Ever shoot an alpha full of Gauss and PPC at a mech, see the shot connect, then see that the mech took no damage? Well, do you know in some first-person shooters, when you hit someone you see a flash on your reticle, and when you kill someone you get a different flash? Would that be possible to implement in MP4? I think it would be helpful for people trying to keep track of damaged mechs. It's very annoying to see an alpha connect on your screen, but later see the mech with a green center torso. I know it's probably not keeping in the tradition of a pure Battletech sim, but I think it would help pilots cope with laggy mechs, specifically in knowing when a shot actually does damage to them.

Love to see such feature implemented.

Learn to aim and compensate for lag

That's twice you've been rude to me, what gives?

Obviously so far we have had to learn to compensate for lag. Isn't it annoying though to be very sure that the mech you're chasing is cored due to the massive alpha you just gave it, only to have it show up on radar as nearly fresh? With the implementation of a "flashing" reticle, you could know for sure whether you dealt damage to it.

Also games like quake and such often give a sound when you hit someone, very usefull if your trying to snipe them at range without a scope. so why not a some sort of buzz or something.

You're still alive?!

Anyway.. this is a bad idea. When you see a hit but it doesn't register, it's because your machine is lagging and while you think you hit them, they in fact dodged. We shouldn't encourage players to be penailsed because someone shot them when they dodged behind safety but the attacker is lagging.

How is what penalizing who? Not sure what this post was in reference to.

The idea is to have some sort of "cue" to for the person shooting a lagging mech.

Right now, the only way to detect if someone i************ting a lagger is to use the TAB key and see if there's an actual hit (ie. additional points). The TAB key technique is quite hard to do during intense fights. Some suggest to use HTAL, but this only works when active.

The "cue" should work even when passive and is not part of the mech's electronics ... its just a feature to make it easier to detect actual server hits. Its like having the TAB key always on, but it doesn't block the view of the player.

Great idea!

so, you basically want the server to lag more by sending everyone confirmations of their hits?

Doesn't have to send a new packet, but at least add a client side "cue" for the existing packets (ex. scored a damage == cue of a server hit).

that doesn't make any sense to me.
EDIT: i'm really trying to make sense out of it though. i just can't.
basically, you're trying to detect if you lag on a client side. without asking the server for additional packets. and that doesn't make sense to me.

Why not?

When you hit someone, doesn't your score go up? Don't they take damage? The information when you score a hit is already being sent.

Ah, but there's the thing - from the Server's point of view - you didn't hit. and your score didn't go up. you just thought you hit because you lagged.

I don't know anything about programing, but he sounds like he wants some type of virtual memory file generated on the client side, so if the client lags out it will synchronize with the server when it stops lagging.

Right... so then you'd get no hud indicator of a hit.

exactly. and you'd get splashes all the time when you do hit (when there's no lag)....

in other words, that thing wouldn't work when you'd want it to work (when there might be lag) and it would just be a nuissance and server overhead.
it could be client-only, to trigger when your points increase after a shot - but that's no lag indicator either.

i just don't see a use for such a thing. really. what do you get by knowing that you're lagging? it's not like MW4 is a fast-paced game... on the contrary, i find it to be very lag-tolerable.


and that's what it already does when it stops lagging. he wants it to sync only when he's lagging from what i've seen here

My head hurts...what was the question again?

to make a lag-indicator

Darn, it is not a lag indicator.

It is an indicator to know for sure if one is making a hit in the server. Hit in the server is something that increases one's score (ie. actual hit), regardless of what one sees in the client side.

If one sees a hit in client-side but doesn't register a score, it is a server miss.

If one gets a score it is an actual hit in the server. Since the actual score can only be seen after pressing TAB, why not make a cue for this w/o pressing the TAB? This is just to make it easier for people to lag shoot.

basically, monitor your shots and score, and if your score increases (or changes?) in epsilon time after you made a shot - you want a notification of that?
here's an example.

let's say epsilon is 0.2 secs.... if more than that expires, the shot "timed out" (but might still hit if you're very far)
and let's say you pack a couple of RAC2s ....

you think that many shot confirmations won't affect your gameplay?

another thing - the confirmation would have to be weapon-specific, because i don't think we could tell if your alpha hit or not.

this whole convo is pointless if Jeho says no, since he's prolly be the one that ends up doing it if it's ever made

It won't affect gameplay.

Don't use time frequeency for checking, use triggers to update the "cue". If there's a server hit, i'm pretty sure the packet will be sent to the client automatically even w/o this "cue". The "cue" is just to give the player an idea of what's happening on the server side.

It won't change the game people play the game, but it'll make people understand how the game works better.

Sounds like you are making it more complicated.

I think all he wants is for some sort of indication every time your score goes up from a hit.

still - AskJeho.com;)

What happens when the game isn't score based? You could go for damage, but even then...occasionally when I shoot at someone with a full alpha instead of them going crit or whatever they go only yellow. So it's like half my guns didn't reg :\

This wouldn't be a bad idea if all the cases could be accounted for, and the indicator was made unobtrusive and not out of place with relation to the whole sim feel the game tries to generate, but I think it'd end up as being too much work. I don't know about you guys, but I rarely have absolutely no reg on a target. Could be because I use lasers a lot, but even when I use travel time weps I can't remember any particular instance when my shots completely didn't reg. Just once in a long while I get half regs.

I was just using that as an example. The information is sent either way. Could make the weapons that hit flash, instead of the ret. Though, I kinda don't think this is going to be implemented for MP4. I do think it's an interesting idea.

The way it's done in CoD4 is every time you score a hit you get a tick (like an X without the middle part) on the target.

hehe ya, I thought about it more and it's more useful than I originally thought.

For the indicator itself you could have something similar to the squares that pop up in your reticle when your weapons aren't clearing a hill. Maybe a small triangle or hexagon or whatever in the upper left and/or right of the inside of the ret that flashes when you land a hit, the same way that the HTAL bars flash when you yourself get hit.

I'm no programmer, but would it be easy to link your score going up with an inobtrusive flash on your reticle? It would have to be a small flash, because you might get annoyed if you had machine guns and constantly saw a big sign pop up every time you landed a hit.

Wouldn't have to, the ret could just change color. so you have red, green, and color X instead of just red and green.

I'm guessing you mean red, blue, and color X. Changing the entire reticle to a different color would confuse things. Let's say you're firing at a target in your reticle. Changing the color from red to some other color would make it hard to tell whether you still actually have the target in your reticle. That's why I think Lord Samurai has the right idea with just a small flashing shape somewhere inconspicuous in the reticle.

Sorry to bump this (I've been uber busy the past few days), but I'm just wondering if MP4 could have this feature. Like was previously said, would it be plausible to just make a small light flash on your reticle whenever your score increases?

I don't mean to be a pest about this, but I think it would give pilots a better idea of when they actually do damage vs. when they think they've done damage.

+1

I think i've been requesting for such feature even before MP2.

the only time you need the confirmation if you did damage or not is when you're not sure you did it. and you're usually not sure if you did when / because you're lagging. and it wouldn't work in that case

still, you've always got a chance to pest Jeho enough for him to make it

I'm sure there's a way to add this, but its accuracy is dependent upon how it is designed. One could be made that simply flashes a yellow dot when packet X is received (the packet that says you did damage to Y, or the packet that raises your score). Or something could be added that would be much more complex (and thus harder on the codewriters)... such as checking for each weapon and relaying info back to you (by, say, a yellow dot flashing to the left of each weapon that hits on the weapon list).

This would be a great feature to add, but simpler designed one is probably better for all parties involved.

that's all nice but we DON'T have the source-code.

Which makes everything you're doing all the more impressive.

Its a good idea, +1

from the screens of MP4 you have the mission countdown timer displayed, yes?

would it be difficult to have your score displayed in the same area? your score goes up as damage is done anyway (at least that's how i find out if my long toms are hitting anything).

both lots of information are normally hidden under the 'tab' key, and if the timer can be displayed, why not the individual score? is the score a source code issue?

(i have no idea how difficult this would be)

as to the problem of game type, the player score would be individual kills or points anyway...

...just an idle thought...

You never shot a small fast moving mech at long range?
No extreme lagging needed to keep you guessing whether you got a hit in or not

Actually, I like such feature to be added 'coz some players keep on telling me that I lag too badly. Even if they're shooting me at very close ranges.

I feel dirty when I win some battles wherein I won due to lag.

Jeho usually posts a lot in the Mercs forum, but no sight of him here. Earth to Jehoooooo! Can you please give us an idea of whether this could be implemented, and if so, its likelihood of being put into MP4? Thanks!

"Don't bite the hand that feeds you..."

I'm just asking if it's possible to be done, not INCLUDE THIS IN MP4 OR I WILL STAB YOU. If it's possible and a good idea for MP4, then hurray. If not, oh well.

I added it to the requests list.

At least it is now being considered. Thanks!

Thanks for looking at it!