Late Thursday connectivity update verdicts

Major thumbs up here. Played two games tonight, and the only time spent in the game lobby was the time it took to organize the teams. We had one person who had connection problems, but he was replaced very quickly.

It hasn't been a good experience for me. Constant "0ms" pings in the lobby, even with ports forwarded.

Quoting Zechnophobe,

reply 1

We had one person who had connection problems, but he was replaced very quickly.

lol.

Quoting Protocept00,

reply 22

Frogboy, any problems I've had with the online connectivity are completely erased. You guys did an excellent job and I commend both Stardock and GPG and everyone else (you know, the coffee makers, spouses, and donut chains) involved in making this work.

The main thing however, that I have noticed recently with the new updates... is that now we got a bunch of people who join 4vs4s and 5vs5s thinking that the update is gonna somehow resolve their slow internet connection speeds. This is obviously nothing that is within Stardocks control as it is usually an uneducated user trying to play 5vs5 on a shit connection, thinking/hoping that new update makes internet speeds better or something.

I suggest making a guideline though for newer players to see detailing appoximately how much upload and download bandwidth is required for each amount of players involved (2vs2, 3vs3, etc). So that users don't join 5vs5s thinking it is somehow Stardocks fault that their connections speeds are slow. Obviously a user like this probably wouldn't know any better, but I think establishing a guideline would help newer players understand what they are capable of with their internet connections in regards to Demigod.

Also, maybe a "Demigod News" section in the multiplayer screen would be excellent. A poster somewhere in these forums already suggested it, so I don't want to take his credit... but it sounds like an excellent thing to do. Newer/causual players wouldn't know anything about the Demigod website and forums, so having a news feed come up when first logging into Demigod multiplayer would greatly help and improve their experience. They could read your blogs and stay abreast of updates and connectivity progress just like we at the Demigod site can.

You might be on to something. I can generally play 3v3 games fine. The rare 4v4 or higher and my ping to everyone starts to spike. I'm on a high end rig (cI7 920, GTX 260/c216, 6gb ram), so it has nothing to do with that. My internet connection isn't even terrible -- it should be able to handle 4v4 and up (3.0/356 DSL in Atlanta). No downloads/uploads running in the background while I play. Is it possible that this game is bottlenecking my upload in large games?

From http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ -- Download Speed: 2911 kbps (363.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 308 kbps (38.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

Just dropping a line to let you guys know im having a hell of a hard time joining games now. I've been one of the what seems to be few people who havent had connectivity problems... up until this update.

My Ping since the update starts out about 9000ms and then gradually drops, thats if;

1. I havent been kicked by the host or...

2. Time out wit h the host.

And yes ports are forwarded 6000-6300.

Oh and im in Australia and the same still happens with other aussies.

Thanks anywho,

XTwistx

EDIT: Ok as of now (12pm Aussie EST) the pings arent around the 9k mark they are at the 1-3k mark (im guessing there was maybe a server down last night about 6-8pm aussie EST(+10GMT)).

But still a host seeing me with more than 300 ping gets me booted. Even after the ping lowers and we start it sky rockets back up to the 3 k mark in game. Making it un playable for anyone. I also noticed alot of slowdown after connecting to a host when attempting to join a lobby. I havent bothered trying pantheon or skirmish as of yet.

Nothing has changed on my end since i purchased the game on release. The last beta ran perfectly even the retail - beta merge worked fine. Just your thursday updates seem to have thrown multiplayer out the window for me at the moment anyways. I called my ISP and there isnt any p2p filters/limits in place either on their end.

I have no doubt it will get cleared up soonish.

BTW I appreciate all the feedback we're getting in the forums It shows a commitment to your customers that the industry is lacking

Thanks again

xTwistx

RE EDIT: Got bored and turned off port forwarding, ping spikes stopped though still unable to get into the game after the load screen (i'd get dropped). Flashed my router re-installed firmware and port forward info (I'm on a d-link dsl-2740b) and hey presto it works. I dont know why i had to go through these lengths after one smallish update =/ but im online again and connectivity is better than i expected.

Custom game: Seems to be pretty good, but there generally is one guy who cannot connect to one other person, despite, say, connecting to 7 others. Sometimes a rejoin fixes it, but on occassion the rejoining player loses their slot, so a little work here wouldn't be bad. Mostly good.

Pantheon: I've run into a lot of problems tonight that half / all the game drops the second the map loads. I can connect to people, including in Pantheon, so I don't think it's an issue on my side.

I always play custom games because skirmish and Pantheon is even more just a luck game when it comes to players/connectivity.

This being said, the newest patch made connecting worse for me. Almost every game i try to join is a mess. Either me being stuck in the connecting to lobby thing or when in the lobby other people not connecting to others (and/or STILL having red 0 pings).

The beta patch was actually fine connectivity-wise.

Sad

i have a real hard time playing any session anywhere since the very latest patch. i spend about 2 hours trying to connect and 40 minutes playing. once i saw all other players as "playername" only.

Up until the patches it kind of worked, not great, but it worked in a fashion. In that generally I would eventually get a connection to everyone and get to play a game, it was slow, but it got there in the end.

No it's a straight fail. "NAT failed" or some such. All required ports are open as they've always been.

I don't hang on every word of blogs/forums, and why should I? And I expect a 'quiet' majority of people who bought this game don't. Those are the ones who will lose patience quickly. As far as I'm concerned right now, despite this being a very promising game, I'm not getting what I paid for.

What particularly annoys me is how gameranger works brilliantly. Just what is the difference here? I'm no tech, and many others won't be, but while something like gameranger proves it can be done a lot of the technobable spouted here sounds a bit hollow.

Perhaps I'm missing something, if so, I stand to be corrected no problem with that. And of course, I appreciate the hardwork that's being done to fix it.

Finally I was able to join custom games, or at least get to the lobbys. Once there i was able to connect to anyone in the lobby without any problems but when someone was joining lobby after me they were not able to connect to myself at all (and all of them had nickname PlayerName), tried that at least dozen of times and result was always the same so at the end i was not able to play even 1 game because i was sooner or later kicked out from lobby.

All ports open as per Monks guide - modem set up as per instructions in his guide - no firewalls, to be honest everything i could I've done by following his guide.

My connection details:

ADSL modem from BT (British Telecommunication) land line. Which is used through out whole UK by any Internet providers since they have to rent line from BT anyway (exception Virgin fibrewire broadband)

I am connecting with 6 people for 3v3 just fine.

I also joined a 5v5 and everyone connected in a matter of seconds.

Once the game was launched though, we lost 2 people before loading screen finished. Once in the game it lagged so bad I left.

3v3s have been working like a charm save for a few times someone rage quits and it disconnects everyone to their own separate AI games (everyone disconnects from everyone and they all end up playing an AI bash). Don't know what this is about but it is a new issue.

wow. I tried joining a custom game, just to test it out. I actually connected this time! I've already ruled out custom games for my Demigod multiplayer experience because I never could connect to other players. I'll have to try more times, but so far looks good for me!

I can't connect to anyone at all anymore. I was able to connect to people since the awesome update last week that fixed connectivity issues for most people, but since the patch yesterday, I haven't been able to play/connect to one custom game.

1. Custom games: 10/10 connect successfully. 100% connection rate(was about 80% before patch).

2. Pantheon: 20% connection rate after patch(was around 80%)

Verdict: fixed 1 bug, while creating another.

Still needs some work.

Lessons learned by Stardock team(HOPEFULLY) ont go live with BUGGY version (refer to game reviews).

the game post thursday patch is only a little bit better. it's better in that people get into the lobby faster and some of my friends are having much less problems connecting to others.

3v3: problems occur in the lobby but are solved in short time.

4v4 and 5v5 are serious headaches. it's like trying to solve a game of clue when trying to weed out who is causing problems. it then becomes a card game after i've figured out who can't see who and trying to prioritize who should be kicked. someone new has to join, and a bad hand dealt, or several bad hands dealt, makes it a game of clue again. when the game is actually launched, it's hit or miss if the game runs smoothly.

tonight, someone dropped in my, admittedly, expiremental 5v5 (that took a good 15 minutes to get going) after ~10-15 minutes of gameplay. he was dropped after the 30s grace period. this person had been running a 240-260MS. the result of him dropping was, from what i could tell from my end and from the comments of others, a gamewide desync to another player that forced the remaining 9 players to quit.

also, tonight, i've experienced something new. my internet connection got seriously lagged by new connections made in the first few moments of my game being hosted. i pinged a site during the ordeal to see if the lobby pings were just high due to connections being made, and i found that my ping had skyrocketed to 3K+. the lag subsided within 20 seconds, but i don't know if it should have been expected.

Since yesterdays patch I've been getting NAT facilitator error, when I never ever, since the game gone live, got that before.

Bots are back

IF the pantheon decides to work then 90% of the time someone will be unable to connect.

Everlasting queues

Latest Patch put me in the BAD to WORSE category. I was able to get the rare 2x2 going but now nothing. Basically, I'm still getting in the lobby quick and then I see 0 ms for all players but the host. Then, I sit and sit and sit (and did I mention sit) while nothing resolves and then the host politely asks me to leave. I spent 1.5 hrs the other night trying to connect and did not get a single game. Please get those proxy servers online - I'm losin my faith in (demi)god.

I just had 3 times in a row sth like this in Pantheon "You were disconected beacause the matchmaking system failed", never happend before the patch i guess...

In the connection window i see i can connect really quickly to everyone, and then, when one person or two is still trying to connect the error appears

Couldn't play until the May 11 patch. Played several games. The first May 15 patch made all other players appear as "PlayerName" in connectivity info pop-up and prevented any connection. The 2nd patch of that day just eliminated connection to the NAT facilitator.

The new patch does not let me connect anymore. With the patch before this one I was able to connect every single match, but now it takes a while to connect, and then I click on the connection status and it shows the players however then that closes and it shows the error:

'Dropped from the game because matchmaking failed.'

This happens EVERY single time since this latest patch (note this never ever happened before and yes i have the 6000-6200 ports forwarded)

So its a bumper about the connectivity issues, just waiting for it to be improved and the two extra demigods plus maps

Wensday night was smooth as butter. Last night it took about an hour to find one game that I would actually get to play. I am not going to say definite better or worse yet though I'll wait and see how the weekend treats me.

Quoting Frogboy,

reply 2

BTW, I won't be around tomorrow or the weekend. Wife and I have our 15 year anniversary and she insists I take the weekend off.

Congrats and more then understand enjoy your weekend

Didn't get a chance to play enough to conclusively say things are great, but for me it seems like huge steps forward.

As has been suggested many times before, part of the connectivity problems may actually be due to the ISP. Maybe it would be a good idea to state the provider and connection type? Or maybe stardock/gpg have already analyzed the connection logs looking for patterns?

Personally, I'm on a 24/10 cable connection from Swedish ISP ComHem; I've only experienced minor connectivity issues since the first public version, though I think it connects faster now.

Initially looked good with a 4v4 connect in my 1st custom game (versus last night when I could not get into any - NZ time). Still seem unable to connect to all people in a custom game and getting "You were disconected beacause the matchmaking system failed" message when trying to play in Pantheon. Also getting "NAT failed" message

On a positive note that wa smy first 4v4 since the game released! Also getting into the custom game lobby is a lot faster for me.

Now just stop Amercians for kicking me for a 280 ping so I can test it more..

can not connect again after this last patch...

i was in the beta and was one of the few with small issues but now i understand the whining i always was wtf about...

i guess with todays many routers many different protocols and firewalls it is near impossible to make a game for everyone.

joining is fast id say 9/10

connection with others is more realiable, STILL some problem with certain ppl, but i guess it depends on their connection/routers stuff 6/10

time to get the network working and the cross connection is way improved but still is enojable till 4 v4, 5 v5 is sitll hard to even start, 3 v3 is perfect 4 v4 is almost fine 7/10

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Late Thursday connectivity update verdicts