Dial-up users unite

[NeoDevilbane]

I've seen a recurring problem when I've been playing online... we'll be in the middle of a game (and by a game, I mean a 2 vs. 2 deathmatch) and one guy, maybe two will start complaining, "Who's the n00b with the dial-up connection? Who's the 56k loser?" Sometimes these people will abort the game, ruining it for me and the other guy(s) because of a little bit of lag here and there.

What the *fuck* is up with this? If by nature of virtue you're stuck with a 56k modem dial-up connection and honestly want to play Emperor online - heaven forbid you're even maybe GOOD at it - are you to be blacklisted from competing "vets"? Obsurd.

- Neo

[IxianMace]

I have a 56k dial-up connection, but my comp is pretty good for playing Emperor. However, I still put the graphics down to 16-bit color, shadows medium, and textures medium. The rest of the stuff stays on high. The game runs pretty nicely with those settings for me, but the main difference maker is the color mode (which you must change to 16-bit if you want decent speeds).

[Elite47]

most of the time westwood is so slow and laggy anyways that even dsl and cable users are caught in mostly laggy games.

[slim]

yeah when the game stoped sometimes then its a lag and when the game is only to slow then is it the sett.

hm 56k or 500kb there is no differentiated your ping must be low ...

under 300 in this game is ok all over that is often laggy ...

so when u have 56k modem but a good ping then u wont notice some differentiated.

but unfortunately the 56k modem has a to high ping dont know why but it is so ...

i have seen someplayers with a good ping and a 56k modem but its very very rare

for example isdn with 64k down and 64k up has mostly a better ping then dsl with 768k down and 128k up(with exceptions)!!!

[slim]

and have forgotten to say thats in games which dont need so much bandwidth and emperor dont need very more then 56k ... but there are some bandwidth limeted games where the 56k modem to slow(bandwidth not ping) is !!!

so the most important for a online gamer is the PING not the BANDWIDTH !!!

[Marcel71]

i dunno about bandwidth, but width slower computers (slower then 1.2Ghz) Put all graphics options on low. That makes a hugh difference.

[boelie22]

You get a lower ping by a boader bandwith. Ping means nothing more than how fast a package of imformation can be send to user X and back again. If you have a broader bandwidth you have a lower ping!!!

I personally don't like to play people with 56 kb. I've tried and it's so slow it's no fun.. AND not just not for me but also not for them!!!

And mostly people with 56 kb modem will play once/twice and than they quit because of a laggy game.

Greetzz

[NeoDevilbane]

Who are these "most" people you speak of? I use 56k, but maybe it's because I've got a pretty decent 'puter now (1.333 ghz AMD Athlon, GeForce 4 Ti video card, 256 megs of RAM), but whatever the case... it's only in very rare circumstances that games are bothersomely laggy.

- Neo

[slim]

no boelie that isnt right...

yes the Ping is the time what a package needs but that isnt true that a bridbandth a better ping have !!! yes 56k is to low but im sometimes play Counter Strike and there are a lot of people who have a better ping with isdn than dsl !!!

a provider can put your latancy to 4 and the isdn to 2 then is the ping of isdn lower and faster !!! The Ping is the Time which 1 package needs to send to user X not more not 100 not 1000 only 1 package !!! when the packages arnt so big and u have a good ping then u could have a better connection then dsl or cable ...

ONLY FOR GAMES NOT FOR DOWNLOADS !!! but if the packages are to big for 56k then yes then is cable, dsl ... better !!!

[Oper90]

most of the time westwood is so slow and laggy anyways that even dsl and cable users are caught in mostly laggy games.

True ... I believe the #1 causes for laggy games is WOL itself - even with it on a multiple T1 connection ... it can get overloaded with the number of connections they are recieving. The second reason is how players have their graphics set-up in their game. We've done test between 2 fast connections and computers -- one has a GeForce 3 and the other GeForce4 graphic card. When one of the players used anything other than custom selectable all low and/or off that it caused the game to lag. That's due to higher the graphic settings you have - the larger the packet of information that each computer sends out for the other computers to recieve. The larger the packet the slower the game goes.

[Timenn]

I have (a)dsl myself, but I find those people very annoying which are going to cry about lag. While modem isn't slow, it is just less reliable then cable/dsl. But with a good connection, it won't happen, and if it happens, then you only get sometimes a disconnection.

I hate people who say at the start of the game 'laaaaaaaaaag'

Damn, those need to be banned forever!

[Gobalopper]

I believe the #1 causes for laggy games is WOL itself

Once the game starts WOL is out of the picture for the most part. The game information does not go from your computer, to WW, to the other players, it goes directly from you to the other players. So saying a game is laggy because WOL is laggy is not correct.

[Terror]

I AM PART OF THE DIAL UP COMMUNITY :). Kickass, let's unite and destroy those EVIL broadband connections heehee

[ethan]

i find that playing against Edric O (he has 56k and so do i) we (or just me) expirienced no lags or errors. it ran just like a skirmish against the comp. it was fun, but i had to forfeit. he destroyed my con yard 4 time (yeah im new) but i still killed more units than him.

[slim]

yeah what i say ...

[Terror]

i find that playing against Edric O (he has 56k and so do i) we (or just me) expirienced no lags or errors. it ran just like a skirmish against the comp. it was fun, but i had to forfeit. he destroyed my con yard 4 time (yeah im new) but i still killed more units than him.

hey is this post saying that 56K6 is pretty good or are you saying you are better than Edric O? :)

[zamboe]

i wonder who would start the dial-up clan.

[DjCiD]

I wonder what there clan name would be?

DUC - Dail Up Clan

at least the other ppl would know its a dail up player ;D

[slim]

hm i have adsl from t-su**line in germany and they su**z really but i have luck cos my low ping mostly under 100ms hehe ;D ;D and have very rare someprobs with the connection ...

[emprworm]

theres nothing wrong with having a 56k, just dont expect everyone to want to play with you. ppl with 56k's can play with each other, but those of us who are fast do not enjoy a slow laggy game. Let me ask you this: if I have only a couple hours of game time in an evening, and I want to relax and enjoy a couple games online, why must I have to sacrifice my fun to sloth through lag soup for an hour in a game that should have taken only 20 minutes. The truth is, I don't. I will quit a game as soon as it starts if it lags too much. HOwever, I do not quit games in the middle, that isnt fair. After the first minute of the game, if you keep playing then you are committing to its "speed" so if people quit in the middle due to lag, AS LONG AS THAT LAG ISNT SLOWER THAN IT WAS WHEN THE GAME STARTED, they are being lame.

[SurlyPIG]

Contrary to popular opinion, connection speed doesn't matter very much in Emperor. Most important is comp speed. First video card, second ram, third cpu. Now, if you're like me and have a low-budget comp, just set your graphics to a lower setting. I have a 4mb graphics chip (lower than system req), 192mb of RAM and a P3-800Mhz CPU. I run with graphics on low and it's absolutely fine, though it slows a litte in extremely long games.

Connection speed should only affect you drastically if you 1) have a crappy ISP (ie AOL) 2) are playing someone that's on the other side of the planet and 3) have a crappy modem. If you have a 56k, the lag is probably computer/graphics related.

[Taqwa11]

You're probaby right, Ace. Whenever we have played, lagging hasn't been a problem. I thought you had a better connection comp than that.

[zamboe]

Adding to what aceletal said, because defently hardware is most important. The reason behind it is that conn speed is not important at all, for example if your turn on your PC connect to internet then play emperor for about 1 hour, you can check how much you have transfered and received and the result will be less than 1 MB TOTAL, in 1 hour. So the amount of data is so low that any conn over 36K can handle EBFD with the proper hardware. I've tested it in a friend's house with dial up and i was able to host a 4 ppl game several times and the games were fine.

[emprworm]

Contrary to popular opinion, connection speed doesn't matter very much in Emperor.

lol spoken from a QM'er who's used to no more than 100-200 units on the battlefield at once. Get in a long 4 player game on a map like fisher plain where you might have 200 units from 4 players moving at once, then I guarantee you that bandwidth becomes a major factor. Although comp speed I do agree is most important.

[Terror]

yes, but we're not talkin about the amount of data transported but the latency (how long it takes to bring a piece of data over to someone elses computer)