the desyncs are caused by the protocol itself. UDP/IP is a connectionless data protocol because unlike TCP/IP you do not have the huge overhead in the packets since you toss out the receive ACK and there is no way to track lost packets. also packets out of order do not get reorganized.

its a marvelous way to move a LOT of data really fast. but it takes a lot of work to make things like games run well with UDP/IP.

TCP/IP has a 3 way handshake. it talks to who it wants and asks how much data that system can handle at a time with its bandwidth,the target system replys back saying "yea sure..about this much!" and then the client using the TCP/IP receives that and starts sending data. if it gets backed up and there is too much data coming the target host can scream "slow down! too fast!" and the client sending the data can moderate it to a speed that the host can better manage.

all this overhead makes TCP/IP perfect if you absolutely must get every part of the packets. you wouldn't want to send an Email for instance and get a garbled message arrive at the end. every packet needs to be there. but to do that you get all the overhead that slows everything down. part of the problem SS experiences is its data throughput because it has a HUGE overhead it has to manage using TCP/IP.

to give you a point of reference to dumb it down or perhaps give more information if you want to learn more here is a pic that will explain the size difference between them.

ahh also one problem i have been having a lot lately with the UDP is trying to warp and getting "DCed" (ofc as i explained earlier its not really a connection...just one tossing the other a ton of junk and not waiting for replys XD) the problem doesn't happen with TCP but i also don't have problems at certain times of the day and i will experience a boost in performance using the UDP.

so i can't say its a total loss. it looks like the best way to go but compensating for UDP's shortcomings is going to take a wile and will no doubt be a daunting task. those who are about to join battle with the code of evil...we salute you!

Only problem I have is it takes a long time from logging in to getting in sync with my ship.... I hit the "use character" button and it takes 10-15 seconds to sync me with my ship.

Ive been experiencing that fairly regularly, cant toss stuff to my alt anymore.

Since I changed to UDP I have regularly desync when I radiate an AI down and want to cap it:

The PDs still hit the target at the right spot - if I aim for that spot I can cap it and the image appears at the correct place immediatly - but the picture and the targeting ring are off (at the same place), sometimes by far more than 500 distance. This does happen more often if the target is spinning/flying circles (aka when it is maneuvering when I radiate it down) when it does when the target flies in a straight line.
This "off -being" is permament afai can tell - cause I watched some of those ships for quite some time and they there still off.

Ok, I guess I didn't really test it too much. When I was in a gal with a lot of slaves I got desynced hard core. TCP is way better; quick logins and no desyncs.

i did explain that TCP is far better if you want everything to get from point A to point B and backwards. problem our admins have is the throughput. not enough information is being moved from one place to another so we are getting lag as more and more players join and more and more content is added and more and more junk appears.

one thing that could be done is parts of it are made UDP and parts are kept TCP. like say bases/colonys/unimaps being UDP and fighting/ai/logins being TCP. or even some other combination. *shrugs* UDP was made to move shitloads of data fast. its a "best effort" protocol. it does its best to move the data..it doesn't care if stuff gets lost in the middle.

Comcast has been fixed somewhat they were ordered by the FCC to stop packet shapeing.

I have comcast and ever sence the FCC made there ruleing Ive had no proplems with comcast no DC's at all!

I don't like this UDP as when i log in i have to wait like 15-20 seconds for the game to load every thing.

Also this UDP makes transfering stuff to alts/storage ships alot harder.