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Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars |OT| (PSN)
- Thread starter chubigans
- Start date
ickingfudiot
Member
GrayFoxPL said:
It's peer-to-peer in the sense that you go into matchmaking, set your preferences and search and someone ends up hosting, you don't know who, so no dedicated servers or anything like that.
Right now I have it set up so that Europe will be on a completely separate matchmaking group from America and you'd have independent stats as well. Some guys on our forum were asking if we could include a worldwide option but I'm not sure what we'll do about that.
As far as the wider camera request, it's something we've considered but decided against before, we'll see. One thing you might find useful that isn't on by default (aside from disabling V-Sync, if you can stand the tearing the higher framerate helps my play a lot) is to go into your Profile Options and change the Ball Cam from "Hold" to "Toggle". Then you can just hit Triangle to go into Ball lock camera mode and not have to hold it down.
SuperSonic1305
Member
I had an amazing assist in the demo. I'd buy this game if the onslaught of retail games wasn't beginning.
I held off on purchasing this game last night because I wasn't sure what to think of it. After reading all the responses in this topic I'm going to purchase Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars tonight. I played the demo but didn't have enough play time to decide if I wanted to buy this or not.
BobJustBob
Member
IGN gives it a 6.5. Their main complaint seems to be the netcode, which I have to agree with given my one online match in the demo. I was lagging all over the place, the controls were unresponsive, and I even got stuck in the wall once when driving along it -- I suddenly warped into it.
Shame, too, because it seems fun and I singlehandedly won the match for my team. At the very start, the other side reached the ball before me, so I jumped for no particular reason. They knocked the ball right into my car where it bounced off and went straight into their goal. Bam, the one and only point of the match scored in the first five seconds. From the replay you'd think I had been practicing that move for years.
Shame, too, because it seems fun and I singlehandedly won the match for my team. At the very start, the other side reached the ball before me, so I jumped for no particular reason. They knocked the ball right into my car where it bounced off and went straight into their goal. Bam, the one and only point of the match scored in the first five seconds. From the replay you'd think I had been practicing that move for years.
Firestreak
Member
Yea, I don't have the best connection, but the netcode is definetly a problem for me. Luckily I have 4 controllers and a fair amount of friends to play splitscreen with, but I'd like to be able to play splitscreen online, feels like it would be awesome to have my whole team in the room with me.
ickingfudiot
Member
It's something we're looking into, it was never this bad in our testing but there isn't a good determination of someone who should NEVER host in place atm and it seems a lot of people with shit connections are ending up hosting, which makes the experience pretty bad for people (including the IGN reviewer).
Just to give you an idea of the technical limitations, at the speed you're going and the control of motion you have both front/back and laterally, you can't really do much client prediction as to where a car is going. The two extremes are:
1) Heavy input lag, all movement/commands pass through the server before happening, you get delay on everything as a client, unplayable.
2) No input lag, seamless play, but since you're completely authoritative on your car, other cars, the ball, etc. sometimes it looks like you hit somebody or the ball on your screen when in fact it's somewhere else on the server.
We're somewhere in the middle right now, with some server correction of position. When it gets bad is these really laggy hosts where you don't get net updates for long periods and end up with jerky motion and delayed response on things like jumps and dodges. We could make it completely clientside but it's hard to relate how frustrating it is thinking you just hit the ball PERFECT and it turns out it wasn't there at all. That's just not something you can do.
So yeah, it's something we're looking into heavily at the moment, the game's designed for online play and though most of my games have been pretty smooth the occasional lagfest is really offputting. Hopefully we can get something figured out.
Just to give you an idea of the technical limitations, at the speed you're going and the control of motion you have both front/back and laterally, you can't really do much client prediction as to where a car is going. The two extremes are:
1) Heavy input lag, all movement/commands pass through the server before happening, you get delay on everything as a client, unplayable.
2) No input lag, seamless play, but since you're completely authoritative on your car, other cars, the ball, etc. sometimes it looks like you hit somebody or the ball on your screen when in fact it's somewhere else on the server.
We're somewhere in the middle right now, with some server correction of position. When it gets bad is these really laggy hosts where you don't get net updates for long periods and end up with jerky motion and delayed response on things like jumps and dodges. We could make it completely clientside but it's hard to relate how frustrating it is thinking you just hit the ball PERFECT and it turns out it wasn't there at all. That's just not something you can do.
So yeah, it's something we're looking into heavily at the moment, the game's designed for online play and though most of my games have been pretty smooth the occasional lagfest is really offputting. Hopefully we can get something figured out.
WiCkEd_Co
Member
ickingfudiot said:
Ok I did both changes and now play with the Ball cam about 90% of the time. It made the mini-games way more easy to do.
Online on the demo was horrible but since I have played on the full game I have had only a few bad games the rest were pretty smooth. I can't get in any 4 player game because it's set to 3 vs 3 on the menu by default and everyone just plays that. I have sat there for 10 mins and get maybe 1 or 2 then they leave. Did the youtube thing to test it out and it works pretty good.
Sandstorm mini-game made me want to break/throw my controller, I finally got it with 1 star and don't see me ever getting 5 stars on there when I go back to get all stars. Also my friends list hates you because I been on this and they keep bugging me to jump on Call of Duty with them.
ickingfudiot
Member
WiCkEd_Co said:
I'm glad the controls helped you. Sorry about Sandstorm, we wanted it to be challenging, it just requires a different approach. I actually have the best luck getting 5 stars on it with kickoff goals, but everybody plays it different.
We're actively looking into how to improve the latency situation, there's technical limitations as I described but there are some things we can do to help I think. It's unfortunate the IGN reviewer got a few bad games it a row it sounds like and wrote us off entirely, but that's how things go I suppose. I just wish he would have tried splitscreen (really adds a lot) or talked about the replay system or some other things.. oh well!
Keep any feedback coming guys, we've already got a laundry list of things being implemented/fixed for a first patch/DLC drop:
1) "Players Met" getting populated after games
2) Matchmaking rework to make it smoother/smarter/better/faster/stronger
3) Fixes for custom music tracks retaining playlist position, etc.
4) As many latency/online play improvements as we can cram in
5) Free fourth map, we'll probably also have a community vote on the 5th map
6) Looking into voice quality though some of it is PS3 not playing nice with some headsets
real good game, just wish that there was more to do in split screen mode. Like a two player tournament and/or mini-game mode.
I look forward to a new map or two, but I'd love it if your team would add more offline challenges too.
Oh, online has been great for me, just every match is 3v3.
I look forward to a new map or two, but I'd love it if your team would add more offline challenges too.
Oh, online has been great for me, just every match is 3v3.
AlphaTwo00
Member
Colour me not impressed, at least with the Demo.
Crashed twice on the Front end load screen.
Crashed in the main game when I hit the PS Button.
Crashed when I tried to log online.
Crashed twice on the Front end load screen.
Crashed in the main game when I hit the PS Button.
Crashed when I tried to log online.
As I mentioned a couple of days ago in this thread, I was skeptical about purchasing this game. I bought the game after work on Friday and I have to say, it's extremely fun to play with friends. I convinced my brother to purchase this game and on Saturday he had a little kick back and this game was the main attraction. Everyone was having so much fun doing 4 player splitscreen.
I didn't have any problems with the online lagging. I've played quite a few games online and it's run lag free each time. I also have not had any problems with the game freezing.
NOTE: We played this game for about an hour, took a break, turned it back on only to notice my brothers save was gone. He had only unlocked one car so it didn't bother him too much but I just wanted to give you a heads up about saves possibly getting corrupted?
I didn't have any problems with the online lagging. I've played quite a few games online and it's run lag free each time. I also have not had any problems with the game freezing.
NOTE: We played this game for about an hour, took a break, turned it back on only to notice my brothers save was gone. He had only unlocked one car so it didn't bother him too much but I just wanted to give you a heads up about saves possibly getting corrupted?
ickingfudiot
Member
AlphaTwo00 said:
Really? That's the first report we've gotten about anything like that. We saw an issue yesterday where the game would hang for a specific user due to the way GameSpy syncs your buddies from the PSN friends list, I'm working with them to get it resolved right now.
The problem with these bugs is it only seems to happen to certain PSN accounts so it's hard for us to find and reproduce it. Sorry you had a bad experience.
ickingfudiot
Member
Spy said:
The car unlocks are bound to the PS3/PSN account you're playing under, so if you changed local accounts between sessions you wouldn't see the unlock you had. It's possible the save data was corrupted somehow but haven't heard any other reports of that.
norinrad21
Banned
I just saw the Demo on PSN, well i haven't logged in in a while. I will give it a try, the pics have a nostalgic stunt Race like feeling to it
ickingfudiot
Member
DeadGzuz said:
A lot of it was business reasons (and again, not speaking on behalf of my company here) but also the expansive online feature set intended to support the community - scoreboards, ranking system with separate brackets for team size, registered party system, extensive replay features with in-game editing and direct YouTube uploads, etc.
A lot of the guys on our forums and elsewhere that got into the multiplayer have logged 20+ hours since Thursday playing online, I'd say that's a pretty good value for $15 considering how long the single player content lasts you in most downloadable titles.
Did you try any online matches, especially with a splitscreen player? It really shines as a cooperative game, or online if you have a headset.
ickingfudiot said:
Hey dude, I'm the guy who reviewed the game for IGN. I realize I didn't really touch on the replay system, video uploading, custom soundtracks or the like, mainly because I tried to tackle them all during the preview and was a bit pressed for time in getting things up before the weekend.
Not all the games I played were bad, but with a P2P system where someone's upstream is shit, it definitely made some of the games unplayable -- or in the case of one of the games, felt like it was basically playing itself, since I think the actual position of the car and what was reported on the screen were vastly different, so not only was there lag, but it felt like I was racing around a track made of invisible geometry. It was trippy, sure, but it was also a ranked game, which meant I either quit out and notched it as a loss, or just drive around like a moron for the rest of the game. Dedicated servers, at least for ranked games, would have helped, I think, but I realize Psyonix isn't made of money.
I do want to make it clear that I didn't hate the game, but I did feel like the difference between seeing what you guys could do and what I could do after playing the game for hours straight was massive. I could hardly get a shot lined up properly, much less leap into the air, rotate perfectly and hit the ball into the goal at just the right angle. Some of you guys there, though, can do that, and it looks amazing. I just don't think I have the dexterity or patience to get that good.
The game is worth checking out for sure, which is why I'm so glad you guys made a demo, but I think it's just a bit too technical for me, and my biggest fear was that all the frustration of just trying to get to the ball or line up a shot will be compounded by the people that do play it like crazy and get as good as you Psyonix guys, and then newcomers are just going to be that much more pissed that they can't knock in shots from across the arena.
Some of the mini-games were pretty sweet, though.
ickingfudiot
Member
SamBishop said:
It's cool, thanks for taking the time to come here and say all that, makes us feel a bit better
It's actually surprised me how quickly a lot of the guys we're playing online have picked it up, but you have to review for a really wide audience so it's a fair criticism.Out of curiosity - do you guys have any policy on evaluating games after patches, like if we were able to smooth out the net play further and put in some checks to prevent dial up guys from hosting more effectively, would that merit a revisiting of the score? I've seen it done with MMOs before, but didn't know if IGN ever did anything like that.
Dedicated servers would be ideal, as you say, but we're self publishing and just don't have the resources. We're discussing the practicality of letting users with good connections host dedicated servers and also looking into a server browser to sit alongside the matching system so you could better gauge a server's latency and maybe find games a bit more easily.
It's unfortunate, we thought we'd hit on a good balance of controllability and server sync but even on the consumer grade connections we tested it was never as bad as some of these guys that are ending up hosting. It's something we're actively looking into. That said, it really has been a minority of the games we've played, but I did run into a really laggy 1v1 ranked match earlier and it killed my desire to play for awhile, so I know where you're coming from.
ickingfudiot
Member
GrayFoxPL said:
There is no racing mode - this game type sprung out of a more deathmatch-y use of these cars with weapons but we had the most fun playing this "soccar" mode and decided to go with it for now. We may look into releasing the other gametypes (dm, ctf style things) at a later date but that's very pie in the sky at this point.
The trouble with doing worldwide matchmaking is the latency - with the problems people are having with some hosts in the US, I'd be very concerned about what a worldwide system would do. If we take the server browsing approach it's something I'll look into. Some of it is a technical restriction, there are some difficulties in switching regions on the fly on the backend which might make it difficult to, say, have a Regional and Worldwide option. But it's definitely something we'll put a lot of thought into before we ship off the final Euro build.
ickingfudiot said:It's cool, thanks for taking the time to come here and say all that, makes us feel a bit better
Out of curiosity - do you guys have any policy on evaluating games after patches, like if we were able to smooth out the net play further and put in some checks to prevent dial up guys from hosting more effectively, would that merit a revisiting of the score? I've seen it done with MMOs before, but didn't know if IGN ever did anything like that.
Dedicated servers would be ideal, as you say, but we're self publishing and just don't have the resources. We're discussing the practicality of letting users with good connections host dedicated servers and also looking into a server browser to sit alongside the matching system so you could better gauge a server's latency and maybe find games a bit more easily.
It's unfortunate, we thought we'd hit on a good balance of controllability and server sync but even on the consumer grade connections we tested it was never as bad as some of these guys that are ending up hosting. It's something we're actively looking into. That said, it really has been a minority of the games we've played, but I did run into a really laggy 1v1 ranked match earlier and it killed my desire to play for awhile, so I know where you're coming from.
If I remember right, the policy is to not change the score unless something drastic happens with the patch, and as you said, it's usually limited to something like an MMO where the entire game can change with a patch. Should you guys kick out something to fix the netcode stuff, I'll push hard to bump it up. Again, I hope nobody there on the team took the review too hard. I honestly do hate giving games bad scores because that's someone's life they've put into the product, and I know this is you guys' first self-published title. If and when things get patched, please do drop me a line and I'll let the guys know what's up.
I will say that the majority of games I played were relatively lag-free and worked just fine, though I think that a server browser with a connection status indicator or even a way to rate the server would go miles toward alleviating some of the headaches while playing the game online. It's just that the quarter or so of the games I did play were so frustrating or bad that it dragged everything else down.
ickingfudiot
Member
Speevy said:
I believe Sony has a 6 month exclusivity window. Past that I can't guarantee anything...
ickingfudiot
Member
SamBishop said:
OK, thanks. I think a few people were just surprised at the numeric score, we're not at all happy with the latency issues and can understand how it can ruin an experience right now but expected that to be more of a caveat than a score killer. A lot of less hardcore people live or die by the scores on big sites like yours so it puts a damper on things but we're still committed to building the community and ironing out these issues the best we can. Would just be unfortunate to be stuck with a 6.5 forever if we end up fixing some of the networking issues that perhaps dragged a higher score down.
Regardless of the review you should chain a friend or coworker to your desk and try a little online co-op, really makes the experience a lot of the time, and you might be surprised how fast you get better despite your early frustration with the technicality of the controls. My roommates could barely hit the ball early on but we had a lot of fun playing online coop matches and they're getting really good.
I'm pretty sure it's a problem with my PS3 (US 60 GB), but I can't play the game at all, the demo locks up at the loading screen every time. Yes, I redownloaded it, tried it on multiple accounts. The only other game I have any trouble with is Fatal Inertia (demo also), which behaves exactly the same way (except there I at least get to see the pilot zipping up before it freezes, yay). Sometimes both games will update at about one frame per minute (including old PS button menu and in-game XMB), if I take the time to exit the game the system just reboots. With Fatal Inertia, the problem persisted across several firmware updates also.
It's not purely an Unreal Engine issue, as I've played UE FPS demos before (most recently Bioshock), but is it coincidence it happens on Unreal-engine games with a full version available for download through the PS Store? I play a lot of PSN games/demos, no other problems aside from these two.
I'm not big on multiplayer games, but I wanted to at least give it a try thanks to the PS Nation podcast, and your enthusiasm here.
It's not purely an Unreal Engine issue, as I've played UE FPS demos before (most recently Bioshock), but is it coincidence it happens on Unreal-engine games with a full version available for download through the PS Store? I play a lot of PSN games/demos, no other problems aside from these two.
I'm not big on multiplayer games, but I wanted to at least give it a try thanks to the PS Nation podcast, and your enthusiasm here.
ickingfudiot
Member
androvsky said:
We've had a report from one other guy about it hanging on the full game on the screen that shows our logo, not the Loading... bit, and it was due to a problem with how GameSpy is pulling down your PSN buddy list. I found in the meantime it un-hangs after a couple minutes and I'm working with them on a fix.
If it's hanging before that, all I could suggest is deleting the save data for the game if there is any, redownloading the demo, and/or loading it with a different PSN account. I'll run some more tests on the demo at work tomorrow but hard to reproduce that sort of thing, sorry for the inconvenience.
ickingfudiot said:
There's nothing wrong with the save system. It was my fault, I had accidentally logged into my account on his Playstation 3 so his saves from his account weren't showing up.
I have a quick question, are all the cars the same with a different body or does each car have their own benefits such as more strength, better acceleration, etc. If each car has their own specialty would it be possible to show us that information?
I had told my brother about this topic on NeoGAF and he asked me to put out the idea of making a battle mode similar to the Rush 2049 battle mode. Machine guns, missiles, etc. Long shot I know.
evilromero
Member
You have posted the holy grail of action racing. That is quite the bold statement.levious said:ok really, this game is good...
don't let this game go ignored!!