My COD:BO Issues - Rant

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Crappy forum strikes again!

I have studied the lag issue and my network connection is not too bad (not good but not too bad), usually 30-40ms pings, I always have 4 green bars. So I DO NOT accept these are all lag issues.

My network is perfectly optimal. Minimum 20 down / 5 up, static ip, no NAT, totally open bridged cable modem, etc. Nothing else on the network when playing until this very week. My Xbox is new (last Christmas), everything is up to date.

This is not sour grapes, I love this game and play it 90% of the time I’m playing xbox. There are issues however, no one takes seriously. They are simply tossed aside as though they are lag and lag only and lag is the only possible explanation. Other games have their issues but they do NOT have THESE issues; nor do they have as many issues or as severe of issues.

I am an 11th (nearly 12th) level prestige with 22.5+ days play time. So I have some experience with this and other on line games.

When things go right I can go as high as 28 and 10 k/d. best kill streak is 11.

I have addressed these issues with Activision previously to no end, their opinion is that it is all just LAG and the nature of online games. But again, no other game has issues anything like or near these.

Microsoft, Activision and Tryarch do not take cheaters seriously. They deny anyone cheats, that anyone can cheat or that anyone has ever cheated.

I don’t have any way to record what I see on the screen. When I have the extra money to buy a recoding DVD I plan to post to youtube or create a web site to play these inconsistencies. (Perhaps then someone will take note even if it is only their layers.) What happens on the kill cam or theater is not what happened on the screen in the game. These are only what the game extrapolates from the data collected by the actions and network signals it recorded.

These issues could be greatly reduced by very simple things. Such as: drop a player from a lobby (during the game/match) when their send signal lags just before a kill. DON’T close the lobby, just remove the one player. Perhaps after the third time it happened to eliminate the odd actual and honest lag. But when a player lags with their sending signal just before 10 or more kills in a game, there is manipulation behind it at, or best case, their individual connection is so bad they have an unfair advantage and need to be removed.

Improve sync and timing between players. Add servers for hosting or find another solution. What you are doing does not work well, and would NOT require you to change the fast pace of the game. Only an investment with the hundreds of millions of dollars you have made (in profit not revenue).

Here are my complaints:

1. Regardless of my connection bandwidth, speed (ping time)etc. I am always ½ to 1 second behind everyone else. Never happens on other online games. 48ms ping times represent three cycles. There are 60 cycles in ONE SECOND. 480ms is ½ of a second.

2. They do not take seriously the vulgar logos children or child like adults make.

3. Avoided player does not work well. This may be MS not activision or tryarch but still….

4. Every time, (without exception) that I lead a game lobby in kills, the lobby closes and the score is lost. This NEVER varies and Literally happens every time, period. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

5. The game score seen in the lobby scoreboard and the action report do not match and have never matched. They cannot be made to match, the totals cannot be added together or subtracted in any combination to be made to match.

6. I often get payouts on contracts requiring a number of kills that are not recorded in the final score.

7. Kills not showing up in the final total, Nemesis box. Nemesis box is ALWAYS WRONG. Always.

8. Spawn locations are fixed and predictable, this is simply a crappy game design issue.

9. I’ll make a kill with a dozen hit markers, watch them drop, then disappear, get points but no kill will record in the total. (this one happens but is not as often lately, But it DOES still happen.)

10. Live TV screen, kill cam and theater shows a completely different set of events. This would be ok but Activision and Tryarch act as though the theater is what actually happened.

11. A significant portion of the gaming population are using lag switches or some form of mod to allow for unusually high strength for jumps, bullet proof, SR-71 always on, move faster than allowed etc. With this issue, I am not talking about typical normal lag’s, and you know it.

12. People get SR-71’s, choppers and gun ships with as few as 3 kills. (This is happening less frequently, but happened again just this week.)

13. Rarely can I start in a new lobby/game. (1 out of 20 starts.) Even though there are 50 plus lobbies going.

14. Nearly always start an existing game and only on a majorly/massively losing team. I don’t mind loosing but I don’t want to start that way.

15. When I quit a game and try to start a new game/lobby, it puts me back in the same game I was just in even when there are a possible 50 matches. This can happen EVEN if I back out to the xbox main screen.

16. A disproportionate number of kills are not kills but assists even when there has been no action nearby or even right at the beginning of a match or I’ll get points but not a kill. I can watch someone spawn, kill them and only get an assist.

17. Most lobbies it takes nearly a full extended magazine of rounds with hit markers to kill anyone.

18. I can stab someone in the back but somehow, they get one hit on me and I die also. Does show up on kill cam/theater.

19. When I shoot a second chance guy in the back, they often fall facing towards me and shoot me, one hit kill with a pistol from distance. This happens even when I continue to shoot and I have not stopped shooting them.

20. ONE shot with a pistol from halfway across the map in the foot kills. Does show up on kill cam/theater.

21. Enemy players names showing up and showing up green/blue not RED. It happens in all maps and very often. I try to watch for uniform differences but that does not work when someone comes around a corner shooting at you. I am aware of my slight lag issues and compensate for them. But how does lag explain showing an enemy as friend? These players tend to be the same guys that are bullet and grenade proof.

22. Ballistic knife and tomahawk’s can be thrown across a map accurately killing me while I have ghost pro on. (this alone is BS), the effective kill range is a joke. Same for long range, one shot kill pistols.

23. Flash/bang, concussion and often frag’s have zero effect on enemy, smoke unseen by enemy in kill cam when killed while I should have been hidden.

24. I have never had a kill streak carry over from one game to the next (with kill streak rewards or without).

25. Matchmaking is a joke. Need I say more?

26. When hosting, I can NOT kill anyone. All weapons are completely knerfed.

27. Perks fail after time. Tact. Insert fails to cancel when you press the Y button, ghost pro leaves you visible without firing, etc.

There are other issues but these are the major ones. (Except where noted), these are frequent and significant.

So, every time I see that I am the host I will quit and restart, period.

When I cannot kill anyone after dozens of hit markers, I will quit and restart, period.

I will shop for lobbies without crude player cards.

I will continue to report those with crude player cards who are fascinated with their rear ends, both with the report feature and to xbox.

I will continue to report those players who are grenade proof or when shot, the game suddenly glitches and lags so they don’t die as cheaters. both with the report feature and to xbox.

I will continue to complain until this gets better.

But hay, it’s all just a lag issue.

That's funny. I tried three times to post it. Worked on the reply.  MUST BE LAG!

I agree with you about quitting when you are host. Whenever I rage quit I am always the host.

@ ur #12 complaint.... its called hardline pro. it only takes 4 kills to get a care package and using hardline pro u can switch up the care package to somthing else and a fair amount of the times u can get a better killstreak using it. but yea the people quitting and it ending the game is really some bs. it seems to be getting worse anymore. before it would usually find another host but now most of the time its a bust and game over. the lag really doesn't bother me much i have learned to compensate for it after years of playing the original halo using tunnel software.

I think the problem is your ping to the host.

30+ Isn't anything special. And that's usually a local result.

Excellent point and I am well aware of this and have had hardline pro in previous presige levels. However, I am talking about 3 kills or less, not 4 and a care package. Also, I previously contacted Activision customer service about a game it happened in.  I had the game posted in my theater. Nothing happened, the issue was ignored. Hence my complaint that Tryarch and Activision ignore cheaters.  I also had a game in firing range where I emptied two magizines of the ak74u into someone's back with hit markers on every round.  The guy did not die. while relading a third time, the guy finally turned and killed me.  When I went back to the theater, selected the game and viewed it, it did not show me in the game.  I was never in the game although I was in the game with my guy running and shooting. I posted this video my theater lobby for Customer Support. But agian it never showed me in the game.   So when you scroll through the players or view the score while in the game, I was never there? Interestingly however, the guy I shot, who killed me.... got a kill, by shooting air. Activision ignored this as well. They said they had known issues with the theater and my problem was lag.

    A loooonggg post ......... but I will try to touch on as much as possible while keeping my reply as short as I can.

    Quite simply, most of what you have stated isrelated to a couple of issues.

    First ............ I want to express my displeasure with the use of speedtest/pingtest. Its about as useful as telling the highway patrol in Georgia, that when you crossed the Ohio border you were only travelling at 55mph, and therefore you couldnt have been travelling at 75mph when he clocked you.

    Internet connections vary so much throughout the day and on different days that the info they give is nearly useless. These tests run for less than a minute, yet there are 1440 minutes in a day. If you want to try something a little more accurate, but still far from perfect, try a program called robotest. You can use this program to ping a server on a regular basis ( I use 15 seconds) and let it run for hours, all day or even for a number of days, to give a decent reading of how your service works.

    So, ......... lag ......... of course is without a doubt a reason for most of what you have explained. Why is it worse in bo? I think because BO is just more complicated, than other games. As a matter of fact I believe it pushes the limits of the console itself, and not just our internet connections.

    The rest has to do with people leaving the game and host migrations ...... or even dashbaorders and games ending because of it.

    Now to start with, you meantion that whenever you are on a roll, the game abruptly ends .......... You also point out that you leave games when you are host . A lot can be said about that, but I just put it simply ....... Everyone has there own "legit" reasons for leaving a match and the consequences can be quite widespread  no matter the reason.

    The "ghost player" issue I call it, is due to host migration. I posted a video a while back and have seen many more from others as well.

    You can also get a decent idea from theater mode when someone is lag switching. Just bring up the scoreboard while watching the replay, and you can tell a number of things by watching players connections during specific, suspicious incidents.  You may find someone lag switching, but for the most part, its more likely just connection issues.

Can someone tell me how you can tell if someone is using a lag switch?  Also, I absolutely agree with # 19/20.  So irritating.  IMO, i think if you run flak jacket you take less bullet damage too, even tho it says explosive damage only.  I say this because it always takes more bullets to drop them than usual.  I know i know, lag. Haha.  You forgot to put in there, when you're shooting someone and they run right thru your bullets and knife you.  All in all, i'd say i agree with pretty much your whole post.

[quote user="Machete160"]

Can someone tell me how you can tell if someone is using a lag switch?

The only time someone using a lag switch is really beneficial to them is when they are host. If you bring up the scoreboard, their connection will stay good while everyone elses drops for a few seconds. That may still be just a connection issue, but if you watch for the timing of it to be just when the guy confronts an enemy its most likely a lag switch.

If they arent host, their connection will drop, but noone else's ............ in this case the person is taking a gamble, because it wont always work in his favor.