitantly getting 8-10 perfect kills a game. I know that sounds ridiculous but it’s true. I felt like nobody could kill me even when I should have died. I couldn’t believe how easy the game was. But right when I got back home the game was unplayable again. With a hybrid system you atleast have the potential for a really good game. With the servers we will always be stuck playing the same long distant host and it will never get better. Sure I’d love for them to add enough servers to cover the region better but let’s get real they wouldn’t ever do that.
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> I understand all of those things. Which is why I mentioned it should be a social playlist thing. Because for most of us the game is currently unplayable on these servers.
Yeah, it isn’t the ‘majority’ that find things ‘unplayable.’ Those are both overstatements. Yes, it kind of sucks for people who live in specific countries. The solution on that is for Microsoft (not 343) to build more servers.
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> Sure you can get a game but it’s extremely unfair when you do because you are lagging so far behind.
Yes, and it’s so much fairer for me and and 6 other people to get slowed to a crawl because you (not necessarily you) pull host despite having a much slower connection and being half a world away. Simply put as it stand now, one bad egg doesn’t ruin the bunch.
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> Atleast with p2p you have a chance at a solid connection. I mean halo mcc provides better matches for me than halo 5 and mcc with all its bugs was a total flop. I’ve played when I was vacationing down in Southern California and it was literally unfair being that close to a server. I went from struggling to get a perfect kill up in Utah, to consitantly getting 8-10 perfect kills a game. I know that sounds ridiculous but it’s true. I felt like nobody could kill me even when I should have died. I couldn’t believe how easy the game was. But right when I got back home the game was unplayable again.
unfortunate. I’ve heard some horror stories from people in Australia and New zealand who get the short end of the stick on the servers, but the alternative is still far worse.
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> With a hybrid system you atleast have the potential for a really good game. With the servers we will always be stuck playing the same long distant host and it will never get better. Sure I’d love for them to add enough servers to cover the region better but let’s get real they wouldn’t ever do that.
You think it’s more likely (or cheaper) to redesign the way the game functions than to have microsoft add more servers?
I think most people think it’s not running well. Population is down too. But most of us have chosen not To play it because Of the issues and there are many better options. Mcc isn’t great but connection is is much better than halo 5s so I just play that. But hopefully they figure it out their next game or they’ll continue to suffer with sales and population.
I agree with a lot of what has been said here. There are several reasons why H5 suffers so poorly from a performance stand point. Population doesn’t help. But digging into this a bit deeper it goes far past just population. This game uses only data centers that are owned by MS. Which even here in the USA if you look at there placement its not ideal. And overtime ive noticed some data centers no longer even host the game. Which again doesn’t help in the performance side of things. Another strange thing I have found to my surprise is there are ports this game communicates on that are not even on the list of ports to open… Probably why it performs better using UPnP. I have a very high end gaming router that gives me all the IP addresses I connect to while playing the game. And it also tells me the port number it is communicating through… All I can say is I’m not a fan at all on how this game floods ones connection to establish the so called best data center… Its is absolutely horrible. There system that is there match making search platform really needs an overhaul… I’m not trying to bash 343 or who ever it is that is in charge of there networking but rule number one is performance and consistency… With out those the rest really becomes problematic and very rarely players stick around… Ive only brushed on a few issues that pertain to performance… There are more…
Yeah I agree. I think at the end of the days players care most for performance and consistency. Honestly i would rather a game have graphics as bad as halo CE if there wasn’t any lag or the other issues that have played halo 5. I’m not against dedicated servers in general. I think the theory is great but the application has been poor. Heck I’ll still log on to cod ghosts which is way old but most the games I get into are with fairly local players and the game runs great. If they stuck a server in Salt Lake City I think it would improve performance drastically for a lot of the northern US players. But yeah I just don’t see them doing that with the new game. Even custom games can be annoying because you have to play through the server. If I made a custom game with a few friends from my town we would all be playing on a server in California but if we played an older game it would be hosted by one of us and would be virtually lag free.
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> This game uses only data centers that are owned by MS.
Why should that be a problem ? Titanfall 1 used the MS Azure cloud and was very slick, and had a lot less online issues compared to Halo 5, even with a mere 6000 online worldwide.
Edit = Just played Titanfall 1, got into a game of Attrition in less than a minute with 200 players worldwide (according to the in game population counter). I was connected to the West Europe server with a ping of less than 40ms. It puts Halo 5 to shame and it’s older with a “dead” population compared to Halo 5.
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> I think most people think it’s not running well.
Based on what?
> Population is down too. But most of us have chosen not To play it because Of the issues and there are many better options.
That’s an assumption. You don’t get to randomly decide what reality is. Yes, you claim connection issues that doesn’t mean that everyone shares your issue or that you can generalize your sample size of one to the rest of the world.
> Mcc isn’t great but connection is is much better than halo 5s so I just play that.
Bully for you?
> But hopefully they figure it out their next game or they’ll continue to suffer with sales and population.
Again, you’re making assumptions. There is no reason to believe that Halo 5’s population is due to miscellaneous problem x, much less that fixing problem x would change said population, or that if problem x continued it would change the population of the next game. That isn’t the way the world works and even if it were an obvious contributing factor (which there is no evidence to suggest it is), the world is never that simple.
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> > I think most people think it’s not running well.
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> Based on what?
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> > Population is down too. But most of us have chosen not To play it because Of the issues and there are many better options.
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> That’s an assumption. You don’t get to randomly decide what reality is. Yes, you claim connection issues that doesn’t mean that everyone shares your issue or that you can generalize your sample size of one to the rest of the world.
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> > Mcc isn’t great but connection is is much better than halo 5s so I just play that.
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> Bully for you?
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> > But hopefully they figure it out their next game or they’ll continue to suffer with sales and population.
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> Again, you’re making assumptions. There is no reason to believe that Halo 5’s population is due to miscellaneous problem x, much less that fixing problem x would change said population, or that if problem x continued it would change the population of the next game. That isn’t the way the world works and even if it were an obvious contributing factor (which there is no evidence to suggest it is), the world is never that simple.
Yeah, I concur with this. While connection issues are likely a variable, most people I’ve seen quit H5 (which isn’t a stastically sound sample size, but it’s something) have said that they quit out of:
Boredom - Their favorite playlist being removed or changed - Friends playing other games - Advanced movement
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> > 2533274795501334;7:
> > This game uses only data centers that are owned by MS.
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> Why should that be a problem ? Titanfall 1 used the MS Azure cloud and was very slick, and had a lot less online issues compared to Halo 5, even with a mere 6000 online worldwide.
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> Edit = Just played Titanfall 1, got into a game of Attrition in less than a minute with 200 players worldwide (according to the in game population counter). I was connected to the West Europe server with a ping of less than 40ms. It puts Halo 5 to shame and it’s older with a “dead” population compared to Halo 5.
Ha ha exactly! When Titanfall 1 was release an the beginning of Titanfall 2 started the developers reached out to Multiplay which is very good in the networking area. Multiplays platform is integrated with a global network of dedicated server providers. So the game is not exclusive to MS Azure servers only… Honestly you cant get any better then that! You have to give credit to Respawn for that. Halo will never play as good as Titanfall if they stay the course of what we have now… There is no way around it… The only way to have a network like Titanfall is do exactly what they did… And my guess is 343 will stay the course and pretend everything is fine… If you want a game like Halo to be taken serious you have to sub out the networking side of things and hand that off to people that know the business… That is the bottom line… If 343 does nothing and stays the course of what Halo5 has we will be right back at the same old same old for Halo6…
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> > > 2533274795501334;7:
> > > This game uses only data centers that are owned by MS.
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> > Why should that be a problem ? Titanfall 1 used the MS Azure cloud and was very slick, and had a lot less online issues compared to Halo 5, even with a mere 6000 online worldwide.
> >
> > Edit = Just played Titanfall 1, got into a game of Attrition in less than a minute with 200 players worldwide (according to the in game population counter). I was connected to the West Europe server with a ping of less than 40ms. It puts Halo 5 to shame and it’s older with a “dead” population compared to Halo 5.
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> Ha ha exactly! When Titanfall 1 was release an the beginning of Titanfall 2 started the developers reached out to Multiplay which is very good in the networking area. Multiplays platform is integrated with a global network of dedicated server providers. So the game is not exclusive to MS Azure servers only… Honestly you cant get any better then that! You have to give credit to Respawn for that. Halo will never play as good as Titanfall if they stay the course of what we have now… There is no way around it… The only way to have a network like Titanfall is do exactly what they did… And my guess is 343 will stay the course and pretend everything is fine… If you want a game like Halo to be taken serious you have to sub out the networking side of things and hand that off to people that know the business… That is the bottom line… If 343 does nothing and stays the course of what Halo5 has we will be right back at the same old same old for Halo6…
Thanks for the heads up, maybe 343i will do the same for Halo 6. Titanfall 1 really does put Halo 5 to shame when it comes to connectivity. I ended up playing Titanfall most of the day on Monday lol.
As for buying Halo 6, the quality of it’s multiplayer connection will be a deciding factor for me.
Goes beyond distance to servers. Even when I’m hitting servers that are less than 40ms away, I have terrible performance.
Finally had a talk with advanced network guy from my ISP. He let me know there is not one thing that can be done from their end to improve my gaming performance. Guy was a gamer and suggested I play on EA servers because Microsoft’s servers have issues for some of their customers. He said it comes down to who’s prioritized.
Some people get good connections and other don’t. It’s based on where your at in the priorotization order and it’s not all location. At least peer to peer was inconsistent enough that I’d get the favorable connection more times than I do now.
No excuse why Titanfall with its tiny population maintains better performance than Halo 5. I don’t think it’s all 343s fault. I think they’re somewhat hamstrung by Microsoft to use only their servers and deal with the overhead that comes with them. With Microsoft’s new focus on gaming, will they care enough to fix this going into next gen?
I wish that I was closer to a dedicated server as I always get lag every match, even if I join my family in halo 5. There are times when my “ms” reaches a peak of 70ms and that’s where my shots get unregistered or when I play halo 5 assassination my back gets punched yet I don’t die to them err when I’m playing Arena and players start moving ahead then skipping back and just ruins my image of being competitive. I have had players call me “trash” or “u suck” yet its not me, the lag is too great here and I never get the same old fun I used to get on halo. I’ve been playing since halo 1 when it came out, just did not play “Halo wars 2” and “Spartan Assault”
The funny thing is I’m from NJ near the main cities where servers are and still no good connection. I used to try changing my DNS servers to 8.8.8.8–8.8.4.4 which is the one of the best DNS servers but did not fix much. I tried to edit my router and custom it with boosters and no fix. I use wired, an I’m hooked completely to my router and don’t get the same speed as everyone else. But I just hope that a dedicated server fix will come with the 4k halo 5 update.