Tips for people having trouble with MP

monkspider · November 1, 2002, 03:46

This is posted in the MP forum as well, but since not everyone goes there, I thought it would be prudent to have it posted here. Since obviously the question of the hour is "How do I get my MP working?"

Here are a few pointers I have found to ensure optimal performance, at least until the netcode gets polished a bit.

-Make sure you download 1.04f, this is a must!
-Don't play games with anyone whose ping is greater than 200, if there are some high ping players in your room, politely tell them what the situation is, and then boot them.
-Be wary of trying to play behind a router or a firewall. Some players are having success with this, others are not.
-Don't play games with any more than 4 players or so. Too many players right now will cause the game to hang in the transition from the staging window to the setup window. One day we will have likely have 24 player matches without hiccup, but for now, keep things at 3-4 players. In fact, I have found that 1 vs 1 with a bunch of AIs is probably your best bet, but if you have to have more people, keep them at 3-4.
-Play on smaller maps, to ensure optimal performance and more lively games with fewer people.
-Make sure you're not playing with anyone with a warez/pirate version of PTW.
-Disabling Virus Protection programs while playing online may be useful as well.
-I have heard from some players that turning off auto-save as well as various unit animations can help reduce some of the lag that you may encounter once you are actually in game.
-If al else fails, try finding someone close to your geographic region to play.

If you do all these things, you should look forward to some extremely fun and exciting MP games while things get polished up a tad on Firaxis' front.

Hurin · November 1, 2002, 14:49

Don't use Gamespy externally. It is my experience that clients (not the host) will crash as they make the transition from the external gamespy client to the internet game setup screen.

Of course, this is a bummer because setting up games within the internal game browser (likewise "powered" by gamespy) doesn't allow you to kick people, see who's on, or otherwise micro-manage a game setup.

But that's my tip. My brother crashed every time when we were using Gamespy externally. Using the internal browser, we did fine. . . after we got rid of all the other people who would try to join and crash us as we launched into the "tribe-picking" screen.

Hurin