BUG 3.6 and Multiplayer

[Zalera]

Long time reader, first time poster. I've been using this mod forever now in singleplayer and absolutely love what has been done with it. My hats off to the entire staff and team running this project, it's amazingly done.

With that said, I can't for the life of me seem to get this running correctly in LAN or INTERNET games. I installed BUG 3.6 using the Multiplayer install - this was after doing a complete reinstall and patching of the game. I also had my cousin do the exact same install as I did - he was right beside me as we did it. For whatever reason, in a non-BUG game, we can see each other and other games going perfectly fine. As soon as we load BUG 3.6, Both the LAN and INTERNET Game list are completely empty and we can't see each other's games or play together at all.

I've scoured the boards trying to find an answer to this but unfortunately I have not. Does BUG just not seem to work in multiplayer games, or is there a trick/change to it that I'm missing that's causing this?

 

[Mikkow]

Did you try Direct IP connection instead of regular LAN? Works for me and my friend (in another country) with the latest bug mod, and previous versions too.

We did move our bugmod folder from civIV install folder to the "my documents>games>civIV>mods" folder. And we also had one guy install it, then zip it and send it to the other to make sure the files are 100% the same.

 

[EmperorFool]

We did move our bugmod folder from civIV install folder to the "my documents>games>civIV>mods" folder.

Really? I changed the installer to put BUG 3.6 into the BTS install folder specifically to make it work for multiplayer. Are you saying I had it in the right place all along? Looks like I'll need to push through a 3.6.1 ASAP.

 

[Mikkow]

Indeed, it's been there all along..

It must be said that me and my pal who play have never tried having any mods in the civ install path, only in my documents >. So as far as we know, both should work (and why should they not? It's the same thing as far as the game is concerned, one would think).

 

[EmperorFool]

Yes, I would expect it to work in either place, but I was told it doesn't work in My Documents. And I thought I tried it, but I don't remember trying it specifically, so whatever.

 

[Zalera]

Sorry for such a late reply to this!

We played again last night through LAN, but unfortunately we couldn't get us to see each other with BUG mod running. This was using the original multiplayer install that came with it.

We tried as you suggested Mikkow and moved the folder in the My Documents folder, but unfortunately we still had the same issue occuring. We also linked up by Direct IP in BTS with no BUG, but when we both switched to BUG and tried to direct IP connect, it wouldn't stating it couldn't find the game - We know it's there as we played without BUG mod and the IP connect.

I've made sure I opened any ports etc on my end and while I doubt that was the issue, it really couldn't have hurt. It's still unfortunately the same problem through and through. When either of us run BUG mod, the games list never displays any games, however running without it we see all the Games in the list with no issues. I know that it works, because I see tons of people, yourself included, who have played with it.

I miss my BUG mod - but I'll keep fiddlin with it to get it working, because it's just THAT good of a mod.

 

[EmperorFool]

Do other built-in mods (Final Frontier or Next War) work multiplayer for you? If so, I'm stumped why BUG wouldn't.

 

[Zalera]

I just tried both. When logged in through internet, I could see other games from both of those mods. I can't figure out why I can't see anything with BUG mod 3.6 installed, but running any other MOD the games list online populates and shows all kinds of games.

I have not merged BUG with Better AI or anything, is it truly possible that perhaps people are running other mods with their BUG MOD or merged them in, thus making it so I can't see them unless I have the same mods and merges done? I'd find it hard that everyone online has it like that, but I'm stumped as much as you.

Edit: I meant to add this. I made a game online, naturally no one joined, but I started it anyways. Inside the game, the BUG mod was running - I had all the features etc. My problem seems to be seeing other games running this mod, or having others see me. I know it works now in internet games, the question is, what in sam heavens could be causing it to make me an inivisible person online?

 

[Zalera]

I just wanted to post that I finally figured out what the issue was. It was no issue with bug, but apparently my ports were only half opened for the game. When I went back and modified all my ports correctly, everything worked perfectly.

Big Thanks to both of you for the help, especially mikkow. If I hadn't tried direct IP I'd have never thought about modifiying or looking at the port forwards, which in the end became the issue.

Played 6 games over the weekend with BUG in multiplayer, and lovin' every second of it.

 

[EmperorFool]

@Zalera - Great news! Could you possibly write up a brief explanation of the ports you had to open (I assumed there'd be just one like most other games) for other people that run into this problem? If you do, I'll add it to the FAQ.

 

[Zalera]

I used this thread as a basis point:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=149874.

When I had originally opened the ports, I had only done them TCP. I forgot to do them all in UDP, thus, they were only half open. After I went back and rechecked and remodified all the parameters to include UDP as well, any connection, time out issues, and finding games was erased.

Offhand, I imagine all the ports listed are important in various ways, but I used portforward to see what they listed that needed to be open. Anyways I opened all of these(Both UDP and TCP for all):

6667
2033*
2056*
47624
6500*
6515*
3783
27900
28900
29900
29001
13139
2302-2400*

For me specifically, 2033, 2056, 2302-2400, 6500, 6515 seemed to be the important ports that made a real difference for me. Given I don't have the time to individually check which are truely needed and not, the easiest thing to do would be to forward all of them - however I believe some routers are limited in how many can be forwarded. At that point it's really trial and error, but I would certainly try the ones with * first and go from there.

 

[EmperorFool]

That's a ridiculously long list of ports to open! Thanks for the list and thread reference. I'll update the FAQ soon.

But the weirdest part is that BUG shouldn't require a different set of ports to be open. Why do other mods and the normal game work without opening these ports?