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That's the weird thing about Halo. In the server browser you see a game with a ping of 67ms. When you select it from the list, you'll see the ping update to something around 110ms. And while 110ms may be acceptable for most online games, for Halo it's lagtastic. I'd say anything above 80ms becomes laggy. But anyway, before joining a game, select it and check the ping again. If the ping becomes higher, you're probably better off selecting another one.

For the [MA] server, I'd highly recommend that it be password protected so that people who visit these forums would only be able to join it. At least that would help cut back on the TKers and immature trolls that lurk about occasionally. The server will also have to be dedicated if you're looking for performance. I don't know how many people have that luxury, but maybe the MacAddict staff can offer it if no one else can? Location of the server is another key factor.

I think this is the reason why coop didn't make it (the new network engine sucks).

I agree about needing our own server.
I believe Gator was looking into running a non-24/7 dedicated one on his PC.
If that doesn't work out, we'll have to rent one, though I don't think it's a good idea for it to be in my name since I have no income
I hear that Game Daemons are pretty good and that they're going to add Halo to their list of supported games in the near future.

I normally get from 100-infinity. I ca usually play without it completely sucking from 0-250/275.

One thing I find annoying about Halo is even on low ping servers, say you run into a truck, youl see it flying into the air and all of a sudden its flat on the ground shooting at you...or earlier today I ran over a guy, he flew above the truck and didn't die, then suddenly he was behind me and not where I was driving, yet nothing seems laggy at all.

it's also really funny when you kill a guy with muchos needles, and have also stuck him with a plasma nade... the needles explode, then the nade, and he goes WHEEE!! up through the air.

oh yeah, a dedicated server with low ping would be nice.

it's also really funny when you kill a guy with muchos needles, and have also stuck him with a plasma nade... the needles explode, then the nade, and he goes WHEEE!! up through the air.

oh yeah, a dedicated server with low ping would be nice.

Better, if the needle burst sets off several nearby 'nades. Going up?

yeah, i actually managed to kill an elite like that, he dropped into a pile of grunt's grenades (and his own) and flew up so high that he landed on top of the dropship that was flying off, i took my pistol out and zoomed in as his head hung over the edge of one side of the "u"... it was really funny. too bad i have no idea how to take screenshots or i'd show everyone

As far as lag goes, yeah the vehicle code seems to be the laggiest feature of multiplayer games. Usually when the game doesn't have vehicles it's fine. Although I've heard some people complain about getting killed by melee attacks when they were lagging. But for the most part vehicles are the problem. I guess there's just a lot of stuff to calculate with 'em--number of occupants, health of occupants, position of turret, position of vehicle, velocity, collision detection, etc. That's a lot more junk that needs to be processed than just a single player!

I'm at least thankful that they even bothered to port Halo with multiplayer support, rather than LAN only or none at all. Because it was ported from a console game, we could've ended up with another Oni type game that wouldn't have ANY sort of netgaming capabilities due to "latency issues". Heck, I'm sure that Oni would've been playable at the same level had they bothered to add multiplayer support. Ahh well, no use beating a dead horse.

Also, I have noticed that motion censors seem to mess up, sometimes they only show teammates, and sometimes they show teammates and enemies but NEVER enemies in vehicles.

this is also a setting that can be changed from server to server; the motion tracker can be disabled, show friends only, or show everyone. dunno about why it's not showing enemies in vehicles, though

As far as the idea of renting a dedicated goes, Art of War Central http://www.aowc.net hosts Halo games (they've been advertising that for a few months now).  Their prices are pretty reasonable, too.  I briefly looked into maybe renting one for a while for the [RoS] Clan's MoH:AA battles.  Just something to look into.

I'm also looking into building a dedicated system for the [RoS] Clan to play MoH:AA on.  It wouldn't be a huge leap to run a dedicated Halo on, although it would be a PC, so I'd have to keep a close eye on the patches.  We'd probably need to see about a better net connection for it too.  I could buy more bandwidth and host it here, but I'd like doantions to help keep that afloat.

As far as lag goes, yeah the vehicle code seems to be the laggiest feature of multiplayer games. Usually when the game doesn't have vehicles it's fine. Although I've heard some people complain about getting killed by melee attacks when they were lagging. But for the most part vehicles are the problem. I guess there's just a lot of stuff to calculate with 'em--number of occupants, health of occupants, position of turret, position of vehicle, velocity, collision detection, etc. That's a lot more junk that needs to be processed than just a single player!

Agreed - The few times I really get lagged, I've had the veichle I'm in go through the ground and into nothingness only to reappear on the map a few seconds later.

I'll talk to my provider tomorrow to see what it would cost to upgrade to various levels of bandwidth.  I'll also get together an estimate for a customized system to sit in a corner and run dedicated code.  I will keep everyone informed.

Okay, I talked to my net provider today, it it seems that I'm already going the fastest my connection will allow.  Apparently, they're using some weird kind of connection called HPNA for my apartment complex, and they used to have it capped at around 512k (maybe 640), but they decided to drop the cap as the adpater required to use the HPNA system caps the bandwidth at around 900k down/512k up.  So I can't go better than that through them, unless I want to get my own direct conenction seperate from the apartments (figure at least $40/month for that through pretty much any provider).  As I'm not sure what kind of connection we're needing here, that's my best guess.  Unless you guys think that 900/512k is sufficient for a dedicated... either way, let me know.  The battle's not over till the fat lady sings, and my mom isn't prone to singing often.   

hah, your mom's fat