Asheron's Call and Satellite Internet Connection?

[n8bowa]

I know satellite is terrible for games and such, but I have come to the conclusion that it is the only available internet type I am able to get in the geographical area I'm moving to (the boonies...way out there, kinda). I've read that ping times usually hang around 500-700 ms. Is this true for AC too? And do any of you believe that it will be playable at that rate?

I'm pretty sure it won't be, but there's no harm in asking.

Thanks

[Yula_the_Mighty]

Take a look at your current AC ping time and then add a minimum of 250 ms to it. 250 ms is around the minimum additional time a satellite link will add. This is due the long way up to the satellite and back down (takes time for the bits to travel that far even at light speed). Typically in the US you are looking at 500 to 700 ms ping times using a satellite link. You also need to consider that satellite links tend to fade in and out during rain storms making real time applications like gaming run poorly as the circuitry tries to compensate.

Yula the Mighty - HG

[n8bowa]

I understand that, but do you believe it will be playable?

[Kai Arwensun]

When I am experiencing high ping times...which I consider to be anything around the 700 ms level...my game lags, hangs, and becomes so slow and sticky it is not worth playing. About the only thing I can do at those times is to stay in the basement of my cottage brewing potions. :D Forget about going to crowded dungeons :( I would only die, helplessly unable to react fast enough to save myself all the while monsters gleefully and uninhibitedly attack :mad:
My advice would be to try it and see for yourself if it is worth playing or not.

[Yula_the_Mighty]

My experience is that no real time application - streaming video, voice over IP or gaming works well enough to be useful or enjoyable when you introduce a satellite link. It works ok for browsing web pages, downloading files (with a download manager).

If it is the only choice, you are going to use satellite in order to get access to the web. Spend a month - try AC out after you move and see if you can tolerate the high ping times. Certainly there are going to be quests like Bobo or some of the Burun dungeons that are going to be unplayable over a satellite link.

Only you can answer the question - Is this fun enough to continue playing?

Yula the Mighty - HG

[Skreaming]

I'm currently using a DW4000 Satellite connection. I have a dial-up connection to play AC on but I have played on my satellite. In all honesty, you're better off using a phoneline to play.

Here's how it does for me. My pings in AC are around 1200 ms. Is it playable? Well, its annoying at the least but yes its playable. Now understand, on a land based connection when your pings are high it is because your information exhange is slowing down. On satellite this isn't true. Your information exchange is still fast... somewhat. Transfer rates are around 200-250kb/s in general but the ping is still high because of the great distance to the satellite.

Example: When doing something like Bobo on phoneline I simply can't do it. My pings are through the roof. Why? Because my 28k connection is attempting to download a lot of information and just can't do it quick enough. Therefore, my ping goes up. My high ping isn't what is making my game unplayable, its the amount of information overloading my skinny little dial-up pipe just not coming in fast enough.

On satellite though, my ping goes unchanged... it STAYS right around 1200ms 99% of the time. If I'm standing in the woods with nothing around, 1200ms... If I'm standing in MP.....1200ms. If I'm doing Bobo....1200ms.

So, the high ping time from satellite isn't nearly as bad as an equally high ping time on a land based connection when it comes to game play but its certainly not a good thing.

[Bullroarer Took]

I recently took my laptop to my friend's cabin in the woods, where he has the current DirecWay satelite dish. I was able to get in game and do simple things in game. I didn't try any dungeons, cause I was playing on laptop keyboard (ych). My ping time was 1 second to 1.5 seconds. It was consistent.

What's interesting to me is that normal browsing requires about 5 seconds before anything is rendered after i click on a link, and sometimes it takes upto 10 seconds before rendering starts.

So, I don't know that I would try anything that requires split second decisions, such as mage vs tusker. Melee vs tusker would probably be ok, and possibly missile attack as well.

[Kajabor]

Take a look at your current AC ping time and then add a minimum of 250 ms to it. 250 ms is around the minimum additional time a satellite link will add. This is due the long way up to the satellite and back down (takes time for the bits to travel that far even at light speed). Typically in the US you are looking at 500 to 700 ms ping times using a satellite link. You also need to consider that satellite links tend to fade in and out during rain storms making real time applications like gaming run poorly as the circuitry tries to compensate.

Yula the Mighty - HG

There has been only one satellite sold openly to the public for home based use that would send signals up using the dish and that was starband. They no longer sell a satellite with upload capabilities. Your upload is done by dialup.

Your latency with satellite internet is determined by your elevation, number of people in your surrounding area that are closer to the downlink satellite, and any atmospheric conditions between you and the dowlink satellite. The lower you are, the more latency you will have. It is not determined by what country your are in.

[Yula_the_Mighty]

Kajabor,

The figures I used were minimum values based on transmission time and I did not include any time for equipment related latency or the non-satellite components of the route. Elevation has nothing to do with the transmission component of latency. The satellites are in geosynchronous orbit at 22,223 miles up, A few thousand feet difference in elevation is immaterial. For the same reason, it does not make much difference where the home user receiving satellite dish is located within the coverage area of the satellite.

Depending on the country you are located it does makes a difference in what other equipment is between the AC server and the client. Not all other countries have the ability to quickly get to high speed backbones which are so common in the United States.

In the United States it is common to use a single satellite uplink and downlink on the downstream side. However, I've been in places in the United States where there are no land lines at all. All the communication for the entire village and town are combined together and a satellite is used in both directions. This even more common outside the United States.

There is also the situation where there is more than one satellite used. Both telephone and internet suffer heavily when you have uplink and download to two satellites in each direction. In this case you are above 1 second of delay just from the transmission time.

Yula the Mighty - HG

[Kajabor]

Well you think it your way and I will just go with the facts bestowed upon me by my past professors.

[Yula_the_Mighty]

Kajabor,

You will find that college professors are very knowledgable about many things and are great at teaching people the basics and the learning skills that are necessary to prepare for the a job in the business world. However, being in a teaching environment tends to shelter them from what companies are doing and how the real world actually works. The exception comes with those professors that have research grants from companies or the government to do application development or research.

My first real introduction to satellite systems was from my older brother who worked at NASA Lewis Research Center on satellite, air craft and space shuttle research projects before retiring a few years ago. He is much older than I am.

In my case, I have some experience with working with satellite systems. First, I was lucky enough during graduate school to work on a NASA project out of their Langley research center to development special purpose hardware and the associated software to analyze the earth images generated by the LANDSAT satellite series.

After I got out of school, my first job was working with long haul communication systems - microwave, satellite, underwater and land line systems. Our development organization also developed the first working fiber optic prototype. Unfortunately, the corporate management did not see that there was any money to be made in fiber optic communications systems.

As far as believing this stuff. I do not need to believe this stuff. My former coworkers, brother or I actually experienced it as part of our work. There really are places in the United States where the only way in or out is via bush plane on a dirt air strip with no refueling capability. Certainly it is more common to have both an air strip and limited access via a rough dirt road part of the year.

The belief is on your side. I certainly would not swallow a story like this from some unknown hidden person on a forum. I will ask you to not assume you know everything about communication systems. I have 25 years experience in developing communication systems and I certainly do not know everything. The world is simply too big, the field of communication systems too large and changing so fast that no one can keep up.

I would ask that you spend some time and widen your horizons. Do some research on how the United States military units or isolated bases handle their communications. Take a look at how the people that live in northern Canada, middle and northern Alaska, parts of Hawaii, the Alaskan island chain and the more isolated parts of the continental United States communicate with their more urban brethen (like me). That should do for a start.

Yula the Mighty - HG

[farshot]

I am currently running Direcway with the DW6000. I went to satellite from a 26.4k dial-up. Ping time runs from 600-1200ms all the time. The biggest draw back I have seen is the time it takes a command to return IE... When using archer I like have to dbl click each shot,first click goes halfway on speed bar then dumps, no shot, second click gives me the shot.... can be devestating when going for a heal. But I still find the game playable. Most lag I get is when rendering a new area I'm running into, have come to complete stop while running and mobs are still active...... Vitae.... That doesn't happen often but does pop up from time to time. Have a friend who uses SBC satellite on HG. His pings are 250-400 mostly. Wish I had known that 4 months ago :)