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Subject: UK Halo Players At A Disadvantage
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  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Look if you guys are so against other countries complain to Microsoft and tell them that you want to be able to select your country of play. It wont do anything and neither will telling anyone from another country they only win because they have host, which isnt their fault.

  • 07.24.2007 6:02 PM PDT

Never eat yellow snow, unless of course, you spilled your Mt. Dew!

I think Americans get host more often because around 7 of 10 players online are american. The host is chosen based on reliability of the connection and not where the connection is. If you have a super fast super reliable connection then you should get host occassionally, plus with all of the UK awake at the same time as you, you probably get matched with more European gamers. I have a ton of UK gamers in my friends list and play all the time. I play in the mornings here in Chicago d/t working night shift. A couple of them always play great and get host frequently. I don't think your "problem" is what you're making it out to be.

  • 07.25.2007 12:18 AM PDT
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I'm sick of being slagged off by Americans when I'm playing Halo 2 & being called Harry Potter just cause I'm British.It only seems to happen when I play on XBox 360 not when I play on PC.Having said that I've heard some Britsh (probably chav) people slagging off Americans for no reason.
Can't we just enjoy playing Halo 2 which is what were there for in the first place & stop being -blam!-ty to each other?

  • 07.25.2007 3:52 AM PDT

There’s not much that can be done. Latency, the delay which gives the ‘host advantage’, will always be a problem in online gaming. It can be minimised with more advanced network coding, like they have in Halo 3. But it’s really not viable to patch a nearly 3-year old game, native to a defunct hardware platform, that was never meant to be patched in such a way, especially when its sequel is now on the horizon.

The system does technically select the best host for the majority of players in each game. This is not a function of how much bandwidth we have though, not alone anyway. Where it fails us lies in the fact that you’ll have a game matched together with, say, 7 players from the US and 1 from the UK. Because of that distance, that UK player is never going to be considered the best host with respect to all the other players even if they have great uploa bandwidth. I think the real answer to the problem is to have matchmaking that is sensitive to your region, and so tries to put everyone in lower-latency games where they play people not too far away. At least as an option, at any rate.

Try not to blame the Americans. Most people who play aren’t really aware of how the system and the networking side of the game works at all. So it’s not most people’s fault that they’re unaware of how things are for us. Americans can suffer a bit from host advantage too. There’s some ignorant idiots out there but don’t tar everyone with that brush.

Finally, I wish I could have played on that cinema screen! I bet that was awesome.


Posted by: JROCK420
Look man, it's an American game and service. If you have such a problem with it, then go play a british game on a british service. Is there even such a thing? Don't blame your crappy broadband connection on America. The system (in theory) selects the best connection to host the game. I don't think it has anything to do with where you live. If it is as bad as you say it is, then just wait until September 25th. Oh wait, you will just have to wait an extra day.

Xbox Live is a worldwide service. Halo 2 is a global game. If Microsoft had intended it to be preferential to US customers in the way you are implying it should be, their sales would plummet and they would be beaten out by their rivals in every market except their domestic one. Which, take it from me, they do not want. They want to sell all over the world. So please, don’t make out you deserve preferential treatment because the game happens to be developed in the US. I’m sure if Project Gotham, Perfect Dark, Grand Theft Auto, Burnout etc favoured UK gamers people would -blam!- about it all day long.

He stated quite clearly he does not have a crappy connection. 20mbits down and 2.5mbits up is not crappy. I can only assume you are trying to be inflammatory with those remarks. You can have the best connection in the world but you still likely won’t get host if you’re outside the US.

  • 07.25.2007 5:25 AM PDT
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i am an american and i dont even know what host means...like i know what means but i dont get it does it have special privledges??

  • 07.25.2007 7:17 AM PDT

Freedom of Speech does not equal "Freedom from Consequences when one speaks".

It is a right, and all rights have responsibilities associated with them. Ignore the responsibility, and you tend to lose the right.
Recon Number 54

Posted by: xNG Manga
I have been playing Halo since it first came out, I absolutely love the game.


Me too -- I was one of the first accounts after launch.


Posted by: xNG Manga
The one thing that -blam!-s me off the the most is the fact that you have to suffer the problem with Host. Now if you live in America then there's no problem with the connection as you are only a few hundred miles away or next door to your neighbour who has Host on xboxlive.


It's not true that there's no problem with host here in America. Very infrequently I will end up on a host team, but I am NEVER host machine.


Posted by: xNG Manga
my net speed is so fast it runs constantly at 20 Meg Down and 2.5 Meg Up, I pay a lot of money for this connection and it makes no difference at all.


That's quite a connection you'ver got there! However, all the bandwidth above a certain amount is pretty much wasted. What's more important to you is latency and lag. There are some excellent websites that will test your connection (not sure I can post the links here). In order to avoid in-game issues, your round-trip time should be under about 75ms, and no more than about a 300-400ms max pause.

I only very rarely have all green bars showing. Not many players understand that it's the individual connection that makes a winner, and not their skill. I'm so tired of listening to all the smack in the post-game lobby, when it's simply a matter of connection superiority and not skill.


Posted by: xNG Manga
I have spent all the time in the world trying to shoot across lockout and hitting nothing but air when it should have been a four shot kill.


I have this problem all the time. The problem is that auto-aim doesn't work when there's latency in the connection. Again, not many people understand this, and think you are unskilled.


Posted by: xNG Manga
I hope it is not the case for Halo 3.


I was one of the fortunate ones to be able to play the Beta, and I can tell you, even with my so-so connection, gameplay was MUCH BETTER than I've ever experienced with Halo 2. I'm not sure how this was done, whether by handicapping players with better ping rates, or designing more lag in the game engine to absorb connection differences. There is also a feature to make searching for the most compatible connections a priority when in matchmaking. I think you'll be quite pleased!

Peace.

  • 07.25.2007 8:23 AM PDT

Freedom of Speech does not equal "Freedom from Consequences when one speaks".

It is a right, and all rights have responsibilities associated with them. Ignore the responsibility, and you tend to lose the right.
Recon Number 54

Posted by: xNG Manga
I have spent all the time in the world trying to shoot across lockout and hitting nothing but air when it should have been a four shot kill.


Sorry -- forgot to add another problem with latency, and this relates to host as well. If there's latency in your connection, your opponent won't be on the same place on YOUR map as he is on HIS map at a certain point in time. Therefore, your shots miss their target. Another little detail most players don't understand...

  • 07.25.2007 8:33 AM PDT

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