Desync and connection loss on MP

[Druid]

Hi guys.

After many hours of SP, me and a m8 have been trying to play MP. Trouble is, usually within 20mins, we have lost connection with each other and are now battling with the AI.

We've seen no messages stating a connection loss but the small blue & red squares (which I assume show connected players) disappear. It once took an hour to realise we were no longer playing each other...

We've tried direct and lobby, disabling all levels of firewall, AV, and other tools that might scan or interrupt packet flow etc but to no avail.

His pc is very high-end and mine is high-end for about 2 years ago. We're using same router at work and have tried using his machines internal and external IPs as well as mine.

Any ideas? Haven't had a chance to try with other players through lobby or direct yet to test if it's me or him.

Cheers

[mitra76]

Do you have freeze seconds before the dropping or is immediate?

If I have well understood you're playing inside the same LAN, correct?

[Saddletank]

MP connection and game activity/progress is monitored by the file "sowmp_log_***.log" (where *** is the date and time). Its in My Documents/SOWWL/

What is the info given in the last few lines?

In your SOWWL.ini file kept in the same location you can add the entry "dbglvl=2" (without the quotes) in the section called [debug]. This will show if there is desync between your computers.

PC spec/power has nothing to do with loss of connection in MP, that is all down to bandwidth, and internet traffic or other activity on the users PC (like software updates or scans).

[Druid]

Thank You for your replies.

@ Mitra: No noticable freezes before drop noticed and, yes, essentially, on LAN.

@ Saddletank: will get back to you after checking. TY

brb
Cheers

[Druid]

Hey Saddle.

Can't see a section called [debug] in the ini file, (should I add the line?), but found this in the sow log after mp attempt just now:


11:30:15 Language Tag not found: #{IDS_Rallying}
11:30:15 <MULTI> connection lost.
11:30:15 <MULTI> host has ended the game.


the log on the other (host) pc says I "left the field". hmm :S

cheers

UPDATE:

had 1st mp not on LAN. lobby wouldn't work with either hosting but direct worked to my ext IP. A good start 8)

[Saddletank]

You can add the [debug] section to the ini file and put the dbglvl instruction below it.

FYI mine looks like this:

[debug]
alphaomega=0
drawtiles=0
dbglvl=2
mplog=1
noai=0
autogamedb=1

alphaomega=1 lets you control both sides. Set it to =0 for normal play.

noai=1 turns off all the combat and reaction by the ai completely. For normal gameplay set it to =0. I use these two settings when building scenarios.

drawtiles=0 is the default. No need to use this but try a game at =1 and see what you think!

dbglvl=0 =1 or =2 will give you none, some or more debug messages during play. I've found this incredibly useful in MP play when a game crashes and we can begin to investigate why.

mplog=1 and autogamedb=1 will always dump these two report files into your My Documents/SOWWL folder after an MP game. Again, great for testing or scenario checking.

Your mplog file suggests the LAN you were using just decided to drop the connection between the two PCs. You say it was a work network? Might there be other traffic on it or maintenance downtime?

Going via the game lobby is probably better, or direct IP connection.

[mitra76]

>@ Mitra: No noticable freezes before drop noticed and, yes, essentially, on LAN.

I don't know the router or lan settings, but a so sudden drop by part of host sound like some sort of auto time out based on the amount of time or of data flow due to LAN configuration. Usually host should not drop, should wait for the answer from the client freezing the game, here seems like the host cut the connection like happen for a game crash.


>mplog=1

I suggest to not use this in normal games, only in testing like Saddletank told. Have it activated create a big loss in FPS in multi also 10 in my case for big games. this log is written continously during the match and creates a big I\O flow on the CPU time which add already to that one created from the network

[Druid]

Thanks guys.

Some very useful info and pointers.

@Saddle: The work network only consists of 2 pcs in our office (yes, we spend a lotta time gaming at work..)so I'll ivestigate today and get back to you.

As I've managed to have a couple of diect ip conn with other players now, I'm suspecting some secret router security which is accessed through my m8's machine.

Thanks again