[Mon Feb 29 12:54:06 2016] <Greenwall> are you controlling your ping?
[Mon Feb 29 12:54:20 2016] <Xeha> im wondering at which it gets really bad
[Mon Feb 29 12:54:20 2016] <Wolf-M@n> 50 more xeha
[Mon Feb 29 12:54:25 2016] <Greenwall> it's bad now
[Mon Feb 29 12:54:35 2016] <Greenwall> your gat is 50 m from your ship
[Mon Feb 29 12:54:44 2016] <Xeha> yea, its lot of lag already
[Mon Feb 29 12:55:03 2016] <Xeha> 470ms ping, lets see
[Mon Feb 29 12:55:47 2016] <Greenwall> how are you controlling your ping?
[Mon Feb 29 12:55:57 2016] <Greenwall> / latency
[Mon Feb 29 12:55:58 2016] <Xeha> i just delay all packets by X ms
[Mon Feb 29 12:56:08 2016] <Greenwall> how?
[Mon Feb 29 12:56:16 2016] <Xeha> sudo tc qdisc add dev eth0 root netem delay 300ms
[Mon Feb 29 12:56:23 2016] <Xeha> that adds 300ms additional


^Is there any way to prevent this from happening? Xeha was just testing things so I'm not blaming him. But I've long suspected certain people from manufacturing a certain amount of artificial latency to benefit their PVP fights. It seems quite easy to do if you know the right commands.

The result of this kind of lag is that the weapons dependably originate further out in front of their ship. This is a HUGE advantage for obvious reasons (easier to hit targets).

Why would you want to do this? Latency does not help you in combat to hit your opponent. It just makes you stupidly hard to hit, and makes everyone around you annoyed. Coming from someone who comes from a country where 200-300ms is inevitable, I hate it, and when I halved that latency (or better) it was so much more fun, and way better to play.

The fact that people actually do this is sad.

Greenwall is a very naughty little boy! You know very well you're not supposed to publicly post things like this. Bad boy! Come here for a spank and then off you go for a time-out in the corner.

They [the forums] also do not exist as a place to level public accusations of cheating or "raise public awareness" of possible game exploits or violations in policy: These issues should be addressed privately to the developers via Support Tickets --incarnate

Incorrect Kierky. Latency does help someone hit their opponent, if they can control it. Yes, it can also make them harder to hit. But the biggest advantage this type of "latency management" gives is moving the shot origination into the open space in front of their ship.

People play this game from all over the world and various latencies are inevitable, especially so with mobile prevalance. I'm just wondering if there is a way to detect and/or mitigate intentional alteration to the latency. If not, perhaps this is just another reason to support an ingame latency indicator for your target.

Just for the record:
I've been trying to figure out how high the ping of those gat/flare laggers are. I've never abused this nor used it anytime outside of the experiments with Wolf-M@n. I informed Wolf-M@n about what i was doing and no pk's were done with it.
I didnt expect to see this on the forums, you could have asked first...

Nothing to be ashamed of, Xeha, though I can understand how you might be bothered that I shared your name. My apologies if you are offended. You did nothing wrong, rather, you brought to my attention and confirmed what I've long suspected was possible.

Ingame latency indicator... wouldn't that contribute to your latency? ;)

I remember Maalik saying he did best when his ping was around 125. Not manipulating it (as far as I know), just observing the ping of his various sessions. Personally, i've only ever had 80-ish ping, and have zero interest in altering that.

Yeah, Greenie... posting the actual command he told you he was manipulating... that's not gonna get people trying it.

The command was for the operating system, not Vendetta Online. If it's as simple as that to pad your latency to a preferable state then it's something the bears addressing I think -- even if the ultimate answer is "sorry there is nothing we can do about it."

I sure those who utilize this would prefer this secret remain in the hands of the few so they can retain their advantage.

From my various experiences on different connections, I definitely have noticed a correlation beween better targetting ability and a slightly higher ping than normal (my normal being 90ish).

Bottom line: VO is a skill based combat game for many. Levelling the playing field is important when possible.

but but but...there are no lag-hacks in this game wally, don't be silly. Like hell there isn't!

This is why VO has sucked donkey balls lately.

Xeha, my opinion is that if you were trying to be sneaky you wouldn't have had a public conversation about it. That much linux knowledge is not uncommon here.

yeah i'm all for doing something about this. it's been going on for long along with all these stories about mass hacking and so on. probably there isn't even mass hacking and instead people have some secret ways to optimize their lag. i didn't even know there were "commands" like that. kinda frustrating especially cause i'm certain the devs can't do anything about it.

[Removed. See "Be Nice" rules. -W]

There is mass hacking, there is lag switches, there are people who will abuse a bug/glitch rather than report it. It's as simple as this, in an Online game, people will find a way to get ahead. Whether it's cheating, abusing bugs (exploiting), or simply using latency to an advantage it happens in just about all online games that exist.

Does this mean you should just deal with it? No. Best to report it - in private - and let the devs try their best to sort it out. They can only do their best though, and even sometimes that will fall short. Discusions like this one, especially one that shows a publicly posted way of reproducing the "cheat" will only end in tears, and wally really should know better by now.

--- [EDIT] ---

But yeah, this is another good reason to add the suggested lag meter.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm locking this because we're starting to get a little dramatic static here, but I'll leave it here so that the devs can see it. I agree that reporting such things privately is a good idea.