It can't be the old 2 gig related MD issue, because Rebellion doesn't come close to using 2 gigs ram on max settings. Its also mainly happening during MP games. Not many report issues like this happening during SP games. Steam would only have something to do with game start up, updating, and the achievements AFAIK. I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a typo in one file that we are unaware of. That would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

Talked to several people, and a general trend that we've noticed is that LAN (direct connect) games never seem to MD (even large games)...the MDs are really only occuring on ICO...

I said it before, and I'll say it again:

It's probably Alloy, which was introduced in v1.10 of vanilla. 

Unfortunately a lot of people can't host without alloy...which means only the people who can host without alloy would be able to comment at all....

Agreed.  I can't host without Alloy, but I remember the day when you had to wait for someone to host.  Things seemed more stable though.

Do you know of anyone who can host without alloy?  I'll ask the people I know, see if they can try it....

Without alloy games are very slow so noone will try it other than noobs

Haven't had issues with Alloy ... in all of the years of sins ... why suddenly now?

If you don't know how something works, it's a ticking time bomb until you inevitably change something that will break it.

Another thread possibly related to MDs...this is the same issue that Slackah highlighted, but this game ended with an MD (whether they are related or not idk)...

I am most certainly not an expert at coding or programming but I have talked to some who are....is it possible that something went wrong with the last compilation of Sins?  Not much was really changed with the last update (and these issues have only been issues since the last update) unless ICO was overhauled or something...

Need to be clear on what we're discussing here:  Are you guys getting disconnects or desyncs?

Disconnects mostly and mini dumps. I did get 2 desyncs recently. 

It is disconnects, though one game did have a minidump last week.  I'm not even playing much, it just seems like I can't get through a game without everyone lagging and then half the players getting disconnected.  I was just playing a 2v2 that was playing fine for 20 minutes or so, then all of the sudden the lag storm started resulting in 2 players disconnecting.  The remaining 2 of us had to deal with terrible lag spikes while we tried to finish and hope it cleared up.  I think most of us suspect this is ICO or Alloy related because it shows everyone lagging, not just one person.

It is a combination of MDs and DCs...

In the examples mentioned in the OP, 4 or 5 people were dropped simultaneously...at least some of those drops were MDs (confirmed via communication with players), though some may very well have been DCs...

I have found in my ICO experience (and in talking with others) that:

• Multiple people can MD at the same time (DCs may or may not occur along with the MDs)
• One can DC without any simultaneous MDs
• The problem is not isolated to just large team games, but seems to afffect all game types
• MDs aren't really a problem unless ICO is used (ie SP, LAN, direct connect, etc. all seem to be fine more or less)...

I do not believe desyncs are a pervasive problem at this point...

Bloody strange.  I've rebooted the ICO server today. Let's see if that helps any. Please keep the MD info coming in to us at [email protected] (zipped).  

Thank you so much for taking an interest in this....I know MP community isn't big but we always appreciate dev support...

I have an idea that may help things but I'm not sure if it is easily doable...

When one logs onto ICO, a message (in red text) always shows up in the chat (something along the lines of "Welcome to ICO")...would it be possible to change this message (at least temporarily) to ask players to send all dump files (zipped) to the above mentioned e-mail address?  I know that ICO can put out messages (it was done fairly recently when the server had to be restarted) but I don't know if the initial welcome message is an ICO thing or a default thing in the string file...

At the very least, it could provide a link to a thread that gives the necessary instructions (message something like "Please visit www.blahblahblah.com if you encounter any minidumps or crash-to-desktops.  Your cooperation is much appreciated!")...

Yeah, let me look into that.

@ Yarlen

We see new message on ICO to contact [email protected] but what do we report about. Game doesn't generate any files at least that I know off.

What should we send to you guys?

Should we send what kind of game it was (5v5 etc) type of map(random...) time that it was played at ....????

When you get a disco, desync, or crash/runtime error that gives you no file to send. Just document in as much detail as possible what happened, and what you were doing just before the crash. Include the Map, Game type, Speed settings, How many players, How many AI's, If pirates are enabled or not. System specs, OS.

Just document as much as you can no matter how irrelevant you think it may be.

A pile of data can yeild trends such as certain settings, actions, or group actions that might not be noticeable or 'make sense' when you look at one data point. When you look at it as a whole though from multiple submissions, you can start to either rule out, or rule in game settings or scenarios in which it happens. For example, we as a community have already been able to rule out non-ICO games as a cause of this issue. It also seems likely at this point that it is not a hardware issue on the user side either. This leaves some sort of interaction of series of interaction between multiple players (2+) in games hosted and played on via ICO.

Exactly. What has not been ruled out so far is Game type, If Pirates are enabled, or not, Maps, AI's, and Game speed settings. Or a combination of things. It very well can be an issue with ICO itself. That is why you need to submit as much as you can so the dev's can narrow it down.

I just wanted to chime in by saying that I ONLY play single player games, many times 10+ hour long matches, and I too am seeing a TON of minidumps; to the point where I don't bother submitting them because there're so many, and they happen at random times.

Again.. What maps are you playing? How many AI's are you playing against? What victory conditions? What is your speed settings? Are you playing at max settings? Whats your system specs? Mainly your Ram, and CPU. Are you running any mods?

You are the first i have seen that says you are frequently dumping. Rebellion SP dumps rarely happen. In a normal game rebellion doesn't use more than 1.8 gigs of ram on max settings. but you can hit the 2 gig brick wall. People playing the largest maps on max settings with 9 AI's may still hit the 2 gig brick wall. Try lowering your settings some.

If you get runtime errors it could be a video driver issue. Try updating all of your drivers.

If all else fails try uninstalling rebellion. Plus delete the Ironclad Games folder. Do a clean re-install of rebellion.

If you still dump. then i am at a loss.

Verifying the game cache is a probably a lot easier than a clean install...