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MP pings and server question

Want help in running a persistent server? Want to setup a gaming session? Look no further!

Post Sun Feb 09, 2003 9:35 pm

MP pings and server question

On a more "serious" note...

1. What are the max pings that are still playable?

2. How meny out there are planning to run servers on their home systems? (Dedicated or not?), might even use it as a poll question on TLR?

3. I have a 750kbit connection, how meny people would i be able to host, should i start a server on my system?



I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the darkness at Tan Hauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.

Post Sun Feb 09, 2003 11:37 pm

1. I played fine on a server with a 180 ping, thoug some lagg does occur and ships some times jump from 10 meters in front of you to 2 k in front of you, but this doesnt happen too much

2. not me, i have a p3 650 with 128 ram if i start a server on this machine and run fl along with it i'll give myself a ping of 80 and some one that lives in the uk a ping of 200 so thats a no- go

3. you could try

-----------------------

United SL Modelers¸
Administrator for World Of Gamers
Webmaster for Red Faction World

Post Sun Feb 09, 2003 11:45 pm

@Thunder Child

what is both your upload and download speeds?

Post Mon Feb 10, 2003 12:35 am

Mad Dog - is it fun playing Freelancer in your P3 650 or is the system too slow ?

Post Mon Feb 10, 2003 6:43 am

D/l is 750kbits (kbps) which is bout 94 k/sec
U/l is 96kbits which is 12 k/sec

it's a Cable connection

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the darkness at Tan Hauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.

Post Mon Feb 10, 2003 6:52 am

Well, I don't own FL, but my connection which is fairly similar to yours, in upload at least, which is what you'll need for server hosting( 1.5 MB down, 128 up ) seems to be able to host no more than 4 people in most FPS games ( Unreal engine mostly ) and I've occasionally been able to host 5 or 6 player Tribes 2 games - but rarely more than that.

I'm guessing I won't be able to host more than 3 or 4 in Freelancer, I'm sure that the game has a lot to keep track of in network games, all of the AI ships, player weapons, player ships, and I'm guessing that it needs to load into memory all systems that are currently inhabitated by one or more players, that's more to keep track of than most FPS games, so I may be only able to host 2 or 3

Edited by - Tasiin on 10-02-2003 06:53:47

Post Mon Feb 10, 2003 11:18 am

John, it works fine, i've sen fl run fine on a

P2 350mhz
256 MB RAM
32 Meg GF2 card
(though these are not official stats and are just what i observed)

I can play at 1024x768 at max detail with no probs, cept for when 15 or so ships jump in and all start fighing in the asteroid feeld i'm in.

-----------------------

United SL Modelers¸
Administrator for World Of Gamers
Webmaster for Red Faction World

Post Mon Feb 10, 2003 4:47 pm

Tasiin,

I've hosted vietcong DM of 6 people without a hitch, and could probably go as far as 8.

My main concern is that living in Israel, the only good pings i'll get are from europe. Most of my MOHAA session were on german servers or english servers.

Thats why the max ping number is interesting, the hosting is out of curiosity...since the MP is persistent, there is no point in being a server unless you maintain it for a long period of time with regular hours. Now if i had another computer....That would have been a diffrent story, but i dont. So i'm considering it, but i'm no sure how much of my up time i can devote to it.

Specs are:

Ga-8PE667 mobo
P4-2.4
512 MB DDR333
Radeon 9700pro
40GB Maxtor drive
19" LG monitor
750/96 kbit Cable connection



I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the darkness at Tan Hauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.

Post Mon Feb 10, 2003 6:31 pm

@ Thunder Child

Good news is you'll have very little problems hosting a server. This cinfiguration is almost identical to the one I have been running. The main difference is cable vs DSL. The sustained bandwidth of DSL is a little better than cable, no question.

I've had no problems with realtime hosting of 8 people with not so much as a minor spike on the server load. I imagine it's possible for there to be between 10 and 30 people on my server. The reason for the wide variation is the amount of graphically activity experienced by users. Let me explain that....

If there are 25 people on my server and very few of them are actively engaged in fighting that would mean rendering scores upon scores of shots from a variety of ships...then there would be very little lag. Contrastly, if there were 10 people on the server and all of them were engaged in a fight that required rendering scores upons scores of shots from a variety of ships, there's going to be some server stress.

Realisitically, more than half the people on a given server are going to be activily engaged in some sort of fighting most of the time, so theoretically speaking, I'm expecting there to be a maximum baseline of somewhere between 10 - 16 I can host with plenty of room for rendering any projected graphic rendering from them all.

As we get to test the server when the game goes retail, I'll be better prepared to set the maximum number of simulaneous logins and put the baby on autopilot.

I would be the first one here to say Thunder Child, please put up a server if you're able. Even if it's not available 24/7. It would be a great addition to any other available servers. Besides, you'll be able to run your server any way you choose!

I'm moving this post to MP server forum where it belongs. Good info in here tho.

Edited by - Stinger on 10-02-2003 18:32:52

Post Mon Feb 10, 2003 6:36 pm

Having played from Europe on different servers in the US, I would say that ping times up to 100 are not noticable, between 100 and 150 it's OK, 150-200 is quite annoying at times and above 200 just plainly doesn't work.

I was at some point on 250 in ping, and the game became VERY weird. Like seeing your shield and hull drain away without seeing any attackes?!? Sitting in a front of a jumpgate, and nothing happens for 3 minutes and similar serious breakdowns.

Might been improved in the shipping version compared to the beta I tried it with - most certainly is improved - but just to set some expectations!





Best Regards
Christian "Bargib" Koerner
Editor in Chief, The Lancers Reactor

Post Mon Feb 10, 2003 6:45 pm

Och i hate that. Had that all thge time while Flying Flanker...Your on his six, pumping full of lead only to be dead the second later beacuse you were shooting him in his past while he has allready executed a manuver 8)

Thanks for the Info. Guess euro players will have to put up with me yet again...

Bout hosting, Israel is GMT+2. I think most of my time at first will be devoted to SP (i like SP better, what can i say) But i'll be doing some mp. Mostly during the evenings. What i think i can do is leave the computer running over night, or maybe daytime although i don't see who is gonna connect during the day.

My only concern are heating and hacking. I havn't run the system 24/7 yet. Although it has alot of fans i need to check this aspect out. As for hacking...Other then a good FW and AV, do i need anything else?



I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the darkness at Tan Hauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.

Post Mon Feb 10, 2003 7:06 pm



My only concern are heating and hacking. I havn't run the system 24/7 yet. Although it has alot of fans i need to check this aspect out. As for hacking...Other then a good FW and AV, do i need anything else?



I have left mine running 24/7 for weeks on end with no heat problems. The hacking is a loaded question that brings into the mix your OS, whether you're using a NAT (some people do), or whether you firewall needs to be configured to open a port (Zone Alarm does this on the fly, just allow the executable to act as a server). The antivirus isn't really an issue except during the initial installation procedure, which we all know to turn off right?

Bascially speaking, setting up the server and flipping on the autopilot is pretty seemles in most cases.

Post Mon Feb 10, 2003 7:23 pm

Well i have Kerio running and it's very easy, once you allow the game/app to work it wont have any problems with running a server. It would be interesting to know how meny hits i'd get on it.

The server logs that info automatically

I still have to see if it can be played while running the server, or it would limit the hours i can use it as a server

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the darkness at Tan Hauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.

Edited by - Stinger on 10-02-2003 21:28:25

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