Gamespy

[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

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

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.

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
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.

[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

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

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

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

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