Soul orbs timing, buffering, lag compensation

[.kate]

Sometimes you shoot the orb, you get a hit sound, hit marker, but you dont get the orb.

(simulated 50ms ping in video below)

View attachment eaten.mp4

I went to recreate and investigate this, and discovered the following:


With net_fakelag 25 (50ms ping), cl_interp_ratio 1 and cl_tickpacket_desired_queuelength 1 the sandbox orb timer will report the claim time to be longer by the amount of ping

With net_fakelag 25 (50ms ping), cl_interp_ratio 0 and cl_tickpacket_desired_queuelength 0 the sandbox orb timer will report the claim time to be longer by the amount of ping + 1 frame (~16ms)

View attachment orb_delay.mp4


On top of that there is a considerable amount of delay between hitting the orb and getting hit feedback in the form of a hitmarker or hit sound (around 5 to 7 frames at 60fps), which makes the entire process of shooting orbs feel delayed and unresponsive.

I've seen people talking about cases where they even can't deny orbs that aren't being claimed by the enemies. I've also seen people talking about (it also happens to me consistently, tho I don't have any video footage of it) situations where they will get a hit marker and hit sound on a friendly orb, but it will still get denied by the enemies.

With current player numbers some people often play on servers outside their area, which is a very large advantage for people living in more populated parts of their regions. I'm in Poland and almost all of my games are on London or Netherlands servers, which means I'm always playing on 50-70ms ping. I've seen North American players talk about the same thing, with east coast players getting games almost exclusively on west coast servers or vice versa.

Right now orbs are basically impossible to deny consistently, even if the enemies are behind a wall and physically can't shoot them, unless you are playing on low ping. In some situations even friendly orbs become hard or completely impossible to secure. This leads me to believe the orb buffering system that was talked about in the patch notes is either broken in some way, or it's been disabled without notice. Please investigate this further cuz I'm stupid and I don't know anything other than it feels bad and inconsistent

volvo pls fix

 

[Playeroth]

bump. I see this very often even with 8ping.

 

[glutenfreevapes]

Can you test with 2+ clients in the shooting range with the orb debug enabled?

The orbs do feel unresponsive and inconsistent in some way, maybe the orb VFX could change color based on what state it's in?
Right now I feel like it sounds like it's hit when it's not or sth, quite often.

The inconsistency gets worse because friendly and enemy
(and maybe last hitted) soul orbs make the orb favor certain players ???
and give them more time to hit it?



50 ping vs 150 ping:
orb appears
-> player reacts (150ms)
-> player clicks
-> send click to server 50ms ping
-> destroy the orb?
-> send result to client 50ms ping
-> orb VFX on client
orb appears
-> player reacts (100ms)
-> player clicks
-> send click to server 150ms ping
-> destroy the orb?
-> send result to client 150ms ping
-> orb VFX on client


Now ideally the player who spends the least amount of real world time to hit the orb should score it, regardless of ping.
So it will be unresponsive in feedback to players if optimized for competitiveness.


Perhaps if a player hits the orb it can have a slight tint of color which signals what's happening?
black - can't hit
Red- hit too early
Yellow - orb hit, waiting for orb buffer result

 

[CuddleBear]

This issue seems to still be in the game or is it just me? Often in games i get the sound but didn't get the souls.
Also at the same time i feel i have to lead the orbs so much. have to shoot it a full orb length above it for it to hit better.

Is it it just me or what?

 

[Playeroth]

This issue seems to still be in the game or is it just me? Often in games i get the sound but didn't get the souls.
Also at the same time i feel i have to lead the orbs so much. have to shoot it a full orb length above it for it to hit better.

Is it it just me or what?

a lot of this happens to me too. specially as paige, the sound of hitting the souls is heard but not the confirm. it confuses and its annoying

 

[ArteMooNik]

Same here. Even ammo get's restored, but i dont get the deny.

 

[alt]

Here's another video (while aim training as Paige with net_fakelag 35 (70ms ping))

View attachment Deadlock - 2025-10-08 20-44-33.mp4

It's happened a lot on lower velocity guns (Paige, Kelvin, etc.) but especially bad on Paige. Might be because her bullets can penetrate units, That's could also be a bug.

 

[CuddleBear]

what i have found is that it practically has no say how slow your bullets are. I personally struggle with this on vindicta, seven, mcginnis and many of the other heroes. I always have to shoot a full orb distance if not more above it for it to count. rarely will aiming at it directly even work and this is with half decent ping aswell with around 30.
its even worse when its about 100 ping and i can fully expect i will only get confirmed a few orbs in the laning stage. It still gives that orb hit sound effect but never loops it back to the server for the confirmation.

Sure i know im far far from the best. but when i shoot the soul orbs most of the time and i get the sound most of the time but never actually get the souls and confirmation then something is wrong. And i never see any of the streamers leading their shots on the souls either. Its like there is immense delay with how soul confirmation works. If you have low ping at 15 or under then you dont need to lead it at all and if you hear the sound you get the confirmation. But if you got higher ping then its all over the place. Yes i get that its timestamped and compared on the server. makes me wonder how that timestamp is even pulled. surely its some sort of game specific internal clock?

 

[glutenfreevapes]

Here's another video (while aim training as Paige with net_fakelag 35 (70ms ping))



View attachment 62559


It's happened a lot on lower velocity guns (Paige, Kelvin, etc.) but especially bad on Paige. Might be because her bullets can penetrate units, That's could also be a bug.

@Yoshi is this a bug???
Looks like it's sometimes hard to determine if player hit the orb TOO EARLY


Can we get some more information for players to understand soul orb hit?

Perhaps if a player hits the orb it can have a slight tint of color which signals what's happening?
black - can't hit
Red- hit too early
Yellow - orb hit, waiting for orb buffer result

Such as I shot the orb too early, it has a blood splatter effect etc?
Unclear when we hit the orb too early

 

[HelloImHalo]

save us valve

Thread 'Soul orb denying and confirming needs changes'

Oct 4, 2025

If the orb changes color, that should be the window that i can shoot to deny. If i cannot deny during that window, it should not be changing color. The same occurs with denying. I've made posts similar to this in the General Gameplay feedback as well and other players are having issues with the confirm and deny system as it is in its current state

You can play the clip at .25 speed and clearly see the orb change color to orange and i shoot it the next frame, it changes color to black like i hit it, but then becomes orange again. Several frames later the enemy shoots to confirm it and they...

• HelloImHalo
• Replies: 3
• Forum: Bug Reports

 

[Fiends]

This bug is extremely reliable and I have been losing last hits and denies in lane because of it. If you deny and last hit the entire first wave you get to buy early, and this bug is making it difficult and impossible to get to 803 souls on the first wave. I am sick of ending on 770 because the game isnt working properly and the Deny that I am clearly getting and popping on my screen isnt making it to the server.

 

[dankomancer]

Good luck securing /your/ orbs when you have 8 ping and the enemy has 80. You have to shoot your orbs in a 8+(whatever default buffer)ms window, else the enemy has a full 100ms to respond to your orb to steal it. You try stealing their orb? Hahaha they get 100ms to react to it. Meanwhile you get like 20ms to react to yours. It's kinda bullshit.

 

[souljanboy]

Good luck securing /your/ orbs when you have 8 ping and the enemy has 80. You have to shoot your orbs in a 8+(whatever default buffer)ms window, else the enemy has a full 100ms to respond to your orb to steal it. You try stealing their orb? Hahaha they get 100ms to react to it. Meanwhile you get like 20ms to react to yours. It's kinda bullshit.

Thats what im trying to explain to everyone complaining for securing orbs but they wont understand

 

[daavimachaado]

orbs have been like this since the soul orb change

 

[dankomancer]

orbs have been like this since the soul orb change

yerp but they only buffed it as time went on

 

[Arch1]

I still do not understand how it works... I shoot orb but enemies still deny it faster..

 

[dankomancer]

I still do not understand how it works... I shoot orb but enemies still deny it faster..

sometimes I shoot their orb, they dont even shoot it and I don't get it, I get the sound and resto shot proc and everything.

 

[windwise]

easy to reproduce - but it seems like a design flaw not a bug.
every game feels like the input/output doesnt match what is on the screen (even at supposedly low latency).
pressing F7 shows a constant desync and mispredict.
game filled with this kind of horrible jank.

i'm sorry, but you can't call it a shooter (even in hybrid/part) in it's current state.
heck, even the moba side of it doesnt moba with how far off the micro feels.