Late night connection testing

By Frogboy on May 14, 2009 12:33:49 AM from

To see where we’re at as of 12:26am I recorded part of a beta where we got a 5 on 5 game going. Slowly but surely we’re replacing third-party code with Stardock code.

In this demo, there’s no port-forwarding going on. Port forwarding is a good idea if you can do it but it’s not necessary.

Problems I’m seeing:

1) If I have multiple IP addresses (I have a fiber line and a T1 connection and a Comcast connect – 3 NICs) it has a real hard time connecting me to other people. So that has to be addressed.

2) We have turned off routing through the host. Connections are great but if the host has a low end connection it slows things down. Will have to look to sending people to the dedicated servers but that’s for another night.

But hopefully you can see it’s sped up a lot. On Friday, the international release of Demigod goes out in Europe and Asia so we’re working to make sure Europeans get a good experience by this weekend (along with everyone else).

By the time we’re done, there will have been nearly a 100% transfusion of Stardock Impulse code into this connectivity system (so those of you at Stardock on the Impulse team reading this yes, you’re going to get the credit or blame next week <g>).

Stay tuned.

+912 Karma | 18 Replies

very nice

If anyone has a low end connection, it will slow everyone down...as everyone is trying to connect to this individual and takes forever.

Don't you people sleep?

Tonight's experience was much better than Monday -- me & two friends were able to connect and get two 3v3 games in, both starting within about 5 minutes of posting. Thanks for all the hard work, hope things keep getting better.

Quoting Mixairian,

reply 3

Don't you people sleep?

Sleep is for when the game is functioning within desired parameters.

Oh, and for when you absolutely can not continue without some, of course.

You really should have 9 people join pretty much at the same time if you want to test it, thats when the current system really starts having problems. Joining one at a time has a significantly higher success rate.

Quoting Rocah,

reply 6

I agree... we can get a 3v3 going easily enough if we open 1 slot, then open the next slots one at a time as each player goes green.

If everyone starts joining at the same time, and people start leaving/re-joining it just becomes worse and worse.

By the time we’re done, there will have been nearly a 100% transfusion of Stardock Impulse code into this connectivity system

Will you still have licensed library for networking stuff or not after that?

He called you a slot. I laugh.

Hurray for number 2! Did that come from my reply yesterday or did it just surface in testing? I ask because it'd look really great on a CV if I said I gave you a free engineering consultation and you used it .

So out of curiousity, if you're replacing all the third party code anyway, why do you have the dev from Raknet there? Seems like that's a bit redundant.

quoting post

On Friday, the international release of Demigod goes out in Europe and Asia so we’re working to make sure Europeans get a good experience by this weekend (along with everyone else).

OK now hang on, when I queried this earlier this week kryo said, "Atari's date has been the third week of May for a while now..." According to my local retailers as well as Amazon UK and Germany, Demigod is only being released on 22 May. I think there might have been a misunderstanding because I see now that I didn't actually mention the 22 May release date in the post, but only in the post's subtitle. I think kryo may have thought I'm referring to the old 7 May release date on the Amazon France website.

So which is it, Friday 15 May 2009, or Friday 22 May 2009? And if the release dates have been pushed back to 22 May, why? And why was there no official word from Stardock or Atari?

I'm actually secretly happy that you guys are a having all these problems! I have to wait to play because my PC died and I've ordered a new Alienware Laptop, but it's taking FOREVER to get here... misery loves company! LOL J/K

Seriously though, I think that you guys are doing a great job keeping everyone updated and releasing little patches as soon as possible; it shows that you really care about your community. Good luck with the networking issues!

Seraph of Mercy

Wow, I have till now never seen the lobby of this game.. I sincerely hope you get to my problems, or I will have to refund..

Quoting Extremist,

reply 12

And if the release dates have been pushed back to 22 May, why? And why was there no official word from Stardock or Atari?

I'd say it is pretty obvious why things were pushed back. There have been problems with connectivity and in a multiplayer game that kills you. They are hoping the european launch goes much smoother.

Will have to look to sending people to the dedicated servers but that’s for another night.

Is this the proxy server setup we have been hearing about or are things with the code changing even more?

On a sad and funny side note, I had a dream last night were impulse kept telling me there was another update. Then there was another. Then another. It just never stopped. Clearly someone needs to stop posting as much.

Quoting Trigeminal,

reply 15

I'd say it is pretty obvious why things were pushed back. There have been problems with connectivity and in a multiplayer game that kills you. They are hoping the european launch goes much smoother.

Sure, I fully understand, but Frogboy said in his post they're gearing for the Europe/Asia release tomorrow, whereas many retailers that actually deign to provide ETAs on their sites are saying 22 May (i.e. next Friday).

So who's right? And I say again: If there the release has been pushed back again why was there no official word from Atari (or Stardock, though I'd forgive Stardock for being a tad busy with trying to iron out the game's problems)?

Quoting Tridus,

reply 11

So out of curiousity, if you're replacing all the third party code anyway, why do you have the dev from Raknet there? Seems like that's a bit redundant.

I'm not sure the 100% transfusion means a 100% replacement of RakNet code. But if that's what it does mean, then I don't blame them one bit. It seems that integration of their code has given Stardock nothing but problems, from the NAT punchthrough to the lobby system.

By the way, I don't see how anyone can complain that the new patch is worse. I've had problems from time to time; yes, it's definitely not perfect, but it's a night and day difference for me. It took about 4 hours to play 4 games on Monday (so around 2 hours of sitting in lobbies praying for good connections). Yesterday it seemed that we would only have to wait 5 to 10 minutes between games.

CUSTOM GAME TIPS: If you see too much yellow pings for too long, rehost the game. Let everyone know that they should reconnect after you remake the lobby--most people will rejoin you. It's a fast way to clear-up a lot of connection issues.

Quoting ShunKeets,

reply 17

By the way, I don't see how anyone can complain that the new patch is worse. I've had problems from time to time; yes, it's definitely not perfect, but it's a night and day difference for me.

I used to be able to play 4v4s, now even getting a 2v2 going is next to impossible.

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Late night connection testing