Project Reality Forums

Has it actually been proven that a high pinging player actually hurts the performance for the entire server? I remember, a few years ago, there was a lot of talk about it and it was discovered that players with high latency actually don't hurt performance for other players. When a server does encounter some server wide lag, a lot of players jump on the bandwagon, find the player with the highest ping and accuse them of "lagging the server."

I don't think it's a trend based in reality. While high ping players themselves are lagging, they aren't causing universal lag for everyone else.

So why are there so many servers with ping restrictions?

The reason I'm bringing this up now is because I was autokicked from a server for having a ping of 202m/s. For me there are hardly any servers that ping less than 150m/s and if I do connect to a server with near 300m/s, I don't think it's hurting anyone else's experience. If I have 500+ ping, then I think it causes me to appear strangely in game, but that is about it. It doesn't hurt anyone else's performance.

Any thoughts?

Incognito84 wrote:Has it actually been proven that a high pinging player actually hurts the performance for the entire server?

Not unless the server software was coded by an imbecile. A high-latency player should be the only one with problems, as he won't be able to hit anything. It is possible that, depending on the server software, he might warp like hell and be hard to shoot as well, but under those circumstances he'll just get disconnected through time-outs anyway or quit through frustration. He'd certainly not be able to achieve anything meaningful.

I remember, a few years ago, there was a lot of talk about it and it was discovered that players with high latency actually don't hurt performance for other players.

"Discovered" ? Anyone with a passing acquaintance with TCP/IP networking could tell you that. The "OMFG, YOU'RE LAGGING ME!" BS is propagated solely by ignorant kids that don't know what they're talking about and should be told to go eff their stupid pie-holes.

When a server does encounter some server wide lag,

Then, whether it's through the server load being too high, or the server's network being congested, or a relay between it and the player-base being borked, or whatever - the end result is always going to be high-latency players experience exponentially worse problems than the rest of the server.

So why are there so many servers with ping restrictions?

Because no-one wants a redundant player on their squad taking up a slot on the team that could be filled by someone whose connection allows them to play effectively...

The reason I'm bringing this up now is because I was autokicked from a server for having a ping of 202m/s. For me there are hardly any servers that ping less than 150m/s and if I do connect to a server with near 300m/s, I don't think it's hurting anyone else's experience.
Any thoughts?

200ms should be on the upper end of playable. Above 250ms, you're going to find your play experience severely curtailed to the point where you are tangibly handicapped.

Incidentally, if you're having trouble finding servers of a decent latency, consider applying for a server license and renting your own, or approaching a local hosting company to set one up for you to admin. If there's no servers in your region, that's a great niche to fill, and having the only PR server in korea is great bragging rights for an ISP.

Its very frustrating when I'm flying a helicopter, and someone starts buffering a youtube video, I can still fly perfectly fine but I get kicked after say 5 seconds, and a whole squad goes down because of the damn auto kick.

Mary.au wrote:Its very frustrating when I'm flying a helicopter, and someone starts buffering a youtube video, I can still fly perfectly fine but I get kicked after say 5 seconds, and a whole squad goes down because of the damn auto kick.

You mean someone on your local connection leeching your bandwidth? Because a passenger in a chopper getting lagged or DCd shouldn't cause you to be kicked...

Colonelcool125 wrote:Because the people that pay for it get to make the rules. It's as simple as that.

Like this man says.


I wouldn't want anyone lagging on my server.

I am aware it only affects the person, but it raises the average latency for the whole server, which can affect it's standings.

What if you had a server full of people with ~150ms pings?

It would make the server look horrible when searching through the server list.

The main issue is when a player lags and starts teleporting around, instead of walking, making it impossible to take him down. At least that's how I see it.

Yeah Alex play with a high ping and is still a really good player.

Higher ping players actually help server performance for the rest of the population. Fewer ticks = fewer responses = fewer calculations done and sent by the server. BF2 is playable up to 300 ping or so as long as the ping is stable. BF2 doesn't handle pings that jump up and down well at all, even if it's between 100 and 200.

Well this is pretty much up to the server admins not the PR devs so this isn't much of a suggestion for PR but more of a suggestion for whichever server you are getting kicked from.

High-ping kicks have prevented me from playing many other mods/games online, so I absolutely despise them.

People argue all the time that high ping players lag everyone else, good to read that it's a myth for the most part.

Even if I find my ping happens to be so high that it's actually "unplayable" it's really my choice to put up with it.

The BF2 engine seems to compensate so well for high pings that I can't even recall ever being annoyed with my ping in PR.

Ace42 wrote:
"Discovered" ? Anyone with a passing acquaintance with TCP/IP networking could tell you that. The "OMFG, YOU'RE LAGGING ME!" BS is propagated solely by ignorant kids that don't know what they're talking about and should be told to go eff their stupid pie-holes.

Most real-time action games use UDP because its faster

High ping player will probably move weirdly in the world since his packets arrive late to the game server. It may influence how well others can hit him. But yea, usually the high ping player suffers the most.

Ace42 wrote:200ms should be on the upper end of playable. Above 250ms, you're going to find your play experience severely curtailed to the point where you are tangibly handicapped.

Wouldn't say that. If I have a stable connection with the server (which I usually do, fastest internet in the world thankyouverymuch) then it pings in the 350ms - 400ms range don't really affect my ability to play. Of course it would in a game like Counterstrike where turning on a dime and putting the crosshair on the appropriate pixel at the appropriate millisecond is important, in PR I find I don't really notice the lag. My K : D and stats are usually the same in high ping / low ping servers.

Incidentally, if you're having trouble finding servers of a decent latency, consider applying for a server license and renting your own, or approaching a local hosting company to set one up for you to admin. If there's no servers in your region, that's a great niche to fill, and having the only PR server in korea is great bragging rights for an ISP.

I would but I don't have the time to manage it, really. PR is something I do to unwind. Besides, no one would connect to the server anyway. Koreans hate Western games, they have their own games. The concept of a realistic game is even worse for them. I could rant for hours about the state of gaming here (hundreds of CS clones on the old Unreal engine are the most popular)...