Originally posted by wstpt10
Well, if you can't tell by the post count and join date, I'm rather new to this game...
Something that I have noticed happening a lot when I get in close for a kill is that the guy I'm targeting is jinking along the vertical axis at an impossible rate. The bugger is really all over the place! Is this some sort of lag issue, or a rather a-historic tactic?
Thanks
Now wait a mintue here...I'm not sure these guys are stirrers, and I'm not sure the "moving stick too rapidly" coding is failing.
I think its FAR more common to see this from the transition from "smoothing code" to real time positioning.Here's what I mean:
Data on other planes' positions is sorted by HTC server, and updated on your computer with priority based primarily on the distance the con is from you. In other words, extreme dot ranges are updated less often than 1K cons, but more often than radar dots from the other side of the map.
At longer ranges, the game lets the choppy nature of those updates show. So, if you're chasing a dot at extreme range you see him stay still for a few seconds, then make a jump, and stay still there for a few more.
At some point, the movements get smoother, and then appear natural. That's partly due to the range update priority, but also due to "smoothing code" that HT uses to "fill in the gaps" between data points. In essence, the game makes educated guesses about where the plane is likely to be, and fine tunes theose guesses when the next data chunk comes in.
If the software guesses wrong, or much more commonly if the player's connection causes an unusually long wait for actual position data, we see warping. Because the smoothing code is good, warping almost always comes from connection VARIATION not from connection speeed.
Once the enemy is very close to you, smoothing code doesnt predict well enough to be reliable, and we end up waiting for real time data chunks. On the enemies front end, he may be doing legitiamte ACM, maybe a sloppy vertical scissor or something -- but since we get periodic updates, we see him jumping and flopping from position to position. All those uys who "deliberately warp" when you get close arent doing that at all -- you're seeing the effects of internet delay on very close range maneuvering.
For example, last week I miraculously ended up on Skyrock's 6. On my fron end, when I got under 400 I saw his plane jerkling higher and lower as he maneuvered to break away -- but he WASN'T stick stirring. It was simply the software and internet effects I described above. And I couldnt hit his plane for anything even though I could anticipate his break timing, because of the delay in updates from the server. (Well, that and my general stinkiness...but I digress.)
I really think this is FAR AND AWAY the biggest reason for "stick stirring", especially the ones who seem to jerk around. Truly rapid movements freeze the controls -- and if you think that threshold is set too low, try to deliberately stir in combat sometime....