Topic: How hard would it be to show ping?

[Dash Jones]

Actually, I've found with a DSL/Cable that I lag.  In UR Tournament 2003 I have really low pings under 100, however I find that even in high speed connection games, I get into interminable lag at times, depending on the computer I am using, and I suspect, whatever computers someone else is using.  I think a person with a 7or 1 ghz computer, with too little RAM (512 and below) and a high speed connection will lag you worse than someone with a 2-3 mhz computer with tons of RAM but a low connection speed, at least in my experience.  I can't vouch for those who are on the low end of everything.  Ping is part of the factor, but there are other things as well that plays into it.  

[matyoung]

It does help to have a good system as i said before you host the game not the d3 server (as this drops out of the loop so to speak when you go into battle) so if your using a 233 mhz with 32mb or ram and are trying to host a game with 4 or more ppl then your system might not be up to the task but i would recommend that ppl ask what your connection is or just that if they have good spec,s to be the fleet leader if u feel your system is not up to the task i would love it if we all had 2.0ghz 512ddr and a 1mb adsl connection to run our games we might even see nice 6 player battles with no lag (creaming myself at the thought) at the moment the best tool we have is us. Communicate that u would not be a good fleet leader try to fleet with guys at least in the same region but again this takes us to work together to better our play experience..  

[Azrael]

I'm just sticking up for the 56K folks because I've noticed people badmouthing them online and ignoring them.

I know from experience that 56K users can host games with minimal to no lag, and I've seen people with super computers who've hosted games that are laggy.  Not just on SFC III but online with Medieval Total War as well.

Using a 56K connection, I have participated in some absolutely awesome 6 player battles without any consequential lag, putting people out of sync, though you wouldn't catch me trying to host a 6 player battle on a 56K connection.

That being said, it is good advice to try and let the person with the best connection host the battles.

Azrael  

[Aenigma]

I always wondered if the networking code could be a little bit more streamlined, or maybe get a dedicated battle-server. I have seen people with really uberconnections not able to host a game with more than five players. Maybe they could use some kind of compression (would raise minimum system requirements though). And do something about the frequent package loss (that's the fun of having a program that can register packet losses). It looks like i lose packages quite much, which causes crashes (even to desktop).

A ping display would be quite nice, but i don't know what use it has besides fleeting up with a player with low ping, or maybe let lag-alert go off.
"Go to Lag Alert commander!"

Aenigma  

[Julin Eurthyr]

At one point, I did play a couple of SFC II games on a 56K modem connection.
And my system was "weak", Celeron 400 MHZ w/64 MB RAM on Win ME, using a 32mb Diamond video card.

However, for the few games I've played on that connection, I had no issues with lag on that 56k, and I actually hosted a 3 player battle or 2, again, no lag.

However, I also had a preety good dial-up connection (regularly connected at 52,000 - 53,000 kbps) on clean phone lines (only dropped when a call came in over call waiting)...

I've also played with that same system on a cable modem, and it was no different.  I have also upgraded to a "newer" computer (Celeron 900 w/ 128 MB ram, still Win ME, this one using an Intel integrated video card), and had no issues there, too.  On the most recent "big" server, AotK, I had myself, Blade, and a Klingon RM (I can't remember who) on for an ambush mission (the Klingon was the recipient of an ISC ambush), which I initiated, and went off lag free (even though Blade had a carrier...)

[NCC2012]

Okay, I guess I've just been educated a little more.  I should have thought about the other things that can cause lag and not just single out modems.  Thanks for the heads up, and no offense to modem users was implied.  

I do still think the ping requirement idea is worth something though.  If your ping is horrible, try to find out why that is.  Like one person said above, a good defrag on the hard drive might be the problem.  Maybe it's something else.  Maybe someone is trying to run the game on a system that's only halfway to the recommended specs.  Who knows?  But it would be a place to start when you're not able to connect, and the warning flag in one's head suggests that they need to do something to not ruin an experience for someone else.