Do you consider the online level?

[Cyberio]

Playing online these times i realize that those with lvl1, lvl5, lvl4... are really not experienced pilots, or at least not 'expert' hd pilots, and those with lvl over from 20 could be from almost good pilots to a veteran who is impossible to beat.

It's not the only time i quit (before starting) a race because the players has a low level and i know it will be so easy, if i was (that it was in the beginning) in their side it will be frustating to me seeing a legendary pilot winning me for over 10 seconds or maybe more.

Do you consider these low levels (if you have experience in HD) or you think it doesn't count the skill of the pilot?

[SaturnReturn]

It's been discussed in various threads (I'm not sure if it's had its own yet though) and the consensus seems to be that it's more of a measure of how much time you have spent online than anything else.

I always felt it was pretty pointless, but if it makes some more people stick with the game and improve then it's fine with me. The trouble is too many people just trying to increase the rank without racing. That's irritating.

Overall I pay no attention to it in terms of who I race. I won't avoid anyone of a low or high ranking. I also think there aren't enough open games available online these days for me to be that picky with who I race against.

[kaori]

I don't take care of level of players, but if i see some flags blue white red, I think the race won't be easy.

[AG-wolf]

No, I pay no attention to a person's level; nor do I think people pay attention to mine... it's still only in the 20s because I barely get an opportunity to play, yet I often find myself racing 50-70s who really aren't that good at all.

And I'll second Kaori's comment- I keep my eyes posted for french pilots, as well as UK and a few other european countries. That's how I know I'll usually have a strong challenge.

[LurifaxFlux]

Agree with Saturn that it's merely a measure of time spent online.
Although people under level 10 are usually newcomers.
Also, it's possible to be a rather high level through eliminator and still be a terrible racer.
I never care about my opponents level.

Wolf, I was suprized when I saw you were "only" level 20~ ^_^

[blackwiggle]

You have a few very experienced pilots that play under more than one PSN ID's,and their online rank doesn't reflect their racing ability.
Sinus1 is a case in point,he has about 4 or 5 different PSN ID's.
I know of a few others like this as well.

You have others that have only recently started to return due to various problems that were caused by previous HD updates,ironically as this topic has reemerged ,I got one guy from New Zealand back playing yesterday,he didn't realize that the bug that had plagued him,and so many others, from allowing them to play with their original PSN ID's had been fixed,he had given the game up ages ago because of it.

[SaturnReturn]

How do you give away a PSN game? Or did that issue still exist with the BD version?

[Amorbis]

The level system isn't very deep, so there isn't much reason to freak out when there is a level 70+ player. With WipEout HD having a smaller online community it's easier to remember people, I regard the reputation of someone in the lobby higher than their level. The same goes for the flags of reputable countries.

Of course if the levelling system was more complex people would start to take notice, but the disconnections would probably increase as a result. :/

[DarkSoul520]

It never really bothered me. As Amorbis said above, the level system isn't very deep, but its nice to get an idea of how hard the race is before it starts.
Since their really isn't a huge online player base, you can also tell very easily who plays a lot and who doesn't.

[amplificated]

I'm surprised at people saying they look for countries. I've found it doesn't really make any difference... at least in rapier, french pilots (for example) seem as fast as anyone else in most cases.

I'm only on about level 35, but from my experience playing mainly on rapier, I can usually take on most players fairly well. Hardest pilots I can remember are fdgk, TarquinFarqour or whatever it is, and Rezatron. There are a few regular players up to the 70's or so that I find aren't that great, though usually they have at least some skill.

[Amorbis]

I suppose the flag thing does count more in Phantom, but Phantom attracts mostly people from here in the Zone. I'm not saying that Rapier people are bad, though.

Higher level players do tend to know what they're doing. You couldn't get to level 70 and be atrocious, just not as good as people who spend as much time on time trial and speed lap perfecting their lines. This is something I'm guilty of.

[afuroKy]

The displayed level doesn't say much but one can always expect some challenge with lvl 50 phantom racers.

[ProblemSolver]

The only thing I can say is that if someone with a level < 10 joins the room
it's going to be a very difficult race, possibly bringing you to a stand still right
at the start or messing up your entire run completely while going into the last
lap, like it was yesterday where a level 1 guy blocked me to death after the
lights turned off. http://www.consolewars.de/messageboard/images/smilies/SC12.gif

[afuroKy]

@ProblemSolver: Thats funny you say that. It does happen but I think WO may be the only racing game where slower racers won't completely ruin your race ^^.
Ok they will sometimes, but as a Motorstorm PR player I can tell you you shouldn't bother with slow players in Wipeout :g

I may get a little off-topic but when the issue with newcomers in Wipeout is "this is far too easy, no fun for anyone", Motorstorm's one is "man I must avoid all 6 of them of getting in that corner before me (on my ATV against their Monster Trucks)" lmao

[Chill]

I would say this would be a great option, but preferably, my main concern with the online playability of Wipeout is the Quality of the other players... Can't wait for the day when all the other players move just as smooth on the screen as AI in game...

[ProblemSolver]

@afuroKy:
Yeah not all the time, but it is somehow a binary thing. If it happens, then you
won't likely have any further chances winning the race, esp. when being brought
to a stand still at start.

If I have a good connection to the host and another player does so as well, then
our craft's collision is active right from the start. This can become pretty
annoying while starting close behind, esp. if the one front misses the start or
even takes a BREAK for one race.

At those guys taking a break; please do at least a side-shift at the start. :+

[blackwiggle]

There have been people at this forum who had been playing HD for roughly 6 months and still didn't know about the boost start.:)
It wouldn't surprise me if some of the newer forum members were ignorant of it either,I'm pretty sure it's not mentioned in the game manual.
The other culprit for this is when somebody is stuck in messaging :brickwall,not so bad with chat rooms thankfully, otherwise with Avalon GG's we would all be sitting on the grid.

By far the worse is when the online board is pretty sparse,and you want to race with PA off and you get no takers,so then your obliged to race with it on, and you know it's just going to be a total farce with people bouncing off the walls all over the track.

I think the ability to race with PA off at Rapier & Phantom is more of a indication of a racers ability than a high level number of somebody who can't.

[crawdad62]

And I'll second Kaori's comment- I keep my eyes posted for french pilots, as well as UK and a few other european countries.

Oh when he said red, white and blue I thought he was talking about the US..... :g No not really. Anyway I just go to a room. Seems like lately there's been a lot of lower ranked players on (that's a good thing if they indeed are new) but the skill level has been pretty impressive. There's a bit of correlation between rank and skill but you certainly can't take it as a given.

[AspenExcel]

I tend not to take people under level 20 that seriously, but sometimes I'm surprised.

[kaori]

Oh when he said red, white and blue I thought he was talking about the US...

You are right in part. Blue white red can show american, dutch, uk, australia or french wipers too.

;)

[Constrictor]

Online level hardly matters. I'm at 66 at the moment and even when u are 'just' at 30-something today, you should know by now which players in your preferred speedclass match and who don't. But I do join races hosted by players I do not know to see what will happen. There are sometimes some natural talents (or fake accounts) that could give me high blood pressure. 2 weeks ago I a raced a guy/gal from the Netherlands with psn kiessmat (or so); was on rank 7-10 (that's approx. 1 to 3 hours online) and he had Top 50 MP Phantom times regulary. Got suspicious and checked the trophies - well, (near) 100%. Wow. I even mailed him my kudos - no reaction. Some hours later that day another player from the Netherlands appeared (forgot the PSN iD was something w/ "I..1.." ) nearly same skill, online rank 2+, kicked but big time, 0% trophies, never seen again.

On the other hand: There are some new players who just started w/ WOHD shortly after xmas. Some of these are challenging and gaining fast. Looking forward to compete. :beer

btw, and what's that color thing you're talking about? :rolleyes:

[mic-dk]

I think it's the norwegian flag they're on about... :nod

I don't put anything into the onlinerank. After a few races you pretty much got the room ranked. That said, I'd rather join a room full of names I've raced before (even if it means getting my butt kicked), rather than just join any random room.

[Dark_Phantom_89]

I don't look at the online level, but rather the name of the pilot. I've raced against pretty much all of the major players from the zone at some point and I know that if I meet one online, it's going to be a good race :)

[Lance]

You are right in part. Blue white red can show american, dutch, uk, australia or french wipers too.

;)

And New Zealand.

[OBH]

Ahh this old topic again :) I said ages ago i think the online rank was nothing more than a "whos-got-no-job-o-meter". If their were seperate ranks for each game mode, and your rank could decrease if you lost, it would be a much more accurate measuring stick.

If you want to get a good idea of how good somone is, check out their TT & SL times.

[kaori]

And New Zealand.

And Paraguay too...
I just said the flags I often meet.

[Constrictor]

Ahh this old topic again :) I said ages ago i think the online rank was nothing more than a "whos-got-no-job-o-meter".

As is w/ # posts per year on BBSs :twisted

Yes, I feel I am discriminated :lol

[leungbok]

If you want to get a good idea of how good somone is, check out their TT & SL times.

So we can conclude you're not that bad at this game, Haydn ! ;)
:)

[Koleax]

I'll look at the levels for Eliminator and to a lesser extent Zone Battle. A genuine level 2 player could be a challenge in a race, knowing lines and BRs from offline, but for Eliminator there are so many different strategies and behaviors online that you will not learn playing offline.

[OBH]

So we can conclude you're not that bad at this game, Haydn ! ;)
:)
Haha! Average at best :g I might have had a different opinion if i was higher than a measly lvl.38 or something! :beer

[leungbok]

Lol, i didn't know if i already passed the level 30, mate ! :lol

[kanar]

Hey guys,

after some crazy online racing yesterday, just wanted to add my 2 cents here... Well maybe that's going to be a little bit offtopic...

Altough I'll tend to agree with the common point of view which is TT/SL times are a good way to evaluate someone's skills, I would add online level/experience (and so the badge level thing -if someone is not using different accounts of course-) really matters. My point is; someone -me for example lol- who's practically never playing online, except for some special occasions eh eh, and simply spending his time into speed lap mode, will be severely out of his marks online. I should add I'm not playing TT that much too, so it's even more obvious for me.

I'm ranked 45 or something, but I'm not playing regularly. My point is playing online -really- often, like several hours each week, and switching sometimes with offline modes (SL/TT/Zone) is the key. Online environment is really something different, where your ping (especially when playing with people faaar away from you), download/upload speed are playing a good part too in your results. The more balanced you'll be, the more you'll get used to this different universe.

Again, to stay on my example, when I'm online, I'm loosing all my marks compared to offline. Of course weapon use is certainly not my best strenght, I'm that kind of absorb/pacifist guy, but when I see myself eating this incredible amount of walls each races, I can't just blame myself -lol-; there's automatically some kind of latency, delays in your inputs (that's why some of us started to talk about handling problems after certain updates)... Which can be really frustrating and give you the feeling online play is awful compared to the unplugged modes. I've understood it's not the case, you just have to adapt yourself, so don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to find any kind of excuses. The best offline dudes are also the best online players... Especially if they're balancing their game time between each modes. I'll tend to say the priority should be given to online play. I've always improved my speed lap times drastically some days after an avalon meeting.

Sorry guys this post is kinda selfish, just wanted to justify in some way my recurrent epic online fail ah ah, compared to my speed lap times. That's why I'm going to be online more often before the grand finale, I think a 10 days online-only training camp could be a good way to better prepare myself to this experience lol.

[ProblemSolver]

@kanar: "... but when I see myself eating this incredible amount of walls each
races, I can't just blame myself -lol- ..." lol Keep going! xD

[il_mago_di_Doz]

Hi Kanar, we are psn-friends, so I've seen your incredible improvement in speed lap times :D, and I just wanted to say that I'm in a simil situation with online racing. I usually play offline, with Icaras.
When I go online it's all another world for me.
Maybe because of the different ship (feisar), maybe because of the weapons (I'm a pacifist guy too ^_^), I don't know, just wanted to say that...
you're not alone! :lol

[kanar]

eh eh thanks mate, yeah I'm way too much offline to be used to the online mayhem anyway. But no matter how many walls I'm eating, I'm always happy to race with all my friends online. Don't care about the final rankings at the end of the race, just care about the let's be friends motto only.

[Aeroracer]

rank in the game measures nothing. as stated by saturn its how much you have played.

but it dosnt measure you well if much of the time you played was offline.

SL and TT freaks will show up lower rank online yet will play with great skill.

also low ank dosnt always mean crap player.

many players make up other ids for various reasons.

so basically all you can really tell from rank is if its really hight they should be from anything to quite good to elite and low ranks is lucky did from noob to elite.

the only way i can tell how skillful a player may be is by their name, meaning i have played this player and know how fast they are.i like to know my fellow players rather than playing randoms and secret id's.

[Z°ⁿε]

I just race, doesn't matter to me if their lvl 20 or lvl 1.

[alexk9]

I like racing against higher ranked racers as I tend to not go online often, so I have a low ranking compared to how I race and it tends to surprise people most of the time. I don't think I'll be good like i used to though, as I haven't played for a bit.

[leungbok]

I don't think I'll be good like i used to though, as I haven't played for a bit.

So, you don't surprise people that much anymore ! ;)

[YouAreFubar]

I agree with Jasmin and Saturn, I dont think its an indicator for anything other than time spent online, you cant really use it to gauge how good the other racers are. It seems to be quite a small community though, you soon recognize whos good and who isnt.

[ProblemSolver]

I also recognized "new players" with a lower online rank telling me that they
do play the game for just about some weeks. The curious thing here is that some
of those have earnt the platinum trophy in just about two or three weeks, while
haven't played the game ever before and do race close to the best performing
difficult BRs and similar things online. xD

Well, I don't care about the online rank, it's just an indicator for how long
you've played with the current PSN ID. And if a "new player" joins the show, I
just treat them by their performance on the track. That's it.

[alexk9]

So, you don't surprise people that much anymore ! ;)

Haha yup! I was playing eliminator the other day and I got completely battered; I was well surprised!

[F.E.I.S.A.R]

To me,ranks do not mater now. I just race. If I beat a person of lower "rank",Whatever. If I beat a person of a higher rank,whatever. But,if I DO beat someone from here and that person is very good,you never know.

[DaMiGi63]

I just Leveled up recently & I'm now a Lvl 20+, I think.So I'll probably be looking for more difficult challenges in the future.

[MegaGeeza22]

I usually like playing against higher level opponents because they wont leave when they see my level... but today i just got beat 3 times in a row by a level 1!!! hiz name was rilzler lol so i bet its a 2nd account... im average i would say so my lvl 30 means nothing.
DaMiGi63, your lvl 20 but i havnt beat anyone on here (wz) yet so that proves levels dont count! apart from the obvious level 101s lol

[R3BU5ER]

For some reason, When I play Wipeout, it's I think about 90% online... My concentration is low wel doing dull speedlaps and tt's. Offcourse I do them on occasion, and when I would put my heart in i could improve my times I think...but the rush of playing online can't compete with offline IMO. Online level isn't really something I consider.. I know the fast pilots around so I always have tuff matches online. :)