Feedback on MP games you\'ve played

[GilJaysmith]

Well, you can probably guess that we're all pretty happy after the first twelve hours or so of the game's existence in the wild http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

Anyone want to post their experiences of MP games? This will help us as we look at work for the patch or add-on.

Incidentally, some of us at CA may drop into the chatroom at intervals as part of our testing and patch work. So if you see a game which you can't join because of a version mismatch, there's a strong chance it's one of ours - we're now using a newer version of the game than you. We'll try to make it clear in the game title that it's one of ours.

And now, over to you guys for the feedback...

Gil ~ CA

[Nozehed]

The framerate in the MP lobby slows down horribly as soon as someone starts up a game. After that screen (after joining a game) everything works fine.

P4 1.9
Win XP
GF3 Ti 200
SB Live Value
512m ram

[GilJaysmith]

Quote Originally posted by Nozehed:
The framerate in the MP lobby slows down horribly as soon as someone starts up a game. After that screen (after joining a game) everything works fine.

[/QUOTE]

Cheers for that matey.
I've just fixed the lobby slowdown problem for the patch, so that should be nice and smooth.
BTW I don't yet know exactly when the patch is coming out, but it should be within a few weeks.

Gil ~ CA

[ElmarkOFear]

This is not exactly a comment on multiplay, but I want all the people who were worried about the loss of intimacy of the chatroom/game lobby to stop worrying. The Gamespy server is hidden behind the game lobby interface. Once you are registered on gamespy server, you will not even notice it anymore. The game 'multiplay' + 'play on gamespy' link sends you directly to a chatroom/lobby amazingly similar to the old STW & MI/WE lobbys. One less worry for you guys. PS. Also, if it hasn't been told yet, you must use all Capitals when typing in your cd key for multiplay, it is case sensitive. If you use lower case, you will get an invalid cd key message. So don't freak!! HEHE

[This message has been edited by ElmarkOFear (edited 08-22-2002).]

[ElmarkOFear]

Just ran into a little annoying problem with the multiplay chatroom. Every time I exit the lobby and go back to the MTW menus my machine locks up. I am running an Intel P4 2.0 mhz Aopen motherboard, 512 MB ram, AOpen 64MB Geforce 4MX video card, Audigy Gamer sound card, and Win98 SE. It is not a major problem, but an annoying one. I have to alt-tab out and 'end task' on the MTW game to get back the use of my mouse pointer.

[Kraellin]

elm,

i think if you wait a bit before alt-tabbing that this unfreezes. i think it's similar to the lobby lag thing posted above. the game has to log out and log out of gamespy and it's the latter part that slows things down. i've only been in and out the one time so far, so i could easily be wrong on this, but give it a bit of time and see.

K.


------------------
The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.

[ElmarkOFear]

Here are a few items that I noticed in the chat lobby of MTW:

The font used in the lobby is very difficult to read. It may be in keeping with the game's theme, but it is hard for an old man's eyes to see and decipher. A cleaner simple font would be ideal.

Every time I log out of the Gamespy server and go back to the game menu, my PC locks up completely. I waited 10 minutes to see if it was a lag problem, but it stayed locked up. I had to alt tab out to end task on the game, before I could use my PC again.

When games launch they go to BOLD font, which isn't a problem now, but when more people start playing and many games are up at once, it will be difficult to find a friend's game that was just set up. It would be better if it was handled like MI/WE and STW handled it. When a game is launched, take it out of the game list so that only games that are accepting player are visible.

Another item I noticed is: After games are completed and everyone goes back to lobby, the chat listing of players does not update itself. It will still show the players as playing (greyed out) when actually they are in lobby. You cannot private chat with them since it thinks they are still in game.

Another nice feature of the old Total War lobbies was the feature that listed the number of players currently in the lobby (playing and nonplaying). This is not in the MTW lobby.

Lastly, on the army pick screen, the area that lists the amount of koku you have left to spend is not very prominant and you have to hunt for it, which slows things down a bit in choosing army.

I hope this helps you out some Gil. I will post again if I find anything else that is noticeable. PS. I do like the rollover on the units in the army selection screen that state their strengths and weaknesses, since I am not familiar with many of the units. It would be nice though, once in game, if we could turn off this rollover and just have the unit name & unit status info only. All in all I am very pleased with this first effort and look forward to many battles in the near future. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

PS. One other item . . the logfile feature is not working for the multiplayer game. It does not save the game to a logfile. This is important for campaigns and tourneys to be successful. and it also helps me figure out why I can't win a game!! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by ElmarkOFear (edited 08-22-2002).]

[1dread1lahll]

Ive seen the testers in games... I thought i was locked up as elmo said (on game exit) But it just took time..Ive not noticed any problems in multi yet except player name updates.....Name is grayed out but he is there.....so far looks great!! Wish more than 1 person could use the same faction.....

[AvramL]

I hope to god you guys fix the Radeon driver problems in the first patch. As it is right now, MTW is almost unplayable on my computer what with the constant crashing etc.

[MagyarKhans Cham]

Lahll u mean that a side can not have all the same units (faction)? is so than my main man Target has something to patch here.

i guess...
its more valuable if each side can use the same faction than each player must have a different one.

[Puzz3D]

Gil,

I see these problems with the foyer interface:

1) Playerlist doesn't update properly when you return from a battle. It looks like the list that was there when you went into the battle. In Shogun, you could hit chat rooms then internet games to refresh the playerlist, but chat rooms isn't an option here.

2) Private chat resets to room after a few seconds. You have time to issue one quick message then you find you are switched back to the room.

3) Players can somehow get a second name with "underscore" and about 10 numbers after their second name. The chat with this second name. MajorDump had this happen and when he loged out and back in he got a message that he was already logged in. I'm not sure if this prevented him from playing. The extra name seemed to eventually be cleared a long time after the player left the foyer.

4) The font is hard to read.

[JRock]

There seems to be a lot of feedback on multiplayer games here:
http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/Forum7/HTML/000874.html

I would like to add that making things like the "4max" rule (where the 5th of a type of unit costs more, etc) should be OPTIONAL. Give the players OPTIONS. What if we WANT to have a skirmish where we each have all of one type of unit? (16 units of a type)

We should be able to if we so desire.

Thanks! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif