The updaterate is the key. Tell them to start at updaterate at 20-30. Thell them to move it up till they start to choke and then use the last setting before that that they didnt choke at. If they choke with it at 20 they got ISP/Bandwidth/Hardware issues.
Choke is simply an indicator that they're not getting as many world updates as they'd like, either because your server can't or is configured not to and/or because their system or network connection can't handle it. Just because someone has a high choke number doesn't mean that something's broken or not running right. It's not like loss percentage.
If your server is running on a high-speed, low-latency network and is running at a very high number of frames per second, then it's their problem. If your server is running at low frames per second, then technically it's your problem. While it's preferable to process and then give out 100 or so world updates to every player, the game is still playable at lower numbers.
Remember that if you're artificially limiting the client's rate (using sv_maxrate) without limiting their cl_updaterate ( using sv_maxupdaterate), then they're going to be wanting more updates than their rate allows--even if the hardware and connection *could* keep up at both ends.
If you can't or are not willing to provide and use the resources (bandwidth and processing power) necessary to serve up that number of updates, try setting sv_maxupdaterate to a lower number that matches the rates that you're willing to allow. If you set a max rate at 10000, for instance, try lowering the sv_maxupdaterate to some lower number, like 35. See how that goes. If all complaints of choke go away, start nudging it up until people start complaining again (will they ever not complain?). Then bring it back down a hair, and you know that you've got just about as good a balance as you can get with what you can or are willing to provide to your users.
-- Eric (the Deacon remix)
"But I don't want to be a pie; I hate gravy!" -Babs (Chicken Run)
_______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
