Multi-Player dial-up.

[epeterson]

Hi all!

My brother and I are trying to play a MP game. He has DSL and is operating Win98 and I have.......dial-up and am operating Win2000.

We actually got pretty far into the game as we both have the 1.11 patch, (no mod). We are playing a huge map with only the two of us and 6 other computer civs, (1 is gone permanently and the other is close.)

Unfortunately whenever he ends his turn it goes critical on me and crashes. We're pretty much certain that it has to do with the amount of game information, (units/buildings/etc), as we can go back a few centuries and still play. The game even takes a while to inform him that I have left.:shrug: When I try to get back in it still tells me that there are two people playing and I have to wait until it finally recognized that it booted me.

Am I wasting my time because of my dial-up? I would get something better but I live in podunk. Is there any hope for me?

[Maquiladora]

Did you get kicked when you were terraforming at the time? Im not sure how it works but strange things happen when youre terraforming or building tile imps then get kicked. The save game couldve be corrupt now, so thats why its ok with an earlier save. Also its possible one of you (or the AI) is trying to pillage a neutral tile improvement (although this would probably kick you both).

For future games, try to avoid playing with too many AI's, none if possible, they mess things up.

I play on dial-up and its fine, so its not that, unless youre getting disconnected, obviously.

You could also trying playing the game in single player (move the save from "mp" folder to the "game" folder then load), if it crashes there then its something to do with the cocked-up save or AI players i would imagine.

[epeterson]

Hmmmm....I have been terraforming for some time now. So I take it terraforming is a no-no in MP then? That sucks! I have tiles that are done terraforming and ones that are in the midst of terraforming. I will stop doing this if I get a chance to continue the game...

It only kicks me when he finishes his turn. I don't even get a chance to do anything because as soon as he hits 'enter' or 'end turn' it crashes the game on my computer only. He is is Kansas and I'm in California.

The computer takes over for me when I leave and my brother can still play. Should I just let it play me for a few turns, (:haha and then try coming back? Thanks for the help.

[Maquiladora]

No, you can terraform fine in MP, but if you get kicked at a time when you were terraforming youll probably keep getting kicked until the terraforming is complete, so when you come back dont place anymore terra until the currents ones are complete, then it shouldnt kick you, unless the save is by now corrupt that is....

That also includes not saving and resuming the game when a terraform was in progress - this may be why its crashing now.

It can also happen with building tile imps, saving the game then resuming before the tile imps were complete, or getting kicked then rejoining before the tile imp was complete. I havent experienced that one myself but aparently it does happen, just instead of getting kicked constantly (like you do until a terra is complete, between saves) youll resynch every turn aparently until the tile imp is complete.

[epeterson]

It sounds like you are telling me that all is not lost! I don't think the saved game is corrupted as my brother can still play on his end. I will let the computer play me for about 5 turns and then try to get back in.

We really thought that is was just too much of a data pack when it was my turn and that it would overwhelm my dial-up connection. I mean with a huge map and all those AIs and we both have almost 40 cities each...

At best I can get in and change a few things while it is his turn so I don't get too screwed over. We're not really at war right now and I can afford for the retarded AI to take over for a bit I guess...

UPDATE: WOW! I want to thank you for that information! It was indeed the terraforming! Now my brother and I are having a great time enjoying a great, (sometimes buggy), game! The computer got to screw with me for a couple of turns but once the terraforming was done I took over and did a little repair work. Thank God I wasn't in the midst of battle!

[epeterson]

Okay, now that we've decided to stop doing ALL tile improvements or terraforming a few turns before we quit for the evening....Now I'm having trouble with stealth fighters and the computer resynching so much it crashes to the desktop on my end only! I'm assuming that the save is corrupted and will attempt to start from an earlier save the next time we play. Does anyone else know of this failure?? It certainly seems like the stealth fighters have something to do with this as when I move them it resynchs like crazy--especially when I'm close to my brother's territory!!

[Maquiladora]

The save is most likely fudged now, you could go back some turns but if your using AI's then it will probably get fudged in the late game anyway. To be honest having 6 computer civs youre bound to get bad resynchs at some point.

[epeterson]

Only 1 AI civilization remains. And that is only because both my brother and I have maxed our cities in a Corporate Republic. I believe the AI has 5 cities remaining. It's a huge map and we kind of agreed to go to war late in the game. It's gonna be a doozey if we can get it to work!

[epeterson]

You were right on Maq! It was a fudged up saved game.

Okay, what's the damn deal with the Internet and Field Dynamics Lab?? I have been crushing my brother scientifically with Aristotles Lyceum and Galileo's Telescope! So much so that I had him build the two latter science wonders to see if he could catch up. They seem to have VERY LITTLE effect! What's goin' on?!

...AND I built a computer center in one of my largest cities and it did NOTHING to improve the science output for that city!!

Just as a reminder--I'm playing a MP game on the Vanilla version with the 1.1 Activision patch only.

[Maquiladora]

The internet can be a pretty useless wonder, it depends how the majority of your brothers cities were making science. When you build a computer center it gives an extra 20% science from the base science collected, science MADE by scientists doesnt count as science collected by the city, so they dont get counted into the equation. So the best cities to build computer centers in is cities with lots of commerce around them.

On the field dynamics lab, did he have his science tax lower than normal? what about his wages slider? what was the difference in science collected after it was built?

[epeterson]

So THAT'S how the Internet works! I never really concentrate on tile improvements that give commerce. I just primarily build farms/fisheries and maybe a couple of mines for my cities. My brother pretty much does the same. How do you place your Tile Improvements??

He said that the time to discover the next advance didn't even change when he built the Field Dynamics Lab! He even remembers looking at the science output of one of his cities and all it changed was from like 323 to 341 or something like that when the wonder was built. That sure as hell isn't 35%!! I guess the FDL is commerce related too.:shrug:

[Maquiladora]

So THAT'S how the Internet works! I never really concentrate on tile improvements that give commerce. I just primarily build farms/fisheries and maybe a couple of mines for my cities. My brother pretty much does the same. How do you place your Tile Improvements??

Thats the most flexible strategy, because if youve got alot of growth you can generally make any into a specialized city with... specialists. Theres still alot to be said for having some collected commerce though, but you cant let it stagnate the rest of your civs resources for too long. Look at some saved games in the MP tournament to see how some place TI's. (link in my sig)

He said that the time to discover the next advance didn't even change when he built the Field Dynamics Lab! He even remembers looking at the science output of one of his cities and all it changed was from like 323 to 341 or something like that when the wonder was built. That sure as hell isn't 35%!! I guess the FDL is commerce related too.:shrug:

If most of his cities were making sceince via scientists then the FDL wouldnt have had much effect. Thats why you saw a big jump with Aristotles Lyceum, because at that time i guess you didnt have scientists yet so the jump in science was more visible.