Annoying multiplayer issues...anyone else with these?

[Hrafn]

Great game...so far the wife and I are at 20 hours on our first MP game...but there are some really annoying issues with MP C3C.

1). Cannot get the LAN game to work at all--no firewalls, LAN works for every other app BUT C3C.

2). Lag--one second lag on all moves (we have to play on the internet in order to play MP--ping is under 100).

3). No pop up screens on certain events--like when you complete a build.

4). Does not zoom on combat, so I never know what happened in a particular battle--it is over so fast...

5). Units just disappear, no record of them on the military advisor screen...my wife moved a galley all over the map...then it just poofed...no record of it as being destroyed or captured. Same with a knight unit--and this one was near her capital...just gone, no record of it's destruction or anything--no enemies anywhere around either, it was deep in her own territory.

More as I remember them all.

[Shogun Gunner]

First, let me say there is a collective amount of jealousy from everyone at Apolyton if you have your WIFE playing with you. Literally a marriage made for all time...well until 2050 when the game ends Seriously, that's awesome.

Well, the pop up screens don't show up in MP in general. Same with zoom to combat. Certain things had to be given up regarding notification, etc for the multiplayer game. Usually the left side of the screen scrolls information about combat. Have you ever heard the stacatto drums? That's your unit being attacked.

I'm still not quite used to the the graphics when you watch battles. It's weird to see your unit move forward on attack, move back when the enemy is killed, and then move forward to occupy the tile. Sometimes the screen will flip to another area before that sequence is completed. Yes, I also wish that could be better.

Have you checked out the Civ3 Multiplayer forum? Check it out. I know Wittlich has his setup on a LAN at his house. He might be able to shed some light on this. You might be able to adjust settings, etc. to improve performance.

[Wittlich]

Hi Hrafn and thanks for the heads-up concerining this thread Shogun.

It is true - the lack of pop-ups is a real pain in a multiplayer game (no notice letting you know that you've finished a tech research, no notice of build queues being completed, except for a quick blerb that soon disappears on the left side of your screen). But once you get used to it, it's not that bad.

And I do concur - not being able to center on current combats makes keeping track of units a real pain...but again, once you get used to it...

Concerning units just disappearing... Can't say that I've seen this happen. Did your wife have enough gold on hand to pay the support costs of the units? If not, then having them automatically disband is a possiblity...

Concerning LAN play (and the main reason Shogun guided me to this thread), Yes - my partner and I play almost exclusively LAN games with no problems. Here are some pointers that you might want to look into:

1. Can both of your computers "see" each other outside of the game (ie, can you see each other over your network)? If you cannot, then you won't be able to during a game.

2. Do both computers operate with the same operating system (ie, Windows XP)?

3. Which ever computer has the faster processor and most RAM should be the one to host.

let me think on this some more, I might have some more suggestions...

[Gyromancer]

Re: Annoying multiplayer issues...anyone else with these?

Originally posted by Hrafn
Great game...so far the wife and I are at 20 hours on our first MP game...but there are some really annoying issues with MP C3C.

1). Cannot get the LAN game to work at all--no firewalls, LAN works for every other app BUT C3C.

How are you connecting? My wife and I play on two computers (One is win98 the other is XP) We both choose LAN on the startup and then I host with the XP computer. After a few seconds my game shows up on her game list and she joins. If you are getting stuck there, you might try hosting with the other computer. Another thing to note, when you get to the game chooser screen, you will see chat messages from people on the Gamespy Civ3 chat room. This is because even when you choose LAN, the game connects to gamespy anyway. The only way I've seen to keep it from connecting is to disconnect the internet connection while we play. (I don't think connecting impacts performance, so I susualy don't bother.....)

...

4). Does not zoom on combat, so I never know what happened in a particular battle--it is over so fast...

Yeah, this gets annoying in the later part of the game. My only advice here is to zoom out, (with the Z key) try to center on where you think the action will be, and disable those few remaining events that cause popups.

[snoochems]

MY WIFE PLAYS WITH ME! And still does. We are about to give up on the LAN multiplayer though... it's so laggy! I think we'll stick with hotseat.

And what the deal with no zooming to cities once they've built something. I don't know how many times i have had a city build a damn warior! It's so frustrating.... but the lag is what kills it.

And the not zooming on on battle thing is damn frustrating too.

THis stuff better be fixed in a patch soon, as i'm condiering taking the game back. We only bought it for multiplayer, and quite frankly, it's a great game, executed very poorly (single player excluded)

[snoochems]

I've just read the other posts.

We have two decent computers. (one 1.5Ghz, one 2.1GHz.) The 2,1GHz hosts. They both run Windows XP pro, and can file share and everything like that.

It's strange because we play other Multiplayer games, like UT2003, and Age of Mythology, and there is NO lag. Crack up Conquests.... and wel...com..e to... l...a....g ci....ty.

So, i'm glad to see others have this trouble too. It means that i'm not at fault! Yay!

But others don't have this trouble.... what are you doing so different. By the looks of it, nothing! Help!

[Gyromancer]

We get a little lag. Most of it happens on end of turn processing. Moving units with the keypad can get a little rough as well. I've gotten into the habit of using the goto function and the move all units/move all of same type buttons. This reduces that lag, but creates another problem-- the multiplayer version of the game still uses the original (unpatched) Civ3 behavior: When you assign a goto, the game clicks over to the next unit, even if the unit you just assigned would have moves left. Also, the game LOVES to jump around when you move units. (e.g. I'll bombard with the first of a stack of artillery, the next unit that pops up is a worker halfway around the world....)


Also, there's always going to be a lag when you create a city or pillage certain roads as the game redraws the ENTIRE transporation grid.

Still, using goto makes the lag bearable for us. We've logged 2 good games at a total of 90 hours since Conquests came out and probably ~150 hours playing DYP under PTW.

[JimMac]

I also enjoy weekly LAN sessions with my two brothers. (Periodically, we start an 8 player 'epic' game and play 3-4 hours every Sunday until someone wins or is eliminated>when the player with the highest score wins)

We play PTW. Although I have C3C we are waiting for the patch to arrive before installing it.

Having played may MP games, including TBS games such as HOMM, AOW, CTP,and Civ2, we were initially very disappointed about how Civ3 played MP. But, as has been said above, you do get used to it (although I would still like the option of Turn Based mode played with pop-ups like single player).

Until PTW1.29 came out we had the lag you describe, but since then it has run fairly acceptably, in fact- it is pretty good fun!!

Anyone who has played LAN under both PTW and C3C notice any difference in performance?

[Hrafn]

Thank you for all the replies...

As for LAN play, one machine is a WinME, the other Win98se...as i said, no issues in any game but C3C...both machines can see the other and communicate outside of C3C across the LAN.

Lately, my wife has been keeping me UP too late with the : "Just one more turn honey" for hours...I have been a zombie at work lately...zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....