Tips for people having trouble with MP

[Shigga]

The MP netcode of Civ 3 is the biggest piece of cr*p I have ever seen. And they actually expect ppl to PAY for all the lags and the crashes. Sorry but I will not buy IV before I tested it with huge maps and 8 AI's and it still runs smooth. This is no flamebait but something that was seething inside me since PTW hit the market. Ahh now I feel better sorry if I offended

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by LouLong
Grandpa Troll, you can try here :
http://civ3players.proboards2.com/index.cgi

Thanks I'll check it out later

appreciate the help!

Gramps

[LouLong]

Grandpa Troll, you can try here :

http://civ3players.proboards2.com/index.cgi

[Grandpa Troll]

anyone tell me where to play CIVIII or is my above post the only location?

Thanks

Gramps

[Grandpa Troll]

ok.so after reading theses posts what IS the best way/place/server to play CIVIII on/with?

I am a memebr of Founders Club @ Gamespy and play lots of games there...is this as best as it gets for CIVIII (only play 3 games there..each about 2-3 hours apiece)

Thanks

Gramps

[Shutoo]

i believe ive narrowed the problem down to one thing my NAT. as of now i see no way around it, esp since none of the forums mention it as a problem. Ive tested all my components and unless theres a firewall on win2k i dont know about, my NAT is to blame.

i have a belkin wireless router connected directly to my computer. The router has a firewall, however i have been on my DMZ since i got it. The firewall is not the problem, esp when im still invisible even with the firewall completely disabled.

ZoneAlarm is not a problem either, i have Civ, gamespy and directplay allowed for access and server. ive fiddled w/ the security from high to none with no results.

and i dont believe spysweeper acts as a firewal but ive disabled that as well for good measure.

i dont have anti virus software

i have sbc dsl and they provided me w/ one ip address that i share on my NAT. I cant jus disable it cus i have 3 computers on my network.

so is it impossible to host w/ a NAT? or is there some way around it? or am i missing something?

and for those ppl who jus can host, the NAT may be ur problem too

[Cyber-Spyder]

the NAT issue...

the game most certainly DOES use external IP's to manage in game traffic. So it is not enough for you to just open a port, you need to also forward that port to your client computer. The major problem seems to be that for direct play connections it binds to port 2302 - ONLY. You have no ability to change this port, and no alternate port list exists. So you can forward this port to one machine, but not more than one.

I thought about sending it to broadcast, but then there is no distinguishing information for the client to decide which one it's meant to have. I might be wrong here, some intelligent coding could provide such information, but I haven't seen much of that with this game. Even moderately intelligent programming would provide a port list for connections to cycle through, or even better user settable ports.

Why must this game use peer to peer?

[Paddy]

I appreciate the input of these posts

[Foro]

Maybe someone can help...

Having a LAN at home with two computers both having XP.
They work perfectly in other MP games.

Whenever i try to open a game it automatically tries to connect to the internet and the only help is to disable the function in the network settings.

First time i did this i worked well and i (at least i think) experienced a game without much lag when moving units. (via internet most of the times i try to move a unit it needs about 2-3 sec bevore the comp actually moves the unit)
But yesterday the game crashed everytime after about a minute of playing when i tried it without internet connection.
(everytime the host computer who is also the one connecting to the internet)
With internetconnection i could play normally allthough with the above mentioned lag.
Both computers are connected to the internet via LAN when the main computer is connected.

main comp:
XP
1024 DDR ram
1.7 GH

sec comp:
XP
384 ram
700 p 3

Question is:

Does anyone know a possible reason for this?

Any info if Firaxis will fix the lag prob ? *g*

right now its still playable with two human players but we had a max of about 20 units to move while playing i doubt it will be enjoyable once we start a big war.

[Whoseyourbishop]

multiplayer hotseat

I was just wondering if there is any way to play hotseat with more than just 8 players. Please help!!!

[joeyfeets]

u can play behined a university firewall....
just open up the ports that gamespy specifies in its FAQ. although you may have problems hosting games, you can definately join any game you want.

and u can play with a bootleg version of the game. I downloaded the game of kazaa, then used an ISO to translate it to cd form. if the other players do this wrong then they shouldnt even be able to get to the MP staging screen. if they are there, warez copy doesnt matter, just depends on what patch they have installed. (some warez dont come with 1.14 patch...)

outro

[knighterrant]

I am reading here that some people are experiencing the same thing I am.

My friend and I have tried to play multiplayer games. We are on a LAN. What happens is either of us can host but when the other joins, it just seems to freeze up and eventually crash.

So we tried doing an internet game. What happens there is we can go to the pre setup lobby, all click ready and on the setup, the joiner gets tossed out with a message about not being able to connect to the host.

Single player works great on both computers.
Multiplayer I can't commenton since I've never gotten it to work.

[piratebrun]

Originally posted by SpencerH
So whats the problem with WIN ME?

What ISN'T the problem with WIN ME?

[BigFurryMonster]

Originally posted by kittenOFchaos
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.

Does the host computer also need the best internet connection, or is it just a matter of RAM ?

[delmar]

Role of the host

I've read in multiple places how important it was to find a "good" machine for hosting and such. After some interesting experience in a Direct IP game, I asked a direct question and got the following answer from a Firaxian:

PTW (as well as most other strategy games) uses a peer-to-peer network architecture, so each machine talks to every other machine. The host is only responsible for initially sending new players the addresses of all the other players. Once each client has a client address list, the host becomes no more important than any of the other clients.

This means the game will only run as fast as the slowest person in the game. Therefore, playing with one person who's lagging badly will slow down everyone else.

For more details see http://forums.civfanatics.com/showth...threadid=37707