Laaaaaaaaag.

14/06/01

I guess all players experience this from time to time. I have been playing with it, or latency or whatever it´s called for over 2 years. It sucks. Bigtime. I have a few times played with no lag, with just a floating icon that followed my every move with the mouse. I know how it is. It was a blast! If you are one of these lucky players, I envy you. You are playing a totally different game. Enjoy yourself. My daily experience is a completly different one. That´s why I don´t play as much anymore. I couldn´t justify for myself to spend so much money on a service that basically was a pain in the neck and more often than not annoyed the heck out of me. I am waiting for ADSL. The cup was full, I simply couldn´t take it anymore.

I did get used to play that way, and tried to predict many seconds in advance, and it worked for the more laid back sort of play. Hunting for coins, interacting with someone in a low mode. That sort of thing. But, it gets very blatant and really, terribly, horrible annoying when the going gets tough and you don´t have so much extra "room". Like in the colio, in the fighter tests, in battles, in fast and furious arguments where timing is so important. And after a long time, it really annoyed me so much I just had to quit playing. My blood pressure rose, and it was really not good for my heart at all:)

I really don´t know who the sinner is. My connection or my old Mac, or both. I have all the time played on a 28.8 modem, with a 7600/132 Mac, running with VM on since the RAM-cost for that Mac is so high here in Norway that I could buy a new Mac for that money. I get the same lag with the same Mac on another connection with enough RAM, so it can´t be the use of VM, or just not that.

I get freezes, the icon is not floating, it´s jumping, it´s jerky. I get some frames where she moves fine, then some frames where she lags behind, then she jumps some frames etc..I get bursts of activity, then it stops. I use click-toggles, always have. I click on her to stop moving, and she reacts and stops some seconds after, doing the sleepwalk, or overswings. My ping time to the server is generally around 400 to 600 ms. Some days it´s from 600 to 800 ms. Some days it´s around 1800 ms. Time for lib then. It´s unpredictable, thats why it´s so bloody annoying. But the ping times do not tell anything about this constant jerkiness I experience. The game always feels sluggish. Like moving the icon in constant mud.

And I felt I was about to scream and throw the Mac out the window when she fell to that bloodwyrm in the 5th circle test. I knew this was going to happen, and I really should have not tried at all that day, since I know how angry I get. Yes, I really get pissed. I bet Shepherd just rolls his eyes at me now, getting pissed over something in Clanlord, but it annoys the heck out of me. She should have passed that test, she can, she is strong enough, but she were moving in mud, overswinging, got hit, didn´t follow my mouse etc..Grrrrrr! Thankfully Baba got the chance to take it out on Prue:) It was the same thing on the fourth circle test. The reason Baba finally passed it was a "window" of less lag for that 5 minutes it took. Bah.

Or take a typical DP raid. I am desperatly trying to get Baba out of the Hatreds way, out of Gurgi´s way when he is about to kudzu it, but she is doing the sleepwalk after I have clicked and I can just watch her as she hits the recently planted kudzu and the Hatred is lose again.

Or the very tight and dangerous situation on Lyfe Isle with Tonoto and Baba covered with fallens, she fighting a Cat of some sort, trying to keep it tight around Tonoto so nothing gets to him, then I just watch as the "one-step" to the west becomes a two step, and one step too many. The Cat gets in to Tonoto and the whole bloody party is screwed. Damn! Depart next. 20 departs, just because of a bloody, stupid connection/lag/latency that I have no control over at all. I was so angry I had to run to lib...

Or some very fast ballthrowing with one or many of Baba´s favorite enemies, and the burst activity sets in, or I get a freeze, and when I get back to the game - the moment is over, and I have to recheck the textlog, or try to keep up with the conversation, backlogging, my head working overtime. I really, really , really hate that.

Or she crosses a snell, and I don´t see the snell transition at all. When I get back to the game she is surrounded, and of course falls and I have to be online for another 30 minutes just so I can get her back to lib.

Or I lose the connection when she is moving southwards in north east field, and when I get back to the game she is somewhere in the marsh. Before the icon stopped when your machine was not sending packets back. I trained her with this in mind. She got more histia earlier than anyone else, to survive the accidental hug with a Fury. But now I can´t anymore it seems. There is no way I can train her to overcome this kind of thing.

I probably shouldn´t let this upset me so much, but it does. After over 2 years with this, I can´t stand it anymore. And now every bloody slip up gets me all riled up... Yes, it´s wise of me to play less. And get ADSL eventually. I really hope the experience will be better with that. If not, I don´t know what to do. Move to US?

Sigh.