My guess: In a manner of speaking. Synchronization issues would cause slowdown. I'd assume that the game (on the server or your PS3) only has stale "telemetry" on the other craft so instead of forcing synchronization it replaces it with a predictive "ghost" for you to race against. However as the game seems to be momentarily out of contact with that craft it wouldn't be able to deal any damage to it anyway; so the "transparency" tells you: don't bother to waste any ordnance. That would be a compromise for dealing with real-world networking issues which maintains the racing nature of the game at a slight cost to the combat aspect. It would be more interesting to find out whether you can actually pass through that "ghost" - it should only seem fair as that craft currently "enjoys" protection from any weapons fire, therefore it shouldn't be able to block your path either.
Last edited by HydrogLox; 26th September 2008 at 04:56 PM.
I believe you can pass through the ghosting ships.
Case in point, played a tourney last night and 1 person dropped out. His ship sat at the starting grid for the remaining races, and I flew through it multiple times.
If you are at the back of the pack at the start and get the turbo, you can pass some of the newbies by going straight through them. Also, you can get hit if you are ghosting, and you can hit other people if they are ghosting (With weapons, not with collisions).
This gives rise to another interesting scenario. It is conceivable that you can beat a "predictive ghost" over the finishing line only to find out that the actual competitor placed in front of you because the "predictive ghost" was "too slow". (Of course the opposite could also happen but I can't imagine anybody complaining about that.) Ultimately the actual finishing times determine your finishing position.
Yeah, that's the issue with any online game, despite the netcode on this being extremely well put together, you'll always have latency to deal with.
I'm just praying that no easy cheats are discovered that can give people an unfair edge.
Anyways, anyone looking for races tonight, please add me. I'll be on from 9:00 EST until I pass out.
I'' be caning this all weekend. Feel free to add my PSN.
Just had two tourneys with Axel and Haymister and wow, that was intense! Both me and Axel came out first in the first tourney, then Haymister joined to kick our butts! Missile after missile after missile. Anyone interested in some races without weapons?
Be glad to race you again, muse.
Hehehehe that was intense indeed
Anyone up for a Makana Prix league?
I believe the ghosting is also used to prevent griefing (i.e. temporarily disable players who are mucking around and trying to spoil the game!
What? Brilliant! But... how do you detect a griefer?
Hmm, that's an interesting problem. By what heuristics can you determine griefing action? *ponders*...
Each time you are hit by a weapon or go backwards even a tiny bit after hitting a column, you ghost.
I cant wait to get in some decent races... I tried racng Dark and cn this morning when I first woke up and it just went all wrong for me lol.... I started with pilot assist on accidently (was getting the trophy for it last night) so I paused to turn it off knowing i was gonna lose either way... then i was complaining about it between the races and i couldnt close the xmb and send the msg in time so i lost that race, at that point i was so pissed i didnt even compete.... DAMMIT! And I sucked anyway cuz I just woke up n had to go to work... I WILL REDEEM MYSELF! I WILL! YOU HEAR ME!? Lol... seriously though... I cant wait till sunday night, I have 3 days in a row off and I will be honing my WOHD skills, finishing campaign, and taking the domination online again! FOR REAL THIS TIME! lol
I wouldn`t mind some good races too, unfortunately I had a cold and felt like **** so far since HD was released. Hopefully get going properly soon!
It would be great if ghosting would stop "griefers". Maybe it just targets ships that aren`t moving forward much, such as people operating a park and shoot tactic to spoil the game. Great work by SL if so.
[QUOTE=lunar;98748] I had a cold and felt like **** so far since HD was released.QUOTE]
ARGH I also got sick on tuesday! I'm almost over it, but I've been sick the whole time HD has been out, and it DEFINATELY affects my play...
OH YEAH
Reverse Quake does not work in HD!! I pulled a 180-quake the other day and it fired forwards even though I was facing back
Also, I found out (with a perfectly timed pause/photomode) that the zone mode color sweep does not come from behind you, but actually originates from your ship (two bands actually appear from your ship, one that goes forward and one that goes backwards) changing the zone color!! AWESOME screenshot!
Had some good races with mclarensmps last night.
Pheww, I am so hot I might catch a fever!! Well I did too. Tuesday it all began and feeling miserable on launchday, so I only played for 1,5 hours. But every time I sneeze I boost ahead so no problems there!. Online in the afternoon around 15:00 h.
C Y'all!
Last edited by Mad-Ice; 28th September 2008 at 01:38 PM. Reason: grammatical horror!