Given the frequency of multi disconnects caused, apparently, by one person lagging badly, how difficult would it be to have players pings in the connection list. You could then see at a glance who the likely culprit is and take whatever action is deemed necessary. While we're at it, how about a server option of not allowing pings over xxx?

I think that's a good idea, more so now there are more racers and more spectators, everyone needs every last drop of bandwidth.

And the spectators need to remember that they have an effect on the server as well, so they shouldn't being download stuff.

I think it would be a good idea. It'd be useful for server admins watching for laggers, but also might help drivers avoid a potential collision if someone's connection starts acting up.

one of the best suggestions I've heard in a long time, +10

I always liked how in fps games you can see everyones ping. I know there's the network debug mode in lfs but it really doesn't tell me much.

+1

My only question on this is, what ping do you guys feel is acceptable? I've been racing LFS for more than 2 years now, and on dialup. I ask in the servers and people tell me that everything looks just fine with me about any lag. Then someone else will come in and the lag bars jump. There are very few dialup users, so these others who come in and lag the server up I assume are on some kind of broadband.

Ping isn't everything when it comes to racing on the servers. With my 56k dialup, I show up to others with 0.25s of ping when you shift-F8 to see everyones connection. Others who are on broadband also show up to 0.30s ping numbers when you check. This tells me that it isn't the ping that affects the server connections that much.

Yes, I rarely disconnect and rarely lag. If I get on a server with too many other racers (19+), then I start to lag and I leave if I do. If less than 16 others, then I often have smaller ping numbers with my 56k than others with broadband when shown with shift-F8.

Oh, wait a minute. I just posted the answer. The admins already have what is suggested here. Shift-F8 is the network debug mode or something. It shows the pings above the cars underneath the displayed names. It just shows above their cars rather than all together in the connection list.

Edit:

Quote :

I know there's the network debug mode in lfs but it really doesn't tell me much.

Whoops, Davo said it just before I hit post reply. It does tell you a lot. It tells you exactly what is asked for here, only above individual cars rather than beside everyone's names in the list.

I don't think it shows ping at all. Otherwise I should see people with numbers of 0.04 etc instead I see most people with 0.20 and some with upto 0.40. Now I know for a fact most people have a ping under 100 to most lfs server since they're all euro based. I have a ping of 350 to euro servers, 250 to us servers and about 50 to aus servers. I don't see this reflected int he network debug mode, I see myself as 0.00 always.

Yeah, that network debug isn't your ping.

When I was on 56k the max racers I could race against without lag/much lag was about 15, more than that and the lag would get progressively worse. There is no way a 56k'er will be able to race a server full of 28 plus spectators.

It's not the people on dial-up this is about though, just people with bad pings or at the very least it would make people stop any downloads or MSN that kind of thing.............which they should already.

good idea !
+1

also perhaps in LFS Lapper

lagmaxoption = 0.20
/* action if the ping of the player is over 0.20 for example
/spectate {username} Check your connection, Stop downloads....

Something like this (attached) would be great. The LFS client knows what state a connection is in, because it produces the connection bars at the bottom left. To make this useful to admins/other players, we need to know whose is the connection that's causing everyone else the troubles.

Actual ping specific info in ms is less important, but good connectivity to a server is everything to everyone.

[edit] perhaps there would be a new problem.. witch-hunting. Hmm.. don't like the idea of that. I'll leave this here for now, but I'll propose it tentatively.

Very nice idea, work like to see my ping while in a server to see how HIGH it is...

I was originally going to post this as a new improvement suggestion, but dutifully did a search first.. and turned up this recent thread.

The network debug is useful to admins. The reason I proposed this option is because it's often very time-consuming, hopping between different players and watching their latency numbers to figure out who it is who's likely running P2P software in the background. This would help us find the warping driver much quicker.

I'd definitely propose it as an admin ctrl+shift option. I'm worried that, if it were visible to everyone all the time, it would be too easy to instantiate a witch-hunt. Admins (well, me) do spend quite a bit of time tracking down problem connections and persuading them to pull over and kill their MSN, or email client, or kick their brother off YouTube or whatever it takes to get back a decent connection.

Quote from SamH :

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The network debug is useful to admins. The reason I proposed this option is because it's often very time-consuming, hopping between different players and watching their latency numbers to figure out who it is who's likely running P2P software in the background. This would help us find the warping driver much quicker.

I'd definitely propose it as an admin ctrl+shift option. I'm worried that, if it were visible to everyone all the time, it would be too easy to instantiate a witch-hunt. Admins (well, me) do spend quite a bit of time tracking down problem connections and persuading them to pull over and kill their MSN, or email client, or kick their brother off YouTube or whatever it takes to get back a decent connection.

My thoughts exactly.