Connection problems - grrrrr

from Stardock Forums

Decided to try Demigod for the first time online, not realizing that the bulk of the game is primarily a online MP experience, and unfortunately already had 3 out of 3 bad experiences.

The 1st ended with an Invalid Game Error or something, where the game just went kaput.

The 2nd I had lag issues, and was bringing everyone else down.  I think I got booted.  I checked my network connections via Impulse, verified that nothing else was running in the background or downloading or anything.  And then tried again.

3rd time, the lag issues showed up again about 5-10 mins in, and once again, everyone started pointing fingers at me.  I left the game to avoid the insults.  ;)

What can I do to improve my connection?  Everything else seems to run just fine, but this game (and this game alone) is causing me problems.

Help please?

demigod
45,006 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top

Go to: http://speedtest.net/

and run the speed test to a server in your vicinity and post the result here.

 

Then play a skirmish game (offline) on a 5v5 map and hit 'Tab' during the game, find the sim speed value. Is it > 1 even late game?

 

hit the '/' key on your Num block and check the number that appears on the screen. Those are the frames per second your graphic card can handle, everything higher than 25-30 is okay.

And please post your system specs and what kind of internet connection you have.

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Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

First of all, thanks for the help!

Here's the report from Speedtest.net:

I've done these tests before and found them to be somewhat all over the place.  I'm unfortunately stuck with Time Warner Cable in Southern California, and they've "promised" that it's a 10MB/1MB package, but speeds change because of a variety of factors, most of them out of my control.  Of course, if there IS something in my control, I'd love to know what it is. 

As for the skirmish game, I ran this fine, but actually couldn't find where the Sim Speed Value was when hitting Tab?  I never had any slowdown or frame rate issues, and I have a fairly decent system set-up.  I've never had any offline performance hits, though I am playing at a high resolution so maybe I should bump that down when playing online?

System specs are:

3.15 Intel Core 2 Duo
XFX nForce 780i mb
4GB ram
GeForce GTX 260
HTO Striker 7.1 sound card
Windows Vista Home
blanking on the other important specs. ;)

I'm on a cable modem, and I haven't had anything downloading in the background or antivirus running, etc. 

Thanks again for your help!

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Demigod Forums Top

Your speed is ok, the upload speed is the limited factor (but your plenty fast for a 4v4, and probably 5v5).

 

What are you sim speeds durring those games?  Your rig should be fine, but many have found that the sound settign can bring a sim speed way down.  try turring off your sould if you find your sim speed to be low.

 

Are oyu sure there is nothign on your network eating up the upload speed.  If you hit tab in the game it brings up the menu that shows ping and sim speeds.  If all of the pings are spiking its you connection, if only one is, its that persons. 

One posibility is throtteling by your internet provider. 

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Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top

Yup, so far everything looks okay. Your upload speed might even be enough for 5v5s, graphic card and CPU should be more than enough to run the game smooth. Maybe your ISP is shapeing p2p traffic or some other nonsense. Next time you experience lags open the Tab scree again and look for high pings and ping spiking. All pings <300 or 350ms are okay and wont slow the game down. Sometimes you get ping spikes. It usually happens when one players upload bandwidth is too low and you will see the ping rise to >350ms for a split second and then it will go down again. If you have the a high ping to all other players you are the culprit and your upload isnt high enough. If thats the case your ISP might be responsible.

You can probably check if your ISP is blocking p2p traffic: Download utorrent and find some legal torrent with a lot of seeders (Linux or something) and check how your speed is. Cant think of anything else atm. Good luck!

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

How do you check your sim speed?  I couldn't find this when I hit Tab to peek during the game.

I'm definitely the culprit, unfortunately, and I'm stuck with Time Warner Cable here in Southern California it seems (I *wish* I had FiOS or something).  I'll keep an eye on it and see what's up.  I have successfully used P2P file sharing before without a problem so maybe it's just selective, and unfortunately, anti-me! ;)

Reply #6 from Demigod Forums Top

Hey ErosWelker, when you hit the TAB key and the stats (with your name, flags taken etc.) pop-up, the Sim speed is second from the end if memory serves (next to and before the Ping stats).

As for your PC, I have a similar setup (similar CPU, GFX etc.) and I run the game with everything on it's highest settings @ 1920x1200, 8XQ AA and the game runs a constant 50-60 fps with a sim speed between 8-10.