Shattered Kingdoms

I think we need to be clear about what the various messages mean and what happens to cause them...

When you're in the game, your local client may issue any number of indicators to show that the connection has been lost. However the game will NOT disconnect you due to inactivity without first providing this warning message that you have 'drifted off' -



Only after disappearing into the void AND a further period of inactivity does the game disconnect you, with the final message below (which is the same as when you quit).



Now after all that, when you reconnect to the game you'll naturally need your name and password, after which -

a) if you're coming from the same IP address and/or the game 'detected' the loss of link (i.e. it couldn't send data to your old connection), then it may resume the connection quite easily and merely state "Reconnecting."

b) if your prior connection still appears to be active and/or you appear to be reconnecting from a new IP address (at your end), the game may ask you to confirm you wish to terminate the existing connection. Hence the question - "That character is already playing . . ."

c) if you previously quit or 'voided out' and the game disconnected you, then you will receive neither (a) nor (b), since your character is no longer in the game.

Hope that clears things up.

It's funny how the only "packets" my internet loses are in SK.

Actually, it's not funny at all. It makes playing less than appealing. I'm not the only player that multitasks during SK play. I'm just the only one who loses connection 80 times.

I don't know where you are playing from, but I've rarely had a problem connecting to the server or staying connected. Perhaps you should try using some tools such as ping and traceroute to get a better idea of how many how much latency and how many nodes your traffic has to pass through in order to reach the game.

The connection method that all MUDs use is, well, archaic. It relies on the underlying layers of the TCP/IP protocol to take care of any brief 'bumps' in the path between your PC and the server. The TELNET protocol expects an uninterrupted connection - this doesn't mean errors and packet loss cannot occur; rather, lost packets are expected to be retransmitted by the IP stack, as well as reordered if some arrive sooner than others. The application layer is 'dumb' by modern standards, although it does mean it is very simplistic and need not contain code to handle packets arriving out of order or not at all.

These days, with satellite, wireless and various mobile technologies that are quite unstable in comparison to solid cables between a few universities, there is often a 'give up' approach to packet retransmission. Indeed, almost all modern massively online games take a "blast" approach of throwing huge amounts of game information in both directions and if packet loss occurs the worst you might notice in-game is the skipping of other characters or getting killed in an instant, when your local game eventually receives 'current' information from the server.

Having played SK for well over a decade usually on rock solid cable and DSL services but also barely-online services like a McDonalds free wifi or a 3G USB attachment on an oversubscribed Telso, I can assure you that SK MUD itself runs very well and with a very professional uptime on both the server and its local links to the internet.

You need to get a rough idea on how your link performs to local sites first (since international links and congestion might also be a factor), but here's some rough examples from my links:

3G connection / poor signal strength with oversubscribed/poorly engineered Telco. Symptoms:
* Packet loss noticeable in SK (lags slightly as it waits for retransmission; catches up as a large page of text arriving in a rush)
* Youtube videos slow to start and stutter while trying to play
* Basic web browsing appears fine
* Downloading anything will impact all other internet usage (and probably cause SK client to lose connection)



3G/HSPA iPhone with full signal strength via undersubscribed Telco. Symptoms:
* SK text arrival is smooth and only notice tick-lag
* Youtube videos start reliably and only stutter on HD quality
* Basic web browsing is responsive
* Downloading anything will slightly impact all other internet usage (and probably cause SK client to lag slightly)


From here it only gets better, with ping times dropping further and further as the connection has less latency and no packet loss even while downloading other content (provided there is sufficient bandwidth). Note that the IP addresses I used above are actually at the respective Internet Service Provider websites (i.e. I should be able to get to http://WWW.OPTUSNET.COM.AU" target="_BLANK with the minimum number of issues using my Optus link).

Pinging all the way to SK won't help you check your local service, as there could be international congestion and other issues between.

PS: I'll be moving this to the CLIENTS forum soon, as this is not a bug. I'll leave a link in this forum though, as it's probably a common enough question.

A ping -t mud.shatteredkingdoms.org will give you a good view on whether you're losing packets all the way to SK, but what Viltrax said above is true. (if you try it, stop it with CTRL-C)

Tracert (in windows and traceroute in linux) is a better demo, as it will show you the latency of all intermediate hops up to SK, but won't show you the packet loss. So use both to get an idea.

In tracert, first hop is your router, second is your ISP, start checking latency after those. Example follows: