Constant Disconnects = Game Unplayable

[tand3m]

First I must say I am pleased that I did not have to spend money to try the game out. I would have been very disappointed to have invested in a game that loses connection so regularly.

I did not give up easily. I checked the forums. I read the threads on disconnect issues. I have ensured my router firmware is up to date. I have opened the ports in my firewall as stated in these threads. Hell I even shut down the firewall completely for a while just to see if it was the Firewall causing the problem.

Bottom line, despite jumping through all the hoops, the game disconnects me at random intervals. I think ONCE I got to stay connected for more than 30 minutes. Generally I lose connection within 5 to 10 minutes. I have NO similar problems with any other Internet applications and I have played many MMOs (WoW, DAOC, EQ, MxO, etc). None of them have this problem on my PC so I find it hard to believe that the problem is on my end.

From what I could tell about the game, it looked interesting and fun. The community of players was great. However I will NOT be subscribing (or even finishing out the rest of my free week as I am so frustrated now and it is day one of my seven day trial).

It does not matter if you have the BEST game design and BEST graphics if your game disconnects so regularly and for so many (and the plethora of threads where people are having this problem is solid proof that there IS a problem).

It's a shame that a possibly great game will be overlooked or rejected by so many due to this connectivity issue. I can only imagine how many possible paying customers try out the game and uninstall it without even leaving feedback like this.

Maybe one day you will fix the problem. But by that time I will have already found a more reliable game. Take care.

[jamela]

Why wait until you want to say goodbye before you post here? You have not described your issue except to say that you are disconnected after varying intervals of play, not stating exactly what messages or other information you get then, so your "feedback" is really of negligible value. I don't see the plethora of posts here with the same problem at all and we have to further doubt your own research into your issue because you also seem to think that you're on a 7-day trial - the free trial has no time limit at all, for your information.

I appreciate that you think you've tried everything and you're now thoroughly fed up, but this seems to be your first communication when you could have asked for help long before you got so frustrated, so you seem to have made no use of the terrific support and community here.

You could try posting your hardware details to give anyone else experiencing a problem that sounds similar a starting point.

I recently replaced my graphics card and had trouble with the game crashing after anything from 2 minutes to 20 minutes although every other application I tried was rock solid. In fact it wasn't just the game it was my pc, and my problem eventually turned out to be two-fold - firstly the new card was overheating so the playing intervals got shorter as I kept on trying (quite a clue ), and secondly my PSU just couldn't quite maintain a steady supply to the hungry card, although all the specs said it should be able to. It was only when using Ryzom's or 3D-Marks full 32bit 3d textures that the card proved too much for the rest of my system.

[mehanson]

It would also have helped had you taken advantage of the live support tool called KLIENTS, you may have discovered that the problem was wide-spread for USA players due to an internet problem, not a problem with the game at all. This has happened at least twice that I am aware of, and it turned out to be a problem with TELIA, the company that provides the trans-atlantic pipeline for this (and many other) games.

It could also have been a problem with your ISP losing hardware (as mine was this past week).

All in all, you didn't give this community OR this game's CSR staff a chance to even attempt to resolve your problem, you just threw a 2-year-old's temper tantrum and said "I QUIT!".

Enjoy your life...

[tand3m]

I have a 128 meg ATI graphics card, amd 64 2 GHz CPU with 2 Gigs of Ram. I have a high speed cable connection and my router is configured properly and is up to date.

There is an 8 page thread concerning the disconnects and as I said, I have jumped through the hoops there and it has not stableized the problem. The issue is not my PC. The ONLY MMO that cannot keep a steady connection is this one.

What message do I get? Please Wait. Forever. Cannot move, cannot do anything. Must quit and restart (I did let it sit for 25 min with no change).

I am not getting graphics errors. I am not getting error messages. I am losing connection. There are serious synch issues between the client and server.

Perhaps the feedback seems "negligible" to you, but maybe it will be a heads up to people that there is a significant probability (read how many have posted to the Disconnect sticky thread above) they will also experience disconnects.

It's easy to dismiss someone's feedback as not being useful. *shrug* But I am just one of many who have voiced dissatisfaction with this problem (and some have actually expressed a desire for a refund, lucky for me I did not waste any money).

As far as the "7 days", I was under the impression it was a timed trial. Perhaps I will check back in six months or so and see if they have resolved the issue. Until then, I spend more time reloading this game than playing it.

[tand3m]

It would also have helped had you taken advantage of the live support tool called KLIENTS, you may have discovered that the problem was wide-spread for USA players due to an internet problem, not a problem with the game at all. This has happened at least twice that I am aware of, and it turned out to be a problem with TELIA, the company that provides the trans-atlantic pipeline for this (and many other) games.

It could also have been a problem with your ISP losing hardware (as mine was this past week).

All in all, you didn't give this community OR this game's CSR staff a chance to even attempt to resolve your problem, you just threw a 2-year-old's temper tantrum and said "I QUIT!".

Enjoy your life...

I didn't see any posted notice that there was a trans-atlantic pipeline problem. Where did you see this was listed as a connectivity issue for today?

My ISP lost hardware? What, the special connect to Ryzom hardware? Since my ISP has no problems connecting me to any other MMO, trying to blame my ISP is a laughable shift of responsibility.

I didn't give anyone a chance? Let's see. I asked for help in the "Universal" channel and was told to make sure my drivers were up to date and to read the forums. So what did I do? I made sure my drivers were up to date and read the forums. THEN I tried the things suggested. My router nor firewall (especially after I turned OFF the firewall) was blocking or closing any of the ports.

Tantrum? haha That made me laugh the most. After exhausting the resources I was directed to, I made a concise post explaining my disappointment in the poor quality of the connectivity. I see you are listed as a "Senior Member" and if this type of personal attack is how the forum community responds (not to mention being called "negligible" by the first response) then I won't even bother looking back. Take care.

[mehanson]

I have a 128 meg ATI graphics card, amd 64 2 GHz CPU with 2 Gigs of Ram. I have a high speed cable connection and my router is configured properly and is up to date.

If I'm not mistaken, this video card is not adequate for SoR. This is a TRUE 32-bit 3-D games, and requires a TRUE 32-bit 3D card. Most ATI cards do not meet this spec and cannot keep up with the game. Some overheat, some lock up, some drop textures/tiles, etc. Try upgrading to an nVidia card with at least 512MB Video RAM with OpenGL and Direct 3D support.

As for your internet connection, while I would kill to have cable modem capability out here in the boondocks, cable modem connections in large metropolitan areas are notoriously poor performers due to the large number of subscribers sharing the fixed bandwidth. You do not have "guaranteed" bandwidth with a cable modem, you have a burstable maximum IF (and only if) the bandwidth is available at the time you "request" it. Also, most cable companies WILL NOT guarantee that you keep your IP address from one connection to the next, and will frequently "disconnect" you after 15-20 minutes, forcing your cable modem to re-request its IP address. If the DHCP server assigns you a different IP address, your game client and the server will NOT be able to renegotiate the session. I've had this problem with two ISPs, and in both cases had to pay extra for a persistant IP address and connection (basically an business level connection) to resolve my "connection" issues.

Cable networks are almost universally limited to 10-base-T connections, and that 10MB/s bandwidth is shared by EVERYONE on the same cable segment (usually around 1-2K households) on a standard ethernet network. Collisions are frequent, and actual throughput will be closer to 35KB/s. Dropped packets will be common. Ping times in excess of 1K will be frequent, at which point the game is likely to lose synch. Yes this is a problem, no its not unplayable (the game usually resynchs within 30 seconds after the latest patch has been applied). You might want to run a tracert or pingplot (run it multiple time) to see if you are dropping connections, or if there is a consistent bottle-neck point in the route.

[jamela]

Thanks tand3m That 8 page thread lists about 25 people with a disconnection issue, almost all of them back in 2004.

Actually, Sam, the card I upgraded to is ATI with 128Mb and does work beautifully since I changed the PSU. Radeon 9800 PRO. But I had 3D instability with the latest Catalyst drivers so eventually stuck with the basic drivers that Windows automatically installed on Plug and Play. Tand3m which card do you have and have you tried uninstalling Catalyst and using Windows plug and play? ATI drivers are notoriously even worse than Nvidias

Tand3m is yours the only pc on your network, using your connection? (if there's another using UDP then ports may become entangled)

One person posted in that thread saying that regressing to Windows SP1 cured their issue, which only appeared on SP2.

[tand3m]

If I'm not mistaken, this video card is not adequate for SoR. This is a TRUE 32-bit 3-D games, and requires a TRUE 32-bit 3D card. Most ATI cards do not meet this spec and cannot keep up with the game. Some overheat, some lock up, some drop textures/tiles, etc. Try upgrading to an nVidia card with at least 512MB Video RAM with OpenGL and Direct 3D support.

As for your internet connection, while I would kill to have cable modem capability out here in the boondocks, cable modem connections in large metropolitan areas are notoriously poor performers due to the large number of subscribers sharing the fixed bandwidth. You do not have "guaranteed" bandwidth with a cable modem, you have a burstable maximum IF (and only if) the bandwidth is available at the time you "request" it. Also, most cable companies WILL NOT guarantee that you keep your IP address from one connection to the next, and will frequently "disconnect" you after 15-20 minutes, forcing your cable modem to re-request its IP address. If the DHCP server assigns you a different IP address, your game client and the server will NOT be able to renegotiate the session. I've had this problem with two ISPs, and in both cases had to pay extra for a persistant IP address and connection (basically an business level connection) to resolve my "connection" issues.

Cable networks are almost universally limited to 10-base-T connections, and that 10MB/s bandwidth is shared by EVERYONE on the same cable segment (usually around 1-2K households) on a standard ethernet network. Collisions are frequent, and actual throughput will be closer to 35KB/s. Dropped packets will be common. Ping times in excess of 1K will be frequent, at which point the game is likely to lose synch. Yes this is a problem, no its not unplayable (the game usually resynchs within 30 seconds after the latest patch has been applied). You might want to run a tracert or pingplot (run it multiple time) to see if you are dropping connections, or if there is a consistent bottle-neck point in the route.

According the the System requirements a 64 meg Geforce 2 or equivilant is required. My card exceeds the min requirements. To suggest that buying a 512 meg card will fix my disconnects is not sound advice.

I don't live in a "large metropolitan" area, and my cable company has provided me outstanding service. Oddly, I can play WoW or DAOC for several hours and never be disconnected the entire time I play. So making a case against my ISP just won't hold water.

I guess the bottom line for me is...Ryzom cannot stay connected. Every other game I have played can. If the game requires everyone to buy 512 meg Nvidia cards they need to update their minimum requirements. And if Ryzom cannot work with cable ISPs even though the majority of other games can, then again, that is their problem.

*shrug* I grow weary of feeling I must defend my PC and my connection when there is apparently a bigger issue. I am done.

/end tantrum (rolls eyes)

[tand3m]

Tand3m is yours the only pc on your network, using your connection?

One person posted in that thread saying that regressing to Windows SP1 cured their issue, which only appeared on SP2.

Yes, this is the only PC. And No I will not roll back Windows to an earlier version because SoR is unable to function with the current technology. I'm gonna just move on.

[jamela]

Oh but it does My problems are all due to old technology that I had to find work arounds for. Sounds as though yours is also not exactly current technology. Next time ask for help earlier and you'll no doubt suffer less frustration

Fare well.