Lag Shooting 101
LAG SHOOTING



What is "Lag"?: Lag is the time delay between what happens in front of your eyes, on your monitor screen, and what is actually recorded as information in the game. The difference between where an enemy appears to be, and where they actually are. Essentially, the mech you see on your monitor is actually a "ghost" image of the actual target as it appeared at some time in the past. Determination of the ghost image in relation to the actual location of the target is the key to effective lag shooting.This is caused by the transmission of those game information signals over internet connections, phone lines, and satellite links. It's severity can be roughly estimated by the "ping", or latency times displayed by the names of players. The value varies greatly over the course of the day, even from second to second during combat, ping times will fluctuate.


How is it generated?: Data signals travel at the speed of light, 186,219 miles per second, or 299,792,458 meters per second. When computers are networked together, as in a game, they all connect to a common server, the "Zone" server for example. Each computers data signals, in connecting to this server, must negotiate the pathways of the internet. This is done through "hops" from server to server, each individual server being an intersection where the data packet is recieved, the "header" read, an then routed through to the next server, till the packet arrives at the "Zone" server, which transmits it to your own system. Each different computer in a game has its own path to and from your own, and the amount of "hops" can vary a great deal, 10 - 15 hops is an average number. The ping time is the number in milliseconds (thousandths of a second), the your own individual system takes fro a signal to leave your computer, navigate through the internet to the zone, and reach the Zone server. Also the use of the popular "Winmodem" will increase ping times, due to the fact that the Winmodem does no signal processing on board as in a standard modem, but uses the system processor to for that task, the data packet carrying game information must wait at the modem until the processor completes the task. The time spent waiting generates a longer ping, even before the data leaves your system and begins it journey to the game server.


How does it affect gameplay?: All objects in the game are tracked by a series of coordinates, X, Y, and Z. this number represents the position of every unit, structure and weapons fire in the game. For example, say your unit is at coordinates X=100, Y=100, and Z=0, you are travelling along the Y axis at 10 meters per second, your ping time is 400ms, your opponent has a ping time of 600ms. Your system transmits your exact position, but not movement data to the Zone server, this takes 400 ms. The Zone server forwards that data to the system of your opponent, taking an additional 600 ms, and your position is displayed on his monitor as X=100, Y=100, and Z=0. But you are not at that position anymore, you are now at position X=100, Y=110, and Z=0, having moved one meter in the second it took for the data to arrive. Your opponent directs his weapons fire at X=100, Y=100, and Z=0, because that is where you appear to be, the data indicating the weapons fire coordinates leaves their system, travels through the internet to the Zone server and back to you, accumulating another second of travl time. Your computer interpretes his weapons fire striking X=100, Y=100, and Z=0. By this time however you are at coordinates X=100, Y=120, and Z=0 and their shot strikes 20 meters behind you. This of course is simplified, but it illustrates the problem.


How do I compensate?: This is the difficult part, each of your opponents in a game will have a unique "lag point", that position to which you must direct your weapons fire to achieve a hit. In addition, the lag point will shift from moment tomoment. So lag point calculation must be a constant part of each shot, but it is neccesary to do so in order to defeat your foe. By firing at their apparent position, your shots will consistently fall short, and the enemy will eventually kill you, suffering little damage in the process. The methods used will differ between individual mechwarriors, but the basics are provided here, use this technique as a starting point, and work from there until you find what works best for you.


Hit "CTRL+D" to bring up enemy HTAL or 2D display: The standard damage display is not detailed enough to show immediate damage to your opponent, HTAL (the bar graph display), and 2D (the wireframe type) show even minor damage more quickly than the default. You will need the most accurate means of determining enemy damage accumulation.


Lead your target: In addition to the normal lead of your weapons, begin by aiming 1 mech length ahead of your enemy, directing you fire to a place they WILL BE. Watch the HTAL dispay closely as you are doing this. Remember, it will take at least 2 seconds, according to our example, to see any effect of your shot. So don't be impatient and move from your aim point too soon. If no damage is indicated, move your fire to 2 mech lengths and try again. By watching your enemies HTAL display, you should begin to see the effects of your fire. You will be surprised at first, as your fire will appear to fall well ahead of the enemy, but the damage will begin to creep up. Once you find a point ahead of the enemy that produces damage, (in our example about 4 mech lengths, depending on the type of chassis) continue firing until you achieve your hard won kill.


Other variables: Keep in mind that the point will be harder to estimate for a mech that is manuevering effectively. Remember your basic combat training, constantly changing direction and speed variation will make it much, much harder to damage an enemy, but in time it will become more natural. If you can position yourself directly behind an enemy moving away from you, lag is less of a problem, your shots will fly through their apparent position and strike them anyway. The same goes for enemies moving directly towards you.That is why the basic combat section instructed you to avoid these tactics if possible when attacking.