Halo: Reach Forum
This topic has moved here: Poll [8 votes]: What hit detection would you prefer in Halo: Reach?
  • Poll [8 votes]: What hit detection would you prefer in Halo: Reach?
Subject: What hit detection would you prefer in Halo: Reach?

Poll: What hit detection would you prefer in Halo: Reach?  [closed]
Server Side Hit Detection:  38%
(3 Votes)
Client Side Hit Detection:  62%
(5 Votes)
Total Votes: 8

I'm curious as to what the community would really prefer in Reach. Please read the article before answering the poll/posting.

Server Side Hit Detection

On the one hand we have SSHD, what Halo 3 and most games on the market currently use. We all know that the game chooses the person with the best connection to be the host, to which that person has a bit of an advantage over the rest of the people playing the game; their bullets leave the gun first, hit when and where they're supposed to, etc.

The major benefit to having a "Server Side" game is the fact that when bullets hit the target, the server gets the message that the target has been hit, and they are damaged immediately.

The con here, is the delay experienced with your physical actions. Throwing a grenade, firing a rocket, firing a bullet from any gun, all are delayed by a small amount, while the host's actions occur immediately.

Even if dedicated servers are implimented, they aren't everything they're cracked up to be. Whoever lives closest to the dedicated server will recieve the best connection, giving them a pseudo-"host" advantage.

Client Side Hit Detection

Some games use CSHD. In a nutshell, you fire your gun, the bullets come out at the same rate the host's would, and hit the target when it's supposed to-- the catch here is that as soon as that happens, there is a slight delay as the server calculates the damage you've done, and the information is transfered to the server. In other words, damage delay.

I'd say the benefit here is pretty obvious, everyone has about the same chance to hit when they're supposed to, and in fairly "lagless" matches, it's hardly noticeable at all. Sniper rifles would successfully hit their respective targets as intended, as opposed to appearing to hit your target, complete with blood splatter, only to have nothing happen because your opponent wasn't actually there on your host's connection. Not to mention there isn't one allpowerful host who seems to be out-BRing everyone if he's decent, inbalancing the teams ever so slightly.

Cons here are things like the fact that it may take a while to actually damage an opponent if there is too much lag, which is refered to as "Ghosting", where your bullets fire, but don't actually do anything. Also CSHD is easy to trick, which gives the rise of things like Aimbots, which aren't exactly a big problem on the 360 in the first place, as people would have to completely reprogram their 360s to successfully make it work. Consequentially, this is a bigger problem on PC games that use CSHD than 360.

Comments, suggestions, etc. are all appreciated. Thank you for your time.

  • 09.04.2009 6:00 PM PDT