Very unreliable MP connection

[Borris]

Hi all,

I've just had over an hour of frustration trying to get an MP game going, and thought I'd post my experiences in case anyone else has had a similar experience and might have a suggestion on the problems.

Firstly, I have managed an MP game (hosting) in the past, but it was actually at a friend's, so different PC, network connection etc. But it does at least mean I've some vague clue what I am doing.

The basic problem I had was the "error joining multiplayer session" message after a few seconds of the retrieving host information window. This occurred about 95% of the time - but crucially not 100%. Sometimes (very infrequently) I would manage to connect to the game my friend was hosting, but the connection would not last long. For example, if I tried typing a text message to everyone, almost certainly it came back and reported the host as being disconnected. Of course, they saw me as disconnecting. If the 1st message did not lead to disconnection then either the 2nd message caused/reported disconnection, or just leaving it half a minute reported a disconnection.

If I tried to host the game, my friend saw the same problem.

To try and pin things down, we bought another friend into the equation, and they could easily start an MP game and do multiple turns etc.

So in first blush you might think this was a firewall problem or a router problem. But the fact that it did occasionally managed to connect suggests to me the problem is more subtle. I've tried Googling for possible explanations, but nothing seems remotely relevant.

So, has anyone seen anything like this before? Does anyone know what sort of IP packets are involved? I'm guessing I have major packet loss of some form somewhere. But it's not as simple as all packets as we had Skype running all the time and had no problems there.

Any/all clues most very very very welcome....

 

[MasterMishi]

The error message happens to me too maybe 3/10 times. Hard to know why but errors are common: even when I invite people I have played with just before - to a new game I set up, they get an error.
I suspect possible reasons:
Another player has bad connection and causes to block your access - could be 2/3 players are fine but if 1 has bad connection to you maybe it prevents you from access.
A game staging bug: people often try to join and get errors or join then leave for whatever reason, this often causes problems for people successfully in the setup so may cause error for new players joining.
People trying to join at the same time: sometimes i get error, i go back refresh and try agin and see the 1/4 has become 2/4 then i try again and it's ok.

I suggest try hosting and see if anyone joins you, if they dont maybe they are getting errors trying to get in your game.
What happens in the few times you get into/ host a game and people join?
I never have any other programmes running, I imagine skype would compete with civ, try it without. It may be your friends, try playing an open game in lobby.