Can't win

[SidDManiac]

Hello everyone!

First time here. Greetings!

I used to ping 52ms for years, but  my processor was overheating (over 70 degrees) and  was automatically throttling my speed down to almost 1ghz for a P4 3.4 ghz. I did not know that this was going on until a few months ago so I was playing at a disadvantage for years.

I finally fixed the throttling problem with a huge Thermaltake fan and now I am moving nicely at 3.4 ghz min and 3.9ghz with some OC at times. However, my ping suddenly increased to 63 ms  since spleen got the new servers.

This makes a lot of difference for me, because I had exactly 2 weeks of good performance, then back to being handicapped.

Here's my trace:

Tracing route to tastyspleen.net [74.54.186.226]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    12 ms    11 ms    13 ms  10.40.192.1
  2    13 ms    13 ms    14 ms  gig-4-0-nycmnyj-rtr1.nyc.rr.com [24.29.97.177]
  3    11 ms    14 ms    13 ms  pos2-0nycmnyl-rtr2.nyc.rr.com [24.29.100.122]
  4    14 ms    12 ms    13 ms  tenge10-0-0-nycmnyrdc-rtr1.nyc.rr.com [24.29.119
.117]
  5    30 ms    13 ms    24 ms  gig1-0-0-nwrknjmd-rtr1.nyc.rr.com [24.29.130.182
]
  6    23 ms    13 ms    17 ms  ae-4-0.cr0.nyc30.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.78]
  7    26 ms    14 ms    15 ms  ae-1-0.pr0.nyc20.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.163]
  8    20 ms    18 ms    20 ms  66.109.9.210
  9    75 ms    85 ms    83 ms  The-Planet.GigabitEthernet7-3.ar2.DAL2.gblx.net
[64.208.170.198]
 10   289 ms    74 ms    75 ms  te9-2.dsr01.dllstx3.theplanet.com [70.87.253.14]

 11    74 ms    76 ms    75 ms  76.fd.5746.static.theplanet.com [70.87.253.118]

 12    89 ms    75 ms    77 ms  po2.car06.dllstx6.theplanet.com [12.96.160.40]
 13    79 ms    72 ms    74 ms  tastyspleen.net [74.54.186.226]

Trace complete.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

PS: Could someone please explain how someone with 200+ ping could win many games against people with 40ms pings. I know he is good , but this defies ping logic. I suck (more) with 63 ms ping.

[[BTF]Defiant!]

..
  9    75 ms    85 ms    83 ms  The-Planet.GigabitEthernet7-3.ar2.DAL2.gblx.net
[64.208.170.198]
 10   289 ms    74 ms    75 ms  te9-2.dsr01.dllstx3.theplanet.com [70.87.253.14]

 11    74 ms    76 ms    75 ms 76.fd.5746.static.theplanet.com [70.87.253.118]

 12    89 ms    75 ms    77 ms  po2.car06.dllstx6.theplanet.com [12.96.160.40]
 13    79 ms    72 ms    74 ms  tastyspleen.net [74.54.186.226]

So your  ping tastyspleen.net  gives you about 75ms?   Where do you live, in New York?

PS: Could someone please explain how someone with 200+ ping could win many games against people with 40ms pings. I know he is good , but this defies ping logic. I suck (more) with 63 ms ping.

Who?  In any case, someone with a low packet lost, but 200 ms latency connection can still be a solid player. 

[The Happy Friar]

a) CPU heat doesn't affect ping

b) Q2 will run GREAT on a 300mhz CPU with no GPU hardware acceleration, 1ghz isn't a disadvantage

c) the 200ping player is pretty damn good. 

[SidDManiac]

I live in Queens, NYC.

The player I am referring to is Caution. I believe he is playing all the way from Australia. I have been in the server with him and other good players including Ganja just last week and he was kicking our asses consistently even though he was pinging 200+.

I used to play q2 with a Pentium 200 mhz on Monmouth servers and win, also with a DELL 800 mhz PIII and win, but I find that you have to have the best hardware affordable to keep up as you get slower reflexes and other users start getting quad cores and upgrades so I think hardware is significant, but ping and latency is even more important.

Any solutions?

[Quest]

I also live in NY (upstate) and usually ping between 68-75ms. So, your ping is just about what it should be considering the distance you are from the server.

As far as "not winning" you just have to get used to what your ping is now - and you'll begin to improve. I am a firm believer in map knowledge. If you know the map layout really well, that right there will improve your game a ton.

[SidDManiac]

I also live in NY (upstate) and usually ping between 68-75ms. So, your ping is just about what it should be considering the distance you are from the server.

As far as "not winning" you just have to get used to what your ping is now - and you'll begin to improve. I am a firm believer in map knowledge. If you know the map layout really well, that right there will improve your game a ton.

Fair enough, but what caused my ping to increase? Did Spleen move to a new ISP?

If so, then that would explain the 10 ms increase.  If that's the case then I guess i'm SOL since I am sure they will not revert back to the old ISP just to please 1 or 2 players.

As far as knowing the maps, I  only play DM these days and I've been playing almost since the game came out. I guess I never looked to see where the quad  bfg and Invul really are....but maybe i'll have to look harder (and lamer) if this keeps up.

BTW, the "can't win" statement was just a pun, not meant to be taken seriously!

[PANTONE 7717C]

Hey Sid,
I'm connecting from Western Europe and normally if all is well I ping somewhere between 125-140. I prefer to ping a solid 40ms (as I do in the Eu) but if my connection is stable it's very playable. But on some days my ping goes up to 170 and when this happens I also experience constant packetloss -thin red spikes- which sometimes stops my weapon from firing and makes the game feel jerky as if I'm running a game that is too demanding for my system.
But okay what I'm saying is that if it's only the 10ms increase in ping and you don't really experience PL it shouldn't affect your timing that much. Not a solution but you could try to play on Eu servers for a while with a higher ping, just to see how that feels again. After that, connect to TS and you'll love your 63ms
I guess that high pingers like CautioN have a pretty stable connection and have somehow learned to deal with the ping and delay. By the way I don't know if you've ever noticed but he usually gets half of his frags by strewing grenades when it's crowded but hey, all is fair with a ping like that:P

[hieronymous]

hi SidDmaniac --- if there was a measure for all players who play with integrity (non-lame frags) out there you would be close to the top ( probably above me ).

  Imo the invul, quad, and bfg are part of the balance that keeps campers(of all kinds) from controlling all or part of the map , of course everything in good measure .

btw -- you jerk around more than an autoaim bot -- i don't how you can play with that sensitivity.   please keep playing and gl with your connection.

[SidDManiac]

hi SidDmaniac --- if there was a measure for all players who play with integrity (non-lame frags) out there you would be close to the top ( probably above me ).

  Imo the invul, quad, and bfg are part of the balance that keeps campers(of all kinds) from controlling all or part of the map , of course everything in good measure .

btw -- you jerk around more than an autoaim bot -- i don't how you can play with that sensitivity.   please keep playing and gl with your connection.

Thanks for the vote Hieronymous! I remember you now from the old days!

...and yes, even though I use R1GL, I still have my mouse sens set at 20. This was due to something I read when I was just starting out  by Jack Frost. He said always work with the highest sensitivity you can aim with, then tweak it up higher until it is unbearable!! I stuck with it. My son (Septimus V) said I was insane! Of course that sensitivity makes up for my age now! 

[SidDManiac]

Hey Sid,
I'm connecting from Western Europe and normally if all is well I ping somewhere between 125-140. I prefer to ping a solid 40ms (as I do in the Eu) but if my connection is stable it's very playable. But on some days my ping goes up to 170 and when this happens I also experience constant packetloss -thin red spikes- which sometimes stops my weapon from firing and makes the game feel jerky as if I'm running a game that is too demanding for my system.
But okay what I'm saying is that if it's only the 10ms increase in ping and you don't really experience PL it shouldn't affect your timing that much. Not a solution but you could try to play on Eu servers for a while with a higher ping, just to see how that feels again. After that, connect to TS and you'll love your 63ms
I guess that high pingers like CautioN have a pretty stable connection and have somehow learned to deal with the ping and delay. By the way I don't know if you've ever noticed but he usually gets half of his frags by strewing grenades when it's crowded but hey, all is fair with a ping like that:P

You seem to do pretty well with high ping Panjoo! I have seen you in action!

I really don't seem to have any packet loss, just some kind of lag that make me use a lot more speed and effort than is necessary. For example I find myself clicking and reacting violently just to get off a shotgun blast  when it should have been a simple point blank shot. In other words the person is not where you expect them to be.

I actually wanted to test an idea, but I don't know if it would work. What if I aim to the left or right of the player to compensate for the latency. Should it be to the right if I ping higher or is it left?
 

[Quest]

The higher your ping is the more you will have to lead your target.
With a 60-75 ms ping its not all that much, but you still do need to do it.

[jägermonsta]

high ping blows for gaming :<

[console]

what caused my ping to increase? Did Spleen move to a new ISP?

If so, then that would explain the 10 ms increase.  If that's the case then I guess i'm SOL since I am sure they will not revert back to the old ISP just to please 1 or 2 players.

Hi Sid.... I remember you from the xquake days. 

We actually moved twice.  The full, gory details are chronicled in the following thread, starting with the first (unintentional) move from Dallas to Houston... continuing through the second move back to Dallas again:

http://tastyspleen.net/quake/forums/index.php?topic=7921.0

Once we were relocated back to Dallas, and after the dust settled (some people were experiencing bad packetloss for awhile) ... most people now have about the same ping they used to on the old tastyspleen box.

However, for whatever reason, it seems a handful of people got better routes to the old IP than the new one--even though we are still on the same ISP, supposedly back in the same datacenter as the old server.


Regards,

[SidDManiac]

Hello Console (Quadz)!

Who could forget those xquake days!

Thanks for the info! That was pretty interesting reading.

All I can say is that I am extremely grateful to you guys for keeping Q2 alive.  Keep up the great work.

As long as I can get a few shots in, I'm happy. I can always move to Texas when I feel like winning !    Hehe.

[[BTF]DeathStalker]

Talk about your crazy good high pingers, that would have to include DiscoDitto.
He's in Singapore, and if ever I get to meet him in person at a LAN with even pings, I will most assurally REFUSE to play him !!!!