Rome MP players unite!

[Mithias]

Greetings all,

I decided to register with GameSpy to see if perhaps the quality of service they provide might increase for some of my games. As you all probably know the MP in Rome is dodgey at best. Connections constatly lost, battle finished before they even started, Failed logon attempts....

This eventually got on my nerves too much so I decided to contact Gamespy for some support. I told them about the dodgey connections and all the problem that me and a lot of others players had been experienceing. After a few e-mails about firewall settings and whatnot ( of course its my fault ) this is the last reply I got from them:

Hi again

If everyone in RTW has the same problem, why are you the only person
emailing? We cannot say this is a problem with our software because one
person has a problem.

Please list the programs in your startup. If there are too many to list, then
there are too many running

Regards

So I'm askin that all those people how are dissapointed wth the gamespy service and Rome: Total War please let gamespy know! If enough people complain about this then perhaps they may actually do something about it instead of just brushing us off 1 at a time.

Mithias,

[Tomisama]

Since I have already been around this tree several times with different eras of Total War games, I hope you will believe me when I say the problem is “not” with GameSpy.

GameSpy supplies the hardware, and their servers host tons of games that do not have the same difficulties we have all experienced with the Total War series.

And GameSpy will be quick to tell you that they are not responsible for bugs or the software maintenance of their lease clients programs.

The best of my knowledge Total War gamers only meet on the GameSpy servers any way. Once the game is initiated, that particular games host’s computer becomes the server for the game. So depending on when you are having problems, it may be related only to the game software design, or may be in the complexities of the internet network created for that specific game battle.

There are problem with the game software design, we have already seen some dramatic fixes in the first patch for Rome. I’m sure that there are other things will be repaired with each new era, patch, and expansion release.

But there are also possible problems with any particular internet network created for a specific game battle. This can be caused by the games host computer or other computers in the game. Also in the mix are the local internet connection, and the general weight of internet traffic at the particular time.

Lots of things to go wrong!

But once again, it not GameSpy…

[Squirrel_of_hatred]

These problems are not gamespy's fault!!!

Pull the other one...

[Wishazu]

this may sound wierd but i plat mp all the time and have discovered that connections are much better in the competitive lobby than in both the other ones. I think this is due to less activity in there.

[Olorin I]

Unfortuantely, the problem is most probably not with Gamespy --- it is with the software provided by the developer. In the beginning, there was a glitch with the matching software provided to Gamespy for RTW that, essentially, would not permit more than 30 people to join! This was fixed with the 1.1 patch. In point of fact, under the 1.1 patch, there were few, if any connection related problems.

The current run of problems generally fall into the category of failure to maintain a good connection to the gamespy matching server lobby. However, since these problems were not manifest under 1.1 and, presumably, since gamespy uses the same hardware now as 5 months ago, then it follows that the problem lies in the software as that is the only condition that was altered from version 1.1 to version 1.2. Like Wishazu, I have found that using either the Competitive of Chat lobbies drastically reduces the incidence of such difficulties, perhaps because there are fewer people in each of these two lobbies.

Uniting is a good plan. However, the idea I would propose we unite around is to have the capacity to set-up free-standing RTW servers like those found in other games, such as Counter-Strike, Battlefield 1942, and, now, BF2. That will force new software and also provide hundreds of "hosts" to report bugs and craft possible solutions for server related issues. CA may just listen as this will not only solve one of the major complaint areas, it could also potentially open multiplayer to modders, a community with whom CA cultivates good relations!

Olorin I