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Doc Lithius
join:2009-08-19
Rock, MI

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Doc Lithius

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[Networking] Online Gaming on HughesNet

Last updated April 22st, 5:04 PM ET

Online gaming on HughesNet... To some, it's a faraway dream. To others, it's a reality distorted by horrendous connections and riddled with errors. HughesNet themselves tells you that the connection is basically for "checking your e-mail, surfing the web," or "downloading pictures". In a lot of cases, they're quite right. Gaming on HughesNet generally nets you a lot of frustration due to the inconsistent connection, poor upload speeds, or other assorted reasons, some of which defies explanation. But there is hope. Not every online game out there is unplayable! And that's what this topic is for.

Below are a list of games I've either personally tested, or heard might run well under HughesNet, as well as some games which do not run well. I'll also give some rationale as to why a game does or doesn't work well on our unique connection type.
Note: These results may vary based on your usage plan, location, and how heavily your satellite(s) is being impacted at the time. Playing during heavy-usage hours for your satellite will ultimately not work, in my experience, causing your game to spiral into ridiculously-massive pings.

Games Which Work
MMOs
- World of Warcraft -- Works perfectly! There's a little hang time between when you issue a command and when it's actually carried out, but that's about it. Even PvP and massive raids work just fine!
Addendum by wowow: Works well enough on HughesNet that you can multi-box (play multiple accounts you own at the same time on several computers)!
- Ragnarök Online -- Works perfectly as well. Again, there's a little hang time between commands and execution.
- EverQuest -- Same, though somewhat more noticeable here.
- Guild Wars -- Same input lag. Also, If your connection hiccups, your character may teleport around a little, usually zipping back to where they started when you started walking.
- Second Life -- Massive input lag. Due to the fact that everything is happening right at that very moment live, this is a real test of patience. Even walking is made extremely difficult, especially during heavy-usage times. You may also get people telling you your outfit hasn't changed or that you're a white, puffy cloud... But otherwise, everything works as it should.
- Dofus -- Due to the fact that everything is extremely turn-based, this game works perfectly! The only noticeable snag comes when you move around on the overworld map. As you might expect, there's a slight input delay.
- MapleStory (Updated by mihakken) -- Works almost flawlessly due to the way the netcode is set up, but picking up items (loot, dropped items, etc.) can be difficult -- sometimes impossible -- unless you have a pet which can collect your items for you. The Free Market also shows a great deal of lag, though that may be the norm due to how many players are usually in there.
Star Trek Online (Contributed by zenzinger) -- "works in the freetime window. only lags because of the massive amount of people (only 20 or so onscreen) in the same sector block"

Non-MMOs
- Heroes of Newerth, League of Legends -- Believe it or not, these actually work very well on HughesNet! Input lag, as usual, but otherwise not bad at all.
- Browser games -- Every browser-based game I've played has worked due to the fact they're not very taxing on your connection. Tetris Friends' "Arena" mode has a tendency not to let you log in, but if you can get in, it works fine after that.

Facebook Games (Contributed by user yolarry)
- Farmville - "Works, takes some time for the Marketplace to pop up and if its not loaded in less then 5 mins refesh the page. Just don't have too much farmville items or its going to take forever to load."
- Mafia Wars - "Works but I sometimes have problems loading properties...I sure its not a hughesnet glitch but give it time."
- Fishville - "Works but my dad's g/f says "saving tank" keeps popping up random when she feeds her fish."

Console/Handheld Networking
- Mario Kart DS -- Provided you can keep your opponents around, this game works...oddly enough...flawlessly, from what I can tell!
- Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin -- There's a bit of drifting in Co-op Boss Rush Mode, but it seems to work well enough. Shop Mode works without flaw.
- Pokémon Generation IV games -- Flawless. Simple as that.
- XBox 360 and XBox Live Arcade services (Contributed by yolarry) -- As long as the game isn't a "twitch" game, first-person shooter, "matchmaking service" game, or game which requires a consistant connection (Bomberman Online (?), for example), it will work. For example, Uno or 1 vs. 100 will work just fine as they require minimal input on the player's part. Games like Call of Duty 4 or Halo 3 will appear to work, but on the other players' screens, you'll appear to be sliding around like crazy and possibly get reported and/or banned for "hacking", even though you're just lagging. (This can be blamed on poor netcode for most of those games (which assume you have a great connection)).
Other services XBox Live Arcade provides, such as the Marketplace, NetFlix, Party Chat, and Last.FM, simply do not work under HughesNet due to constant timeout errors, or in the case of Party Chat and Last.FM, exceeding the Fair-Access Policy threshold.
SOCOM: Confrontation (PS3 version) (Contributed by zenzinger) -- An FPS that works on HughesNet? According to zenzinger, it's "not to shabby".

Games Which May Potentially Work
- Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos/The Frozen Throne -- Similar to how Heroes of Newerth works, the netcode seems to use the fastest player as its baseline, balancing things out in the end. Since I don't have my authentic CD-Key codes handy, I can't test this myself.
- PlanetSide -- Supposed, this works just fine. I've been unable to test it since I don't feel like plunking down the cash to do so (my trial periods have long expired), but I've read in a couple places that due to how the netcode works, players on slower connection may actually have an advantage over players on faster connections.
- Grand Chase -- Playing by yourself works perfectly with no problems, as you might guess. However, I have not yet tested to see if playing in a room works.
- City of Heroes -- Again, untested due to unwillingness to pay to do so. Probably works about as well as Guild Wars or World of Warcraft, rather than Florensia (see below).
- GunBound -- Should work pretty well due to the fact that everything's turn-based! But I've been wrong before.
- Diablo II/Lord of Destruction -- May work. I've played on poor connections before and the biggest snag was the game sometimes didn't load the maps correctly.
- Facebook - Cafe World (Contributed by yolarry) - "every time she loads this game my fap hits hard for some odd reason. I never check it out but i suggest staying away."
- Voyage Century (Contributed by zenzinger) -- "it wasn't awe full."
- Halo 3/ODST (XBox 360) (Contributed by Russ1972) -- As implausible as it sounds, supposedly Halo 3's multiplayer mode does work on HughesNet! But only if you're playing private matches. The public rooms do not work.

Games Which Don't Work
- Any first-person shooters (other than PlanetSide) -- Don't hold your breath. Some FPSes end up having you zip-zap around while others will simply kick you out for exploiting. Others still put you at a grave disadvantage as your idle body would appear frozen in place on others' screens even if you're clear across the room on yours, making you a sitting duck. Now, I haven't tested them all, but I can only assume that it's mostly the same for them all.
- Florensia -- Jaggy movement far exceeding that of Guild Wars and talking to NPCs crashes the game. The crashing might be a purely isolated incident, but I can't be sure since I've never played it on a land-based connection.
- WarCraft II: Battle.Net Edition -- The game pauses every few seconds, complaining of a "syncing" issue with you, and eventually times out and boots you.
- Kaillera-based things -- Don't even bother. The lag destroys your gameplay experience and then some. Though it does make a somewhat amusing sight to some degree...
- Combat Arms (Contributed by zenzinger) -- I actually did try this one myself a while back, but it was zenzinger that indirectly reminded me of it. As with most first-person shooters, this does not work. zenzinger adds, "dont bother. it'll take you an hour to get from one side to the other"
- Dungeon Fighter Online -- For whatever reason, the game just plain won't let you log in. It's unknown if it works if you somehow manage to login, but I wasn't able to log in no matter what time of day I tried! Given this, I'd say it doesn't work on HughesNet.

If you folks have any experience with any games not listed here, please feel free to post your experiences and I'll add them to the list (after testing, where I can, of course)!
tobicat
Premium Member
join:2005-04-18
Tombstone, AZ

tobicat

Premium Member

This is the kinda stuff that needs to be put in the Satellite FAQ which has not been updated in years.

yolarry
join:2007-12-29
Creston, WV

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Facebook Games

Farmville - Works, takes some time for the Marketplace to pop up and if its not loaded in less then 5 mins refesh the page. Just don't have too much farmville items or its going to take forever to load.

Mifia Wars - Works but I sometimes have problems loading properties...I sure its not a hughesnet glitch but give it time.

Fishville - Works but my dad's g/f says "saving tank" keeps popping up random when she feeds her fish.

Cafe World - every time she loads this game my fap hits hard for some odd reason. I never check it out but i suggest staying away.

/end of facebook games

Others

xbox 360: What you can do - you can log in, update your system and games, check messages, buy XBLA games, look at peoples gamer score and compare games, share your gamercard all over the net of what games you playing. you can play one or two games online and that's either Texas Hold'em or UNO but requires god membership. If you want DLC (download content) then you would have to use xbox.com to send over to your console. Just make sure to download large updates 2am to 7am

xbox 360: What you CANT do - no netflix, no party chat, no last.fm, matchmaking games. that's right no Halo, Gears of War, Call Of Duty, Grand Theft Auto 4. you think you are not lagging but other players will see you sliding, bouncing here and there and everybody be thinking you are a cheater and get console banned for life on xbox live. Gold membership is a waste of time. you cannot use Marketplace on the console. it keeps getting me a time out error code.

So what can I do to play MP games? Do it like I do, setup a LAN (Local Area Connection) full of computers All you need is a router. I have 7 computers on each room where I play COD4 and CODWaW PC with OpenWarfare mod for custom game mods and maps. Its very fun to play LAN based games. my friends that experience online gaming says LAN is better because you don't lag at all. My suggestion, use wired connection because wi-fi does not cut it.

Also you can do the same with the xbox 360. buy more systems. too cheap to buy the same game then use your head and google. that's all I got to say. Make sure all xbox's hook on the same router or you'll get a failure to connect host.

donnieb82
join:2010-03-30
Kernville, CA

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Thanks everyone for taking the time to post your informative posting on workable games

yolarry
join:2007-12-29
Creston, WV

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Like I said. this is to prove hughesnet wrong that some games depends on legacy and some dont.

I need to test some more games out like Halo PC and COD4 PC. see how well they do.

wowow
@direcway.com

wowow to Doc Lithius

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to Doc Lithius
for what its worth i still box wow on hughesnet. i usally play5 or 6 accounts depending. all the latency is the same accross all of them. if its during any sort of peak hours you cant play a single account but if its off hours its doable. if you dont currently box i wouldnt suggest starting or learning on hughesnet, its not that fun.

movedbynoise0
join:2008-05-24
Shady Dale, GA

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said by Doc Lithius:

- MapleStory -- Untested due to the fact I couldn't seem to log in. It may work, as I've played the Southeast Asia (MapleStory SEA) version from the US on a Cable connection with only a little negative impact, but don't quote me on that.
I used to maple all the time on hughesnet, it works fine...except you have a hard time picking up your drops. I always kept a pet and had the items so it would pick up my drops for me, which eliminated any problems with picking them up. It made playing near normal for me. The only other place I noticed a difference was the free market, and it was just laggy because of all the users. I played for about a year on hughesnet I think.

Doc Lithius
join:2009-08-19
Rock, MI

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said by wowow :
for what its worth i still box wow on hughesnet. i usally play5 or 6 accounts depending.
Five or six?! What in the world would you need six people for? Regardless, even if they're all the same class, that's pretty darn impressive.

Anyhoo, I've updated the main post with the information you guys gave me. I'm glad this is a topic of interest to so many people! Even better that people are contributing. Thank you!

zenzinger
@direcway.com

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well here goes

star trek online- works in the freetime window. only lags because of the massive amount of people (only 20 or so onscreen) in the same sector block

Combat arms- dont bother. it'll take you an hour to get from one side to the other

voyage century- it wasnt awe full.

socom confrontation for ps3- not to shabby

im dropping hughesnet like a hot rock as soon as the contract is up or something better comes along i'd take the 200 dollar hit than have to deal with the bs for 2 months longer

Doc Lithius
join:2009-08-19
Rock, MI

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Doc Lithius

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I can't seem to edit my opening post anymore, so I'll tack this on here:

- Guild Wars (addendum) -- After some testing, I found out that "Rollerbeetle Racing", a mini-game in Guild Wars, is somewhat incompatable with HughesNet. Oh, you can play it alright, but due to how the netcode works in Guild Wars, you might end up teleporting around that corner you just drove by, "hiccupping" back a few meters at random, or otherwise being unable to finish the race in the alloted time. After five races, I came in 8th place out of 8 due to the lag spikes and such, these happening during off-peak hours.

- Rakion (Doesn't work) -- You can make a character, you can look for rooms, and you can play the tutorial all you want, but even if you make a room with only you inside of it, the game still needs a steady high-speed connection. Once the map loads, you'll immediately be booted back out into the room with a "loading time over, please check your connection" error.

GoGoGo
@direcpc.com

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I just wanted to say that CoD3 and GTA IV are playable online via XBOX 360.

In CoD3, if you hit someone on your screen they die. There's no visual sign of lag when your are walking or running.

GTA IV is playable, but only with auto-aim. Racing is also possible, but be prepared to see the cars 'slide' a lot.

You can't get the best experience with these games, but it's fun to 'participate' in them.

donnieb82
join:2010-03-30
Kernville, CA

donnieb82

Member

What? Unless Xbox Live differe completely from the PS3 online MP which I doubt it does, how are you able to play COD3 live with other players and not ghost? I used to have all the COD's on my PS3 and when I tried to link up online with other players I just gave up because while they moved it real time, I was lagging behind so bad I would be dead before I had time to move from respawn.
zeddlar
join:2007-04-09
Jay, OK

zeddlar

Member

Aye, I can't play tanarus or comanche gold online on hughes either.

pitatou
@direcway.com

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hughes says in their advertising that you can " watch movies online" well our net slows to a crawl in the evening hours ..so it should say watch movies at 3AM. If you dont get hit with FAP, no its not good for any gaming anymore. when we started WOW our lat was 700...I know there will be lat but, now after we upgraded to the 9000 our lat is never below 1200 and goes to 20000 in the evenings..useless for anything. As far as checking email if thats all hughes is good for i can do that on dialup.

Doc Lithius
join:2009-08-19
Rock, MI

Doc Lithius

Member

Got another couple that I forgot about until recently:
- Furcadia (Works!) -- Works perfectly aside from the usual input lag stuff! Doesn't work any worse than on dial-up most times.
- Rumble Fighter (Doesn't work?) -- It opens, gives a "P2P server is closed" error message, and that's it. But I'm still not convinced this doesn't work on HughesNet. I'm presently waiting to hear back from an OGPlanet tech support person to see if maybe there's something really dumb that I missed somewhere...

donnieb82
join:2010-03-30
Kernville, CA

donnieb82

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Thanks Doc, appreciate the time and effort on this
Max Mouse
join:2010-02-28

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Doesn't playing online games will only cause you to fap in less than 40 minutes... Thats the reason why I ain't buying/downloading online games right now... >_>

wowow
@direcway.com

wowow

Anon

depends on the game. wow no... could play wow 24 hours a day if u felt like it.
tobicat
Premium Member
join:2005-04-18
Tombstone, AZ

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said by Max Mouse:

Doesn't playing online games will only cause you to fap in less than 40 minutes... Thats the reason why I ain't buying/downloading online games right now... >_>
Downloading the games would probably FAP you unless you used the download manager. Playing them probably would not.
zeddlar
join:2007-04-09
Jay, OK

zeddlar

Member

With 4 computers logged into EverQuest I average 15 to 25 megs an hour so playing mmorpg's at least is not likely to get you fapped unless you have one of the budget plans with low faps.

Doc Lithius
join:2009-08-19
Rock, MI

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said by Max Mouse:

Doesn't playing online games will only cause you to fap in less than 40 minutes... Thats the reason why I ain't buying/downloading online games right now... >_>
Short Answer: Not generally.
Long Answer: In almost no circumstance will an online game run your FAP over. Even Second Life, which is very download-intensive, runs a fairly low amount of bandwidth per hour. (In my experience, around 10-30 MB.) I actually happen to have a trio of stats handy for analysis.

Scorched3D (Online Mode): 0.03 MB/min (32.4 MB for 18 Hours)
Ragnarok Online: 0.05 MB/min (54.0 MB for 18 Hours)
World of Warcraft: 0.08 MB/min (86.4 MB for 18 Hours)

As you can see, it's not quite as intensive as you might think, but it can add up if you're doing things like multi-boxing (MMO slang for "playing multiple accounts at one time") or things like that.

In addition to this, I have new data to add to the thread.

- Maple Story (Confirmed: Works!) -- mihakken mentioned a few posts back that MapleStory works on HughesNet just fine...and he wasn't kidding! I didn't play for a long while, but I played enough to get a feel for things. Attacking enemies and playing the game works perfectly! Picking up items, not as much. You can grab items, but there'll be a second delay or so before you can grab your loot. You may want to invest in a pet to do this for you if you're worried about thieving vultures hovering over your laggy self.
- GunBound (Works!) -- Works perfectly! The only major snag I've found is that you can't see where the other tanks are aiming as they're aiming, but since it's all turn-based, that's pretty irrelivant to begin with.
- Scorched3D (Works!) -- How I missed this one earlier, I don't know, but this game works perfectly online! Perhaps even better than GunBound! Even in Simultaneous Mode (everyone fires at once), there's no hang-ups and no noticible issues.

And just so you don't think it's all good news... XD
- Armagetron (Works, But Not Recommended) -- Oh, you can play just fine. I played a few rounds on a random server just recently, in fact. But with a ping of over 1,000, you're gonna end up smashing into walls at a record breaking pace! Still, it makes for an interesting show sometimes.

Big update regarding PlanetSide!!!
Okay. I know that someone out there mentioned PlanetSide, a first-person shooter by Sony Computer Entertainment, worked well with HughesNet. Well, after trying it for a couple of hours, I am extremely happy to report that it does indeed work on HughesNet just fine! Which is a big, but pleasant surprise fo anyone out there who wanted to come back into PlanetSide since migrating to HughesNet. As usual, there's a good second of lag between when you shoot someone and when they take damage, but the important thing here is that they take damage! No one warps around, no one skips or disappears... You can see enemies and enemies can see you! As far as I can tell, there is absolutely no noticable down side to playing PlanetSide on HughesNet despite the fact it's a first-person shooter! How cool is that? Sure, it may not be Counter-Strike or Team Fortress 2, but it's something!

GoGoGo
@direcpc.com

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@icewalk17

I'm not sure why CoD3 works. It's the only CoD that I can play online via 360. I can't even connect to the lobby in CoD4.

madmallard
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you can play mag,killzone2,fear,resistance,resistance2,all of socoms on the ps3.
Xtreme2damax
join:2007-03-21
Port Byron, NY

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Hello folks, I have a question and I'm about to prepare myself for the obvious answer. I thought it wouldn't hurt to at least ask..

I was wondering if anyone ever tried the online mode of games that use Games for Windows Live and how these games would work over Hughesnet?

I have Resident Evil 5 and wanted to try the online mode. I started a game for someone to join in but I panicked and quit for fear there would be complaints about lag or I would be kicked anyway because of high pings.

Doc Lithius
join:2009-08-19
Rock, MI

Doc Lithius

Member

That's a good question! I hope someone can submit the answer to that question as well as the question I'm about to propose:
Given that certain first-person shooters on the XBox 360 work just fine, I have to ask. Halo-fever is in full swing with the BETA testing of Halo: Reach...so does the current version of Halo: Reach work with HughesNet? I myself don't have an XBox 360, but I'm sure a number of people here would like to know.

Also, to whomever stickied this topic: You are awesome! I'll do my best to test as many games as I possibly can and report my findings back here for future reference!
Xtreme2damax
join:2007-03-21
Port Byron, NY

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I think some games play as well as the do on Hughesnet because they have good netcode that allows them to compensate for the higher pings of Hughesnet.

I would like to know as I've mentioned above if anyone has tried the Resident Evil 5 (PC) online mode on a Hughesnet connection.

I also own other Games for Windows Live titles and would be interested to hear what other GFWL titles run well on Hughesnet.
Expand your moderator at work
diragono
join:2005-07-21
Decatur, TN

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Re: [Networking] Online Gaming on HughesNet

I've not had a Hughes system since the HN7000 first hit, but I was actually a pretty avid gamer with my 7000. I'm sure not much has changed with Hughes since I had it. Warcraft 3 ROC and TFT worked pretty well, obviously about a 1.5-3 second delay between when you click to move and it actually happens, but overall worked about as well as dial-up did for that game, especially on DOTA. Sometimes during prime-time you'll lag a lot and sometimes disconnect, but rarely. One thing to note about WC3, if you use the matchmaking service you never have to worry about this, but if you play custom games, never ever ever try to host a game. Everyone will lag worse than COD4 on dial-up, lol. Command and Conquer Red Alert 2, Generals, and Tiberium Wars worked ok, similar results as that for Warcraft, however in the game lobby it shows a ping indicator and a lot of the times with you never leaving red, you'll get the boot. City of Heroes doesn't work very well, it's netcode differs from that of WoW, when you start running after a few seconds you start warping around. Diablo II, from what I remember worked ok when I played it on my DW6000, but I did not hardly play enough for it to matter. As the OP said, Planetside, surprisingly works quite well! Also, I have recently played Rockband 2 on the WII at my friends who has a HN9000 and it seemed to work flawlessly, can be a little slow finding bandmates but other then that once in game, worked fine.
Xtreme2damax
join:2007-03-21
Port Byron, NY

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I know I've tried Team Fortress 2 on Steam about six months or a year ago and kept jumping all over the place, so I can confirm that isn't playable with Hughesnet.
Xtreme2damax

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Just wondering if anyone has tried Resident Evil 5 (PC) co-op online mode on Hughesnet and how well it performs.