hello,
Every saturday, we get together at a friend's house to play halo 2 system link. We have been doing it since the first halo came out. Sometimes we have as many as 15 or so people all linked up.

Since I had made a bunch of different variants on my xbox, I somehow assumed the position of party leader every week.

I usually do very well, so well in fact that lately some of the people are bitchin and saying that since I am the party leader or host, that I have a big advantage.. I can see that maybe online, but system link? anyway, I don't know so I was wondering if anyone does?

I already made the same variants on my friends xbox and he is going to host this saturday so we'll see if it's my host advantage or my fragging skills that usually end me out on top. lol

so, does anyone know if the host has an advantage and if so, how much of one?
thanks

describe these variants? this might hit a touchy subject here at X-S so i'm going to try to dance around the topic. If your variants cause you do gain any type of strategic advantage by altering things within the game then yes, you are gaining an advantage...and thus playing unfairly.

if they are silly changes like different skins or something (that don't make it easier to see someone) then no it shouldn't matter. There is zero benefit gained from a strictly system-linked game when it comes to network speeds or lag or anything similar. The bandwidth, even on a Wireless B system (low-end), is well more than needed for system-linked play.

thanks for the reply.

No, by game variants, I just meant different rules for different games like : no shields on the larger maps with battle rifle as a starting weapon, shields on smaller maps starting with smg . king of the hill... etc...

They were just implying that I had an advantage because I was the host and they would have a slight slight lag as compared to me. although it would be so slight that they wouldn't even notice really. I think they are just reaching for excuses now . lol

thanks again..

Yes, the host of the game does have some advantages over other players. There are many things that you can do as a host that you cant as a normal player, ill just give one example. on ascension you can take the banshee and flip it upside down and stand on one wing and shoot the other with the rocket launcher then you will go flying to the top of the map. If you was a normal player, you will either kill yourself or the banshee doesnt lauch you and it just blows up (depends on if you have shields on or not).
There are other things that the host can do that others cant, just play a couple of games and you might be able to notice some things

So your saying the host is somewhat tougher

could you explain more what advantages host has or doesn't have on syst link compared to live

I knew alot of advantages that the host had, but i've been out of halo2 for a while. I just got started playin it again.
I do recall something about that if the host and some other player start shooting at each other at the same time, using the same gun (assuming one isnt shooting at the others head, and the other shooting one's foot ), that the host will end up winning

The hosting doesnt matter as to what your using (you can be using xbl/sys. link, or just playin a regular game). There are host on games that you arnt connecting to any other xbox at all, it just that since all the players are on the same xbox it wont do much

not really there is a thing called "host" that makes whoever has it a slight advantage with these certian weopons: shotgun
sword
rocks
and snipe

not that much differance but it is nice to get it