[Solved] Game Stop at 1:02

[x4000]

I'll try to get onto other hosts and see what comes of that. 

PS.  My router is a DG834, not a 384.  Probably an obvious typo but worth mentioning just in case.  And yes QoS was but a twinkle in its father's eye when this router came out.

All good!

[Spikey00]

I hope that this issue is resolved soon for you, I-KP.  Thanks for providing more information!

[x4000]

I hope that this issue is resolved soon for you, I-KP.  Thanks for providing more information!

It's not a guarantee that it is his issue.  You could be you or Vaos, is the point of my earlier posts.  The fact that it only happens when there are three people instead of two could be indicative of the load threshold for some QoS router software, or some faulty driver, on one of the other machines other than his -- I'd strongly recommend that you and Vaos look into making sure your firmware and network card drivers are up to date, and that there is no QoS software that is running during your threeway session to be sure that there isn't an issue there.  Since you weren't involved in two of the games with this problem, then that probably rules you out as a likely cause -- but there's not necessarily one cause, either. 

Let's say that the problem was a bad driver on Vaos's machine, but there was also a QoS service on your router causing some issues.  If you fix the first issue but not the second, it still looks like nothing has improved, right?  That's why I try and get everyone involved to look at their stuff when this sort of thing happens, rather than just looking at the "obvious" problem computer, because quite often focusing too narrowly on one potential issue causes no solution to be found in a multi-cause problem case.

Best to explore all possible paths at first, and get to a resolution more quickly!

[Spikey00]

I've played a three player game before along with numerous two player games:  this would be the first time that I have ever encountered such a problem (in any game). 

Anyways, I believe that my router automatically updates itself... I think. 

[x4000]

I've played a three player game before along with numerous two player games:  this would be the first time that I have ever encountered such a problem (in any game). 

Anyways, I believe that my router automatically updates itself... I think. 

Yep, so it's almost definitely not you, then.  But it would be good for Vaos to check out his stuff, I think.

[Vaos]

I've played today with 4 people and it worked totally fine, so I have no idea really.

[x4000]

I've played today with 4 people and it worked totally fine, so I have no idea really.

Okay -- this is really helpful information.  If that's the case, it sounds like it must be something with I-KP's setup, but I don't know what that is.  It could even be an ISP thing or something, I'm not sure.  Were you guys using Hamachi in all cases?  I-KP, if you are careful and know what you are doing (you very much seem to), and you have a good software firewall that you are comfortable with, you might try bypassing your router if that is possible and connecting directly to your modem.  Then you could find out if the problem is with your router or not, at least, since that would take it out of the equation.  You might also try doing direct-connect instead of Hamachi, or vice-versa, again just to eliminate possible causes.

At this stage I am pretty much positive it has to be something below the network library level (so NIC/firewall/router/ISP/Hamachi), based on what you guys have told me.  At least we've ruled a lot out so far, hopefully we can get that narrowed the rest of the way down so that you know what the fix is...

[Vaos]

We were using Hamachi. I should actually find my router password so I can open that ports so I can host without the need for Hamachi.

[x4000]

We were using Hamachi. I should actually find my router password so I can open that ports so I can host without the need for Hamachi.

Gotcha.

[I-KP]

Chaps,

So far I've only tried to play this game multi-player once (well, we tried at least four times in that one session), with one host (Vaos), via Hamachi.  Based on such a singular set of potential connection possibilities I'm going to hold fire on exposing myself to the wild until I've tried a few more hosts (which are almost impossible to find outside of your own friends list[1] - this game could benefit from some form of game-finding technology).

Hopefully a solution is out there because multi-player is where it's at in this game and I fear that it won't have much of a shelf life otherwise (particularly with the imminent release of Left4Dead 2 - I am a slavish aficionado of the zombie apocalypse after all).

Cheers for bothering to take an interest in this one player's difficulty; makes me want to search out a resolution rather than shelve the game and go play something that works.   

[1] None of whom want to play this for various reasons including: having gone soft; haven't got the time; simply don't like it; hung up on a philosophical disagreement with the use of the terms 'fighter' and 'bomber' in the game.

[x4000]

Fair enough -- hope you are able to find something new out, and thanks for your patience.

[I-KP]

Just hosted a game with TheWord which ran for an hour without major issue.  I didn't change anything (other than use direct IP instead of VPN).

[x4000]

Okay, that's good to know.  I don't know if this was a Hamachi problem then, or what.

[I-KP]

Hamachi is the easy target, yes.  I'm not so sure tho.  *shrugs*  Perhaps more play will uncover a pattern.

Thanks for taking the time to offer insights tho.

One thing: What is the actual purpose of the CTLR-+ Network command?  What is it doing?  I did notice that with +5 the clock seemed to progress at roughly 1/3rd normal rate.  Is that what it does, slow everything down to flatten off any lag?

[x4000]

Well, I didn't say it was definitely Hamachi.  But, as you say, that's the major thing that you changed aside from switching who you were playing with.  Glad I could help insofar as I could, at any rate, and I'm glad it's working for you now!

The Ctrl-+ network command is really kind of outdated, it was primarily useful back when we used TCP networking instead of UDP.  That runs more game cycles per game turn, and thus fewer turns per second.  The purpose of that was to give TCP packets more time to resolve themselves in high-latency situations, but so far as I know no one is still using the network command speed adjustment any more, and there's not really a reason to.  UDP transmission being what it is, most likely it is unlikely to change much unless there is a really tremendous amount of packet loss or really high roundtrip times for some reason.  That isn't supposed to affect the network timing, but I haven't messed with that command much since switching over to UDP a few months ago (August, I think it was).  Even in cases of extreme latency, I think that +1 or +2 would be the sweet spot if you were to get use out of it, but I think it's mostly no longer going to be much benefit.  Were you having a lot of lag?