...here is a list of things others have suggested and we have tried to use to fix the problem with. Perhaps they might work for someone else, they haven't for us.
1. disabling "random events," to no effect. Probably because so much of the game depends on events that cannot be disabled at all. (Are the computers relaying messages such as when I get a free carnival? etc.)
2. deleting the the following directory: documents and settings\<username>\application data\my games\beyond the sword-----in order to "remove the cache" data, also to no effect. One should note, however, that when I went to find this hidden folder (with hidden folders enabled in Windows) it did not, in point of fact, even exist, at least according to windows. Should this be a warning sign? I have no idea.
3. Holding "shift" upon restart of game to remove cache data, also to no effect in the game.
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Supposedly Direct IP connections work a tad better. And Patch K clears some of the other issues up, while also allowing you to turn off events just in case.
OOS's are the hardest thing to troubleshoot since they only occur in multiplayer. That means I need you guys to help me isolate them. A post that says you got an OOS on turn 125 doesnt help me much. I need to know under what conditions you get OOS's and under which conditions you dont. I know that really hard to tell if you play 1-2 games.
What I really need is a group to start really small and simple and expand their game until they start getting OOS's. In the begining I would take a game with 2 human player, no barbs, no events, no ac, compact enforced and play for a few hundred turns. Then if that goes okay add in pieces one at a time until OOS's start happening.
Alternativly start fully loaded in a 2 player human game with everything running. Then if you can get OOS's start backing things out until they stop.
Keep in mind that a single OOS, especially if you are able to drop out and come back may not be the issue we really want to solve. We want the big nasty OOS issues that are occuring frequently or are causing the game to be unable to sync afterwards.
Patch K...What I really need is a group to start really small and simple and expand their game until they start getting OOS's. In the begining I would take a game with 2 human player, no barbs, no events, no ac, compact enforced and play for a few hundred turns. Then if that goes okay add in pieces one at a time until OOS's start happening.
Only played to that point, sorry. Tried to get multiple games in to have a better test base for the events that don't occur every game and different mixes of civs.