I have played my fair share of Dogfight games now and have been closely observing the behaviors of the different planes/pilots. I have seen some very unusual behaviors with regard to certain planes and pilots and am trying to figure out why. I am hoping the more experienced pilots or the developers of the game could shed some light on some of the questions I have.

Listed below are the the most common unusual behaviors I have observed:

Disappearing
Jumping from side to side to avoid fire
Super Boost
Immune to bullets
Laser like streams of bullets
Ability to hit your plane with fire when they don't seem to be aimed at you
Taking credit for kills that appear to be yours

The reason I have been given for these behaviors is lag. I am having a very hard time getting my brain wrapped around that reason and view it at this time as more of an excuse for cheating / hacking.

There are many questions raised regarding the lag reasoning such as:

Why does it seem to effect only certain planes?
Why does it seem to happen at the most convenient times for the pilots?
How come a game could be going smoothly until certain pilots enter the game and then all kinds of these unusual behaviors begin?
Why hasn't anyone told me my plane is exhibiting these behaviors as it seems lag would be universal and effect everyone the same way?


Can someone help me understand what is going on here? I really don't believe I am imagining these things and am not buying the the lag excuse at least with the information and understanding I have to this point. Are people cheating or am I a conspiracy theorist? Can someone please shed some light on these questions?


Thank you!

Respectfully,

Lowdan Clear

Hi im no computer expert far from it but for me I think the issues are made worse the further afield players are located for instance im I england but if playing In the american servers I think the server struggles to scynchronise all the players and their actions due to the time difference and distance of the player to the server . Dont think its hackers either as im sure theyve got more important things to hack like national defence systems or banks, just my opion cheers

Lowdan Clear wrote: I have played my fair share of Dogfight games now and have been closely observing the behaviors of the different planes/pilots. I have seen some very unusual behaviors with regard to certain planes and pilots and am trying to figure out why. I am hoping the more experienced pilots or the developers of the game could shed some light on some of the questions I have.

Listed below are the the most common unusual behaviors I have observed:

Disappearing
Jumping from side to side to avoid fire
Super Boost
Immune to bullets
Laser like streams of bullets
Ability to hit your plane with fire when they don't seem to be aimed at you
Taking credit for kills that appear to be yours

The reason I have been given for these behaviors is lag. I am having a very hard time getting my brain wrapped around that reason and view it at this time as more of an excuse for cheating / hacking.

There are many questions raised regarding the lag reasoning such as:

Why does it seem to effect only certain planes?
Why does it seem to happen at the most convenient times for the pilots?
How come a game could be going smoothly until certain pilots enter the game and then all kinds of these unusual behaviors begin?
Why hasn't anyone told me my plane is exhibiting these behaviors as it seems lag would be universal and effect everyone the same way?


Can someone help me understand what is going on here? I really don't believe I am imagining these things and am not buying the the lag excuse at least with the information and understanding I have to this point. Are people cheating or am I a conspiracy theorist? Can someone please shed some light on these questions?


Thank you!

Respectfully,

Lowdan Clear

Lowdan, it's all lag. Every thing you have said is all because of the dreaded lag. Do some pilots cheat? Yes, by using a lag switch. Some know they lag in certain servers and don't care. They use it to their advantage to get the kills. Hope this helps.

And another :

A plane get in to the ground and despair, then, up again lol

All those symptoms look like lag to me. Lag can affect one player or all/most in a game. If you don't get called out for lag then it is probably others who are lagging. A lot depends on the internet connection you and others have so yes, people playing in remote parts of the internet may show more lag.

This is a bit geeky but it might help. By the way there really is such a thing as a lag switch but my money goes on random


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lag_(online_gaming)

Its all lag except for the laser like stream of bullets. That is just a part of the game that should be removed.

Lowdan Clear I believe in some instances some players ARE cheating.. it is a well-known fact that some players use 'lag switches' both manual as well as electronic.. this causes the 'disappearing' or looking like they are 'frozen in place' while they are circling to get a shot on you.. and others seem to have bullet proof planes.. now that could be caused by their device or internet connection or something far more devious.. and since it's always the same players with the bullet proof planes AND they know it because people say stuff to them about that all the time about it I am convinced it's a known cheat that most of them are using. Luckily though it's only a handful of players doing this... and most of them are horrible pilots too thank gosh!

However if you are shooting someone on a carrier or runway and they are immune to bullets they most likely just have their brakes locked.. that makes you immune to incoming rounds as long as it's a 'blue' runway or carrier.

The laser like stream of bullets though is common.. some planes have 2 guns.. some 1.. the appearance of the tracers is compounded by the number of guns each plane has.. it is hardly a 'cheat' I think.

The taking kills that you think is yours is entirely subjective.. yes you hit pilot 'XYZ' a number of times.. so did someone else.. the person to get the kill is the person that got that 1 bullet into the red at the appropriate time to register the kill.

LAG does have a major consideration in this game though.. it is a factor that does affect everyone at times.. sometimes just 1 player.. other times every plane in an entire mission or even server... for example, sometimes you can be killed on the other side of the map and yet when you spawn in back at your airport/carrier all of a sudden you got bullets hitting you!

Also 'super boost' is entirely to be blamed on lag I believe.. you do it too occasionally I am sure.. most of us 'seem' to do it at some point or another.

These are just my theories/viewpoints on this and shouldn't be taken as gospel.

Here ya go you will need this:


As any Misfit can tell ya the MHC is to blame!!

Nahh dude ur trippin.

Thank you Black Shadow. I appreciate the insights and the background information on Lag you provided. I read the Wikipedia article and found it very interesting. Although I am no engineer I have a decent technical aptitude and was able to understand most of the information provided. This information, along with the insights from you and others really helped me understand what is going on. Now I can adjust my mental approach to the game accordingly.

Wouldn't be the first time

Thank you ZebraUp. This is just the kind of information I was hoping to get and it was extremely helpful in helping me understand what is going on in the game.

Thank you GreyGhost. Yes this does help. Succinct and at the same time packed with plenty of good information. This info along with some of the other postings provided the more complete understanding of Lag and cheating I was hoping for.

Thanks Johnny. I appreciate you taking the time to help me understand better. Maybe I should rephrase the hacking piece as I agree hackers are probably at work on more devious plots. Perhaps "game cheats" or "tweaks" are better words to describe what may be happening.

Hi BTJ582,

I have couple questions about your posting. I am relatively new to the game and not sure what MHC is, can you help me out with a little more detail?

Also what is that in the picture, I have a couple thoughts but would be surprised if it is what I think.

Thanks,

Lowdan Clear

I'm notorious for lagging. My reason is, not that I have a switch, but my internet just plain sucks. Our frontier internet only works if less than 3 devices are using it. So if our computer, my phone (where I play), and our Smart-TV are being used, I'll lag a lot because of my poor connection. I'll use it to my advantage obviously, but not on purpose

Mac McMuffin wrote: I'm notorious for lagging. My reason is, not that I have a switch, but my internet just plain sucks. Our frontier internet only works if less than 3 devices are using it. So if our computer, my phone (where I play), and our Smart-TV are being used, I'll lag a lot because of my poor connection. I'll use it to my advantage obviously, but not on purpose

Yes you do.......

What happens is that some devices run the app slower(these pilots appear to have strange behavior) and this causes the game to lag. the server is trying to keep everyone on the same timeframe for an even game. the laser like bullets are also lag. the lagging person fires and then the server jumps them forward in time basically, which also causes the disappearing/superboost, because it creates all the actions the pilot did in a few seconds within milliseconds, so you get 3 seconds worth of shots in half a second, hence the laserbeam and boost. the bulletproof plane on the otherhand (at least when airborn) can be caused by lag, but only to a certain degree. I believe that the pilots who you can empty your entire arsenal into them and they still survive, are cheating somehow...no one lags that bad!

I agree with you on the immune planes. I can understand how lag would cause most of the unusual behaviors we have listed in this thread but I am convinced there is some type of cheat for the immune planes. I know that if you lock your brakes your plane is immune on runway and on carrier but sometimes when i have finally killed one of the un-killables a fair distance from any runway or carrier the damage indicator message will even say "immune". When I have called pilots out on this and asked them what is going on they immediately have left.

Does anyone have any insight into potential immune cheats?

Lowden, any specific names? If I have some names I might be able to give some insight.

Sorry for delayed response was out of commission with the flu. I will start jotting down some names as I would be very interested to hear your insights. Thank you 111|Royal Flush

Hey Flush...I have even seen games where pilots all agree except for one that there is no lag but the pilot will say to someone "your lagging"... I have been in times where a pilot said I lagged.....Then I would ask everyone..."Honest opinion, Hey guys am I lagging?"....and one by one each would say "no Swop your not lagging"...If multiple pilots say I'm lagging I leave...or if I observe multiple pilots lagging I leave.