PROJECT: MP Playtest game

drulius · February 13, 2004, 12:42

Is it too soon to start one? I would be willing and available to participate.

weekends before 5pm cst (gmt -6:00)
other days variable, but still possible

Maquiladora · February 13, 2004, 14:47

No harm in doing a test. What time can you start at drulius? I can play until 7pm GMT (1pm CST) weekend coming up, starting any time before that. Depending on what time youre willing to get up we could play some sessions then. Other days possible, around same times.

drulius · February 13, 2004, 18:30

I would be willing to get up around 8am Saturday. That would give us 4 or 5 hours to play right? We can discuss Sunday after we are already playing tomorrow.

You will have to send me a good servers dat file as I've never played CTP2 MP before.

you can email me at drulius1@cox.net

(I already get over 100 spams a day at that address so I'm not too worried about more, but if you substitute bumblebeaver for drulius1 at the same domain, your message definitely won't get filtered out. I'll see it even if it gets filtered, but you know (I hope) what I am trying to say)

Maquiladora · February 13, 2004, 21:42

Okay ill be in nlink lobby at 2pm and 3pm (if you overlay) GMT, thats 8am and 9am CST. I will install a fresh CtP2 AND 1.11 Official Patch, then install the TWO sourcecode playtest zips in order of release, just so we're sure we've got the same thing...

Attached is a working servers.dat file.

This same message has been sent by email.

drulius · February 14, 2004, 02:12

edit

ok it's almost 8am. I've been "waiting for servers" and not connecting to anything. The severs.dat file goes in the same dir as the exe right?

Maquiladora · February 14, 2004, 09:15

Yeah it does, try replacing it again. The first time you go to the servers it should create its own faulty dat file, then replace that one.

MrBaggins · February 14, 2004, 09:23

I'll almost certainly need some MP playtesters for the limitation that I'm currently removing... although its a very good idea to get a baseline of what works and what doesn't, now, to determine what new problems arise, if any.

Maquiladora · February 14, 2004, 09:39

No problem Mr Baggins........... assuming we can actually get playing

Stupid question time, did you unzip it to the right location and definately overwrite the old servers.dat? If its only "waiting for servers" its most likely the dat file.

Heres the one im using now, im pretty sure its the same dat file ive attached but its got less compression on it now.

edit: well i just downloaded and used the first servers.dat file and thats fine, so its something on your end. You say you didnt play CtP2 MP before, did you manage to even enter the lobby list before?

drulius · February 14, 2004, 09:52

Yes, I think.

I unzipped it where I downloaded it. Then I dragged it into the CTP2 folder, but I couldn't find a servers.dat file so I pasted it in the same dir as the exe. Then I tried to start my first MP game.

After that didn't work I removed the dat, and tried another game, which is when the "broken" dat file showed up which I then overwrote with the good one you sent.

Examining the files (your original, and that same one AFTER ctp2 has tried to use it) it seems like ctp2 removes some 'X' characters from the readable part a line or two before the names of the servers. There's also a bootserv.txt file that lists only the bad activision servers in text form.

Maquiladora · February 14, 2004, 10:03

I dunno then.

What about firewalls, anti-virus software etc? OS?

Did you install CtP2 in the same order as i did?

drulius · February 14, 2004, 10:03

since I am trying to install the game on another pc that runs win 98, I took the game cd out of this machine. But I just realized I've still been starting and restarting the game on this machine WITHOUT needing to put the game cd in the drive....

I have a Dlink router with a firewall, but I made this pc a DMZ machine. I'm running win XP here and a mcafee firewall but it's now been disabled (and I told it before disabling it to allow all traffic every time it has warned me about ctp2 trying to access the internet.)

Maquiladora · February 14, 2004, 10:10

Well you can start the game without the cd (it wont play the intro) but you cant start "a" game without the cd, not if you have the new sourcecode ctp2.exe.

edit:

I have a Dlink router with a firewall, but I made this pc a DMZ machine. I'm running win XP here and a mcafee firewall but it's now been disabled (and I told it before disabling it to allow all traffic every time it has warned me about ctp2 trying to access the internet.)

Something here is definately the bad news. lol

drulius · February 14, 2004, 10:30

OK,

I after I killed the Symantec virus detector that I thought was already off...

I found servers, but got stuck trying to enter the nl lobby, actually it was when trying to leave the lobby after not being able to join the lobby. It got stuck while "leaving the lobby".

I've tried both servers and it gets stuck at the lobby, sometimes going in it gets stuck "joining lobby" and sometimes a message "cannot enter lobby" and it dumps you on the profile screen. If you try to go back with next, you either go straight into a dark lobby or it appears good at first but right away a message pops up "you lost your connection" and half the lobby buttons go dark. The ones that "work" (like create game) just take you to the next (password select) screen but no further. And, when you try to exit by using "back" you just stay in the "lobby" the non responsive CTP2 must be exited with task manager.

Maquiladora · February 14, 2004, 10:48

Well thats progress. Theres still something connection related stopping you clearly.

Maquiladora · February 14, 2004, 10:53

I've tried both servers and it gets stuck at the lobby, sometimes going in "cannot enter lobby" and it dumps you on the profile screen. If you try to go back with next, you either go straight into a dark lobby or it appears good at first but right away a message pops up "you lost your connection" and half the lobby buttons go dark. The ones that "work" (like create game) just take you to the next (password select) screen but no further. And, when you try to exit by using "back" you just stay in the "lobby" the non responsive CTP2 must be exited with task manager.

I wouldnt bother with the igateway server, no one can enter it and those problems with "you lost your connection" is common with that server.

If you get to the password select screen cant you press "ok" and it takes you on to the game setup?

drulius · February 14, 2004, 11:06

Nope, click ok for no password and it just dumps me back on the previous selection screen (create, load, load saved) all the buttons go one screen and no further. The first load choice takes me to a screen that is accumulating "games" for each of my attempts so far.

This is always after it has told me it can't join the lobby and my connection is lost.

Do you know if CTP2 uses multiple connections for MP?

Maquiladora · February 14, 2004, 11:17

I dont know. But ive never seen or heard of those problems before, especially if you get as far as the password screen its normally fine after that.

This is always after it has told me it can't join the lobby and my connection is lost.

It seems to me that youre not connected to the server at all or barely, but it carries on and continually tells you it cant connect or throws you out. Ive been in the lobby watching for the last 2 hours and youve never been there.

drulius · February 14, 2004, 11:32

Here's the sequence from any approach:
1st try joining lobby always fails
2nd try joining lobby always "succeeds"
once in
if 1st click is 'back', "your connection was lost"
then if next click is 'back', exits without freezing
if 1st click is anything else, "your connection was lost" and buttons go dark, no exit.
if buttons are already dark, its already frozen.

Hmm, I just found the Symantec Virus protection re enabled. I haven't rebooted since I turned it off earlier. Let me try again. Nope still hangs.

Once when trying to connect I saw that the server had one person in it.

here's the original version of the description of the sequence above:
If I wait through the entire timeout period, every attempt to join the lobby fails. If it fails once and I 'back' out to the server selection screen, then 'next' my way in again, I go straight to a "good" lobby but only briefly and "you lost your connection". If I immediately click 'back' and wait 10 or 20 seconds it will exit without freezing. But if any other button is clicked first, I can't ever get out of the lobby. Or if I get into a lobby that already has half the buttons dark, I never get out.

Maquiladora · February 14, 2004, 11:59

You should close all programs that arent involved in the internet connection, that includes closing (not "disable") firewall and anti-virus programs.

drulius · February 14, 2004, 13:08

I imagine that its too late to start anything today, but I got into the system. My trouble had something to do with my router. After I bypassed it and got in the lobby for the first time, I turned back on (but left disabled) the AV and firewall, and everything worked again. I was able to start a game, play, save, quit, re-enable stuff, rejoin, reload, play some more.

I am going to try and track down the router settings that will allow me to get in the lobby. But at least I know I can bypass it and play.

Right now though, I'm going to go back and start another game and play for awhile. If you join, would it be taking over an AI or filling an empty slot?

Maquiladora · February 14, 2004, 13:17

Nice work, eventually

Ill go to the lobby now, but i can only play for 45mins.

Maquiladora · February 14, 2004, 14:15

Okay just a quick "bug" report from the short session of play we had - dont put the Barbarian colour in black, its impossible to read over unexplored terrain when the game gives you critical messages. eg. player x joined

Maquiladora · February 15, 2004, 19:55

Heres another bug with the MP setup screen. It didnt exist before so it was done by the patch/s. It also happens when you setup MP with a mod, obviously because they have different ages.

Maquiladora · February 15, 2004, 20:16

Heres another one, but this has existed long before the sourcecode.

The 2 lower right hand buttons shouldnt need to be there and they dont do anything except copy the text of the buttons next door. It happens on the exclude units screen too.

drulius · February 20, 2004, 17:11

Maq,

Is our continuation still on for tomorrow? I'll be in the lobby at 8am Texas time unless I hear otherwise.

Maquiladora · February 20, 2004, 23:13

2pm GMT. Yeah hopefully i should be there.

Maquiladora · February 21, 2004, 09:52

Everything ok?

drulius · February 21, 2004, 09:54

sorry about the drop. A housemate got up early and didn't know I was playing. I'll be able to reconfigure and get reconnected in about 5 minutes.

drulius · February 21, 2004, 09:58

alright I'm ready for ctp2 again. see you in the lobby

Maquiladora · February 21, 2004, 21:52

drulius, did we use Neptune map in our game? I think we did, but there was a problem with it, actually even if it wasnt Neptune there was a problem.

I couldnt move further North or South. The minimap frame moved like i could move north and south, but there was only black there and it wouldnt move there.