had problems with hosting...Monk fixed...

me and a friend spent hours trying to multiplayer...

Published on February 19, 2008 By Tekkor In Technical

Ok tonight was the first night I actually am cursing at this game and Ironclad. So much so I really am extremely upset.

Let me first state....Im a fairly knowledgable computer user. Been playing game for years. I know my way around in my router control panel and all that.

Tonight me and a new friend (who I just talked into buying the game) spent 2 hours trying to get a game going with no luck at all. We followed the guides on the site including that PDF that one player typed up. We set up port forwarding, trying all kinds of things like turning on DMZ and more. My Vista firewall is disabled.

Hell we even trying taking the router completely out of the loop. I hooked directly from my cable modem to my computer...still got same warnings about people may not be able to connect as Im behind a firewall etc. I have Vista Firewall off....Norton disabled and even took router out of the loop and still have the smae problem.

We both tried everything. We did notice that we both were able to connect to someone elses game. Yet neother of us could host a game. We could see each others games. But cant connect.

Im really upset. I think back to the videos on this game and the producer saying "We have avoided the hurdles of other RTS games as we have beta tested for a long time and dont have the connection issues...". I disagree. A game should not make you jump through hoops like this to get a game going.

I play alot of games. I could list 20+ on this computer right now and none of them ahve ever given me a problem like this to get a game going with a friend. This is really upsetting. If someone has any suggestions on how to get this working...please enlighten me.

We are both using Linksys routers. Mine is a WRT54GS. We are using Vista. My firmware is up to date on router. I set up forwarding under the gaming section of panel. As I said I even tried turning DMZ on. I tried a million things. this is really upsetting.

Comments (Page 2)

AnijoAnan

on Feb 20, 2008

$50 says 99% of the people having problems also installed Nvidia's Ethernet Controller. I don't remember if that's the exact name, but it's part of a suite of drivers you install if you have an nForce motherboard, among other things. It runs its own shitty firewall that will cause nothing but problems.

It was disabled by default on my old NForce 4.

rayredlab

on Feb 20, 2008

2+ waffels for monk

Tekkor

on Feb 20, 2008

Well again I was able to solve the problem with Monks help....However.....

Im a pretty tech-savy computer user and this was WAY beyond what 80% of your gamers are familier enough to deal with. I mean we had to figure out how to log into my modem (not the router mind you we had already done that) then had to figure out how to port forward on it to the router then forward to the computer.

It was simple it what it was we were doing but was way beyond what your average computer user would figure out.

Somehow Ironclad needs to figure out a way to deal with these issues with the game because we cant have users like Monk hand guide thousands of players through network troubleshooting. 3/4's of your players who have problems wont be as "aggresive" as me to get help either. They will just give up. This doesnt help the community.

Melric

on Feb 20, 2008

Ironclad needs to get some tips from Blizzard Entertainment to manage multiplayer connections... No its routers getting more complicated and gamers getting less so thats all(and yes it is the router not the game causing these problems).

Which no other game is having a problem with. If all games had this issue for multiplayer, I would understand - but they do not. This is not an isolated problem either.

Redion

on Feb 20, 2008

They will just give up. This doesnt help the community.

Yup, correct !

Iantis

on Feb 20, 2008

Im a pretty tech-savy computer user and this was WAY beyond what 80% of your gamers are familier enough to deal with.

How many times does it need to be said? This is not the developer's fault, it's an issue of home networking. Whenever you play ANY game where you host the game locally on your computer, be it Neverwinter Nights, or anything else, you will have to open the ports to your computer. People seem to think that because they can play WoW - that is, JOIN another game on somebody else's server - Blizzard are amazing coders and Ironclad is just being lazy or something.

For the last time - the hosting issues people are having have to do with the fact that ICO is just a matchmaking service for people to host their own games, rather than being a hosting service itself.

Tekkor

on Feb 20, 2008

How many times does it need to be said? This is not the developer's fault, it's an issue of home networking. Whenever you play ANY game where you host the game locally on your computer, be it Neverwinter Nights, or anything else, you will have to open the ports to your computer. People seem to think that because they can play WoW - that is, JOIN another game on somebody else's server - Blizzard are amazing coders and Ironclad is just being lazy or something. For the last time - the hosting issues people are having have to do with the fact that ICO is just a matchmaking service for people to host their own games, rather than being a hosting service itself.

Ok....I wasnt going to reply but felt obligated to since your tone is trying to take the stance of "Hey stupid people dont you get it.".

Yeah I get it. You can say all you want its not the developers fault. In fact Ill agree with you. They dont say in the bullet points of the game "We promise you 100% success on multiplayer gaming!". But I think your missing the point.

This game has no campaign mode. Its single player is essentially multiplayer with computer AI. So the game is totally geared towards multiplayer gaming. Yet....anyone who has a modem that has its own NAT settings and a router is going to have to deal with double forwarding setups and more.

Yeah I totally understand whats going on. I understand this game is not hosting the games for you to play its just connecting 2 players together yada yada yada. I get it. That doesnt make it any better for new players who buy the game who maybe are not network administrators for a living to be able ot host a multiplayer game with a friend.

I guess for me....if all it involved was going into my router and setting a simple port forward...thats easy. But this was more involved. To be honest I had no idea the little cable/dsl modems where starting to put NAT/Firewall etc settings in them. Now that I know I get it. It makes sense. But Im betting many people will not understand it unless they come in here and dive into reading the right thread.

Anyway....again...I understand what your saying. I think all of us do. We are just saying..."Yeah so what? There has to be a better way to get the issues resolved."

the_Monk

on Feb 20, 2008

Exactly right!

Having said that, I'm always more than happy to be able to help and was glad I was able to talk Tekkor through solving his issue last night.

I would again encourage everyone to please download and read my guides:

1. Networking for the Gamer (link located in the FAQ and page 1 of my sticky)
- contains "generalized" networking information great to have/know in any situation.

2. Networking and SINS (link located on POST #66 on page 3 of my sticky)
- contains all of the information needed to successfully play/host SINS! Follow the instructions in this guide exactly and you won't have any issues whatsoever.

note: If you're having problems with HOW, please contact me and as Tekkor and so many others have already found out, I'll gladly talk you through the HOW. I only have a problem with people not willing to read my guides which clearly explain the WHAT, and then do nothing but bitch, bitch, bitch, WHY!

have a nice day everyone!

the Monk

EDIT: btw...Tekkor was a perfect example of someone who didn't know the WHAT, but once I explained the WHAT to him, he was more than willing to work through the HOW with me. If only everyone were as willing as Tekkor to accept help.

Tekkor

on Feb 20, 2008

Yes Monk thanks much for the help I appreciate it. With my post above Im not arguing the how and why of the problem either. I understand it...especially after talking to you. I just feel people have to be careful in how they kinda take the "Dont you people get it" stance.

This is much more complicated to get working then most gamers will be able to handle. If nothing else I think Ironclad needs to figure out some way to put together a more effective help file or video or something. Im just saying...yeah i understand why it doesnt work and I understand the issues around it...Im just saying...I dont think thats a good excuse to not try to do something to help make it easier for people to figure out.

JMW23

on Apr 19, 2008

OK, I'm totally confused. I have a linksys WRT54GS. I've been tinkering with this thing for an hour, and did my best to follow Monk's guide. Under the Applications and Gaming Tag there are a number of boxes. Under application, I wrote sins. Start I put 6000, end I put 6003. Someone else who has the same router told me these settings worked for him. Protocol I put both. There's an IP address already filled in 192.168.1. with a blank space after the last dot...I left that totally empty, since I didn't know what to do with it. I clicked enable, and hit save changes...and nothing. I disabled all firewalls. Can anyone help?

the_Monk

on Apr 19, 2008

JMW23,

1. Make sure you're using the correct guide "Networking and SINS" (linked from the very bottom of the "Technical FAQ") and not my other more generic guide (Networking for the Gamer)

2. Once you have the correct guide, follow it step by step. Don't skip pages/steps and you'll be fine.

3. If you then still have problems with the implementation on the steps in my guide (the SINS-specific guide) I will then do for you what I've done for many others and get you on my TS Server so that I can talk you through the steps.

All I ask is that you read and try to follow the steps in my guide before I get you on my TS Server, I will know if you haven't....hehe

the Monk

JMW23

on Apr 19, 2008

Yes, that was the FAQ I was following...the problem is that some of the steps aren't applicable...particularly step 4. I typed the under start and end. Was that right? Also, my PC's IP was listed, with a blank last box...which I left blank. It's hard for me to explain, as I'm not a technical person at all (can you tell). I hope I'm making sense.

the_Monk

on Apr 19, 2008

No worries then. Catch me on xfire (the1monk), we'll set up a time when you and I can be on my TS Server (TeamSpeak) and I'll talk you through the steps.

the Monk

JMW23

on Apr 19, 2008

I'll be honest, Team Speak, setting up appointments to walk through my problems...it's very nice of you to offer, but the amount of work that it's taking to get Sins to run multiplayer properly is all out of proportion to the time I'm willing to invest in it. The next patch is supposed to help with this, right? I'm just going to wait until then. Thanks anyway!

Servius

on Apr 19, 2008

Monk, you might become obsolete when 1.1 patch arrives. But, I'm not sure how much that will do for ICO yet..so then again you may not. Anyways, you deserve like a ROFL copter or something for all the help you've provided.

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