@ El Tea :

1a. Me too : I'm much better at TBS games (especially Heroes of Might and Magic).

1b. No problem. Believe me : Pogue and I are not the best of newbie players. (I hope that Pogue does not resent that I put him in the same bag as me.)

2. No Teamspeak. The in-game text-chat (press Enter) is sufficient when playing against comps.

3. According to the excellent host, Pogue Mahone, the game should start some time after 8 pm (Eastern USA time). Keep checking on this thread. Pogue should post between 6:30 and 8:00 pm. He might post a password here, because if he hosts an open game on ICO, some undesirable guys might barge in. That happened the last time and the 2 guys who were uninvited left the game after a few minutes. The 3 remaining Humans (Pogue, Bhruic, and I) kept on playing until Victory -- about 8 hours of play, spread-out on 3 consecutive evenings. I can then certify that Pogue's hosting connection was perfect : no lag, no crashes, no disconnects. If you do not have a higher speed cable connection (or the equivalent), it would be better not to join. Also, if you have a software firewall, shut it down before joining an ICO game. If you are protected by a router (which acts like a hardware firewall), it would be better to configure it to allow the ICO traffic. I'm not an expert on routers (far from it). Here is what I did :

1. Go to the website of your router's manufacturer and find the procedure to access your router's setup from the Web. (If you have never changed your router's password, the manufacturer should tell you what the default router password was : if you do not know it, you will not be able to access the router setup screens.)

2a. Once in the router's setup, find the Port Forwarding section. There, type-in the ports numbers 6000 and 6112 (or, in my case, I defined 6000-6112) for TCP (UDP is not required).

2b. Those ports will have to be "forwarded" to your computer's internal IP address (not the external IP address which you can find by having it detected from Google). That internal IP address is obtained in this manner :

i- Click START\Run
ii- Type-in this : cmd
iii- Click OK
iv- A little window should open (the System32\cmd.exe window).
v- At the C:\ line, type this : ipconfig and press Enter
vi- If your C:\line is already occupied by some other stuff, remove that info by typing cd.. at the end of the occupied line + press Enter. That will delete stuff : do that cd.. + Enter trick until only C:\ remains.
vii- note the IP address and close the window.
viii- use that address in your router's port-forwarding screen. (In my case, the IP address was already there, except the very last number, which had to be defined.)

That's all I did, and my router did not block traffic for the host (Pogue). I have not tried to host, so I can't certify that my router would allow me to do that.

3. As it is now, unfortunately, when a Human drops, his realm becomes static, inactive : no A.I. takes over, and the disconnected Human cannot come back in. But the game can go on for the other Humans. I have recommended that a future patch should include those 2 game setup options :

i- An A.I. takes over for a Human who has quit (voluntarily or involuntarily)
ii- A Human can join and take an A.I.'s place.

(Consequently, if you combine 3i and 3ii, a Human who has crashed could come back a few minutes later to retake his position in the game -- that position having been ideally protected by a password to avoid that anybody, on ICO, could claim it.)

Thanks a lot, kryo !

I am surprised and impressed that you even take the time to read and to reply concerning what is posted on a very minor thread, related to a tiny group of users who are engaged into ICO matchmaking.

Your recommendation should be included in our game setup discussions :

Do the participants all agree that when a fellow team8 gets disconnected, a return to ICO should be then executed to attempt to reload the saved game ?

My reservations to that are :

1. This is only desirable if all participants trust each other. If an unreliable "stranger" drops out (as it happened on 10 February, after only 15 minutes of play), he might have done so voluntarily : interrupting the game would then be a loss of time and gameplay momentum (if not, of interest). The "stranger" might not even care to communicate with his former team8s.

2. If the team8 involuntarily gets disconnected because of crash or connection issues, and if those issues might be of a persistent nature, even if the team8 has the good will to try to rejoin the save-game reload, it might result in a loss of time for everybody. This would be particularly the case in an evening where the game would have to be finished in 3 to 5 hours -- in one sitting.

kryo's tip is valid, but it should be discussed by the participants before starting a new game.

There is also an "ethical" dimension : people who know that they have slow and/or unreliable net-connections should not join games with people (like Pogue, Bhruic and I) who dispose of fast and stable net-connections.

Reloading saved games to recuperate disconnected team8s is nice, in theory, but it can cause a lot of wasted time and interest if it occurs too often.

But, let's thank kryo for taking the time and trouble to "spy" on our nano-level thread.   

I'm up for a 8pm game tonight, i'll be getting off work and getting home then.

I have a 25 slot ventrilo server of mine that I can make available if you guys have the client for it.

No, there won't be teamspeak for this one. Not everyone's set up for it, and besides I'll just end up annoying other people in the house if I'm speaking to the computer for hours on end. I made a random 2 star map that supports 4v4 team play. I can make one for 5v5 team play quickly enough. I went with 2 stars because I don't like the idea of playing a crowded 1 star map and Mage indicated he'd rather not go with the 3 star map because it can isolate team members.

Astax, what kind of map did you make?

So right now it looks like it'll be me, mage, joe momma and SierraBlack. El Tea are you in too? If so that'll close up the roster. If not, we can take on one more if anyone is interested.

I have to work on Saturday so I have a midnight limit. I am looking to start at 8pm. I can start earlier if you want to try and get this game finished in one night. Once people confirm they want to play I will email you all the password.

Is fast speed good for everyone? If I get killed off early is there anyone who can take the last autosave and take over hosting duties?

(edit: all times are eastern standard)

I've got a nice gaming rig, and run off a cable connection in Chicago so I can take over hosting if needed. I've hosted one game already, so I know my router is setup properly.

I'd like to run it fast and try to complete it tonight. In my experience it generally takes me 4-6hrs for a small map vs 1 opponent at that speed, but not rushing into a battle.

POGUE : It is 07:41 PM (EST) now. I'm here. I'm in. I'm waiting.

OK. I'm in. I'm warning you: I suck.

What next?

Tea

lol. My wife is going out shopping and shoveling the driveway. I'm a wonderful husband.

Seriously though, I'm the luckiest man alive. I'm going to go tell her that and get a coffee.

El Tea

OK right now it's just the three of us. If nobody else checks in we can go with one star instead of two. Three of us won't make it too crowded. And el_tea, don't worry about sucking. Me and mage are still in the learning phase too.

el_tea, what is your game name in ICO?

Well, I was in for all of 200ms and got kicked back to lobby. What's going on?

Tea

My map is work of genius I have tweaked it quite a bit. I call it Monster's Ball, not sure why, and it is a 21 star map! But it is not as big as you think! Systems have about 10 planets each. each player gets their own system, and 10 systems are expansion systems (or simply systems to run to if you get beaten). However those expansion systems have neutral colonies! So while expansion is possible, it will be not too likely you will go for those systems over attacking a system of another player!

It is a great FFA map, but I think 5v5 it would work just as well! Do to the number of systems, jumping to a system adjacent to you is a lot easier than to one far across!

Also the 21st star is in the center. Because map always puts a star in the center, I made this a desolate place with few extractors. I didn't want a player to start in the center and get focus fired