Multiplayer Disaster (please fix)

from GalCiv3 Forums

Dear Stardock,

This game is now fast approaching 9 months old and with the release of the first expansion multiplayer is a disaster :(.  Here are new things I noticed in tonight's attempt to play a game with 3 other people all version 1.5.  Watch my twitch stream

Lobby Issues

  • The lobby can't support more than 2 human players period.
    • When adding a third the game will not show the 2nd human (you can't see they are there).
    • Finally when you have players exit and re-enter lobby so everyone can be seen this creates other issues...
  • Now that all of you show, the game will not see the correct faction on the list.  
    • The game kept showing the other factions as their faction.
    • In one case one player was choosing custom faction kept reflecting as terran.
    • This was all live streamed.
  • Chat is horrendous.
    • Colors bleed on next line.
    • Scrolling doesn't work.
  • Lobby will lock up although this appears to happen when someone enters with corrupted or changed files...
 
We will try another live stream on Sunday evening around 8 CST if you want to watch our struggles on 1.5 because not all of the players involved are founders.  
 
1.6 multiplayer seemed to have similar issues with lobby lock up and starting one player with Terran Alliance versus my custom faction.
 
 
Thanks...


14,902 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I was one of the (attempted) players. (Stormwind)

 

Everyone involved was very patient, we tried for exactly an hour to start the game. It is dissapointing to me to see an expansion coming out in a couple of weeks with MP still a complete disaster.

I like this game, and stardock impressed me with releasing patches on gal civ II 8 years after release. But I am not playing II, I am playing III, and this leaves me with a very bad impression overcoming my previous good one.

I dont know why a game lobby should be that difficult, I still remember one of my first PC multiplayer experiences years ago with Sacrifice, the lobby ran fine, there were multiple rooms, and even chat bots that would auto-answer simple questions. This was in 2000. Its 16 years later, and I have to keep typing "..." just to move the chat bar up so I can see previous chat. 

My enthusiasm for purchasing an expansion took a big hit tonight.

 

 

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting stevezar, reply 1

My enthusiasm for purchasing an expansion took a big hit tonight.

I'm sure Stardock will get it fixed :) and the expansion provides a lot of great features...

Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Sorry that you are having trouble.  We are interested in updating the lobby at some point post 1.6.  

I just ran a four player game with a custom race and didn't have trouble changing factions showing up between my boxes.  Can you send me your custom races and I'll see if the problem is there.  Can you submit a ticket (https://esupport.stardock.com/index.php?/Tickets/Submit) with the faction(s).  Thank you.  

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Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting pshaw, reply 3

I just ran a four player game with a custom race and didn't have trouble changing factions showing up between my boxes.  Can you send me your custom races and I'll see if the problem is there.  Can you submit a ticket (https://esupport.stardock.com/index.php?/Tickets/Submit) with the faction(s).  Thank you.  

I also am at or around my home computer most of the day today, if you wanted to attempt to reproduce real time and have me create/join multiplayer games and I can stream live so you could see what I'm seeing.  Ticket has been created with my custom faction folder, however, uploading right now so it will be posted when done uploading... 70+ factions.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Some of the things I saw:

 

1. Changing my faction was not always permanent. Sometimes it would flip back to Terran. In particular, one time I had changed to a custom civ, then I did a chat, and as soon as I chatted it reverted my civ back to Terran.

 

2. Players would occassionaly dissapear from view of one or more of the other players. This happened to me several times after I clicked ready, Seilore said he couldt see me anymore so I left the lobby and re-entered (assumption was if he cant see me than likely will be an issue starting the game). This happened to the other 2 players also.

 

3. Players got randomly knocked out. I was knocked out a couple of times immediatly after a chat.

 

4. Chat room box doesnt scroll (no scroll bar) and changes color, often new text just will not scroll up at all. Also formats irregularly, sometimes only one word on a line of text.

 

5. The ready box doesnt really work the way I expect - it doesnt seem to toggle back to an unready status. Once I am ready, it seems I am ready and there is no going back (which it really needs given how unstable the civ selection process is)

 

I was able to get a 2 player game going with Seilore before, although after I think about 20 turns, we crashed, and every attempt to restart led to a crash at the same turn.

 

These are all MP issues, in SP the game feels pretty solid to me. I have over 300 hours and the crash rate in SP is acceptable, and has always been recoverable, unlike the MP game with Seilore.

 

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting stevezar, reply 5

Some of the things I saw:

 

1. Changing my faction was not always permanent. Sometimes it would flip back to Terran. In particular, one time I had changed to a custom civ, then I did a chat, and as soon as I chatted it reverted my civ back to Terran.

 

2. Players would occassionaly dissapear from view of one or more of the other players. This happened to me several times after I clicked ready, Seilore said he couldt see me anymore so I left the lobby and re-entered (assumption was if he cant see me than likely will be an issue starting the game). This happened to the other 2 players also.

 

3. Players got randomly knocked out. I was knocked out a couple of times immediatly after a chat.

 

4. Chat room box doesnt scroll (no scroll bar) and changes color, often new text just will not scroll up at all. Also formats irregularly, sometimes only one word on a line of text.

 

5. The ready box doesnt really work the way I expect - it doesnt seem to toggle back to an unready status. Once I am ready, it seems I am ready and there is no going back (which it really needs given how unstable the civ selection process is)

 

I was able to get a 2 player game going with Seilore before, although after I think about 20 turns, we crashed, and every attempt to restart led to a crash at the same turn.

 

These are all MP issues, in SP the game feels pretty solid to me. I have over 300 hours and the crash rate in SP is acceptable, and has always been recoverable, unlike the MP game with Seilore.

 

 

Okay thanks for the additional information.  I didn't specifically try the changing a faction and then chatting.  I'll try that out.  

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Seilore, reply 4


Quoting pshaw,
reply 3

I just ran a four player game with a custom race and didn't have trouble changing factions showing up between my boxes.  Can you send me your custom races and I'll see if the problem is there.  Can you submit a ticket (https://esupport.stardock.com/index.php?/Tickets/Submit) with the faction(s).  Thank you.  



I also am at or around my home computer most of the day today, if you wanted to attempt to reproduce real time and have me create/join multiplayer games and I can stream live so you could see what I'm seeing.  Ticket has been created with my custom faction folder, however, uploading right now so it will be posted when done uploading... 70+ factions.

Having lots of factions was not part of my test so that's something I can try out.  QA has a package of 100 factions I can drop in :)  If it doesn't repro for me, we can schedule a time to try it out in real-time. 

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Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting pshaw, reply 7

Having lots of factions was not part of my test so that's something I can try out.  QA has a package of 100 factions I can drop in  If it doesn't repro for me, we can schedule a time to try it out in real-time. 

Thank you let me know what you find out please :)

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

As an additional data point or two:

Seilore and I were able to create a two person game with 1.6 and custom factions.  It took many tries.  The changing faction event happened to Seilore several times.  A major issue we had was that any human error in communicating, choosing, and implementing the initial settings required a complete exit and re-setup.  This greatly complicated recovering from technical issues.  We were unable to successfully join together unless I hosted the game and invited Seilore.  It seemed like my joining consistently messed up Seilore's lobby functions, but the results were inconsistent.  Once we got started, the game ran smoothly on my end with no sign of technical issues.   My attempt to save the game seems not to have worked because I cannot find the file, but I do have an auto save that says we got an hour of play action before we both pooped out at the same time.  I hope to use the auto save to continue the game when we get the chance.  I like Seilore's approach to multi-player, at least so far.  ;) 

If there are any files or info I can submit let me know.

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting erischild, reply 9

My attempt to save the game seems not to have worked because I cannot find the file, but I do have an auto save that says we got an hour of play action before we both pooped out at the same time.  I hope to use the auto save to continue the game when we get the chance.  I like Seilore's approach to multi-player, at least so far.   

Multiplayer saved games are in a separate folder than regular saves labeled as MPSaves.  I have the saved game if nothing else.

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I know about the separate folders, but I did a search on the entire drive for the filename and no luck.