And for what it's worth, here's what I'd like to see...

as a programmer (but not a game programmer) and network Engineer, may I suggest "Cal's top tips for easing this mess".

If lag "compensation" is too favourable, dial back the effect so a high Ping isn't the ultimate must-have weapon in every clone soldier's arsenal. Hopefully with Lag Compensation doing only what it should do, ensuring that *everyone* can play an effective part in the game, no further action will be necessary. But history would suggest that's a big ask, so you may also want to consider:

• Display all player's Ping stat. In numbers. The graphs are great, but we really need numbers. Update those numbers regularly on the player list. In fact, display them on the kill notices so we can them when they *really* count... Record those "killing Ping" stats.
• If their Ping changes by more than [some tailorable amount]% between matchmaking and match-playing, kick them and help find them a game with more suitable opponents. you may even decide to have an acceptable Ping value band for all matches to ensure players *can* play together effectively. Calculate what is acceptable, and stick by it.
• If a player's "Killing Ping" average is way out of proportion to their Ping when they try to join a match, don't let them in. Simple. You'd need to maybe reset it every now and then (playing on a different connection, change of ISP, traffic management policies by their ISP kicking in), and obviously allow for the fact that a gunfight will be seeing more network traffic than sneaking 'round a building, but you get the idea...
• If their Ping changes by more than [some tailorable amount]% during the match, kick them and help find them a game with more suitable opponents.
• If their Ping goes up significantly when they open fire or come under fire, kick them and help find them a game with more suitable opponents (again, taking into account the extra traffic involved in firing weapons, of course).
• Record Ping when a player joins a match, and every time they score a kill (and, if possible, when they come under fire). Analyse it. Check for disparity. Ban exploiters.

This isn't perfect, but we're not looking for perfect (yet) we're looking for vaguely acceptable and equitable. I appreciate that if a squad joins with massively differing Pings across its members, this will get tricky, but remember that's a situation of that squad's making, it's not for everyone else to pay for it. Don't bend your rules for them. Match them with and against other disparately-pinged squads. Yes, that will slow down game startup - better to wait a few minutes for a fair game than rapidly join games which offer no challenge or possibility of success. Update the squad finder to help ensure this *doesn't* happen. It's great to promote squad-play, but it's not every other player's responsibility to suffer appalling gameplay on their behalf. Don't penalise the individual player - it's likely to scare off the new players which we need so desperately to give the game a future.


Thanks for reading, hope it helps make the game fairer for all players.