djarvik wrote:C4ill, I noticed something playing you. Somehow, when I played you, the Aiming sensitivity was the highest ever. I could tap the direction and the ball would go out. Extremely sensitive. Also, on returns and some shots, they would Float even if I was there well on time and making good contact. I have no idea what happened, likely Lag, but it was definitely not the norm. I was hoping Manu can comment on this?
This is the effect of high delay. I think you played right after I played against C4iLL. The ping was unusually high for playing someone from France (it was 150ms and Auto-Delay resulted in 400ms). I asked C4iLL to set it 167ms or 184ms, he chose the higher delay. My ping to Paris is usually around 60 to 70 ms and I tested it before the match -- it was around 70ms. I also pinged C4iLL's IP after the match and it was still around those 150ms, only a couple of hours later it was around 65ms. So, I guess it was just some temporal issue.
Now back to delay. The higher the delay, the earlier you have to prepare all your shots. Those playing and returning quite a good bit behind the baseline won't notice it that much, because they charge longer for their shots than someone standing close to the baseline. The latter will have worse shots, the aiming zone becomes large (i.e. quite sensitive) and thus you'll either see unusual errors or shots landing shorter and not close to the lines. Or on return, you will not hit quality returns from standard position when the delay is high. You basically have to stand far behind to have plenty of time to hold the shot button, then you get a good shot. It forces you to play a different game, a different style. On the other hand, this leads to those floaty returns when returning from standard position.
Auto-Delay takes the highest Ping before the match and adds 15ms. So, it can be 250ms even if the average ping is 150ms (in case of a rather unstable connection). The host of the match can set the delay manually. It should at least be half the ping. If you set it too low manually, it can result in lag, so one has to find the perfect value with specific opponents. Against MichaelD for instance, the ping was at around 240ms average. I set delay to 167ms and it was good conditions to play in (also due to stable connections from both sides).