Acceptable Ping rates?

[Skoshi Tiger]

Hi! I'm just wondering what people view as an acceptable ping values for playing online. I'm from Western Australia and the problem is at the times I get a chance to play online I generally have to play on servers in the US/UK with ping rates (on a good day) of 300-310ms. If it's any higher I generally don't bother.

At local servers I can find ping rates of 60ms, but generally I'm the only one there and it gets a bit boring (sometimes) flying circuits and blowing up undefended ground targets. (Oh and theres always those 'open' servers, sans password, with 6 or so gamers that boot you as soon as you join the game!)

The other question is, flying off line I seem to have a lot better gunnery than when I'm flying online. Could the high ping rate be one of (apart from my general suckiness of flying skills) my problems?

Cheers!

[Codex]

Sorry mate, but us flyers here in Aus land have to suck it up. We've got the crappiest internet network in the world and pay top dollar for it, no thanks to Telstra's monopoly on the copper networks. Sure we have fibre optic nodes, but there are only a few outlets that connect to world. I'm with Telstra ADSL, I can't get ADSL2 or Naked DSL / Cable in my area but I can get roughly 260ms on War Clouds. The trouble is I often get kicked because of the spikes. I ran a trace from my PC to War Clouds one day and found my packets run through 13 or so servers, it's carzy! To add to the spikes you've got all the teenie poppers downloading their fandangled MP3's and You tube "Chick Chick Boom" videos which also slows things down (somewhat). Our only salvation is the Governments multi billion dollar upgrade plan, but don't hold your breath, it's going to be 5 to 10 years before we see any fruit from that.

[K_Freddie]

You shouldn't complain ... We get around 300mS on average, with our fastest networks, but Ja, it's a big disadvantage as one has to fly about 300ms ahead of your time. Man!! that sounds far fetched

We're getting this new Seacom cable in July'ish so maybe we might be up to speed.

Generally 100mS is the limit of decent play. Ping rate really only effects how you perceive the other players.

The way online works is that, whatever you do, takes ((your ping-time + theirs)/2) to get to the other players, and visa-versa. So if you shoot at a plane (who's player is 200ms ping away) and your bullets take 100ms to hit him.

If that player, on his side started to evade exactly at the same time you pulled the trigger - you will not see the evasion until 200ms later, but it will be too late for him because your shells hit him 100ms before he evaded.

The shell hits are recorded on your PC (You did hit him) and then sent to his pc, and he's get's upset as according to him, he was well out your way, and his plane just fell apart, while seeing your shells pass harmlessly behind him'.

This is one way how IL2, reduces the amount of net traffic. A server generally does not control the physcial game factors (your PC does this), and acts as a router for all players. Well this is what I've worked out over the years

[Skoshi Tiger]

....Which is why my standard gunnery technique involves either finding a plane on the ground or pointing my plane in the general direction of the opponent and emptying my guns

Cheers and thanks for the insight.

It may even explain last night where a non-existant airplane was shooting me! Need to check that track while I remember!

[Bobb4]

Coming from darkest africa, pings are a huge issue. As Freddie stated we will be getting Seacom soon which should up the ping to Europe and the US.
Back to your question, what is a playable ping.
Between 250 and 450 are easily playable as long as your connection is stable.
Ping spikes are a major issue though.
I play ADW with a ping of between 290 and 390 quiet easily.

The guy with a better ping has an advantage but it is the price you pay.
As long as you are not warping it should be no problem to other players. Ping spikes enhance warping allowing your plane to shoot from one point to another and will irritate the crap out of other players.
Place you could look to play is in Asia... Your pings should be bloody good there?

As for the invisible plane, well my guess is you were on a modded server and you did not have the skins of the plane your enemy was using.
Hope that helps

[Thunderbolt56]

Originally Posted by Bobb4

Back to your question, what is a playable ping.
Between 250 and 450 are easily playable as long as your connection is stable.
Ping spikes are a major issue though.

Stability is ALWAYS better than a lower number. The problem with most high pings is exactly as explained earlier in the thread and that is the number of servers or hops. Like a chain, your internet connection to a particular server is reliant upon the stability (and oftentimes traffic) passing through all of the links.

Sadly, there is usually little you can do to improve it. Even if you had a wide open pipe, one of the many links you have to pass through may hiccup. You, therefore, would have a better ping, but still have potential stability issues.

[steppie]

what can i say is that i have telsra cable and i love it, it fast and i have no problem.

[Skoshi Tiger]

My ping is fairly stable and I don't experience warping to any great degree ( only when opponents disapear from my gun sights in a blink of an eye! ) So I guess I shouldn't complain. I can't remember the last time I was kicked of a server for high ping rate.

Curse those invisible skins! Where do I get me one!

Cheers All.

[robtek]

There is no invisible skin.
It might have been a modded Server and you didnt had the plane in the right version installed. i.e. Bf109 E1 or E3 or Fw190 A3 or Spitfire MkI or Hurricane MkIID or SeaHurricane or, or, or.......

[K_Freddie]

There was/is a damage skin that makes 'holes' appear in the plane structure. If you modded this skin (mask) and made the plane one 'big hole', it would effectively be invisible.
If you don't have the right skin the server usually uses the default skin... usually