BO2 Regions to Reduce Lag

Hey guys, in an attempt to bring the brotherly love back to BO2 multiplayer - despite my better judgment - I got to thinking..

The problem I’ve noticed in BO2 is I have a hard time joining certain lobbies when certain players are in them and when we finally all get in a lobby of 6, the games suck because we get slaughtered.. likely because of the lag of all of us in a party of 6. Other lobbies of 4, 5 even 6 players run smooth and we have great games.. and not just because Migs, Baller or Newfie – to name a few - are in there either. I think it’s region based lag.

I realized that BO2 was different because it eliminated locale or region based matchmaking and used only IP/latency.

http://mp1st.com/2012/10/25/call-of-duty-black-ops-2-multiplayer-matchmaking-based-on-latency-and-ping-not-region/

http://www.callofduty.com/message/414686430?tstart=0

http://www.product-reviews.net/2010/11/12/call-of-duty-black-ops-distant-connection-problems-ps3-xbox-360-lag/

Maybe ping/latency matchmaking has it’s benefits – when it’s working perfectly – but maybe it’s a source of our frustration at the game when trying to game together. Long story short – too late – I propose a subjective experiment to see if our lag and matchmaking frustration subsides.

I’m proposing – if there are enough 30s online - to ‘try’ and play with 30s in your general region to see if matchmaking, game results and overall enjoyment playing BO2 with the clan improves. The existing alternative is half the clan doesn’t touch BO2 with the hopes Ghost matchmaking/lag will be better. I’m hoping playing BO2 more frequently with a more local group of 30s will make COD more fun and bring the 30s together more on BO2 and the forums.

Of course we’re all free to play with whom ever, whenever, and if only 6 or 8 people are online, you can bet I’ll try to join in on them regardless what area they’re from because I’m a COD gamer and can’t stand playing without you 30s! BUT, if you have a choice to play with someone across the country, or someone in your state or next, I propose to give that a try and see if matchmaking and game performance improves.

OK Andy, sounds great.. how the heck do we know where everyone is? Well, at the risk of stalking, I was curious with some downtime at work today and mapped the Xbox side from the location info on user profiles. I then divided the country into 4 main regions, trying to divide them by internet backbone maps and regions/population density, etc. This is what I came up with:

https://i.servimg.com/u/f75/18/30/90/37/locale11.jpg

I haven’t posted gamertags on the image map because not everyone may be on board or want to be displayed on a map – despite the fact, most of these are approximations or guesses on my part.

edit:
To give this a chance to make it work we need everyone's approximate location. I've updated the map with most/all Xboxers approximate location/region. If any errors or changes are requested, please let me know.
https://i.servimg.com/u/f75/18/30/90/37/locale12.jpg

So, if you’d like to try to improve the matchmaking and lag performance of BO2, speak up and let me know if you’d like your name shown on the map for others in your area to see who’s around them.

In case you want to try region based lobbies based on the sections above, but don’t want to identify your city/area, you can just indicate what region you’re in (30xW, or 30xS, etc.), that will at least let you group with others in the same region to try it out.

Let me know – by PM or posting here – if you want your gamertag included on the map with city/area or just general region to see who is near you or in your region for better matchmaking. I’ll update the map with gamertags (city/area or general region – your personal preference) as info comes in.

Again, this is not intended to get the 30s to play with only 30s in your area, or to direct who should play with who.. hell no. This is only an attempt/experiment to try and improve the forever joining lobby matchmaking and crappy games where the enemy is 2 seconds ahead of us. If it doesn’t work, screw it and it’s back to business as usual. Also, this will only work, provided we have enough 30s online. Otherwise, it’s business as usual.

OK, brain dump over. Let me know your thoughts and if you’d like to try this out tell me if you want to be put on the map or region. If not, no big deal.

Sounds good to me. I'm in MA

Best of luck to yall in the quest for less lag.

It is a nice idea but doubtful it will help much. You can control who is in your party but you can not control who is on the other team and in your lobby. My ping to anywhere in the us is less than 50 and canada is less than 100. So generally I have a decent connection no matter who I play with from the US or Canada. Not to mention it won't fix matchmaking at all which is half my frustration trying to find a game and it looks for other parties instead of just putting people in your lobby to play which happens even if I am in a party with 6 people from Florida within 5 miles of each other. Then you have the lag switchers and those that purposely slow thier connection to try and get an advantage which screws up everyones experience. Either way I will play with anyone I don't care where you are from.

You can go ahead and post my location, I don't have any stalkers.

No problem posting me, I would try anything so we don't get suck in the lobbies like we got lastnight. That sucked and poor zombiejohn who wanted to play with some 30's and it was crap

LOL, I guess I'll take my three bar connection and go play with...err... by myself in region 30xM.  

Thanks Andy, nobody will ever send me and invite again... 

You can post my location.

Isn't segregation politically incorrect?

Winners wrote:

It is a nice idea but doubtful it will help much. You can control who is in your party but you can not control who is on the other team and in your lobby. My ping to anywhere in the us is less than 50 and canada is less than 100. So generally I have a decent connection no matter who I play with from the US or Canada. Not to mention it won't fix matchmaking at all which is half my frustration trying to find a game and it looks for other parties instead of just putting people in your lobby to play which happens even if I am in a party with 6 people from Florida within 5 miles of each other. Then you have the lag switchers and those that purposely slow thier connection to try and get an advantage which screws up everyones experience. Either way I will play with anyone I don't care where you are from.

Agreed, there are a lot of other factors out of our control. This is not a fix, but a kind of manual workaround to try and fix one of the factors in our control.

It's worth a try to see if there's a trend in matchmaking and lag (better or no change) if we try to party with 30s in our region. It will likely be difficult to get enough 30s in one area at any onetime, but if you have a choice, it's worth a try.

To give this a chance to make it work we need everyone's approximate location. I've updated the map with most/all Xboxers approximate location/region. If you'd like to give it a try and notice any improvement over a couple days or week, let us know.

If any errors or changes are requested, please let me know.
https://i.servimg.com/u/f75/18/30/90/37/locale12.jpg

@Bluehound, and others, this is not meant to segregate or divide (I get your posts are humor). It's meant to see if there are any trends of better games when playing with certain 30s by nearby region. I've had plenty good games/matchmaking with you when we're on together.

And bluehound, your location lists NE, isn't that New England?

Good Idea..not sure how much it will help, but I'm down to try anything


But, as stated above,,i can play with anyone,,,some games are great, some games i cant even move...you can't control who your playing on the other team or who gets host...the only thing can do this way is to hope at least 1 person from your team gets host..

But

Doing it this way will greatly increase your chances of getting a good host...

For me I can barely find six to play with lol.

Winners I am right there with you sir. I havent seen anyone really on lately so I just havent even logged in to play BO2.

@ TAAndy....ummmm no NE means Nebraska, I'll give you a pass since you're Canadian, but I'm out in the equivalent of Saskatchewan.

Awww i just wish i could play more than 10 mins at a time, that only leaves me with a big lobby wait time and one match!

Yeap, I hear ya Swollen. Most nights I have limited time as well, more in the 1h range, but spending anything more than 2-3 min getting in a lobby and finding a game is frustrating when the play clock is limited.

That's a main reason I'm trying to determine if this region map thingy reduces the pre-match time.

This is a very cool map man and Why can't get more 30xW and 30xM people! There is an east coast bias in the clan and this makes me a sad panda. just kidding. again Hell of a job Andy!!

Hell most of the clan is in Texas anyway..................well the ones that matter! 

As the good ole drill sgt. from Full Metal Jacket said, the only from Texas are ______ and steers and you dont look like a steer. Fill in the blank cause I dont want to sound insensitive.

SwollenCamel wrote:

Hell most of the clan is in Texas anyway..................well the ones that matter! 

Hey fuck you, pal!

Can you feel the love tonight.

Fuck y'all  
Apparently i can say that now i live in Texas.

SwollenCamel wrote:

Can you feel the love tonight.

Fuck y'all  
Apparently i can say that now i live in Texas.

#Merica

It's good you got my permission btw where the hell do you have my arrow pointing to? Looks like NYC

Thanks Tyden.. all info for the map was pulled from everyone's profile location info, so there's no info on there that isn't available on everyone's post.

Yes, you're right, your arrow should be more West.. I must have got my east/west NY state crossed at the time..   At least NY state is all in 30xE though . I can update if/when the next revision is updated.

FUYELLOW and FUCamel!