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Losing connection to host


Gunhawk

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What kind of connection to the internet do you have? Cable, DSL, ISDN, dial up? Lost connections typically happen when the server goes through a certain number of retries, and then decides that the user must not be there anymore. Dial-ups in particular could be susceptible to noise that might result in a lot of retries.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi!

Its not the same problem to me, but another. ;)

I lost three of my best pilots cause of loosing connection. :(

If I am shot down and my pilot is killed that would be ok, but when I am loosing connection during winning the game and my top pilot is dead, its quite annoying...

Would it be possible to change this?

Maybe you can increase fatigue or make any other penalty for this, but not let the best pilots die.

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I have encountered the same thing as Skuderian.

I have played a dogfight where my leader shot down a plane and both my planes where undamaged when i lost connection in the last turn.

To my surprise when i checked my pilots in the manage pilot menu, my leader was killed and my wingman lost his cheat death ability.

And when i looked at the leaderboard that mission did register as a mission where my leader did not shoot down any planes

Lost connections are a part of every online game, its just a part of the package, but to lose pilots you grew attached to through something you don't have an influence over is frustrating.

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We all have I'm sure - it's actually a feature designed to put the brakes on ppl simply disconnecting in case they get a matchup they don't like - the computer performs a "killed?" check on each pilot when a connection is list - it can't tell the difference between a deliberate disconnect and an accidental one.

IMO the problem is not the design, but the poor reliability of the connections - ie I'm happy to leave the feature in as long as I dont' get booted!!

However another possiblity occurs to me - how about some sort of "cowardice" penalty instead for a pilot who appears to constantly avoid combat? I don't know what it would be - some sort of negative experience perhaps, so it can be countered by a better performance in the future?

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IMO the problem is not the design, but the poor reliability of the connections - ie I'm happy to leave the feature in as long as I dont' get booted!!

Hear, hear. I'm unlikely to buy the full version if this isn't fixed. The reliability of the connections, that is. I am completely unable to host a multiplayer, and I drop connection if a game doesn't start within about 10-15 seconds after I join it.
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Actually I just lost the escape death of a leader with about 30 kills due to connection timeout, AND IT WAS NOT EVEN ON MY SIDE OF THE LINE !!!

My DSL connection was perfectly fine, I was using it for upload at the same time, and there was ample bandwith remaining (something like 8kbytes/s up and maybe 50 kbytes/s down).

This thing has to be fixed pretty quickly, it is simply a game killer IMHO.

Besides, getting your pilots extra fatigued will soon force you to fly with fatigue, due to the 4 elements limit. That is more than enough for a penalty, and should at least be less of a problem for regular players suffering from unreliable connections than for those who disconnect on purpose.

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Fatigues a good issue - but my new polits only get 3 fatigue from a lost connection - I presume teh more experienced ones get more, but still minimal.

Perhaps a good hefty fatigue hit would be the answer - representing the stress of being looked at askance by your squadron mates when you return??

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Hello Guys,

We are looking into this issue.

Here's the main decision point: a true 'lost connection' vs. an in intentional disconnect to avoid being shot down.

From a technical point of view, the server cannot tell the difference.

So, we decided a year or so ago that without a hefty penalty for disconnecting, players might be tempted to quit-out. Especially when a high XP pilot with no Escape Death just had a shoot down card played against him.

So, what are your thoughts? When all is said and done we want a fun game that keeps players on the edges of their seats.

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If the server-side game keeps track of each move from each player, and is able to resolve the game alone (i.e. not needing the client to move any plane), I think a possible answer would be to let the game be played by bots on the server, taking only into account negative results for the disconnected player (i.e. fatigue and death, but neither kills nor experience). Players still connected could deal with the bot replacing the player as usual.

This way, an intentionally disconnecting player would still have to face the consequences of his cowardice (i.e. could not escape an IMS2:D by pulling the plug smile.gif ), while an accidentally disconnected player would stand a better chance of survival.

Maybe the negative results could be mitigated somehow: ignoring death if it did not occur in the current turn, or allowing a given number of "suspicious" disconnections over a sliding time period (say 3 disco without sudden death, decremented after each disco, incremented after 2 days without disconnections).

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Right now, the penalty for a dropped connection is:

</font>

  • Pilots do not gain any XP, Kills, etc.</font>
  • Pilots DO gain fatigue as normal</font>
  • Pilots suffer an additional bail-out check above what may have already occurred. So if during the battle they were shot down and had to make a bail-out check (and survived), they would take an additional bail-out check at the end of the mission.</font>

What we will probably do is just drop the last penalty. In a multi-player game, the AI does take over for a player that drops out, so you would have to live with whatever bad stuff happened during the mission.

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I have experienced negligeable in game connection problems, but my $.02, for what its worth.

As long a a 'bot takes over for a player after a connection loss, I don't see that there is any real advantage for pulling the plug on a bad game. The player will still have to face the consequences.

Maybe the experiance point and kill penalties mentioned above could be added as an additional disincentive, but I don't see it as necessary. If a player disconnects right after having an IMS:D played against him with no defense, the bot takes over and gets shot down. No change, no additional penalties needed.

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Fatigue is gained and recovered based on the level of the pilot. High level pilots gain a lot of fatigue, but can potentially help their team mates recover it quickly if they score a lot of XP on a mission.

Penalizing pilots who get disconnected with a fixed amount of fatigue of say 50 points would disproportionately hurt the lower level pilots because it could take them a long time to recover.

I think simply removing the additional bail-out check will still leave enough of a penalty to discourage pilots from intentionally disconnecting.

There is virtually nothing positive that comes out of it. Your pilot would gain no XP, and any Kills/Damages he may have scored during the battle would not be counted. If he had purchased any expendable card skills, such as a Vertical Roll or Half Loop, those would be used up, even if he never got a chance to play them. Fatigue is still gained in the normal way.

So, as others have pointed out, there is nothing to gain, and something to lose by intentionally disconnecting.

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the idea behind intentional disconnect was rather to escape death by disconnecting at the critical moment (especially for an high scorer ace), or to scrap a game if the initial hand is was not good enough or whatever attack/defence sequence did not work out as intended.

I would say there is little you can do to detect red hot cheating, but still a few clues may be gathered, for instance to allow an admin to look for the smoking gun if requested. By storing dated events like game start, moves and of course disconnect time over a few games, one can quite easily see if the disconnection date is tied to some repetitive circumstances (a few seconds after game start, just before a crippling blow is dealt, etc.). But of course this kind of recording could soon intrude into the privacy of players.

Anyway, I personally would be happy to get rid of the bailout russian roulette for now smile.gif .

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Originally posted by Skuderian:

Hi!

Now lost my leader with 178 kills cause of this problem.

I will not continue playing DIF until this problem is solved.

You're not playing DiF - you're playing hte BETA DEMO!

And for the price the game is still great!!

Dont' be such a cry baby - part of hte purpose of betas is to identify faults.

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Dont' be such a cry baby - part of hte purpose of betas is to identify faults.
Though this is true, it's also true that identifying anything that might cause obvious fanatics such as Skuderian to NOT buy it is presumably worthwhile to the company. ;)

Connection lost issues appear to be a big deal to a number of people, myself included.

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I have sent an update to the server administrator that will remove the bail-out penalty check for lost connections. As soon as I get word that he has installed that update, I will let you guys know.

Of course, we are still trying to figure out ways to make disconnections occur less frequently, and will continue to do so until we find a suitable resolution. Thanks for your patience.

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