
   The X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter Internet Play Sourcebook by Chris Jensen
   
   Let's get this out in the open right now: XvT has some problems with
   Internet play. I don't believe this comes as news to any of you.
   LucasArts is supposedly hard at work on a patch that will assist net
   play to some degree. What degree, no one knows. But every little bit
   helps. As for now, we're stuck with what we've got. And it isn't all
   bad, people. There are several things that can be done to increase
   your enjoyment of XvT over the Internet.
   
   The Obvious
   
   Let's polish off the obvious right now: Get ISDN or a cable modem.
   Okay, okay, I know half of you can't buy it yet and the other half
   don't want to deal with the hassles of setting it up, but it does
   help, believe me. I just had to say it. It's the best thing you can do
   to cut down the latency. Realistic? No. Let's move on.
   
   The Microsoft Internet Gaming Zone
   
   There are several ways to get XvT going over the Internet and by far
   the easiest and most efficient is by utilizing the IGZ. Your first
   step, if you don't already have the front-end software, is to head
   over to http://www.zone.com and download it. This process will take
   about 20 minutes or so. Once the file is downloaded, double-click it
   and it will self-install.
   
   From the main Zone page, select Games and then select X-wing Vs. Tie
   Fighter. This will load up a page that displays various rooms where
   people are gathered, the most popular of which is the first room,
   averaging a good 150 people on a typical day. Contrary to popular
   belief, the amount of people within a room has absolutely nothing to
   do with the speed of your game . . . which brings me to Popular Myth
   #2: The Microsoft Internet Gaming Zone is not a server. A slew of
   people seem to be under the impression that IGZ is a game server like
   TEN or Mplayer. Well, it isn't. It's simply a meeting place that
   connects everyone's I.P. address together, saving you the trouble of
   scrawling down a million addresses on scrap pieces of paper.
   
   The true server on IGZ is the Host of a particular game. And this
   little tidbit of information is extremely important.
   
   The Host With The Most
   
   Upon entering a room under IGZ, you will be presented with a display
   of open slots with a list of players off to the right. The open slots
   are where people can either elect to join a newly forming game or
   create their own.
   
   [INLINE]
   
   Our first key to successful XvT play is who hosts. Granted, everyone
   can host a game but that doesn't mean they should. In fact, I'd go so
   far as to say that if you're not running a minimum of a P166 with 32
   megs RAM, then hosting shouldn't be in your future. It is the host of
   the game that is supplying the data to the rest of the players. The
   more powerful the machine the host has, the smoother the game is for
   everyone else. Simply put, if you have a P90 on your desk and you've
   been hosting games...stop. It's pointless. No one is having a good
   time. Leave the hosting to the muscle machines.
   
   While CPU speed is critical to the overall speed of the game, the
   connection type of the Host also plays an important role. If you're
   fortunate enough to have ISDN, a cable modem or a 56k modem (if your
   ISP supports it), then by all means, you should be hosting XvT games.
   If you're one of these lucky people, you should allow others to know
   by indicating your connection speed in the Game Description box of
   your hosted slot.
   
   Green is Mean and Red is Dead
   
   I'm still amazed at the amount of people that just can't seem to
   understand the color coding within IGZ. Next to each name on the
   player list you will find a colored icon. This icon may be black
   (hasn't been pinged yet), Red, Olive, or Bright Green.
   
   Let's end the confusion right now.
   
   First off, upon entering the XvT Zone, use a little patience and let
   your system ping everyone else. This usually takes only a few minutes
   and you'll accrue a great overall perspective of who is fast to you
   and who isn't.
   
   Green is Great. It doesn't get any better. All the colors that you see
   are entirely in relation to you. Therefore, a green icon next to
   someone else's name means they have a low ping (or low latency) to
   your system. These are the people you want to join your game...and the
   people you want to join.
   
   Let's say you don't want to host but would rather join a game.
   Scanning the slots with your mouse, you can see if the host has a
   green icon sitting next to his name. If not, don't join. If you do
   join, please remove yourself. If you continue to sit there, the host
   is powerless to remove you (hear that Microsoft? We need a Kick User
   option!).
   
   [INLINE]
   
   In the top left of this image we can see that this game slot is
   destined with disaster. The host has an olive colored icon to me,
   meaning this game will be nothing more than still pictures once it
   begins.
   
   The goal here is to populate the game slot with nothing but green
   icons. Anything less is a tragic mistake.
   
   And for you hosts out there . . . if a player is not green to you, ask
   them (kindly) to leave. It is completely pointless for you to go ahead
   and start the game, because the experience will not be a fun one. If
   the player in question continues to sit there, hogging up a much
   needed spot, then you'll simply have to exit the slot and begin a new
   one. As of now, that's your only option.
   
   So, you've managed to get all green icons in your slot. Great. That's
   half the battle. Go ahead and start the game and we'll move to the
   next phase.
   
   Stay On Target
   
   If you're joining a game hosted by someone else, you'll have to wait a
   while before you ultimately connect to his or her machine. Once you
   pop into XvT, you will see your name appear.
   
   Two rows of lights appear next to your name. These lights represent
   crucial information. The first row represents your latency to the
   host, i.e., how long it takes for your machine to send information to
   the host and back. If all of your lights are on, you have a pretty bad
   connection. Despite the fact that the host had a green icon within
   IGZ, you're now getting a better idea of just what your latency really
   is.
   
   It's not time to panic yet. Patience is a virtue here. The initial
   latency is always worse at first. Give it a good minute to settle down
   and the lights may begin blinking off a bit. Your goal is to terminate
   all red lights.
   
   Red is bad. It's not playable. If your latency remains in the red,
   either remove yourself from the game or ask the host to do it for you.
   
   Yellow is . . . okay. It's playable. You can have a very smooth Melee
   game with yellow lights on.
   
   Green is superior. You're ready to take on full scale battles with
   little lag. Consider yourself extremely fortunate. Attaining green
   lights is pretty rare.
   
   Now, we also have some smaller lights below the larger ones. This set
   of lights represents your packet loss. You'll always find that,
   optimally, one light on the left will always be lit. That's fine.
   You're still at a 0% packet loss. But, if it begins illuminating from
   left to right, you're in trouble. Dropping packets basically means
   your connection is shaky, like static on a phone wherein you cannot
   hear the party on the other end of the receiver. Once you begin
   dropping packets, you might as well rule this session out. Dropping
   packets is more detrimental to the smoothness of the game than a high
   latency.
   
   Additionally, if you're fine but other players are dropping packets,
   make sure the host of the game is aware so he can elect to boot
   (kindly) the player. Dropping packets affects everyone. The only way
   to prevent packet loss is to disconnect from your ISP and attempt a
   reconnection. This usually works.
   
   Now then, many of you have not taken the time to study the readme file
   that ships on the XvT disk. A key piece of information you're missing
   out on is that you can move the mouse over your Latency/Packet lights
   and get a better idea of your situation. The most important number you
   need is the Overall Rating. If its sitting between 85-90%, you looking
   good. Anything less, and you won't be happy. This is extremely
   important for the host of a game. If your players are not displaying
   good numbers here, you must boot the players from the game.
   
   It is for this reason that, while in the Internet Gaming Zone, telling
   people what type of game you intend on playing is usually futile. You
   may have great intentions and all, but as we can see, by the time XvT
   loads, players may be dropped or kicked out . . . or never even show
   at all. So, your planned 2 on 2 Furball suddenly becomes impossible
   because you have only three players with good ratings.
   
   Once all of the pings have settled down, you're confident that no one
   is dropping packets, its time to figure out what type of game you
   should play with your remaining players.
   
   Other Tricks Of The Trade
   
   Time for a little research on your ISP. I happen to have the luxury of
   using three different ISPs, each with at least two sets of different
   dialup numbers. Now, chances are you don't have three ISPs, but you
   most likely have at least two phone numbers for your existing one.
   
   Here's the plan.
   
   Call your first option and connect to the Internet. Once connected,
   begin a DOS prompt and type "Ping beta.zone.com" without the quotes.
   After a few seconds, a series of numbers will be displayed. The one
   that says time=### is important. This is your average latency time to
   the aforementioned address. The lower the number, the better. If
   you're floating around 300 or so, you're connection is a little slow.
   In that case, disconnect from your ISP and call a different number,
   repeating the above process. Keep doing this with every number you
   have access to until you know which one is offering you the best
   connection. Once known, stick with it.
   
   Besides knowing which ISP dial-up number is your best, there are a few
   things you can adjust on your modem settings to help out the
   smoothness of your Internet play. These are my personal preferences
   and they work for me, no matter how strange they may seem. Of course,
   your mileage may vary.
     * First of all, turn off Error Correction.
     * Secondly, turn off FIFO Buffers.
     * Lastly, turn off Handshaking.
       
   All of the options are found under Modem from the Control Panel.
   
   I know this sounds weird. But it works.
   
   So as not to effect your connection to the Internet for other
   activities, an easier way to do this is simply create a copy of your
   Dial-Up Connection icon located under Dial-Up Networking in My
   Computer. Rename this copy XvT and select its Properties. Once there,
   you can adjust your modem settings for this connection only, leaving
   your settings intact for when you want to go back to normal. Frankly,
   this is a good thing to do for any Internet game.
   
   Being A Better Host
   
   It's your party, so you're responsible for your guests.
   
   To ensure smoother play on the Internet, I highly recommend you reduce
   all of your graphical options to the bare minimum. Yeah, I know this
   sucks but it's a must . . . and frankly, the look of the game doesn't
   suffer all that much. Lowering your detail settings will enhance the
   game for not only yourself but the other contestants as well.
   
   Also, the Melee option for battle is almost always a smooth
   experience. Once you get into full scale battles, especially ones
   taking place in an asteroid field, you can expect some serious slow
   down.
   
   Performing all the ideas mentioned in this article is sure to enhance
   your experience. It's all we have to work with until either LucasArts
   or Microsoft teak their respective systems.
   
   A Word To Microsoft & LucasArts
   
   Besides what the players can do, there are a few things both of you
   can do as well.
   
   Microsoft, if you'd really like to help the situation I have a few
   suggestions. First of all, I'd come up with one additional color for
   your Latency ratings. Right now, Green represents too wide a field.
   Green should be indicated for only the best connections. This would
   serve to give the players a much better understanding of their speed
   in relation to others.
   
   Secondly, please apply a "kick" button to the Internet Gaming Zone.
   Nothing is worse than having a player sit in a slot that is far too
   slow and isn't paying attention. The host should be able to boot this
   player from his or her game.
   
   Now for LucasArts. I'm sure your hands are already full with things
   you're tweaking, but one thing that must be accomplished is the
   ability for players to join an existing game. Right now, if some
   players get lost between the Zone and XvT, the host is screwed. He has
   to exit the entire game and start from scratch. It would be much
   easier if the host could head back to the zone and scrounge up a few
   additional players.
   
   Last Words
   
   I'll be updating this guide as developments occur. If any of you have
   some input or further suggestions for this guide, please feel free to
   send them along to us. If they pan out, we'll include them here.
   
   Happy fighting!
   
