16 réponses à ce sujet

[Quasinerdo]

Hi,

 

Ive got a regular group of 6-8 people I play with.

 

2 of them cannot host as 2-3 of us are unable to join their games.

 

If I host all players can join. I can hear all in in-game voice chat but two of them cannot hear each other.

 

If one of the others hosts we get stuck in a loop at the game load screen and must close the game. Ironically we do appear in the player list briefly and can be heard on voice chat before quitting.

 

 

Extra Info:

PC players.

I am located in Brisbane and the two who cannot speak are in WA and NZ respectively. The troublesome hosts are NZ based.

 

The 2 players who cannot host successfully could not even join each other. One of them replaced his router and now they can join each other but still cannot host for the rest of us.

 

I initially thought it may be a port issue but the combination makes that seem very unlikely.

 

We can't work it out.... I'm guessing its an aspect of the server operation or maybe bandwidth/lag causing the game to step down services? We have done the file repair checks etc and nothing changed. Noone has mods or command line additions etc.

 

 

Any ideas or suggestions? Any other people having this type of problem? If it is a genuine net code bug I'm not sure how to proceed in sharing it with BW.

[AbyssMessiah]

The more I play, the more I come to suspect this is 100% net code and how it deals with high latencies (which is NOT the same as ping), packet loss and what appears to be endless loops instead of error management; also, the lack of any meaningful exit / disconnect option instead of the ALT + F4. 

 

Rule of thumb for me: good connections (solid cable, low latency, not necessarily astronomical upload speeds) will not have problems, or only VERY FEW of them, while "dodgy" hosts will crash and burn pretty much everyone. 

 

All the above is based on personal observation and eye gauging, based on pretty much EU hosts and what appears to be SOME USA continent in a very limited case.

 

[EDIT] Also, Host Migration is FULL of bugs, as it either crashes the whole lobby, or at least 2 players: endless loading black screens or immediate CTD. Also, a Host on which you played nicely, you can crash, rejoin on the same host and now you can`t move (you`re in the case of the usual "can use abilities but not move"), which forces you to ask the question: "What the damnation changed between logins?".

[Jeremiah12LGeek]

The first thing to check would be the NAT settings of the players who have difficulty hosting for each other. If they are set to anything but "open" there can be problems.

 

This would be done through the router. They will likely find that their NAT settings are set to moderate, as many routers will default to that setting.

[veramis]

The more I play, the more I come to suspect this is 100% net code and how it deals with high latencies (which is NOT the same as ping), packet loss and what appears to be endless loops instead of error management; also, the lack of any meaningful exit / disconnect option instead of the ALT + F4. 

 

In most games, to the degree that someone has bad ping, they will appear to teleport around because it takes time for the packets to be received by host and sent out to the other players. You can see this when laggy people are jumping around in this game (if you are rubberbanding you need to bunnyhop), and when cheaters deliberately screw with their ping to get a timing advantage in certain FPS games. This game either has too high bandwidth and/or ping requirements or not enough ping compensation for things like loading and many movements and abilities, so you can get things like permanent loading screen, narnia bug (objects disappear), delayed abilities, and rubberbanding.

 

Everquest 1 had much better netcoding than this.

[AbyssMessiah]

I lol'd at this.

 

So let me give you a little bit of IT 1.01. Ping is a measurement by which packet-switched network latency is determined, albeit rough and inaccurately as it deals with no packet processing. Ping has become a slang term for latency in many circles because terms like that often get confused. To say "high ping" is the same as saying "high latency", as it were.

 

Ping is literally a tool that measures the time it takes a packet of data to reach from point A to point B. Packet loss, however, is referenced to network throughput, not latency.

 

It is my understanding that Latency is used to describe the data sent + data received. However, IF the sending PC (aka host) has a slow PC, or poor FPS, data sent will be slow in a P2P setup, like this, and not dedicated servers / standardized servers that provide enough computing power as not to impact connecting clients.

 

So, yes, you are correct, but, in gaming terms I think this does not apply, as Ping / Latency doesn`t calculate packet processing at the host. That is what I was trying to emphasize when I said what I said, so I am using the "Latency calculates total gaming performance between the 2 PC`s, including any impact on client based on host poor performance - or "LAG" " definition as opposed to "Ping is the strict round-trip between the 2 PC`s, excluding packet loss or poor host - client or client - host performance". 

 

Should have said network throughput in hindsight.

 

@Veramis - there has to be yet another reason, as I had one incident where I played a good 2 hours with the same host, crashed, was lucky enough to relog into the same lobby with the same host and, to my surprise, couldn`t move. Couldn`t move on the host that I loaded just fine. Also, it seems that the game "fixes itself" if you sit all the way through a game end and a new map load - you can move then. 

 

I am starting to suspect Narnia happens on really bad connections, plagued with packet loss.

[Credit2team]

BW can't seem to figure out net code, ME3 was loaded with problems (example: joining game bug)

[SpaceV3gan]

Once a Bioware employee told me that we are able to join any game from an overseas friend via invitation. I asked him if he was kidding, he didn't reply back. That shows Bioware's concern for their committed playbase.

 

Having played DAMP for 500 hours from a remote third world region, I've encountered bugs that made me the unable to play with most people (not some, MOST) and the only workaround that I know is to enter a game that is already in progress. This solution is a pain in the arse that will inevitably make you miss most of Zone 1 and some precious XP, also there are high risks of getting the no-moviment bug but, you know, it is better than not playing at all.

 

I hope Bioware one day address these issues, though I am starting to find it unlikely as DAMP playerbase continues to shrink due to  this long standing developers negligence.

[Gya]

Honestly, you would have been better to say, "poor connection" as that is vague enough to blanket everything. Trying to use more advanced terms, even if used correctly, typically offers little benefit except in confusing people that are reading. That's why you will rarely hear me get technical about networking and engineering, despite being experienced in the tech industry.

Actually, I kinda like it when people get technical, as long as they explain the jargon-pr0n and aren't lying/making it up. Means I can learn stuff.

[Quasinerdo]

I cam here looking for advice - not to set the scene for pointless OT nit-picking.

 

 

The two fellows who seem to be at the core of our groups troubles are both semi capable with computers but I think not so much with NAT/Port and security settings for routers. I didn't want to go down the path of spending time trying to mess with the ports if it was unlikely to fix the issues (given how different router models can be).

 

I suspect some who find no benefit with opening the ports may have routers that also have security/firewall settings blocking ports (not just the NAT/port changes to be made).

 

I hope comments relating to the "open" setting were not implying placing the computer in the DMZ.. That's asking for strife.

[AbyssMessiah]

Well, hosted yesterday AND today for at least 2 hours straight - no crashes, no problems. especially today, when we lost NOBODY - not from our group, nor randoms that were joining.

 

Now, my connection is not the greatest in the world and I have a very bad upload speed (not by choice, but because this is a 3rd World Country and I live slightly outside main town, so cable stops IN-town - using ADSL over phone line), but it has other qualities - stable, no fluctuations, no lag-spikes, pretty much perfect minus the speed; unsurprisingly nobody crashes, past the local issues with configurations and DX errors.

 

Played exclusively with EU players today, btw. Yesterday had SpaceV3gan for a few games and 2 of his friends, which I am unsure where they are from, but I didn`t lose anybody - he DID report black screen on first load though.

 

From what I have tested so far - IF you have a good connection and a stable local client - everything should work perfectly minus the local gremlins - surprisingly stable MP with a decent host, though.

[DarkAmaranth1966]

Having seen issues with the Origin/EA servers on another issues a few years ago, I suspect this might be similar. If that's the case, it will take somone willing to work with tech support to solve it.

 

It's a combination of high latency (generally above 600 ms) being seen as unstable by the server and, how some ISP, generally wireless or satellite, providers have their proxy and or/dynamic DNS set up. Customers have no choice in the matter so, nothing any one person can do to fix it.

 

If you do contact support, tell them to look at the solution from 2011 with the Sims 3 store and many people not being able to download items they purchased. Alex was the main tech that worked on that and I was one of the few customers that stuck with him for nearly a year to get it fixed. be willing to do a lot of back and forth with EA, the problem ISP(s) and, your friends to get it solved.

[akots1]

I cam here looking for advice - not to set the scene for pointless OT nit-picking. ....

It is mostly likely Origin/EA-related issue. You've got to go to tech support. They can check your connections and this would at least give some clue. You can try UOTrace utility yourself but it gets quite complicated. The utility tells you pings and lost packets to EA servers along the routing path. You can then try to exclude some of the IP addresses from the routing by yourself or ask your ISP if they can do anything about it.

 

http://help.ea.com/e...ow-to-uo-trace/

[Jeremiah12LGeek]

I hope comments relating to the "open" setting were not implying placing the computer in the DMZ.. That's asking for strife.

 

Not a PC, no. It works fine for consoles.

 

Changing NAT settings to "open" isn't the same things as setting a computer in DMZ, although setting it in DMZ certainly removes the need to open the NAT settings. In any case, ports and NAT settings are, if basic troubleshooting steps don't work, the most likely solutions. And, based on the symptoms that you were describing (inability to join each others' hosts, inability to hear each other when in a lobby under a different host) NAT settings or blocked ports are, in fact, the most likely culprits.

 

Whenever this has been an issue for people in my FL in the past, changing the NAT settings was the most consistently successful solution.

[Vrin]

Play on a map other than Firebase Condor?

 

Wait...what?  Oh, sorry!