Lag and its effect on blast radius

[a nameless entity]

Way back when I was playing at CG and Schwantz on my old Dell PII 300 and Voodoo 3 3000 equipped computer via 56K, I used to notice some really strange things that lag would produce during a match. I tried describing what I was seeing at the old forum once or twice, and during a game or two, but I don't think anyone really understood what I was trying to relate. Probably because they didn't have such a slow computer and terrible connection.

Tonight I was playing briefly at CG, and the lag was as bad as ever. (Move back to your old house, Herm! ) I got killed a few times by blast effect when by rights I should not have. And it annoyed me. BUT it gave me the insight I needed to finally figure this out:

Lag increases the apparent blast radius of the redeemer.

NO, I am not nuts. I've seen this happen many times before.

e.g. You stand someplace and you see a redeemer detonated at a spot just out of range. You survive, as you knew you would. Then lag affects you, and even though you haven't moved, a second redeemer detonated in the exact same spot as before will send a blast wave towards you that either damages, or more likely kills you.

It must be something that is going on between the client side and the server side, that somehow amplifies the redeemer blast effect due the momentary degradation of the signal between the two.

The most atrocious example I can think of happened to me at least three times in Deck 16 when I was on my old computer:

I spawned in the central room in that spot on top of the big long box in the one corner. I would fire a rocket at the far off large alcove where the sniper rifle is loacated in ordinary DM. The rocket would strike back there, and then the blast wave would come all the way back to where I was standing and kill me. Then I'd get to see the message that I'd just killed my own dumb self. Ordinarily the blast wave should not come more than 1/3 the way back. Test it. You'll see.
Remember, I have had this happen to me three times. (I also vaguely recall that the blast radius came back towards me way farther than it should have one time when I was lagging on my new computer/cable modem connection too.)

So I'm fairly certain now that lag has the effect of increasing the blast radius that you see and suffer from whenever your connection goes a bit sour. It might explain all those times you say wtf? to yourself when you get killed by a blast wave that you were pretty sure shouldn't have even singed you.

I wish this could be looked into sometime. I'm very curious to know the explanation.

[The Jargonaut]

Let me just say first that I have no idea why this happens.
I do have a theory.

I spawned in the central room in that spot on top of the big long box in the one corner. I would fire a rocket at the far off large alcove where the sniper rifle is loacated in ordinary DM. The rocket would strike back there, and then the blast wave would come all the way back to where I was standing and kill me. Then I'd get to see the message that I'd just killed my own dumb self. Rolling Eyes Ordinarily the blast wave should not come more than 1/3 the way back. Test it. You'll see.
Remember, I have had this happen to me three times. (I also vaguely recall that the blast radius came back towards me way farther than it should have one time when I was lagging on my new computer/cable modem connection too.)

Okay. Just consider.
You are lagging. Now, it is unclear whether the lag is coming from your connection (client) or Herm's (server), but it does exist. Now let's look at this from a systematic point of view.
1. The server sends information to the client to spawn your character.
2. Client receives. Character spawns. Sends info back to the server.
3. You fire a shot at the goo gun position. Client sends.
4. (possible) Lag.
5. Server receives info about shot. Another redeemer blast from below detonates your shot close to you. THe blast from your shot kills you ON THE SERVER.
6. Lag is still going on. To you, the redeemer is still traveling towards the far wall.
7. Deemer detonates on far wall. Server finally sends package that tells you that your redeemer detonated close to you, killing you.
8. You say WTF? Go to forum for answers.

That is all just conjecture. It could explain what is happening, and then again, it may not.
Any other theories?

[Hermskii]

Last night I backed up my user box to the server. About 40 gigs. That was why it lagged. Good theories about blast radius.

[a nameless entity]

Let me just say first that I have no idea why this happens.
I do have a theory.

Okay. Just consider.
You are lagging. Now, it is unclear whether the lag is coming from your connection (client) or Herm's (server), but it does exist. Now let's look at this from a systematic point of view.
1. The server sends information to the client to spawn your character.
2. Client receives. Character spawns. Sends info back to the server.
3. You fire a shot at the goo gun position. Client sends.
4. (possible) Lag.
5. Server receives info about shot. Another redeemer blast from below detonates your shot close to you. THe blast from your shot kills you ON THE SERVER.
6. Lag is still going on. To you, the redeemer is still traveling towards the far wall.
7. Deemer detonates on far wall. Server finally sends package that tells you that your redeemer detonated close to you, killing you.
8. You say WTF? Go to forum for answers.

That is all just conjecture. It could explain what is happening, and then again, it may not.
Any other theories?

I've waited a while to reply so that I could experience this phenomenon a few more times.

Your lag description is valid Jarg, but does not explain all of the weird stuff I have been seeing. I think part of the effect can be attributed to just enough lag to trick you into thinking you have had time to escape from ground zero of the incoming rocket, only to die before you got out safely from the servers point of view. You think you are farther away than the server does, but perhaps the server catches up to you just enough to splash your body parts around in the area you think you are in. This would make the blast area seem enlarged.

The problem is, if you adopt a stand and deliver shooting technique, you can watch redeemers flying all over the place, and then get killed by one that exploded far enough away that it should not have hurt you. Somehow the lag has expanded the blast radius. I have been in totally exposed areas, watching the redeemers flying all over the place. One explodes harmlessly just out of range. A minute later another heads to the same place, but this time your ping spikes, and the rocket now becomes deadly as you watch this extra large blast radius come racing towards you.

I should point out that the game's physics can fool you sometimes. Blast effect can travel along walls and down corridors, where it is amplified and the range is extended. Stand out in the open during laggy play away from the walls. Then watch for the effect. Hopefully you'll live long enough at some point to get a chance to see it.

Tonight I was at CG again. My ping in the F1 screen was 85. However F6 showed that it was really hovering around 250. It dropped as low as 150 at one point, but then shot back up to well over 200. While I was in there I got a few more glimpses of the lag induced blast amplification effect. The amount of amplification seemed to vary. My ping was up and down like a yo-yo the whole time, so I think that explains the variations.

[The Jargonaut]

I wished that i could see this effect on my end. I (like most everyone else) can tell when it gets laggy. Actually, my gameplay improves. Still miss my 56k connection for this game. I just have not seen it.
What would REALLY be cool is if you can record a demo with it happening so that we could all see it.
FRAPS may be the answer here http://www.fraps.com/
If you can get a recording of it happening, I would gladly upload it to my webspace so that we could examine the problem.
Let me know.