Setting up multiplayer

Some questions about how to setup a LAN(simultaneous turn/pitboss) game correctly to avoid OOS.

Been reading some time about what could be done to make C2C work in peace at LAN.
- Turned off some C2C options
- Changed some values in A_NewDawn...... .xml

Got OOS in the first turns. Reloaded, even restarted in a new game - same issues.

Is there a decent guide somewhere about multiplayer?

 

I wouldn't use pitboss but Lan connected games should go ok on MP for the most part. Been a bit since we've done much bughunting for OOS errors though so some new ones may have come up. So it's hard to say for sure. You've done the right thing to do said research, however, the multiprocessing shouldn't be too bad right now.

 

I would also like to see such a guide, if it exists?

What options did you turn off? What values did you change, and why? I'm trying to set up a LAN game right now.

 

Don't worry about the globals anymore (I think). They should be corected already in the code but if you have trouble, search the core globals for any references to THREAD. Bools should be at 0 and ints should be at 1. But again, shouldn't have to do that.

The main thing I keep off is Revolutions. Outside of that you might find that turning on No Events might also help significantly. Watch out for an issue with routing where if you set a unit to go further than what it can in one round you might create an OOS at times. Don't set yourself to build the same wonder as someone else.

There could be more things to avoid now... I'm not sure yet. We had a pretty good run for a long time on v37 stock.

If you get an OOS, all save, all exit, all restart computers and all restart from the save fresh. You can cause a lot of waste of time getting immediate re-entry OOS errors if you don't patiently do it right from the start.

 

And what about BUG options? How do I safely change those?

 

Most of those are local and can be set whatever you like for each player. Some would affect the whole game and for those, usually in an MP game they show the same as Player 0 (the first player) shows where all other players have those grayed out. If not, just ensure that something that doesn't just influence your own system all should have the same. Save after any such change so that if you get an OOS error come up you can just load from that.

Many times players who get an OOS make the mistake of trying to back up, but the real trick is to just save and continue from that save so that the gamestate is updated for all players from the way the system that saved it had it at the time it saved. If you don't keep playing after an OOS for more than another turn, you won't have too many discrepancies between the game states., especially from the moment you get the notice. However if you back up, you'll probably just keep hitting the same OOS point over and over repeatedly.

Point is, OOS doesn't mean the gamestate is broken, just that it's begun to differ from one system to the next and it needs to be realigned for all players again.

 

Thank you for these informative posts!

Do you think using last SVN is a good idea?
Tonns of bug fixes makes it looking like a good idea.

We were surprised by the time it takes to place buildings(freezes the game) and to process turns - in V35(played 3000turns) don't remember anything like that.
Any comments on that? Maybe something could be done?

This freezes(6-10sec) on building placement slowed so much each turn we are still in doubt about should we play at - we simply might not have the time to see the gameplay we'd love to see

 

Actually the Mod is smaller more streamlined than v35. Iirc v35 was about 2.2GB in size while the current SVN version is about 1.67GB in size with actually more content. (Graphic improvements and such to reduce Graphical load).

Also the number of Total players ( Human, AI, plus NPC's now) on various Maps sizes and Option used can increase or decrease turn time processing. The more Civs you allow the more processing time. Options that generate more Civs will add to the processing time as well. The size of the Map and number of cities a Civ can build because of allowable room for expansion will also have an effect. Old World starts are not so good either on Preset Civ Maps.

Many many variables to having a game run smoothly and go a long time.

 

I can't help you out on setting it up, but I'll play if you like. I've been playing C2C since around V24