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Just wanted to comment on a problem that I've been having since last Thursday or Friday.

I've started having an issue where my ship keeps doing something that I've ordered it to stop doing, or starts doing something that I haven't ordered it to do.
Example: Furious dog fight starts, I get the upper hand, enemy goes out of my bullet stream, I snatch hard to left to reacquire, and even though I stop shooting, my ship continues to shoot on my screen, as well as keeps turning right for 5 to 15 seconds.

Example2: I'm at a dead stop, and initiate a ripcord. My ship starts moving, and aborts the ripcord. I set my speed to 0, center my joystick (more on this later) and re-initiate ripcord. Again my rip is aborted, and my ship is in motion (this is to a teleport receiver, not an SR scout).

Example3: I launch from a base, and my ship goes into a slow roll on exiting the base. No mater what I do, I can't shake the roll. After 20 or 30 seconds, the roll goes away.

Background:
When I started playing again last year, my PC had an on board graphics card that was.... in sufficient. I upgraded around Christmas, and things have been amazing smooth since then. Gameplay is MUCH better. But even when I had the old PC, I didn't have issues like my examples.

I do play with a joystick, and when I flew out west last week, I packed it in my bag with me, with plans to play on my notebook if I got time. At first I blamed TSA for breaking my joystick in some way, until I shifted to keyboard controls the other day, and still had the issues. (I've ordered a new joystick, just in case I'm having 2 different issues at the same time, if nothing else, good to have a spare that I like.)

Normally I have pings under 150 or so, and 0Ploss. I'm going to be making notes of ploss issues when it next happens again. This has happened by the way on both Planet, and (the other one, name eludes me), I'm not sure about the EU server.


Tracing route to planet.dras.us [70.86.91.82]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
0 nsa_garet-PC [192.168.1.10]
1 192.168.1.1
2 fl-71-0-161-14.dyn.embarqhsd.net [71.0.161.14]
3 adsl-207-215-44-201.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net [207.215.44.201]
4 host153.embarqnow.net [205.245.14.153]
5 te-3-2.car1.Orlando1.Level3.net [4.79.116.189]
6 ae-11-11.car2.Orlando1.Level3.net [4.69.133.74]
7 ae-9-9.ebr1.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.69.133.70]
8 ae-81-81.csw3.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.69.136.130]
9 ae-34-89.car4.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.68.19.134]
10 THE-PLANET.car4.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.71.122.2]
11 te9-2.dsr02.dllstx3.theplanet.com [70.87.253.30]
12 po32.dsr02.dllstx5.theplanet.com [70.85.127.110]
13 po2.car04.dllstx5.theplanet.com [70.84.160.166]
14 planet.dras.us [70.86.91.82]

Computing statistics for 350 seconds...
Source to Here This Node/Link
Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address
0 ptyre-PC [192.168.1.10]
0/ 100 = 0% |
1 0ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 192.168.1.1
0/ 100 = 0% |
2 45ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% fl-71-0-160-1.dyn.embarqhsd.net [7
1.0.160.1]
0/ 100 = 0% |
3 51ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% adsl-207-215-44-201.dsl.lsan03.pac
bell.net [207.215.44.201]
0/ 100 = 0% |
4 53ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% host153.embarqnow.net [205.245.14.
153]
0/ 100 = 0% |
5 64ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% te-3-2.car1.Orlando1.Level3.net [4
.79.116.189]
0/ 100 = 0% |
6 58ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% ae-11-11.car2.Orlando1.Level3.net
[4.69.133.74]
0/ 100 = 0% |
7 88ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% ae-9-9.ebr1.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.
69.133.70]
0/ 100 = 0% |
8 88ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% ae-81-81.csw3.Dallas1.Level3.net [
4.69.136.130]
0/ 100 = 0% |
9 --- 100/ 100 =100% 100/ 100 =100% ae-34-89.car4.Dallas1.Level3.net [
4.68.19.134]
0/ 100 = 0% |
10 --- 100/ 100 =100% 100/ 100 =100% THE-PLANET.car4.Dallas1.Level3.net
[4.71.122.2]
0/ 100 = 0% |
11 --- 100/ 100 =100% 100/ 100 =100% te9-2.dsr02.dllstx3.theplanet.com
[70.87.253.30]
0/ 100 = 0% |
12 94ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% po32.dsr02.dllstx5.theplanet.com [
70.85.127.110]
0/ 100 = 0% |
13 --- 100/ 100 =100% 100/ 100 =100% po2.car04.dllstx5.theplanet.com [7
0.84.160.166]
0/ 100 = 0% |
14 87ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% planet.dras.us [70.86.91.82]

Trace complete.


I'm thinking now it might be a net issue, but it's really getting me down, since randomly being totally inefficient when I feel like I'm starting to 'get it' finally is... sucky!

Thought I'd chime in on it. Don't expect much in the way of a solution, but surprise me...

Sounds like the odd packet getting lost between you and the server to me. When it happens what do other people see? Does the server think you keep shooting or is it just your client?

Sounds similar to the "docking while pressing a key" problem but strange that it happens randomly at a dogfight. Try pressing Esc 2 times when you have this problems and see if it fixes it.

I do get something similar to your first example but its because my comp lags while loading textures and it keeps shooting for a bit when it happens.

I'm with Rav on this one. I'm pretty sure that the 'locked control' thing just goes away after time. It looks to me it's packet loss occuring somewhere. Probably some networking device (like a router) between you and planet is having some issues. At least that's my first guess.

Couple of questions to make sure:

Does this occur on Planet only?
What do other players notice when it happens to you?
Do you get DPlayed more lately?

that happens with my joystick too (I purchased a refurb for a couple of bucks). Just pull the joystick to the sides (all the way in a circle) and twist it all the way (in both directions), that usually works for me (to get rid of most of the jerking anyways)

Update on this. I've started watching my pings closely, and it turns out that I'm getting bursts of packet loss.
Does NOT make me happy.
Going to try to determine if it's just Allegiance I'm getting it on, or if there is something horked up with my local connection.

I think have found your problem ... packet loss.

A couple of things to look for.

1) What kind of service are you on? Cable? Modem? DSL?
Not a solution, but I would expect DSL to provide the best service. Might even consider switching providers.
2) What kind of router(s) do you have between your computer and the net
I had a packet loss/lag problem that was based on a bad NetGear router. Went away when I replaced it.
3) Are you running wireless? Does the problem go away wired?
I also had a problem with wireless interference... going wired fixed that problem. Going to a 5.8 GHz phone helped too. 2.8GHz created interference (IIRC)