> "When doing netcode for an FPS, your engineering decisions are game design decisions."
Of particular note: your engineering decisions directly affect which tactics are viable and to what degree. Can you wait for the last instant to dodge, or do you need to dodge a shot well before it reaches you? Can you kill a laggy player before they have a chance to react, or can they dodge your shots long after they appeared to hit? Can a player with a better internet connection control an area simply by virtue of their shots taking effect sooner (destroying an opponent, or at least wrecking their aim, before their shot gets counted as having fired)?
This came up in the Descent series with a change to the networking model between Descent 2 and 3. The top competitive communities didn't consider Descent 3 to be "real Descent" because the move to client-server (as well as physics changes) changed the gamescape so drastically.
[Disclosure: I'm married to Dove, and we have been playing Descent together for 16 years.]
Of particular note: your engineering decisions directly affect which tactics are viable and to what degree. Can you wait for the last instant to dodge, or do you need to dodge a shot well before it reaches you? Can you kill a laggy player before they have a chance to react, or can they dodge your shots long after they appeared to hit? Can a player with a better internet connection control an area simply by virtue of their shots taking effect sooner (destroying an opponent, or at least wrecking their aim, before their shot gets counted as having fired)?
This came up in the Descent series with a change to the networking model between Descent 2 and 3. The top competitive communities didn't consider Descent 3 to be "real Descent" because the move to client-server (as well as physics changes) changed the gamescape so drastically.
[Disclosure: I'm married to Dove, and we have been playing Descent together for 16 years.]