Unless You're The Host, Your Ping Sucks in MW2

[Shawn Zipay]

If you thought having three bars out of four for your "ping" in Modern Warfare 2 was a good thing, you may want to think again. A member of the Infinity Ward forums has broken down what those bars actually mean for your ping.

They also show how you can more accurately display your ping and more easily tell who the host actually is.

• Navigate to the folder: 'program files\steam\steamapps\common\call of duty modern warfare 2\players' and open the file config_mp.cfg

• Change scoresping_interval from 100 to 20, and maxbars from 4 to 10 (10 is the max).

• This means that each of the 10 bars represents 20ms, with full green being 20ms or lower, and 1 red being 200ms or higher.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:

WHAT HOST ADVANTAGE LOOKS LIKE:
http://img52.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=hostadvantage1.jpg

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The sad truth? You might wanna pound a few beers before you read this:

• The host is immediately obvious, he's the guy with 0-20 ping (full green).
• I usually connect with about 101-200+ms.
• Most people are connected at 200+ms (3 or less bars on normal cfg settings).
• On regular cfg settings, 4 bars means up to 0-100 ping, 3 bars 101-200, 2 bars 201-300, 1 bar is 301+.

If you go into a server and everyone's ping appears to be good, but there's still a lot of apparent lag and rubber-banding going on, this may be the reason why.

[dvereb]

Re: Unless You're The Host, Your Ping Sucks in MW2

Well this makes me feel a little better about not buying it so far, but what else was there to expect with the initial launch of a game that makes a player a server? Sure they will fix it over time, but it is only a matter of time before people start messing with their connection for an unfair advantage. Hopefully IW can keep up to keep their players happy! I'll stick with 1.6

[Linux]

Re: Unless You're The Host, Your Ping Sucks in MW2

I got my hands on a free copy from my friend (he works for local store selling them)... MP2 Blows hard... I lagged like every spawn... P2P was a horrible idea because most people's internet can maybe normally handle simple stuff, but in this game its just awfully laggy and just no fun. I beat the SP in about 5 hours, which was extremely easy on Vet. mode... I was expecting a hard time and blew through it so quickly. Just happy didn't waste money on this worthless game, its so bad. Here to BF:BC2 and killing more infected in L4D^2!

[Sintra]

Re: Unless You're The Host, Your Ping Sucks in MW2

I could never play this. More than 80 ms delay? FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU - LAG

[Unregistered]

Re: Unless You're The Host, Your Ping Sucks in MW2

Back when I had dial-up, a loooooooong time ago, I used to get 210 ping in Counter-Strike: Source. I can tell you it was not fun and I had to get lucky to actually get a kill, and that was if I didn't get kicked first...

[CoderDunn]

Re: Unless You're The Host, Your Ping Sucks in MW2

Just thought I'd share this since you were talking about editing the mp config file.

After setting both sv_maxping and cl_maxping to 50, I don't lag at all. It makes the game look for a host that has a ping under 50.

[Dr.Worm]

Re: Unless You're The Host, Your Ping Sucks in MW2

Back when I had dial-up, a loooooooong time ago, I used to get 210 ping in Counter-Strike: Source. I can tell you it was not fun and I had to get lucky to actually get a kill, and that was if I didn't get kicked first...

May I welcome you back to the age of dial-up good sir?!

[lpgautogas]

Re: Unless You're The Host, Your Ping Sucks in MW2

nice post.

[Unregistered]

Re: Unless You're The Host, Your Ping Sucks in MW2

On the contrary, host in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is only beneficial to the actual host if they have a terrible upload limit. If they actually purchase a decent, modern internet service it's actually worse for host than anyone in the room. The rotten truth about MW2 and why people see packet loss running amok is that the developers stood behind their established protocol for ping synchronization, and it is perhaps the worst attempted application in the history of contemporary digital entertainment. Grounds alone for the expected dismantling of Infinity Ward from the very franchise it helped usher in.

Basically those who actually subscribe to legitimate internet services and are presented with low pings are faced with a connection net while there exists a ridiculously cheap gateway advantage for those with horrendous connectivity and/or ping. Consequently it ALWAYS results in "2-Bar Heros" with the most kills and fewest deaths, every round, every game, unequivocally. This is shown in thousands of videos throughout the tubes with avatars so far off their mark that predator missiles even get hit markers on hardcore mode without actually killing the player with the terrible connection. And when you obtain host with friends and in comes a pack of BFF's all on the same couch seven states away, holding each other's johnson; you can be sure that your team will get owned by lightning fast, packet loss mongrols with fluctuating 2-3 bars like a mp3 equalizer that shoot before they even take corners and execute shots without any sign that they were actually facing their opponent. It's a disaster in code writing. And don't even get me started on the rampant zone fails were players everywhere from Oregon to Florida are getting thrown in migrated host matches of someone in France or Holland.

Modern Warfare 2 literally installed an open system benefitting the worst internet connections at the expense of everyone else in the room simply to produce a more approachable, pick-up-and-play game rather than stick to the fundamental, capitalistic law of online competitive gaming that keeps the true fans who play the game and buy the DLC: if you want to perform better, buy a better connection. Period. The proprietary technologies behind preventing shaped connections and dampering host volley hit detection were novel and more applicable to the issue than what was greenlighted here. I will state here and now, I will pirate Call of Duty Black Ops in and as a whole and fully support the access onto others of this pirated copy IF a demo is not made available to avoid purchasing, without informed consent, such disappointing decisions which abrogate the very purpose of multiplayer games.