Forgive me if my normally dispassionate demeanor takes on a more colorful tone here, but one topic in particular really rustles my jimmies.
Intentional laggers, cheaters, online abusers. People who purposely induce lag to make playing them a living hell and to rack up unstoppable submission wins. People who have managed to find a way to disconnect from the match at-will and still be awarded a win. People who find out what your IP address is and then DDOS it from their mom's basement. As far as I'm concerned...scum...
Maybe it was my near-weekly repeated viewings of Robocop as a child growing up in the 80's but I have a very strong sense of justice and low tolerance for the malignant cretins we face in our corner of the online gaming community.
Right now, sad to say, UFC3 is a sociopathic scumbag's wonderland. Instead of being dealt with swiftly and judiciously, they aren't even given a slap on the wrist. They are being IGNORED. I've counted one person so far who has been banned for DDOS'ing (during an ESFL event).
That's awesome. It truly is. But that's ONE person.
We currently have a 17 page thread going, started by FindTheDoor, on infamous low-life cretin Ty1012326, who lags hard in every match and makes up a sob story about a snowstorm affecting his Internet whenever confronted.
There are two possibilities afoot. Either Ty1012326 lives in the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MjMmDsycHC0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Or...he's a lying POS ruining hundreds of players' experiences with unblockable (in lag) head kick KO's and undeniable submissions.
But he isn't the only one...oh no!
Witness this travesty of a second round I played against SethRollins_BR a few days ago:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/obmM9cKi0Wc" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
When it says "waiting for player" I am legit frozen for 5 realtime seconds. After he puts me in the flying sub, the second gate doesn't even register on my screen. I didn't edit it out. There's no visual trickery. The game sh*ts itself in more than moderate latency, especially during submissions, and doesn't even render key pieces of information to the player.
I bet it's just a coincidence that this player is using the best submission fighter in the division, who happens to have a flying sub.
If any of you have never played against someone lagging this bad, let me reassure you that you CANNOT REACT to anything. All I could've done to deny that clinch was predeny, leaving my head wide open for a head kick that I could not have blocked in time. There's no way I could have reliably blocked the flying sub. And as you see during the sub, the gate pushing sequence doesn't even render properly. It's legit full-stop broken, and I'm using that word in the most direct way possible. Under duress of high latency, the game is BROKEN.
After I played the above moron, I had ZERO will to continue playing the game. Why bother? Why bother strategizing? Why bother refining my reflexes? Why bother researching the finer nuances of the striking and ground game when ANY IDIOT with the wherewithal can purposely lag out his connection and rack up free wins?
No point in playing the game. No exaggeration, I almost rage-uninstalled the game. I was that fed up.
I'm fed up that FindTheDoor made his thread about Ty almost 3 weeks ago now and he hasn't received any assurance that something is being done to correct the problem.
This is simply unacceptable, and I decided that if it takes me coming to a public forum to see if anyone else gives a damn, that's what I'll do. I'm tired of this issue being swept under the rug. Even if 1% of the player base is engaging in this behavior, those players are having hundreds if not thousands of matches.
Imagine if your first experience online as a new player is that you're stuttering every other second, sometimes can't move for 5 seconds, and then you get taken down by an unstoppable shot and choked out during a submission minigame where the freaking gates don't even render? I would laugh at the game, turn it off forever and badmouth it to my friends.
I'm not saying I would do that personally. I love MMA games, and I KNOW EAC is a competent and passionate developer, I've met them. But Joe Blow is not me. He hops online and gets utterly destroyed and made to feel helpless NOT by any mistakes in his own gameplay but by the utter failure of the game's network infrastructure. Yeah, that guy is going to turn the game off and never look back and I don't blame him.
This NEEDS to be addressed. I don't care who needs to be summoned or what it takes. This can't be ignored. At this point it's a moral issue. Scumbags are being allowed to take advantage of innocent players while the devs look on and do nothing. DO SOMETHING. PLEASE. And if something is being done, make us aware. If I had any reassurance that something was being done, I wouldn't be making this thread. I want to see if this community cares at all to save the online part of this game or if we are content to let the playerbase rot away as laggers and disconnectors accrue dishonest records and turn normal players off from the franchise entirely.
That's a lot of complaining Zombie. Any suggestions?
Why yes, I'm glad you asked. I have several.
First, why on god's green earth do we NOT have a pre-match latency meter with an accept/decline option? I know for sure Street Fighter IV had this in 2009 on the Xbox 360 but I'm pretty sure it was around well before then also.
It's not a full-stop countermeasure to lag switchers, but it's SOMETHING. Why don't we have this? We don't have region lock. If we don't have region lock we NEED a ping meter.
Now what about the guys who have a perfectly fine connection until they decide to start lagging to sway the match? This is harder fish to fry, but I believe there are solutions.
Something I recommend is what I'll call "peak and average match latency." On the backend, the devs should track the average ping in a match for a given player and reflect that graphically in a ping bar. If average ping is low, then the player will have 5 green bars by his name.
If the player is Ty1012326 and lags every second of every match, his average latency would be 1 red bar and you could decline based on that even if he doesn't purposely lag his connection til he's in the match.
What about the idiots who play fine until they're in trouble or until they want to lock in an unstoppable sub? Track peak latency.
So if someone's ping is frequently peaking 400+ on a per-match basis, either display that or flag the player as suspicious.
To sum up, players' CURRENT, AVERAGE, and PEAK latency should be displayed to potential opponents. If I see green, green, green, I accept. If I see Green, red, red, I know I'm dealing with a lag switcher and decline. If I see Green, green, red, I know I'm potentially dealing with someone who only lags the match when losing. If I see red, I decline out of hand, because the person is currently lagging and the match will be bad.
Now, what about the DDOS'ers and disconnectors? Two solutions. For DDOS'ers we need manual human review, no doubt about it. This is a big but relatively rare problem. We need video evidence of when the DDOS is happening and any sort of corroborating evidence. Players can change their IP addresses if they suspect someone is doing this as a preventative measure (google how to do it, it's not too hard).
As for the disconnectors who somehow get free wins, this one isn't too hard. Track every player's DNF (already being done). If the DNF is VERY HIGH, flag that player as suspicious. Upon corroborating video evidence, reset the player's record (at the very least) and optionally terminate the account.
The main reason these scumbags are doing this is to accrue an inflated record. That's it. That's the end game. Something as simple as resetting their records to 0-0-0 removes all incentive to scumbag it up. Something as simple as that, which can be done for almost no money (correct me if I'm wrong).
One other solution... The devs need to enforce a MUCH LOWER ping threshold. Here is what I mean. Right now you can play someone lagging their a**es off, and the game will let the match persist in that horrible and unplayable state. If a certain threshold is exceeded, we see the "waiting for player..." prompt and the game is totally frozen. And this is allowed to happen over and over. WRONG.
The "allowed playable state" of the game needs to be reassessed. If we cannot move for more than half a second at a time, DO NOT allow the game state to persist. Do NOT allow the "waiting for player" prompt to appear multiple times in a match. DO NOT allow that "waiting for player" prompt to persist for as long as it does. In my video, the prompt appears at 27 seconds and disappears at 32 seconds. That's 5 full seconds I CAN'T EVEN MOVE. If the match is truly laggy, allow that prompt to appear once and then END IT. It feels, in a laggy match, like we are allowed to play in about 300ms of lag before the prompt even appears. WRONG. Prompt should appear after 150-200ms is exceeded and then TERMINATE the match if that threshold is exceeded again. The game allows FAR TOO MUCH leeway for a laggy match to continue. People who abuse lag to force the match to end can be dealt with as I described above.
Bottom line, we need action on this front. My will to play is waning. NOT because of the gameplay. While the gameplay needs more refinement, I think GameplayDev is doing an outstanding job handling the ins and outs of the actual combat.
But the network architecture and the anti-cheat/anti-exploit measures are in a scary state right now, one that truly makes me worry for the longevity of the online playerbase.
If anybody else cares, say something. I sometimes feel like I'm shouting at the sky. I get the same sense with FindTheDoor. I feel that dude's pain. We need something done. This is a sport and a game franchise that we love, and SCUMBAGS are ruining it.
-ZR
Intentional laggers, cheaters, online abusers. People who purposely induce lag to make playing them a living hell and to rack up unstoppable submission wins. People who have managed to find a way to disconnect from the match at-will and still be awarded a win. People who find out what your IP address is and then DDOS it from their mom's basement. As far as I'm concerned...scum...
Maybe it was my near-weekly repeated viewings of Robocop as a child growing up in the 80's but I have a very strong sense of justice and low tolerance for the malignant cretins we face in our corner of the online gaming community.
Right now, sad to say, UFC3 is a sociopathic scumbag's wonderland. Instead of being dealt with swiftly and judiciously, they aren't even given a slap on the wrist. They are being IGNORED. I've counted one person so far who has been banned for DDOS'ing (during an ESFL event).
That's awesome. It truly is. But that's ONE person.
We currently have a 17 page thread going, started by FindTheDoor, on infamous low-life cretin Ty1012326, who lags hard in every match and makes up a sob story about a snowstorm affecting his Internet whenever confronted.
There are two possibilities afoot. Either Ty1012326 lives in the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MjMmDsycHC0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Or...he's a lying POS ruining hundreds of players' experiences with unblockable (in lag) head kick KO's and undeniable submissions.
But he isn't the only one...oh no!
Witness this travesty of a second round I played against SethRollins_BR a few days ago:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/obmM9cKi0Wc" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
When it says "waiting for player" I am legit frozen for 5 realtime seconds. After he puts me in the flying sub, the second gate doesn't even register on my screen. I didn't edit it out. There's no visual trickery. The game sh*ts itself in more than moderate latency, especially during submissions, and doesn't even render key pieces of information to the player.
I bet it's just a coincidence that this player is using the best submission fighter in the division, who happens to have a flying sub.
If any of you have never played against someone lagging this bad, let me reassure you that you CANNOT REACT to anything. All I could've done to deny that clinch was predeny, leaving my head wide open for a head kick that I could not have blocked in time. There's no way I could have reliably blocked the flying sub. And as you see during the sub, the gate pushing sequence doesn't even render properly. It's legit full-stop broken, and I'm using that word in the most direct way possible. Under duress of high latency, the game is BROKEN.
After I played the above moron, I had ZERO will to continue playing the game. Why bother? Why bother strategizing? Why bother refining my reflexes? Why bother researching the finer nuances of the striking and ground game when ANY IDIOT with the wherewithal can purposely lag out his connection and rack up free wins?
No point in playing the game. No exaggeration, I almost rage-uninstalled the game. I was that fed up.
I'm fed up that FindTheDoor made his thread about Ty almost 3 weeks ago now and he hasn't received any assurance that something is being done to correct the problem.
This is simply unacceptable, and I decided that if it takes me coming to a public forum to see if anyone else gives a damn, that's what I'll do. I'm tired of this issue being swept under the rug. Even if 1% of the player base is engaging in this behavior, those players are having hundreds if not thousands of matches.
Imagine if your first experience online as a new player is that you're stuttering every other second, sometimes can't move for 5 seconds, and then you get taken down by an unstoppable shot and choked out during a submission minigame where the freaking gates don't even render? I would laugh at the game, turn it off forever and badmouth it to my friends.
I'm not saying I would do that personally. I love MMA games, and I KNOW EAC is a competent and passionate developer, I've met them. But Joe Blow is not me. He hops online and gets utterly destroyed and made to feel helpless NOT by any mistakes in his own gameplay but by the utter failure of the game's network infrastructure. Yeah, that guy is going to turn the game off and never look back and I don't blame him.
This NEEDS to be addressed. I don't care who needs to be summoned or what it takes. This can't be ignored. At this point it's a moral issue. Scumbags are being allowed to take advantage of innocent players while the devs look on and do nothing. DO SOMETHING. PLEASE. And if something is being done, make us aware. If I had any reassurance that something was being done, I wouldn't be making this thread. I want to see if this community cares at all to save the online part of this game or if we are content to let the playerbase rot away as laggers and disconnectors accrue dishonest records and turn normal players off from the franchise entirely.
That's a lot of complaining Zombie. Any suggestions?
Why yes, I'm glad you asked. I have several.
First, why on god's green earth do we NOT have a pre-match latency meter with an accept/decline option? I know for sure Street Fighter IV had this in 2009 on the Xbox 360 but I'm pretty sure it was around well before then also.
It's not a full-stop countermeasure to lag switchers, but it's SOMETHING. Why don't we have this? We don't have region lock. If we don't have region lock we NEED a ping meter.
Now what about the guys who have a perfectly fine connection until they decide to start lagging to sway the match? This is harder fish to fry, but I believe there are solutions.
Something I recommend is what I'll call "peak and average match latency." On the backend, the devs should track the average ping in a match for a given player and reflect that graphically in a ping bar. If average ping is low, then the player will have 5 green bars by his name.
If the player is Ty1012326 and lags every second of every match, his average latency would be 1 red bar and you could decline based on that even if he doesn't purposely lag his connection til he's in the match.
What about the idiots who play fine until they're in trouble or until they want to lock in an unstoppable sub? Track peak latency.
So if someone's ping is frequently peaking 400+ on a per-match basis, either display that or flag the player as suspicious.
To sum up, players' CURRENT, AVERAGE, and PEAK latency should be displayed to potential opponents. If I see green, green, green, I accept. If I see Green, red, red, I know I'm dealing with a lag switcher and decline. If I see Green, green, red, I know I'm potentially dealing with someone who only lags the match when losing. If I see red, I decline out of hand, because the person is currently lagging and the match will be bad.
Now, what about the DDOS'ers and disconnectors? Two solutions. For DDOS'ers we need manual human review, no doubt about it. This is a big but relatively rare problem. We need video evidence of when the DDOS is happening and any sort of corroborating evidence. Players can change their IP addresses if they suspect someone is doing this as a preventative measure (google how to do it, it's not too hard).
As for the disconnectors who somehow get free wins, this one isn't too hard. Track every player's DNF (already being done). If the DNF is VERY HIGH, flag that player as suspicious. Upon corroborating video evidence, reset the player's record (at the very least) and optionally terminate the account.
The main reason these scumbags are doing this is to accrue an inflated record. That's it. That's the end game. Something as simple as resetting their records to 0-0-0 removes all incentive to scumbag it up. Something as simple as that, which can be done for almost no money (correct me if I'm wrong).
One other solution... The devs need to enforce a MUCH LOWER ping threshold. Here is what I mean. Right now you can play someone lagging their a**es off, and the game will let the match persist in that horrible and unplayable state. If a certain threshold is exceeded, we see the "waiting for player..." prompt and the game is totally frozen. And this is allowed to happen over and over. WRONG.
The "allowed playable state" of the game needs to be reassessed. If we cannot move for more than half a second at a time, DO NOT allow the game state to persist. Do NOT allow the "waiting for player" prompt to appear multiple times in a match. DO NOT allow that "waiting for player" prompt to persist for as long as it does. In my video, the prompt appears at 27 seconds and disappears at 32 seconds. That's 5 full seconds I CAN'T EVEN MOVE. If the match is truly laggy, allow that prompt to appear once and then END IT. It feels, in a laggy match, like we are allowed to play in about 300ms of lag before the prompt even appears. WRONG. Prompt should appear after 150-200ms is exceeded and then TERMINATE the match if that threshold is exceeded again. The game allows FAR TOO MUCH leeway for a laggy match to continue. People who abuse lag to force the match to end can be dealt with as I described above.
Bottom line, we need action on this front. My will to play is waning. NOT because of the gameplay. While the gameplay needs more refinement, I think GameplayDev is doing an outstanding job handling the ins and outs of the actual combat.
But the network architecture and the anti-cheat/anti-exploit measures are in a scary state right now, one that truly makes me worry for the longevity of the online playerbase.
If anybody else cares, say something. I sometimes feel like I'm shouting at the sky. I get the same sense with FindTheDoor. I feel that dude's pain. We need something done. This is a sport and a game franchise that we love, and SCUMBAGS are ruining it.
-ZR
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