Gamespy

[Swoosh So]

Please be honest

[1dread1lahll]

I guess must will vote bad, (however I,m not sure GameSpy or C.A. will see this, or care if they do ,or be able to do anything if they care&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif but it started out good in 1.1 (after not so good at the original release),... of late it has become rather poor....disconnections are more frequent for me, and logging on and off takes a very long time...I'm hoping that it can be repaired.

[baz]

lets make a letter of complaint and send it to CA along with the names of all those that agree to our complaint regarding the "terrible" foyer situation at present.

I am sure we could get probably 200 ppl to agree, surely that must have some influence considering we have 150 max ppl on per night

At least if we do this we will receive a response from someone.

some points that should be included
-getting stuck at the "logging on" screen when trying to log on.
-games freezing while still deploying.
-screen "freezes" throughout all the multiplayer menus. (not inc when changing period in the hosting options)
-general performance and stability while in game.

all these 4 points seem to have deteriated recently and are sadly, becoming very common. Something needs to be done, if i am an experienced player and i am detered by this situation, a new player will simply try to get to the foyer, Fail and then never return http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

[Swoosh So]

Well the servers just plain crap, how the hell are we supposed to train for tournaments and enjoy playing with clanmates if this continues 6 wolves on tonight we made the BIG mistake of trying to play a game and then there were only 3 wolves geez this goes on for weeks and they do nothing?? screw them Well im taking serious note of the c/s from this point onward i already left this community for many reasons (none to do with the community itself) but ca's patching policy and lack of support for online gaming.

Im tempted to go into the history of online support but i can only type 53 words per minute

I wonder if even te tournament finalists back in shogun eeven got their prizes, I know 2 months after mi came out they hadent even received it lol great c/s ca say youll sponser a tourney and give prizes then delay the prize 2 months lol Were you waiting till the players bought the game?

Here you go have a 1 patch and thats all your getting But please buy our next game http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif ,

Well ive just about had enough and if i dont see an improvement in customer service ill be canning the game and any idea of buying future ca products.

You already messed up this community once was it so good you want to do it again?

Dont you have anyone responsible for promoting online play? I never see any news updates, you never host tournaments Infact you make it harder to host tournaments by taking away the function to host tournament rooms Do they listen to anything we even say?

Gah ive had enough

Anyone know the email for an official complaint?

I guess if nothings done rome will be just as bad if not worse

Frustrates me to see a company make the best pc game ever then not support the commmunity that plays it

Swooooooooooooooosh

[Knight_Yellow]

it was the massive fualts in getting a decent game that made me quit MP.


i just accepted it and moved on to DC.

heres hoping RTW can bring me back.

[Efrem Da King]

I've yet to have a problem. Well.... I never ever ever could get shogun online whatever I tried. But Medieval has been a dream. And I think shogun is a much better game regardless but still a huge improvment and keep up the good work.

[Kas]

Swoosh...you're beautiful when angry http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/pat.gif

I'll sign your petition.

Kas http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[AMPage]

The logon sometimes takes like 10mins+ for me and sometimes i get logon error.

I don't have many games that fail to start. Maybe a few drop outs here and there, but not that many.

We need a setup like warcraft3. Having servers that can support thousands, a quick logon that checks version and downloads newest one, fast gameplay options, good interface like, different rooms, and being able to make different rooms... and the list goes on.

If we get that with a mp campaign we'll see thousands of people playing online, so what's the hold up? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[ShadesWolf]

I voted 'The foyer and server are good', however, that is not to say that I am happy with them.

I have no problems logging on, and games almost never drop. Any problem I have is my machine is not up to large battle.

[Puzz3D]

Definitely GameSpy has deteriorated in the last few weeks. Now I have much longer login times, longer join times, longer hosting times, longer for all in a game to get to 100% connect and then sometimes the game locks up there (never had that before in vi), more drops, more disconnect from server after a battle. It all adds up to a lot of wasted time, and it's getting to be more time than I can afford. You can easily spend 2 hrs trying to get a 4v4 game going. It doesn't take that long if you are willing to just jump into any game, but an arranged game is very hard to get started these says because of all the dropping and difficulty getting logged back on after a drop when most of the players in the game get blown off the server when they exit a game that had to be restarted.

[MiniKiller]

I cant even login to be booted off they say my name is in use, well dur its in use....





BY ME http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif

[Crazed Rabbit]

At a gamespy server farm somewhere...

"Hey, Ned, this here server doohickey is acting up agin"

"What'd ya mean, Bob?"

"A bunch a shiny lights are acting up in wierd colors."

"Well, give it a good kick and see if that helps it."

*Thud*

"There, now it's stopped actin' up Just like all the others..."

There needs to be another choice in this poll (IMHO): Raze Gamespy's offices and make slaves of their children. Then use their corporate assets to set up good servers.

Spam, crappy connections, the list goes on and on... They want us to buy R:TW, when they have this craptastic muiltiplayer experience now? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif
Perhaps we need to start another petition like the "I won't buy R:TW if VI isn't patched" one.

"I will not buy R:TW if the current muiltiplayer situation is not vastly improved. Such improvements would consist of, at the least, less spamming, better connecting, and more stability."

I mean, they really expect us to deal with this crap? Of course, I really hate gamespy by itself, and so many games are coming out that use gamespy. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

Surely the devs want the best experience for there players (right? RIGHT?), so they should do something about this horrendous situation.

[cromwell]

I am also having trouble when logging in. It seems to take awhile to register and I also get logon errors. Ususally it takes two tries to connect.
Recently I bought Homeworld 2, what I love about that game, is you get the choice to use gamespy, OR use direct ip. Relic seems to have no problem offering both types of connection why can't Creative as well?? Direct ip would be great for tourney's practicing with a friend ....etc. Just having the choice is what sets the two apart.

Later,

FearofCromwell

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[Swoosh So]

Well it seems the devs would rather reply to a thread about the color of a spear in rome totalwar, than give us an explanation as to why multiplayer in mtw is so bad now


Swooooooooooooooooosh

Losing more respect for ca every day (and i had alot&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[_Hector_]

Last night it was the worst i have experinced in gamespy..I tried logging on a record 12 times and was afraid to relog. This is a terrible practice and should be corrected immediatley or mtw/vi will lose it's faithfull gamers.

Feafofthector

[Swoosh So]

please post your thoughts here

http://pub133.ezboard.com/fshogun....1.topic (http://pub133.ezboard.com/fshoguntotalwarfrm7.showMessage?topicID=2661.topic)

We have to make them aware of our feelings

[Aurelius1]

Baz says: "-getting stuck at the "logging on" screen when trying to log on."

I've got that consistently for about a month, and chalked it up to the holiday season meaning there are more people at home, and hence online.

Pretty funny that I come here looking for a solution, and get led back to .com http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

Is there no alternative server? (forgive me, I'm an MP newbie.)

[Kongamato]

Seeing that MTW was going to be very similar to Shogun and more campaign-based, it was fairly predictable that Medieval would not be a very popular online game. The lack of a massive payoff for MP support was probably why there is not much of it. This attitude cannot be used in the case of Rome: Total War. Rome will be a high-selling, well-marketed game with the most entertaining battles in the Total War series. No forecast should be made on how large or small the multiplayer community for Rome will be. It is imperative that whoever is responsible for accommodating and supporting the multiplayer community respects Rome's potential for greatness and prepares to maintain a large crowd of MP players.

[Swoosh So]

LOL LMAO I posted at the .com forum to let them know about servers and ask for abit of help and eradosan moves the post to the rants and raves section We ask for abit of community support and this is what we get lol I hope erado chabges what hes done its a kick in the teeth for the whole community.

[Swoosh So]

My new post is here if you want to add your voice http://pub133.ezboard.com/fshogun....9.topic (http://pub133.ezboard.com/fshoguntotalwarfrm11.showMessage?topicID=79.topic)

and the old one is here http://pub133.ezboard.com/fshogun....2.topic (http://pub133.ezboard.com/fshoguntotalwarfrm4.showMessage?topicID=452.topic)

[Orda Khan]

I took a look at the 'Enjoy/Play' poll on the .Org homepage. More people enjoy/play Custom battles than MP http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

What does that tell you?

Support? I don't think so

.....Orda

[baz]

The Creative Assembly, Weald House,
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Tel# (+44)(01403)734473
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E-mail info@creative-assembly.co.uk

For all press and recruitment enquiries contact Ian Roxburgh

For all enquiries about the Australian office contact George Fidler

The Creative Assembly Australia:

The Creative Assembly,
Level 2, 47 Warner Street,
Fortitude Valley QLD 4006,
Australia,
Phone: +61 (0)7 3252 1359,
Fax: +61 (0)7 3252 3615,


Mail:
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***********************************************************

Try the above Swoosh, but before you post make sure you post it here for us to put our names on it too http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

good luck

[InDaKnight]

Gamespy doesn't care about feelings. They know better then we do that their server is crap. They might fix it they might not. I know they would fix it if they would lose revenue or contracts but maybe thats already happening and it would be a waste of money to upgrade servers for players who dont pay.

Buy a membership to gamespy if you want them to listen to your complaints untill then we'll all get the cold shoulder from them.

[The Dragon]

actualli i find the server to be ok

[Tomisama]

Was almost impossible Sunday, but checked this morning (Tuesday), and had no problem.

Possibly some work has been done?

I sure hope so

If this is true, Thank You on behalf of All Multiplayers http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Tomi

[Puzz3D]

Yesteday at about 20:00 gmt I checked my ping to GameSpy and it was jumping around from 100 to 600 ms. This is simultaneous will my ping to 4 hosted games all under 200 which stay under 200 at all times. I had long (3 min) logon times to GameSpy and people were haveing trouble getting games started. Swoosh had 5 consecutive 4v4 failed games around this time. The high pings were on the last three hops to GameSpy. My first 12 hops were under 13 ms. Hops 13 and 14 were under 81 ms. The last three hops were averaging 250ms for a 60 second test with a very wide fluctuation from 100 to 600 almost every time I measure it. I've also saw dropped packets on these last three hops on some measurements.

The last three hops are:
COX-CALIFORN.hsa1.Level3.net (65.58.240.22)
gamespy-ge2-2.border3.irv.intelenet.net (216.23.171.49)
www.gamespy.com (207.38.1.105)


LAter about 04:00 gmt I noticed mtw/vi battles started working better than they had earlier in the evening. I played in several 4v4 hosted by Elmark around this time with no drops. I checked ping to GameSpy 10 times at 05:00 gmt, and the last three hops had settled down to a solid 80 ms on all 10 measurments with no fluctuations to speak of. So, I had a solid 80 ms ping to GameSpy. I also checked login 10 times and it was under 10 seconds 8 times, one time it was 30 sec and one time it was about a minute. This is also much better than it was for me logging in earlier in the evening when the last three hops were showing 250 ms with 100 to 600 ms fluctuation. It appears to me that GameSpy and possibly the internet lines close to GameSpy were getting overloaded earlier in the day. If it is an overload problem, then I suppose Activision would have to increase their server bandwith to meet the higher demand. An alternative would be to get Total War off of the heavily used server, and onto a server that's out of the area of congestion. It isn't like we have 1000's of people trying to play Total War all at the same time, and the battles themselves don't run on the server, so you don't need a super fast machine.

[baz]

well Yuuki when i log on at early GMT times like 8am + it is much quicker with everything as you have shown, so it must be some kind of problem by 11 pm gmt it is virtually unbearable http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

question is who do we tell? who will be able to do anything?

[Puzz3D]

The server appears to be on the west coast USA, and 11PM gmt is 3PM pacific. So, by that time every school kid in the USA who wants to go online for some gaming has gotten home from school. The reason the internet works as well as it does is decentralization of network traffic. Condensing online play to a huge central server like GameSpy is not the way to go. The Total War game system may be more susceptible to lag, and goes down the tubes before other games start showing problems.

[Swoosh So]

I seem to remember there was a fake server for stw cant we do that with vi?

[AMPage]

It's starting to become not worth it at all now. Game is unbalanced, drops, long logons, long time to join games, and more.

In some peoples view it's bareable and we should be thankful we can even play online. That's sad it really is...

[baz]

considering the other games i have played, the server we have is a disgrace .. when i play SOF2 on GS i get a great low ping and it all works lovely. I know it is slightly different for FPS's but this just does not make sense? i really think we need to take some action and explain these problems to someone who will listen

question is who?

Gamespy seem to want ppl to be subscribers before they will help, so i think we are best off mailing CA and see what they have to say about it. If GS are not delivering a service that they are contracted to provide surely they will want to know??

It cannot continue like it is now

[Puzz3D]

Tonight 5 out 6 4v4 battles I was in between 01:00 gmt and 04:00 gmt worked all the way to the end with no drops. Logon was quick, and my ping to GameSpy was a steady 80 ms each time I measured it during that time period. This has been the best night I've had in about 3 weeks.

[Tomisama]

Great News Yuuki http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

You know I believe we’ve seen this all happen before over a holiday. Seems when certain folks go on vacation, things get out of whack. If I remember right, the EA server could be completely down for days, and then mysteriously back up on the first regular working day.

I certainly hope we are truly back on track http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Tomi

[t1master]

so should i take down my gamespy shrine, with candles and incense? i've found lighting a few candles and an offering of rum before logging in has helped 'grease' the wheels. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

i noticed not one problem logging in our out last night. i also have started typing my password in each time i log in, and it seems to speed things up, but i can't verify it.

[Orda Khan]

I wouldn't celebrate too early, at about 21:00 GMT we had the same nonsense again...Game failed to start, massive wait at the logging on screen ( after first getting log on error ) and return to a foyer with only 50 present.

Is it any wonder that only 5% of people actually play online?

It's kind of ironic...I keep being told how important the customer is at work. When I look around me and see other companies treat customers with contempt......Huh

I suppose we should all just smile and keep being sh*t on...I mean .. Have we ever had a decent server? Nope

Will I buy Rome Total War if this is what we have to look forward to? NOPE.

Will that make any difference.....Nope

For what it's worth, I can't see us getting anything other than some barely working server so long as such a tiny proportion actually go online..

.....Orda

[Jochi Khan]

And to think I kept blaming my 56k modem for my poor games.
Thought when I upgraded to adsl (BroadBand) that it was the end of my troubles.
So bad last night it took me 43 minutes to log on and that was with 3 loggon errors before finally logging on.
Even during game the connection was so bad I could hardly manouvre.
As Orda says, with such a small number playing I don't think we will ever get any satisfaction from the server.
If this is the sort of thing that we can look forward to I can't see me buying RTW.

.....Jochi

[Nigel]

hmmmm...


Quote[/b] ]... I can't see us getting anything other than some barely working server so long as such a tiny proportion actually go online...


then again,


Quote[/b] ]Is it any wonder that only 5% of people actually play online?



So are we in a dead end ? I hope not http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif
There must be some way out of this.

I guess we just have to keep nagging them and not stop making ourselves heared.

[Tomisama]

Maybe the only "true and final" answer, is to get MTW/VI put onto one of GameSpy’s Premium “Arena” Servers.

http://servers.gamespy.com/

I mean, what’s it worth to you to have the best game on the best server?

Thoughts?

[Brutal DLX]

I haven't been playing MP since before the holidays, but I think we don't need a premium server, just a dedicated one, there will be 150 to 200 players max in the lobby at the same time, so that doesn't require a huge server, we just need a clean line to the server, which gamespy could/should do by rerouting MTW players so they have quicker access.

[Puzz3D]

The GameSpy-MTW/VI server problem cleared up last night around midnight gmt. It was also running ok at 11:30 gmt this morning when I checked it.

I don't know if the higher bandwidth GameSpy for $5/month usd would help. MTW/VI isn't one of the games listed as being offered.

[t1master]

for what it's worth swoosh, the thread that was moved to the rants n raves at .com has been stickied. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Tomisama]

A quote from the GameSpy Monitor team concerning the Arena servers:

“If the demand for any game is great enough, we would host it.”

I could very easily send out the question to the 33 Member Clans of the Clan Wars Competition, asking them to poll their members to see they would be willing to come up with the $25 each a year, to be rid of these problems.

If the majority are interested in moving on to an elite server, they could supply the core group, to rally others.

Who knows, maybe all together we have enough gamers serious enough about their fun, to make this happen

Another question. Where do you want to play Rome Total War this Fall? On the same setup we have now?

[Puzz3D]

Except for the typical drop after hosting a 4v4 and the need to relog after every game, MTW/VI ran fine for me last night from 21:00 gmt until 07:00 gmt. I haven't measured any high pings to GameSpy for the last two days.

[Tomisama]

We’re probably all good then http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

The Arena servers are really for server biased games anyway, which we are not (though I wish we were).

Still dreaming a bit, wondering if we had a server hosted version, if a single super server could handle multiple games effectively?

Or if not, reservations could provide access for scheduled competition games. Hey, with only one game in progress the server should be able to easily “broadcast” the game to folks who want to watch But I’m getting off down the road again...

Maybe someday http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif

Tomi

[TosaInu]

Konnichiwa Tomi san,

That will have to be an extremely powerful server then (if it has to host multiple MP games).
I would rather see a centralised server for meeting (what we have now) but it can be better. And the option to create your own dedicated server. The dedicated server would be listed in the meeting foyer, but one could also log in directly by IP (the latter is handy when the central server 'fails').

A dedicated server does not have the host himself playing there. I'm not sure whether this by itself speeds things up (that machine doesn't have to do the graphical bits for example) but it allows to hook very powerful external servers into the 'network'.

FPS games (UT, Quake, RTCW, SOF) use a system like this. Similar systems can also be found in other genres.

edit: code.

[Tomisama]

Thanks Tosa http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Maybe the option to create a dedicated server for the special (and probably limited) use of organized competitions, would not be to much of a stretch of the imagination.

But things seem to be working nicely now, so no one will probably be thinking about the subject until the wheel squeaks again http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

By the way, I remember playing on ‘your’ server in an interim period, a long time ago. Only a couple of games, as not many knew how to get there. It was a dark time with all other means to a game gone, and being able to play a little really helped a lot I want you to know that your efforts were very much appreciated, and as you can tell remembered to this day…

Arigato gozaimasu Tosa-san http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif