The online racing simulator
Connection problems - don't immediately disconnect
I have a screwy internet connection right now and no means of fixing it. It loses connection for a split second every few minutes or so. In most games, a quick connection loss just means a large lag spike, then normal gameplay resumes. But in Live for Speed, the way it is coded means that even a 0.01 second connection cut out disconnects you from the server. This is extremely frustrating and irritating, as I am constantly disconnected from every server I join. On the Caribbean Cruise server, I have lost FOUR CARS (40,000E worth) from those disconnects in a time span of two days, which has pissed me off to the point of not returning to that server as there's no point in even playing there. (For those who are not aware, the Caribbean Cruise servers use an economy system, and you must buy cars. If you pit, leave, or spectate without being inside a pit box, you lose your car. It takes an extremely long time to get enough money for a decent car and it's all thrown away when you're disconnected) I really can't play LFS online for more than a few minutes without it disconnecting me. In other games there's no problem, as all I experience is a brief lag spike. PLEASE consider fixing the netcode. Thank you.
My connection sucks too and for the same reason I don't go anymore on Caribbean Cruise but in my case there's nothing LFS can do it's just my stupid provider's fault! My connection lag from time to time too but I never experienced what you'r talking about
#3 - Jakg
Yes, PLEASE fix LFS, because when you loose connection it disconnects you - how stupid is that!
#4 - col
Quote from dude56 :...(For those who are not aware, the Caribbean Cruise servers use an economy system, and you must buy cars. If you pit, leave, or spectate without being inside a pit box, you lose your car...

Well thats crap isn't it - I woudn't consider using a server with such idiotic rules... why don't they(Caribbean Cruise) fix their system so as not to penalise people for connection issues that are just as likely to be caused by the server as the client.
Quote :
....all I experience is a brief lag spike. PLEASE consider fixing the netcode. Thank you.

I've had connection problems for the last week or two, It usually involves my connection bar rising slowly for maybe about 10 seconds, after which I get disconnected - this is a well known problem and sounds like whats happening to you. It's nothing to do with brief (< 1 sec) lag spikes... Scawen has been aware of this issue for a long time and it seems as though it is some sort of Internet issue to do with packet loss and connection quality. Someone discovered that with his ISP, his high bandwidth low ping DSL connection was very problematic, while using the same ISP through a dial up 56k modem worked fine (apart from the crappy ping)....
So this problem is most likely due to money grabbing DSL providers signing up more people than their system can cope with... Some are starting to provide 'premium' gamer accounts and letting their standard account quality slide even more....
Of course, these issues are going to keep getting worse not better as more people get broadband, packet loss is not an issue for Web browsing and downloading, so the ISPs don't care

One thing that I don't understand though is that the connection 'lag' bar is rising, and I know that in maybe 8 secs I will be disconnected, while at the same time, I'm racing happily with no lag, and I'm not lagging to others... it maybe some other type of packet that the game wants related to chat... or the master server that is the issue...

EDIT:
hmmm would it be possible to update the LFS system so that packets that are not related to gameplay (eg. chat related packets, or other houskeeping related info) get a much longer timeout than the car position packets ? (or maybe can be reported as not recieved rather than causing a disconnection ?



Col
Quote from col :Well thats crap isn't it - I woudn't consider using a server with such idiotic rules... why don't they(Caribbean Cruise) fix their system so as not to penalise people for connection issues that are just as likely to be caused by the server as the client.

[off-topic] Just to note, it has to do with police chases so that the person can not disconnect on-track to evade police. The reasoning is because there is a bank you can rob and when there are a bunch of folks robbing and few cops chasing them, it would be more difficult to go the "ban cheater" route due to the number of players being chased.[/off-topic]
#6 - col
Quote from mrodgers :[off-topic] Just to note, it has to do with police chases so that the person can not disconnect on-track to evade police. The reasoning is because there is a bank you can rob and when there are a bunch of folks robbing and few cops chasing them, it would be more difficult to go the "ban cheater" route due to the number of players being chased.[/off-topic]

All very interesting, But surely that would be better dealt with using a set of rules and having mods enforce them ?
So one rule would be that if you diconnect while attempting to evade the police, you will be penalised.
This gives folks a chance to hand themselves in if they see their lag bar rising and fear the are about to get disconnected...

Still no reason to randomly penalise players because of their ISP (or the servers ).
I'm glad City Driving is not somthing that attracts me
It's bad enough getting disconnected from a race without also having extra punishment.

Col
I think that a way of solve the ping out problem is for the devs. that If one driver lose conexion, the driver can drive as nothing happend and the host, would try to reconect with this driver.

So if the host can´t reconect to that driver in, we can say.. 25 secs as much, the server ping out him, if can connect, the driver appear as normal in track, but checking previously if he don´t give a car in the same position, or in less diference of time that 0,xx secs o other...


I think that this would be fantastic, because can reduce a lot of ping outs, and would get more realism to lfs, because in the real life, nobody gets ping out :P

PS1. And in this way, I would take off the bars that increas when one driver lost conexion, because that only have two options, coneted or disconected, so, the trying conect to that driver would be invisible for the drivers...

PS2. Sorry for my bad inglish..
#8 - bbman
Quote from ESPAÑA[XTM] :I think that a way of solve the ping out problem is for the devs. that If one driver lose conexion, the driver can drive as nothing happend and the host, would try to reconect with this driver.

LfS already does this... Have you never had all other cars disappearing and only your bar rising far into the red? That's to counter lagspikes... If it then takes too long to get in sync with the server again, you'll be disconnected...

Quote from ESPAÑA[XTM] :So if the host can´t reconect to that driver in, we can say.. 25 secs as much, the server ping out him, if can connect, the driver appear as normal in track, but checking previously if he don´t give a car in the same position, or in less diference of time that 0,xx secs o other...


I think that this would be fantastic, because can reduce a lot of ping outs, and would get more realism to lfs, because in the real life, nobody gets ping out :P

25 seconds? You are aware that lag (and races, for that matter) are measured by milliseconds (thousandths of a second!), yes?
Actualy, If u lost conexion with server, Ping Out!!! so no option to the server try conect again with u.. I think that I haven´t explain me ok..


Example.

You are driving, you suddenly lost conexion, all your conexion, (in normal case the bars start crewing and you Get ping out ), you lost all the conexion with server, but you can driver yet, because your lfs is trying to reconect with server lfs, after that, your lfs reconect to this lfs server, the time splits that you do, are sent by your lfs to the lfs server, and you can drive as if nothing had happnened, so you never will get ping time out.
You only would give it, it the server it´s who Turn off...


It´s more clear?

And repit, why your lfs can´t send the parcials that you done when your server was reconecting? This server reconect isn´t the actual concept of reconect, actual, you must click blah blah, In this way, you don´t know nothing about your disconect, so the disconects would be a thing as the actual lag just...

It´s hard to explain and more in non spanish :P
#10 - FL!P
OK, then what happens when your connection with the server is restored and there's another car just where you appear again?

Yeah, both cars out of the race, that's what happens. So instead of one person who does not finish, there are two (or possibly more) of them.

I know how frustrating it is to be disconnected during a league race (it happened to me in half the races of the last OWRL DivA season). But I prefer to be the only one to suffer from it rather than risking to take out several other racers when the connection is restored.

In fact, I think LFS is quite patient already, before it gives up. It happened to me in a league race with the FOX or the FO8 that I started lagging right after the start, and so all other cars disappeared from my view a bit before the braking point at turn 1. I'm not sure how long it lasted (maybe 5 seconds or so) but I can tell you that it felt like a long time! I braked and entered the corner without seeing the other cars, wondering if they could still see me and considering whether I should run wide and get out of the way.

They all appeared again before I could make a decision, and thankfully it was just like nothing had happened. But in this case (turn 1 of the first lap) I'd say that LFS was already too forgiving with my bad connection.
#11 - col
So what about when your lag bar is rising, but there is no visible lag, you see the other racers, they see you , you can chat, but you know you will be disconnected soon, because that ol' bar is rising, if you're lucky, you get a 'Replay stash space recovered' otherwise, its disco dancing time - yet again... !! ... should change my tag to Travolta - I spend so much time in LFS disco'ing

/me sings "I'm too sexy for my connection..."
Quote from FL!P :OK, then what happens when your connection with the server is restored and there's another car just where you appear again?


Yes, for this reason, lfs would check before do appear you car, if you have a car near than you, if you have a car near, you don´t appear until you get a security distance.. and in this way, wouldn´t have anyproblmes, no disconections and no two flying cars.. I think that isn´t a bad idea, no?
From experience with previously unreliable connections:

LFS is very lag free and results in relatively few disconnects. N2003 has more tolerance and disconnects you less than LFS but does result in more lag/undesired effects for others. Personally I'd rather a few people couldn't play LFS online when their connections are playing up than introduce lagging issues, the lagging in N2003 meant that bodily contact had to be absolutely avoided as it usually resulted in two cars exploding and taking the other 40 cars following with them. LFS really isn't that bad, and suffers far far less lag related issues than any other sim I've raced online.
Even Halo kicks you if you loose your connection for more then 5 seconds. In electronics class, we were playing Halo. Me and my friend lag-spiked a computer by unplugging the LAN. It have us a huge adavantage. That's why you can't let people lag like that in any game, it can be used to cheat.

FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG