Gamespy nightmare

[RabidMonkey]

Im guessing that other ppl are having trouble with gamespy but at the moment i havnt been able to connect to a single game. the furthest i got was into the game setup choosing sides and then back to the desktop. I dont think this is good enough to release games like this and i know that many other games suffer similar problems with multiplayer, if i bought anything else like a fridge or a tv and it didnt work i could take it back and get a new one but with pc software your stuck with it.

And they wonder why piracy is so rampant!

[Mike_Smith]

Wel, on the up side, a patch is due out any day now.

Have you described your specific problems in the Tech Forum? Maybe someone can help you.

[JRock]

I don't get your piracy comment... that has nothing to do with the Gamespy issues.

Yes, the Gamespy interface sucks.
Yes, relying solely on Gamespy for multiplayer gaming sucks.
Yes, it would be much better to have the ability to at least connect directly to a host's IP address so if Gamespy is down or giving us login problems we can still coordinate games with friends in forums or chat programs and meet at the host's game.

No, none of this will ever be fixed, according to Gil, because they rely on Gamespy for CD Key verification, and unless they they go through Gamespy there would be no way to ensure only legit copies are playing online.

So, yes, we are stuck with Gamespy. It sucks but there really is no good solution to this that still allows for anti-piracy measures. And small companies like CA are the ones hurt most by piracy.

Btw, the patch won't fix any issues with Gamespy itself - that's just their shitty server software that gives us the annoyances like the "Invalid login information" and "you have been disconnected from the server" things that keep us from being able to play online. The patch will only be able to fix things that are part of MTW's actual coding, such as the crash to desktop bug or interface cleaning up such as making the text easier to read, etc.

[This message has been edited by JRock (edited 09-22-2002).]

[MajorPain]

I have the same problem and the answer I got was that they should fix that in the patch.

[Action]

While the single player is almost bug free, the multiplayer has got to be one of the buggiest releases of any game to date. I have to wonder if they did any sort of QA, or even tried to play any games using the in game browser.

[RabidMonkey]

I guess Im getting a bit bitter and twisted! You made some good points there Jrock, but i have played games on gamespy before and it wasnt this bad

[JRock]

I believe this is the first game I've been forced to use Gamespy for to play it multiplayer, so I have no other games where Gamespy runs the security checking and login/logout to compare it with.

I do know I've never played another game that was so difficult to play multiplayer with people, and I don't just mean because of the bugs being fixed in the patch, I mean because of all the issues with Gamespy.

I believe a large part of the problems lie in using Gamespy not just to host the Room and list of games being played - many games do that - but in using Gamespy as the CD Key and Account Creation/Details/Login/Logout master.

This is one of the first games I've had to do all that through Gamespy and it seems to be just more dangerous reliance an on outside company for our multiplayer gaming.

All previous games I've played that required a CD Key to be entered to play online did one of two things to verify the CD Key: *Verified it somehow with a checksum locally built into the program's coding.
*Verified the CD Key with a master server but did not require any special account setting up or anything like that.

Once the CD Key is verified with the cdkey master server, there is no hassle of logging on and off, nor account details to enter or anything of the sort. It just simply verifies that you have a legit copy of the game, and that's all it should do.

The whole security interface in MTW feels a bit unfriendly and is definitely built with security first, reliability second. This is why I believe we have only just begun to experience the downsides to such total reliance on Gamespy for multiplayer gaming in MTW.

We already have issues with it validating people's Account Information, and we have issues with it allowing us to stay connected to the game Room. "Account Information Invalid" and "You have been disconnected from the server", along with the massive waits while Logging On and Logging Off are just the first level of Gamespy torture.

Just think of what happens when:

*Gamespy's CD key verification server goes down for whatever reason (upgrading, tweaking, something breaks, whatever) - you can't logon, so you can't play any multiplayer.

*Gamespy's server that hosts the main Room goes down - again, you can't play any multiplayer.

Again, a simple fix for this is to allow us to connect directly to the IP address of a server. An option under the Multiplayer heading that leads to a simple box with "IP Address:Port" written on it and a space to enter the info (and the netcode behind it to make it work) would be all that is required.

I understand that this is apparently asking too much because CA is highly concerned with pirating of their game and adding that feature would allow people to play online without going through the Gamespy CD Key verification process, but really they are putting the entire community at Gamespy's mercy for the sake of a few pirates.

I guess they feel that's a necessary thing otherwise I'm sure they'd have put in a feature as common as a Connect to Server IP ability.

[This message has been edited by JRock (edited 09-22-2002).]

[Baia]

We should use all seeing eye to find games

[MagyarKhans Cham]

some sources will tell u MP is playable but a bit "rough".

1987 Norway with the IceTigers is rough. Online play is according to modern standards "unplayable".

And their is a connection between buggy software and piracy. Its obvious that online play is neglected (balance issues and interface).

[GilJaysmith]

The "some sources" Mags is referring to would appear to be me, since "rough" is one of my current words of the day.

MP has some problems. MP is, however, not unplayable for everyone.

For example: my home server is a 1.8Ghz machine with 512Mb, GeForce 4, Audigy 5.1, and an ADSL connection. In other words, what is now passing for an entry-level machine.

In about twenty nights and sixty games of MTW on this machine, I've crashed to desktop three times during setup, crashed out of a game on arrival at the battlemap once, and experienced serious lag three times.

This is unsatisfactory; I like software to be bug-free, and furthermore I like it to be excellent, with foreseeable problems such as lag stamped out as much as possible by clever design and good coding.

But it isn't unplayable, far from it. The failure rate may be one in fifteen, but that's a success rate of over 90%. I would rather have 100%, so would the rest of you. But instead I have over 90%, and that's high enough for the problems not to outweigh the pleasure.

On the other hand, I hear of people having one game in an hour, and getting dumped out all the time. This must indeed lead to the problems outweighing the pleasure, and that annoys me personally, let alone professionally. Don't anyone *dare* even *think*, let alone suggest, that I'm sitting here with a big grin on my face as I think of all the unhappiness that's being caused by code for which I've taken the credit and the responsibility...

But.

Every time I come into the game foyer and you start grumbling about the quality of MP in the game lobby, Mags, the discussion is punctuated by a burst of "gg"s from four or six or eight players coming out of a game.

This variation suggests that the game has bugs and is probably intolerant of wide variations in system config in the same game, and of certain network conditions. And this happens to be the case; that's what we've discovered and hopefully addressed in the patch.

But in the meantime, plenty of people are somehow avoiding those issues, playing MP games and enjoying themselves. Clearly enough games have been successfully fought to fuel the threads about MP troop balancing.

So it's not, by modern standards, unplayable for everyone. So please stop asserting that it is. It's unplayable for you; I accept that statement. Just adding those two extra words 'for me' would make me a lot happier and would increase everyone's optimism about trying the thing for themselves, at no cost to the truth.

Finally: there may be a connection between buggy games and piracy, but that doesn't say much for anyone's morals, does it? Life on this planet is a cooperative endeavour. Every time anyone says, "Screw you, I expect perfection and won't pay for anything less", our chances of mutual progress are hindered. That leaves aside the number of scum who don't pay for anything, ever. It also leaves aside the fact that software was being pirated well before it achieved the "you'll need two patches before you stand a chance" bugginess which PC games sometimes manage.

Gil ~ CA

[KukriKhan]

Whew! He's on fire! (understandably) http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif

'For me' the game, as a whole, is a pleasure.

'For me' MP is a sometimes thing, due to widely varying system config's & network conditions (as stated). Glad to see some predicted improvement with a patch.

I knew, going in, that MP would be 'iffy' or rough, because I use a mid-range machine; as ever, my app's (including games) drive my decisions to upgrade hardware. Those upgrades symbiotically drive developers to challenge that hardware. That cycle won't change...I just try to keep up my end every 3 years or so.

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