Tips for people having trouble with MP

[BlackOut]

Well all i know so far is :
1. Crashed everytime i have tried to join/play a game,
before it even gets through to selection
2. Im running 1.04f, on Win2K
3. Works Fine Single Player

[FacistsMustDie]

Quote from BlackOut
Well all i know so far is :
1. Crashed everytime i have tried to join/play a game,
before it even gets through to selection
2. Im running 1.04f, on Win2K
3. Works Fine Single Player


I'm having th same problems w/ win2k with 1.04f

[lewisr2]

Just to add some more info. Me with v1.04f and XP tried to join 8 games last night (between 10-11 pm est) 6 crashed prior to starting and two started. Those two games lasted about about 5-10 minutes before losing everybody.

[Edgar Newt]

What's the problem with Windows ME?

I checked before posting, but only caught references to problems with ME, not the actual problem.

Thanks.

[phelonius]

best multiplay option

I think the best multiplayer option is to invite all of you guys over to my house and play a hotseat version.

Don't laugh, this is more than we got with the initial release. I've got a small area network here. The computers are three feet away. And I've still got lag. Sheeesh.

[CiverDan]

I was able to host a 2 player simul game on tiny map with not much lag (both me and opp have dsl). The game even made in until late middle ages in 2.5 hours. At that point I had to leave...didnt expect the game to go that long w/o crashing ended.

[Hurin]

I don't know if this is a universal problem, but my brother and I kept crashing when we were using the Gamespy client externally to arrange the game. When we used. His machine would give a "can't read memory" error as it made the transition between Gamespy and PTW.

Once we started using the in-game browser (which sadly doesn't allow much fine-tuning of who gets into your game), things worked.

Still a lag-fest though.

Hurin

[Acemo]

PTW and Windows ME (and Win2k) do work together, contrary to what has been reported.

[Acemo]

Always try to join a game before trying to host one.
Always join a game with a host who has had success previously.
If you can't host internet games see if you can host a local MP game, even if it is just you vs. AI.

[monkspider]

To the WIndows ME users, I'm not really sure what the problem is with Windows ME, I have just heard from certain testers that it is for some reason problematiic. I can neither confirm nor deny this claims personally.

[ggerrietts]

I'd like to correct myself.

I was thinking through the issues last night, and it does not seem likely that the game is using external IP addresses to manage in-game traffic. If it was, nobody who was behind NAT could play with someone on the other side of the NAT.

That's a worst-case scenario, and used to be a problem with (for instance) Lokisoft's networking code. The way that worked, the server would accept incoming connections, and record the IP number the connection apparently came from. Every update would be sent to every connection, but the updates would be marked with the IP number of the client they were intended for. If your real and apparent IP numbers were different, your client would look at each update, never see its real IP number in the header, and consequently never update. After some 30 seconds of not receiving a response from the server, it would crap out.

But that can't be the case with PTW. We've heard success stories, where a single person behind NAT can actually play a game. The problem comes in when several people are trying to play behind the same NAT.

Is anyone familiar enough with the characteristics of the DirectX networking code to know if the limitations and performance problems are consistent with that package? It seems to be similar to the problems reported with older versions....

[notyoueither]

The same NAT? You mean on the same LAN, all trying to MP Inet?

Yes, that is going to crash from what I know.

[canadianbacon]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Does it seem to be a problem with the server or with the software itself?

Server? The hosting player is the server. All gamespy does it host a chat service (for this game). Game Play is done between the players and hosting player, NOT THROUGH GAMESPY.

This is standard directplay functionality. Gamespy and zone.com host a chat room,the chat client launches the Game passing in the IP address of the hosting player, the joining players automagically connect to the hosting player.

This is not some massive-multiplayer world like Ultima.

It also brings into mind this notion of 'direct ip' connection. It is really no different than using the chat clients to connect, your just making an ip connection mannually. So the notion of the game drastically improving because of direct ip, seems to me to be a false hope.

Once Firaxis fixes up all the player-to-player code, all the online play should be more stable, via gamespy or direct ip.

What the in-game chat lacks is things like a player list, privacy options etc.

[NeOmega]

Originally posted by canadianbacon

Server? The hosting player is the server. All gamespy does it host a chat service (for this game). Game Play is done between the players and hosting player, NOT THROUGH GAMESPY.

Gamespy also connects the players to eachother before the game starts, and their seems to be some kind of communication breakdown between gamespy lobby and the Civ II MP lobby.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66597&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

[WRW]

Originally posted by jimmytrick
I used to play games at gamespy and could keep up to six players on consistently with pings twice as high as 200 so Firaxis should be able to improve this.

Me too. With Medal of Honor I have play sometimes with 15 or 20 players and with more than 200 ping...