What does server side hit detection mean?
The server decides if you actually hit/kill your opponent.

How client-side hit detection works now:

Player 1 sees Player 2. He puts his crosshairs on Player 2's head and fires.
Player 2 is dead.

How server-side hit detection works:

Player 1 has 100 ping. He sees Player 2 moving to his left.
Player 1 puts his crosshair on Player 2's head, at XY coordinates, and fires.
To Player 1's perspective, he hit Player 2.

However, the time it takes for Player 1's shot to register with the server is about 100ms. By the time the coordinates of Player 1's shot, XY, reach the server, Player 2's head is not at coordinates XY anymore, but 100ms away from coordinates XY.

Thus, the server registers the shot as a miss. Player 2 is left alive.

In order to hit Player 2, Player 1 must aim at the spot Player 2's head would be in 100ms. This is called "leading" your shots.

See the problem with server-side hit detection?

For a better illustration of "leading" and why server-side hit detection is terribad, please look at this video of Halo: PC, which features server-side hit detection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig32mseGrck&feature=related

As you can see, nowhere in this video does the Player directly aim for the enemy. Instead, the Player aims ahead of the enemy, guesstimating where he should fire based on his ping. This video also explains why "leading" is needed in games with server-side hit detection.

So please, PLEASE, Ben Askoy, reconsider server-side hit detection.

Then an "ub3r h4xx0r" can make themselves immortal.

I was actually wondering about this as well. If you watch the videos that Stack posted, you'll see that he had shot someone multiple times in the head (3-4 times, and some of the targets were stationary) before the kill would register. That was on a server with like 5 people, what's it going to be like on a fully-loaded aloha west server?

It's more realistic without server-side whatever you called it.

@ReubenMcHawk
"Then an "ub3r h4xx0r" can make themselves immortal."

I was waiting for that.

http://fact-archive.com/encyclopedia/List_of_online_multiplayer_cheats#Halo_.28PC_Version.29

"Halo's netcode is completely server-side (as opposed to the Quake engine's client-side netcode), which makes hacks and cheats extremely difficult to implement. The "game rules" are stored entirely on the host's computer, rather than being stored on each player's computer as in a client-side netcode game. As a result, online cheating in Halo (or at least those cheats blantant enough to be obvious) is almost non-existent, and there is controversy as to whether or not any cheats or hacks exist at all. There are, however, exploits within the game engine itself which can be utilized, and the game's host can alter the netcode to give himself an added advantage."

You see, that's the same reason Halo PC had server-side hit detection.

However, as you can see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckqEcYcRw6w&feature=related

Cheating is STILL rampant despite the server-side hit detection.

However, unlike Halo PC, Ace of Spades has a votekick command.

If server-side hit detection DOES pull through, you can expect to have horrible gameplay, horrible netcode, but the same hackers killing everyone.

Yep. If you've played SAMP (San Andreas Multiplayer), then you most likely know the horrors of server-side hit detection. Now we are going to have to aim about 3-5 feet in front of someone to actually get the kill.

Eh...one step forward, two steps back -.-

Still grateful for the SMG though. Also, I think the new server-sided net code might have been overly exaggerating the SMG's apparent lack of firepower in Stack's videos.

Ben himself said that the SMG only does about half the damage of the rifle, anyways (as caught by StackOverflow in one of his videos, after remarking that he and Lexsym had to shoot each other a ridiculous amount of times with the SMG to actually kill each other).

I still don't like the idea of serverside hitscan. To those of you complaining about leading, I've already had to lead my shots as it is... I'm not entirely sure what's going on there, but I know that if someone is walking straight across my field of view I have to shoot a few feet in front of their face to hit them (which isn't totally unrealistic, although at the ranges typical in AoS you shouldn't have to lead even as much as a foot with a standard infantry rifle).

Still, I don't like the idea of serverside hits... laggers will be pretty much invincible unless they're walking straight toward you or away from you, because the required lead will be dependent on both your ping and theirs, a number that will vary from player to player. It's much better the way it is, where when someone lags it just takes longer for them to die.

I'd really like 0.53 to come out, but Ben, we'll probably end up hating serverside hitscans. The current system is far preferable.

so serverside hit detection was why my gameplay on halo1 for pc was so shittty.

If this game is going to use serverside hit detection I'm out.

Although finishing upon saying that I have a sudden urge to play halo

Blood gulch ftw

Server side hit detection has been around for ages, and there's nothing wrong with it. "leading" a shot is what people do in real life. Bullet travel time is like ping, it's pretty easy to get used to. Sure every once in a while something looks inaccurate, but that's just the way the world works.

A bullet doesn't take a 10th of a second at close range....

"leading" is actually how you kill things in real life. If switching hit-detection server-side causes players to aim more realistically, I am all for it.

I'm afraid if we're going to have server-side hit detection we'll NEED the SMGs to kill anybody.

Don't get me wrong, I hate aimbots too (funny video link, mild bloodiness warning the more sensitive among you, but nothing truly gory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYGlWjIKoY4&feature=related ), but streamlined votekicking should help. Besides, the few times I've come up against a true aimbotter, he or she has gotten enough of the server mad enough fast enough to get kicked before they even have the chance to cap any intel.

oppps like Spyrext beat me to the punch

@Spyrext
Tell that to the majority of the AoS community who are gawking at the SMG and turning a blind eye to a technical feature that will drastically impact the way they play AoS.

Shoot, no one is addressing the drastic change server-side hit detection will bring about. They've dismissed it as a mere technical doohicky already. None of them know what server-side hit detection is.

But when 0.53 rolls about and suddenly the majority of AoS' SMGs and rifles do nothing, they'll come here to complain and rant.

Caustic feedback leads to less people willing to try a "bad" FPS game which leads to a smaller AoS community, which (hopefully NEVER this bad) leads to the death of AoS.

Moral of the story? Realism =/= fun.

"Server side hit detection has been around for ages, and there's nothing wrong with it. "leading" a shot is what people do in real life. Bullet travel time is like ping, it's pretty easy to get used to. Sure every once in a while something looks inaccurate, but that's just the way the world works. "

...but there was nothing wrong with the original client-side hit detection. I don't know about you, but I enjoy ("enjoyed", if this pulls through) being able to hit a moving target while leading them by a "realistic" aka "small" distance. I've played plenty of games with server-side hit detection, and it isn't very hard, but one of the main features that I have loved about AoS is the lack of desync due to lag (except for those times where you pop your head up out of cover, then duck back down and still end up getting headshotted because of the lag).

? I'm playing halo atm and I dont see much of a difference than playing homefront or source games, I don't have to lead.....Maybe it's because my ping is 30

An Aim Compensation Bot is merely altering the Client's View to the angles of their target. The only way to prevent that is to make everything Serverside LOL !!

Cheating exists, and will always exist. You can only attempt to prevent. REAL game hackers can bypass any anti-cheat you attempt to implement.

You could be playing as the host.

OH YES.

This ANOTHER drawback to server-side hit detection.

Host advantage. Host ADVANTAGE.

Since the host is the server operator, he has NO need to lead or compensate for ping.

While everyone's trying to measure out where to shoot in front of their targets, the host is playing as if it was AoS pre 0.53.

Which means: Aim for head, shoot head, get kill.

How's that for fair?

I host my server in a remote location. I have the same advantage as everyone else.

@Lexsym

As of now, everyone is on a level playing field with client-side hit detection.

However, when server-side rolls out, everyone else will need to lead their shots.

What I don't understand is why the hit detection was switched from client to server side in the first place. As far as I know, there are no widely-used aimbots (I don't even think there are any aimbots for this game), and the new votekicking system should easily do away with any player that is using one.

You already have to slightly lead a moving target (in a realistic manner, not over-the-top ping compensation) if they are traveling perpendicular to your aim.

Have any of you guys watched the videos that StackOverflow posted? Even a target moving slow as shit through a 2x3 doorway would need a considerable amount of guesstimation to compensate for lag, multiple headshots and all. That just looks like it ruined the whole simplicity and fun of AoS. Seeing him have to shoot a stationary target in the head more than 3 times from less than 20 feet away was the real killer.

Why? That is what I am asking, why? Is this supposed to stop future aimbotters or something?

ok so we can make a scope designed for that, what i mean is that the scope is about 2 centimeters to the right, left, top, and bottom. so what direction the person is going you aim up the scope and shoot, BlAM BOOM DEATH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Requesting a mod to delete aksetorgerson's post

I'm not even going to explain why that's stupid.

I second Lazy.

why is it stupid

Knowing where to aim would depend on your ping, the server's ping, and the target's ping. There is no scope that could compensate for all of that.

EDIT: For instance, I live in the US. If I'm playing on a server that is hosted in the US, my ping is naturally going to be lower than someone who lives in, say, Afghanistan. I would have to lead them by about 5 feet to actually land a hit on them. After I've killed him (if I'm even able to), the next enemy that comes along lives in Europe, and their ping could be completely different from the Afghani player's ping. I would have to lead them more/less than I would the other player.

The problem arises when you're on a full 32 player server, having to learn where every individual player's "hit box" is will be a pain in the ass.

"ok so we can make a scope designed for that, what i mean is that the scope is about 2 centimeters to the right, left, top, and bottom. so what direction the person is going you aim up the scope and shoot, BlAM BOOM DEATH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Yeah, no. There are more directions to aim than left, right, up, and down.

How is a scope going to aim in all four directions?

The lead distance will NOT be consistent over actual distances. If an enemy is closer to you, you'll need to lead FARTHER. Your 2 centimeter scope idea will NOT work.

wait, its diferent for everbody everywhere

Edit: oh ok i just thought and it now makes sense

could thier be a heat seeking scope????????

Yes.

Look at the videos I posted before.

See how and where the players in the video have to aim?

They don't aim for the opponent, they aim for where they think they will be based on their ping.

That is what you'll be doing in AoS should server side hit detection roll out.

Edit: 1/10, made me reply