Are Leech-Beams broken?

[AGgamer]

The title says it all. I have been playing online for a bit and I think leech beams are broken. None of them have drained a single volt of energy from me or my targets. There has been no interference between my targets and my beam, no shield, and no hit from anyone cancelling my attack. Just a clear, clean lock-on and it does absolutely nothing. Every single time I get one, every single time i'm hit by one, it immediately vanishes for no reason. :turd :turd :turd Has anyone else noticed this? :|

Obviously with Studio Liverpool shut down they can't fix any glitches found anymore, which is a real shame. It's not like the leech beams don't work offline, they just won't work when racing online.

On a side note, The Amphiseum Forwards seems prone to game crashes when online. I got disqualified on this circuit during the Synergy tournament (back when it was a thing) because of a fatal game crash between me and Maciek. And just earlier today my game crashed while racing on the circuit again. :turd :turd :turd

[Knux_Chaotix]

I always thought the Leech Beam issue had something to do with connection and lag. It dosnt always happen to me, so I put it down to lag usually.

Should point out Im not a technical whiz of any sort so I may be wrong.

[AGgamer]

I suppose that could be the issue. But I have pretty stable internet, and even when I'm racing people one on one, leeches never seem to work for me or on me. I also see other people trying to drain opponents who are not me and the beam immediately fails in those cases too.

[Snakenator1]

Actually the Leech beam does work online, however it is incredibly temperamental mainly because of Network Latency and differences in internet speeds between two opponents.

Basically this is my idea of the beams faultiness. Basically it isn't a glitch because I can testify to this and I'm sure other racers can agree with me but 1/10 times the leech beam will work. My theory is that two opposing racers online will be operating on different internet speeds which is also affected by latency of the PlayStation network. These two factors are what result in the gamers worst enemy; Lag.

Because the two racers are playing the game at different speeds, information being sent from the game across the network to your opponent's game and back is sent at different speeds and this is why I think leech beams are temperamental. By the time the information saying that "Leech beam has locked on and is activated on opponent" has reached the other person's game to start the health drain, they can already be out of range, used a shield or fired back on you to stop the beam from working. No two people will have identical broadband speeds at a given time on WipEout so information is always sent at varying speeds and this does result in some weird events. (An example of this would you could be in 2nd, but finish as 1st place)
Basically lag is what breaks the beam. This is also the reason why you sometimes see the ships bouncing around.
Other factors that can affect this speed at which information is sent is weather, the Network's current operating speeds, broadband providers and traffic they must deal with and much more.
The beam will work on occasions and I have found for that to happen when both racers must be operating on similar broadband speeds. That way information can be sent and received at similar times for the game to operate properly.
But this is just a theory but I have based it off 2 years of ICT and how online communication works between software programs and just playing online gaming :)

[mannjon]

Lag definitely has a lot to do with it. There is set distance in which you have to maintain either behind or in front of a pilot to have a continued lock (in front only is you pass someone). One thing that I have noticed is that the distance when on a different height (take the Anulpha Pass upper bridge) has a far less tolerance. I've lost a lock on dips in the track before, and once you lose the lock it's over.

It isn't so much that it is broken, rather it was a crappy weapon to begin with. I just absorb them every time because it doesn't do much damage with a full lock period, and it only restores a minimal amount over just absorbing it. It does seem to have difference mechanics in Eliminator play, but I couldn't begin to tell you the differences because I despise Eliminator.