Frequently Asked Questions

philippeqc · Post by **philippeqc** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 2:30 pm

This FAQ is under development. Feel free to suggest items that should be added here.

1. Introduction
2. Installing the application
3. Playing the game
4. Network issues
5. Moviepacks

4.1 What is lag
Short anser: When, for various reasons, the state of the game on your client becomes desynchronized with the state of the game as accepted by the server. The difference between accepted states, who is in front, when did player X turn, causes strange behaviors to be displayed on the client. Some of the most common are sliding, where the cycle and its trace are moved on either side, an enemy "behind" you that cuts you and kill you, sudden apparition/change in the position of an enemy and parts of its trace.

Wow, you must be thinking, is that really the short anser? Well lets consider the problem for a while.

These are symptoms of a problem that lies underneat, ie: the network. Internet is filled by idiots surfing around and idiots playing network games (that us). Everybody is pretty much competing for ressources on servers, and in this case, all the routers that lies between you and the server. And that competition is always in fluctuation. A sudden burst of traffic anywhere on that path and your suddenly your game goes awire.

The long anser (actually very short): There is no such thing as lag. It is only online-gamer's lingo. It is a matter of round-trip delay, the time for information to go from your client to the server and back, jitter, the variation in the round-trip delay, bandwidth, the capacity to carry information of all the links that separate you from the server, router usage, other traffic , router policy, such as "game traffic is less important that lets say banking traffic", and many more items. The real long anser is, grab a book about Inter-Networking.

4.2 What can I do to reduce my lag?
First of all, check your link to Internet. Most of the time, that will be the weakest link in the path to the server.
-While armagetron is playable on dial-up, consider upgrading to dsl/cable. The extra bandwidth means that each packet traverse that link much faster.
-Keep that link relatively traffic free. Having the latest p2p application du jour downloading the latest album of the starlet du jour means you have that less bandwidth available AND mean that many packet need to be queued before being transmitted, adding heavy delays on each packet.
-Find a server located close to you. Physical distance, on the continent scale, add delays to your packets. While signal travel at about 66% of c, server further away will be separated by more routers.
-Avoid the trans-atlantic link. Ok, this info might be one or 2 decades late, or just plain wrong, but there is probably less cabling liying on the bottom of the ocean than that liying a few meters under the ground. Trans-atlantic lines are few, and their usage high.
-If your from a non-western Europe, non-North America country, it might be very hard to go around any of these. Why not try to set up your own server, and get as much of your friends to play with you? That server will appear on the master list, and some ppl close to your server location will probably join you.

Also read this article. While is concern another game, it is still very accurate.
http://www.bluesnews.com/articles/latency_vs_ping.shtml

4.3 What is ping?

ping is the name of an applications used to send ICMP echo messages that are returned by the destination host. The total travel and processing time of the ICMP echo message provide a general indication of the rtt (Round Time Trip), the time required for a message to go from the source host to the destination host and back.

The term ping is used, incorrectly, to indicate the time your data need to reach the server. High ping, ie rtt of high value, signify that you are 'distanced' from the server, that your messages will take a great deal of time (for a computer packet) to reach the server, and that the game will have to re-synchronize some info when received.

/Incomplete entry.

philippeqc · Post by **philippeqc** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 2:31 pm

Post reserved for future expantion

philippeqc · Post by **philippeqc** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 2:32 pm

Post reserved for future expantion.

philippeqc · Post by **philippeqc** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 2:37 pm

Hi all

Well a FAQ is/was due.

So, go at it, share your entries and I'll add them to the document. Or tell us of correction to the current entries.

And when we will have some more entries, I'll (or we'll) have some fun coming up with a real structure for it.

-ph