Lord Maldoror
Fairlight Corp
FOUNDATI0N
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Posted - 2008.09.29 10:43:00 -
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Lag in big battles is obviously a problem and one day - if CCP's technical vision comes to fruition - we'll have a sort of 'second dawn' of Eve where the mechanics of small and medium sized gang combat can be escalated to epic fleet combat without fearing that lag will kill off over-complication in tactics.
However, even now, we must give credit to the spectacle of big battles. CCP are still doing a better job that anyone else in having 500 people duke it out. Look at the problems of 128-man BF server or the WOW/Conan-esque pvp zones of other games.
Without wanting to put on my robe and wizard hat, I think lag can be sympathetically looked on as a physical parameter of the Eve universe right now, and adapting to fight in laggy conditions is a little like experienced vets getting used to mustard gas in the trenches. In the build up to a big fight the question "will I lag out?" is a little akin to warriors of all eras of history hoping that the dice fall well for them and they get to do what they were hoping to do.
Eurogamer had a good article on Eve fleet combat a while ago - essentially pointing that right now in the MMO world, Eve fleet combat is an unmatched spectacle. Granted, it's not a spectacle at all if you're looking at the Login screen, unable to rejoin the fight. But nonetheless, it's still functional enough to make a big fleet fight a lot of fun - as long as there is some medium-sized stuff in between.
From a personal point of view, we had a fight in M-M on Friday where 50 capital ships died and certainly there was lag. My dread remained playable until it died, though my carrier alt lagged out while fetching more stront from station and was unable to log back in for 20mins. During this time I was able to keep fighting with a BS alt and at the end the lag cleared to loot the wrecks of course.
Mind you, even though cap-heavy, that was a fight involving only 350(?) in local (400 tops) and would fall under the present cut-off window of 500.
At any rate, the future bodes well and even now, Eve fleet battles are a mainstay of the MMO world, imo, even if I might not be as generous about it while waiting for module activation.
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