Tips for people having trouble with MP

Try to play people who are on the same OS...the best from my experience of beta-testing since June is Windows XP.

Windows ME in my opinion isn't really compatible with PTW...

I recommend using MSN or some other instant messenger device to talk to people you are playing with, crashes in the early stage could break up a game quickly.

If you try more people than 1 VS 1 make sure you all have a ping lower than 200 with all players and preferrably lower.

Also: the host player should have the most powerful computer (of the people playing), the host player suffers most slowdown and having a computer with alot of RAM can really help rectify this.

All this points to it being better to organise games outside the pathetic "lobby" and have some other means of "match-making" players.

Advise to newbies to the mp fun: defend your cities and settlers or I will attack them and you will give in

Here are a few pointers I have found to ensure optimal performance, at least until the netcode gets polished a bit.

-Make sure you download 1.04f, this is a must!
-Don't play games with anyone whose ping is greater than 200, if there are some high ping players in your room, politely tell them what the situation is, and then boot them.
-Be wary of trying to play behind a router or a firewall. Some players are having success with this, others are not.
-Don't play games with any more than 4 players or so. Too many players right now will cause the game to hang in the transition from the staging window to the setup window. One day we will have likely have 24 player matches without hiccup, but for now, keep things at 3-4 players. In fact, I have found that 1 vs 1 with a bunch of AIs is probably your best bet, but if you have to have more people, keep them at 3-4.
-Play on smaller maps, to ensure optimal performance and more lively games with fewer people.
-Make sure you're not playing with anyone with a warez/pirate version of PTW.
-Disabling Virus Protection programs while playing online may be useful as well.
-I have heard from some players that turning off auto-save as well as various unit animations can help reduce some of the lag that you may encounter once you are actually in game.
- Don't try to launch PTW through any kind of external Gamespy software, always launch through PTW directly.
-If al else fails, try finding someone close to your geographic region to play.

If you do all these things, you should look forward to some extremely fun and exciting MP games while things get polished up a bit on Firaxis' front.

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