Just a few questions about the online play from a newb:

1) Does it matter to the server what I set my connection speed as? I noticed my TDC cursor was slewing way too much (felt "laggy") at 256/128 (or is it the other way around? I forget) so I upped it to 2048/2048 and it went away, but does this cause undue stress or lag for other people? If 2048/2048 is a problem, which should I select?

2) Besides not ECM blinking, jamming all the time, vulching when not allowed, and not doing childish things like mucking up the runway, are there any other behaviors that are considered um..."unprofessional"...that a newb might not reasonably be able to anticipate? I'm just talking stuff that might not even be a bannable offense but ****es people off.

3) I usually play in the =4c= server and have noticed that it tends to get pretty choppy in firefights of 5 or more people in the same general area, yet if I view a similar battle in non-online play there's no choppiness at all. I realize that the AI probably isn't using as much computing power as real people: is it reasonable to assume it IS just my computer not being powerful enough for smooth frames with real players or does this happen for all people even with great hardware (more a common network traffic/subpar server issue)?

4) Why does everyone play on 4c all the time? I hardly ever see, for example, the S77th AUS server full.

5) For online play (I don't really know if that makes a difference, but considering online play...) does the ILS mode in the F-15 always point back to the runway you took off from? Or just the closest friendly runway? Or any runway? I'm having a hard time testing this since I can't make heads or tails of the map yet and I get killed pretty quickly.

quote:

Originally posted by miner2049er:
Just a few questions about the online play from a newb:

1) Does it matter to the server what I set my connection speed as? I noticed my TDC cursor was slewing way too much (felt "laggy") at 256/128 (or is it the other way around? I forget) so I upped it to 2048/2048 and it went away, but does this cause undue stress or lag for other people? If 2048/2048 is a problem, which should I select?

I think most servers ask you to connect at 128/128.

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2) Besides not ECM blinking, jamming all the time, vulching when not allowed, and not doing childish things like mucking up the runway, are there any other behaviors that are considered um..."unprofessional"...that a newb might not reasonably be able to anticipate? I'm just talking stuff that might not even be a bannable offense but ****es people off.

You hit most of it. You could add taking off from taxiway/ parking area. Use the teamspeak/ventrilo comms channel- almost every server has one. If not- you can certainly get on the channels of friends flying in the server too. Chat is annoying as hell to me. I often don't even see a good chunk of it.

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3) I usually play in the =4c= server and have noticed that it tends to get pretty choppy in firefights of 5 or more people in the same general area, yet if I view a similar battle in non-online play there's no choppiness at all. I realize that the AI probably isn't using as much computing power as real people: is it reasonable to assume it IS just my computer not being powerful enough for smooth frames with real players or does this happen for all people even with great hardware (more a common network traffic/subpar server issue)?

Yep choppiness is a fact of online play. There's no one simple explanation for it. AI issues, Being over cities, even just certain parts of the map are noticeably rougher than others. (Western Crimean coastline) Crappy pings from a client, etc etc

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4) Why does everyone play on 4c all the time? I hardly ever see, for example, the S77th AUS server full.

Depends on mission, sometimes a server just ends up being the busy one. It only takes 1 person to attract others to it. Also depends on what part of the world is busy flying at that time of the day.. S77th-Dante's server is obviously in Australia- my ping to his is much worse than say- the 51st for example. Plus- he is 14 hours ahead of me, so prime time evening (8-11 pm) flying hours down under is the crack of dawn in the US. (like 4-7 AM)

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5) For online play (I don't really know if that makes a difference, but considering online play...) does the ILS mode in the F-15 always point back to the runway you took off from? Or just the closest friendly runway? Or any runway? I'm having a hard time testing this since I can't make heads or tails of the map yet and I get killed pretty quickly.

Not neccessarily. After you select a plane- Read the brief. It will show you the takeoff & landing airports. Then look at the MAP screen before entering the cockpit. Note where SAM concentrations are, where you might expect enemy aircraft to be coming from and retreating to. You can select a desired runway in the F15 by flying close to it, then calling "inbound" to the tower. It must be the closest runway to you- and the tower WILL NOT tell you if it is enemy-occupied so you better KNOW where you are at. All the more reason to read the brief, and study the map. Visit my downloads page where you will find various documents including detailed AIrport charts, and a 2 page full color topographical map of the entire LOMAC theatre with critical airport info. http://www.freewebs.com/konkussion/downloadsinc.htm

Thank you, Konkussion.

1. Your TDC cursor speed is directly related to your FPS. The lower your FPS is the slower your TDC is and the same does for the higher your FPS the faster the cursor moves.

2. Don't quit in the middle of a fight, that is a quick way to get banned or flogged.

3. What do you have your settings on? maybe you should try lowering some ( one at a time) and see which one helps you out the most. A big one to lower is the scene file and put it on low. Also the water on low helps alot.

4. people tend to go where everyone else is. So if a few players are in server A and none are in server B, most people will join A. I like to fly in the 51st server cause they have very good missions and they rotate every 3 hours. Most servers run the same mission day in and day out, and it gets old to me.

6. Konny answered that one, no need to expand on it.

quote:

Originally posted by Cali_169th:
1. Your TDC cursor speed is directly related to your FPS. The lower your FPS is the slower your TDC is and the same does for the higher your FPS the faster the cursor moves.

2. Don't quit in the middle of a fight, that is a quick way to get banned or flogged.

3. What do you have your settings on? maybe you should try lowering some ( one at a time) and see which one helps you out the most. A big one to lower is the scene file and put it on low. Also the water on low helps alot.

4. people tend to go where everyone else is. So if a few players are in server A and none are in server B, most people will join A. I like to fly in the 51st server cause they have very good missions and they rotate every 3 hours. Most servers run the same mission day in and day out, and it gets old to me.

6. Konny answered that one, no need to expand on it.

Well, I'm using an X45 hat to slew the cursor. I checked (after I started having problems) and I have one button press assigned correctly, but when I was tapping it the cursor would keep going an extra half inch after I let go, making TWS bugging almost impossible. I don't think the problem was FPS-related as it happened to me when I was getting ~30 FPS, and switching the connection settings completely fixed it.

As for the online FPS issues, I don't have a great processor (AMD 4000+ w/9800GT), but I've even tried turning everything down all the way in LOMAN and it still gets pretty laggy sometimes. I think it is network-related at least in part because even though there are 5-6 planes in the sky when the lag happens, the FPS counter frequently shows less geometry being drawn at that time compared to when the game runs smoothly.

Your comment about not quitting in the middle of a fight is duly noted.