by BLA1NE Wed Aug 01, 2012 10:53 pm
Lagstabbing is a combination of online lag and broken backstab mechanics. PvP lags by about half a second, so wherever your enemy is on your screen, and whatever he's doing, is where he was and what he was doing half a second ago. Which means he's really half a second ahead of where he appears to be. This could be overcome, but the effect is compounded with broken backstabbing:
When a player is locked-on to you and he runs at you, and slightly to your side, when he goes by you the lock-on will cause his camera to quickly swivel. If he attacks at that moment, the game will interpret it as a backstab, even though he wasn't behind you--he was by your side.
So when someone can backstab you when he's on your side, and he's half a second ahead of where he appears to be on your screen, you can understand how players can backstab you when they're ahead of you on your screen.
This also causes problems to (rookie) players who strafe too much, and continuously in the same direction, or who make the mistake of advancing toward their opponent while strafing in predictable ways. Because you're half a second ahead of where you appear to be on your enemy's screen, and he's half a second ahead of where he appears to be on your screen, you can imagine how wonky the game gets when two players are strafing around each other, and one reverses direction. That's an easy way to get behind someone by changing strafing directions, since on his screen you haven't changed direction yet, which causes him to keep strafing in the same direction while you strafe in the opposite one. Again, this, with lag, creates situation in which you get backstabbed from seemingly impossible places.