Most shooter games suffer from peeker’s advantage, which players often attribute to lag. But developers always had a problem of balancing the game to compensate for different network speeds in online matches.
Riot Games’ Anna Donlan is so confident they cracked the code that she made a bold announcement. During the League of Legends’ 10th-anniversary stream, the executive producer claimed that Project A would not have such problems. The game is the developer’s new character-based tactical shooter title characterized by precise gunplay.
The character you play will determine your fighting strategy. Each of the lethal characters has their own distinct abilities. For now, however, Riot Games has not released any details on the Project A characters.
But what Donlan revealed during the stream, which interested fans, is their take on the peeker’s advantage. She said they are aware of the issue that hounds most tactical shooter games. It is why they hired developers to help them crack the code to find the right balance for seamless gameplay. As Donlan added, they “need to solve the right problems.”
Peeker’s advantage occurs when two players from different networks see things at different times in the same match. Developers often try to find the perfect balance to make the matches competitive for two players with different broadband speeds. This lag compensation exists to make sure those with high-speed broadband connections won’t get an edge all the time.
However, lag compensation is not a perfect system. But developers have not released a better alternative so far.
She said low server tick rates have caused bullets not to register, but nobody has been able to resolve the issue. Fans might have heard about solutions like dedicated servers but nothing about the peeker’s advantage or low ping.
However, with Project A, they are trying to do things that have never been done before. They will go big as they take on netcode and global infrastructure to eliminate peeker’s advantage. Or in her own words, they need to “go to war” against the peeker’s advantage.
A peek of the shooter game reveals that it is a cross between Counter-Strike and Overwatch or PUBG. The developer said the game would take place in the very near future, which means modern warfare tech. The setting feels a lot like old-school Counter-Strike, but the colorful cast of characters reminds one of Overwatch.
Riot Games has not yet announced a release date for Project A.
