Updated connection speed, no more 56k. Waiting 30 seconds every time I zone to use my LS makes me a sad panda :(
Another one would be a graphics update. I'd also like the social aspect of the game back, I mean it's still there, but it's not like it was back in the day. Most things are soloed or done with alts ><
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KNOW this is way too long. But I believe this is really important. --
The client was originally written to operate on the PlayStation2 (PS2) home video game console and a PC running Microsoft’s Windows 98. At that time, both would have been running at least a dial-up modem in compliance with the v.90 specification. The v.90 specification has specific speed limits. The data flowing downwards, from the datacenter in Japan to the players PS2 console or Windows 98 PC is called a download. It had a theoretical maximum speed of 56 Kilobytes per second (Kb/s). The data flowing upwards from the player’s PS2 console or Windows 98 PC to the datacenter in Japan is called an upload. It could move at a theoretical maximum speed of 33.6 Kb/s. Depending on a whole laundry list of factors - such as line noise caused by moisture that has penetrated the outdoor telephone wiring - the maximum upload and download speed could vary greatly, from town to town and between different local or nationwide dial-up internet service providers (ISPs).
On the game screen, network status is represented in the upper right corner by two arrows, a percentage, an S (send) and an R (receive) number. With the connection to the game world being stable, there will be green flowing arrows and a “100%”. If packets begin to drop or there is no response from the server (sometimes called R0), the percentage will begin to fall and the arrows tint towards red until it hits 0%. This is when the client program determines that the player is disconnected and returns them to either the title screen or another error that sends them back to PlayOnline. Should a player’s character become disconnected, the character may remain in the game world for upwards of thirty (30) seconds with a red PlayOnline dot, indicating the issue to other players. Players will not be able to log back into their character until this process completes with the character disappearing out of the game world.
The game client was engineered with the speed limits of the v.90 modem in mind. Because of this, the maximum download speed of the game is approximately 3Kb/s or 3,000 baud duplex. This was, and still is the biggest contributor to lag in areas where there are high numbers of players. The client was never engineered to handle so much data coming through such a small pipe all at once. Currently, there is no practical way to bypass the 3Kb/s limit. Doing so would involve deconstructing and rebuilding the client and server network stacks. Doing both would be multi-million dollar-wasting tasks of gargantuan proportions.
Since its release, the game has had several expansions. The game now has exponentially more content then it had in 2002. Regardless of the fact that the game’s data flow rate of 3Kb/s has not changed, the game will perform with less lag-behind and far fewer disconnects from the data center, (usually error code POL-2059) if players can use a reliable broadband connection of at least 100 Megabits per second (Mbps)…
On June 14, 2016, New York Times Reporter Cecilia Kang wrote an article. In summary: A 2-to-1 decision from a three-judge panel at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed the government’s view: Broadband internet is no longer a luxury item. It can now be defined as a utility. It is as essential as running water, sanitary sewer lines, copper-based local loop analog telephone service (P.O.T.S. [Plain Old Telephone Service] lines), oven/stove gas and electricity.
An FCC report from November of 2018 says that more than nineteen million people live in rural parts of the United States, where broadband internet options are limited. For example, highspeedinternet.com states the following: As of late 2018, Viasat, a satellite-based internet provider is available to 99% of Iowa zip code 50240. However, it only has a maximum download speed of 25Mbps. Additionally, Windstream DSL, at 100Mbps is only available to 2% of the area covered by Iowa zip code 50240.
Today, most Canadians have access to a minimum service level of at least 50 Mbps for downloads and 10 Mbps for uploads. However, many rural and remote regions of Canada lack the infrastructure to deliver these minimum service levels. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is setting up a fund to help ensure these minimum service levels will reach the most rural and remote regions of Canada. By the end of 2021, CRTC expects 90% of Canadian homes and businesses will have access to the minimum service levels of at least 50 Mbps for downloads and 10 Mbps for uploads.
To show razor-sharp contrast, an excerpt from a January 2009 document entitled Homegrown Terrorism 1, 2, 3: South Korea’s Next Challenge against Terrorism is shown below. This document was written by Steve Sung-Kun Sin. Steve Sung-Kun Sin graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1995 with a BA in Government. At the time he wrote this document, he was a Major in the US Army and also the Chief of Open Source Intelligence Branch, Directorate of Intelligence, US Forces Korea.
“The ROK is one of the world's most technologically and scientifically advanced countries; it is the only country in the world with nationwide 100Mbit/s broadband internet access, full HDTV broadcasting, DMB, WiBro [South Korean service name for IEEE 802.16e] and 3G HSDPA. [High Speed Downlink Packet Access] It is currently the most wired nation in the world, with more than 90 per cent of all homes connected to high speed broadband internet.”