Purposeful lagging?

[Derichian]

So over the last few weeks I've been getting back into GSF. Whilst I have been having more fun than frustration at the moment, there seems to be a few players on the Empire of my Server that seem to be purposefully lagging themselves out to gain an advantage.

 

By this I mean these guys generally end the match on the top of the boards with most kills and damage etc and have fully upgraded ships, yet when you try to dogfight them or line them up for a gunship shot they skip across the screen. Instead of flying in a smooth animation like everyone else these guys ships jerk and lag and move forward every .5secs by a few hundred meters making them impossible to hit or lock onto in anyway.

 

Usually when I am in a match with them I will see multiple people on my team make the same observation.

 

If they were lagging like that and had terrible stats I would just peg it down to the fact it was just normal lag, but since it is always the same 2-3 players doing it (whilst no one else on their team is skipping about) and always are together in a group AND are always the top of the charts leads me to think they are doing this purposefully just to cheese the game engine since they know people are unable to hit them.

 

I would put their names up to see how many other people are noticing this against them but naming and shaming is bannable on this forum.

 

Also before people start just saying "L2P issue" or such, I know I am not the best GSF player, but when I can still manage to hit EVERYONE else on their team in every match I come up against them but cannot hit those 3 (even when they are charging front on or moving at throttle speed). It kind of stands out.

[Gavin_Kelvar]

I've seen what looks like purposeful lag before. Usually you can spot them because they'll be flying a-ok with no lag but the second they start getting shot at or hear a lock tone they start lagging (and of course as soon as the threat disappears go back to flying fine). Mostly I've only seen it done with bombers (I did see a bomber pilot who was doing this switch to their scout midway through a match but the lag tactic was far less successful and they quickly switched back to their bomber).

 

If that's what you're seeing then I'd be inclined to say purposeful lag, if on the other hand they lag all the time (even when not under fire) I'd be a little more inclined to say they just have a bad connection.

Edited August 27, 2014 by Gavin_Kelvar

[Fractalsponge]

I have definitely seen several pub pilots do this on Shadowlands. It wouldn't be suspicious if it didn't happen only when they are under fire. They still play despite being reported, so I guess there's not much to do about it. Absolutely hilarious when you startle them and they skip into a satellite though .

[Aricin]

This was discussed in our GSF chat channel on the server and I was told its repeatedly pressing “print screen”

 

That helps you lagging only when being “locked on”

 

And its always the same people that selectively lag ...

[RatPoison]

I don't know if it's intentional or not, but I've made a couple observations with some of these encounters.

 

First, in trying to run down a lagging(?) ship there is one way I've identified for killing them... it's fairly simple, but get them to go in a straight line. Whether it be in a jousting match, or getting on their 6 while they're trying to gun down a teammate, this works okay. The other option is to (unfortunately) rely mostly or solely on missiles as the lock-on will continue so long as their skipping is within the broader circle.

 

Second, ... and while I won't declare it hacking with such limited information, an oddity I've noticed with some of these players is that when they are engaged in combat and locked onto another pilot, they stop having the jumping movement until such time they've stopped their missile lock and/or blaster fire. These are great opportunities to kill them, but one that would have me scratching my head if I felt these sorts of pilots were swinging the outcomes of matches.

 

Regardless, I tend not to screw around with pilots that jump all over there screen short of meeting some of the above criteria for improving my chances at dispatching them.

[MaximilianPower]

I'm fairly certain that there are indeed some folks who intentionally induce lag. We've discussed it at length on our server (JC) and several of us have seen this odd/inconsistent behavior from the same individuals. Some think it's hacking, because the weirdness manifests in lots of different ways. But personally I think all of it is probably attributable to lag (intentional or not). I'm not sure there's a way to select exactly how induced lag will impact one's performance, so we see a spectrum of effects that sometimes look like hacks. Usually it's this jumping/jittering when targeted, though.

 

That said, those pilots rarely swing the outcome of a match. I can only think of one or two who consistently put up respectable numbers. I think it must simply be too difficult to manage "lag induction" while actually flying semi-competently the rest of the time - and like I said above, I don't think you can always predict precisely what the induced lag will do.

[Comradebot]

I've seen it a couple times from both Pubs and Imps on Shadowlands. It's mostly just a minor annoyance in my experience, and I've yet to personally see any of the players doing this have any real impact on the game. If I'm at a good distance and angle, it's not overly difficult to still hit them. And if they're too close and the angle is too annoying... eh, just ignore them and shoot at someone else. I'll go engage someone who is actively trying to fight rather than actively trying to be annoying.

 

I suppose BW could fix this, if it's really being caused by mashing print screen over and over, by simply causing you to get booted from a match if you hit print screen too many times within a certain period of time.

 

But until I see someone doing it and in the process racking up serious kills? Can't say I'm overly concerned.

[ALaggyGrunt]

The printscreen exploit is pretty easy to fix, technidally-just make a new thread to deal with the screenshot function, and the old ones dealing with network, "physics", and shinies can go on uninterrupted. SWTOR only maxes out maybe 1.2 cores, so even a cheap dual-core system won't get slowed by printscreen spamming.

[Fractalsponge]

It's only really a problem when the lagger is in a bomber, as the mines and drones can still do damage while the bomber itself becomes hard to target. Otherwise you might waste some weapon pool on the target, and that's about it. Though I have seen some of these same players shooting fine in a gunship, then going into evade/lag mode, then stopping to shoot again.