Scourge012

I for one vote for usability. Period. Security is gravy. It's no use for me to have a "solid secure" game code when I can't play.

I'm still hoping Ironclad and Stardock will get a system that will allow us people who CANNOT (as opposed to will not be bothered to) change their networks. I am behind a LAN in my apartment building and I cannot host...or join since most games are passworded. I hope there is a workaround for this problem soon or the community picks itself up by the boot straps and starts hosting mostly public games. This is a great game, but I've already uninstalled it. I will install it again, when

Sounds like a great solution! It's really too bad that the P2P system discriminates against people who can't change their port settings (like students at Universities or people in large apartment or condo complexes).

Hey all. Question for the tech savvy players here: Would it be possible to use Hamachi or a similar program to host a SOASE game when you can't host over ICO? Okay, let me say something right now: I'm behind a hardware firewall "provided" by my university. I can't open, forward or change ports...so don't link me to any of that stuff. I just want to know if it's possible for me to host a game using other means. A bunch of us here want to play SOASE (

[quote]I think it is a case of like most forums, the people having troubles come and complain, and the people with no problems just play the game and never say anything, causing there to be an illusion that "everyone" is having problems.[/quote] I would say there is enough truth to that your point is quite valid. However, I will also say on the other side that I have not seen another RTS game of recent years that has so many posts about hosting and general multiplayer issues--t

Hey, I'm willing to wait for better playability...but for right now, I'm just playing SP. It's still very frustrating to wait, ya know. By "enhancements" do you mean something that might work with some common LAN connections? By the way, Monk. Your guides are well-written and helpful!

I have Pacific Storm...and found it completely unplayable. The research is clunky, I couldn't figure out how to upgrade my ships and planes (and the error messages were translated bad so that it wasn't helpful at all) and the translation for the manual... I couldn't understand a word of it (okay, I could understand some phrases, but put together they would contradict or end without predicates or some non-sense). Will this one be better in those departments? Buka had a real good and or

I agree. That message needs to be fixed and be more specific (i.e. We have deteched that your port is blocked). Or something. But for lots of people too, they genuinely can't host. Most people who play online games are not all proficient using routers, or networks. Myself, I'm behind a LAN that I can't alter in any way because I get my internet from a university. The reason people take all this MP stuff for granted is that other RTS game companies (rightly) configure their games so

SOunds like you play people that specialize in a scenario. It's very hard to play a game like that, given the number of scenarios. My response is to start up game or two in SP, focus just on one scenario. Practice with whatever race you wanna play online, and just do the opening again and again. This will get your familiar with how the generator generates those scenario maps (and they do change slightly, mind you, but they always have the same Phase Land pattern and general resource

I can definitely relate on the hosting...are you in a dorm or apartment complex by chance? A lot of "institutional" LAN connections like those providing internet access to large buildings can't support SOASE, because there's some kinda hardware problem that interferes with peer-to-peer connections. Other games have some kinda internal system that forwards the game data to all the right ports without much user help. Compared to these products *in terms of MP reliability* SOASE seems inferior.

If a mod could delete my first two replies...this forum doesn't operate the way I thought it would.

Reserved

Proposed Un-Hosted Games Thursday, February 14th, 2008

I thought I would take the initiative here, and start a simple calendar for games going on any given day in a week (starting today). I am starting this thread because as one of those who cannot host because of my LAN connection from the university, I've decided that there needs to be a bit more effecient resource for us to find hosts, rather than wait in the lobby all day. I will update the first post (after the required info section) each time a new game is scheduled. Still I can't promise I

I figured. That's a shame though. I hope the next title has more flexible code, so that it can find its way through common, yet complicated networks like those in schools and apartment complexes.

I just made a post about ICO...it seems that many in the forum aren't as aware of it as people that wait in the lobbies of ICO are. If you have a DSL or Cable modem, with or without a router you can host the game (with some research)...but if you have a LAN connection or an ISP that is somehow instituional (i.e. from an apartment complex, office, or dorm room or share it with a neighbor--you are not in control of your ISP) or one that assigns you a variable IP address you cannot open th

[quote]I'm jumping in here to say that ICO games need help. Players dropping in large games is my #1 concern with SOASE and if it doesn't get better I'l probably just quit playing. [/quote] This problem could be solved by letting other players join...like Sword of the Stars does. Or by having an AI actually take over (I've heard this is already coming). I encourage Ironclad to look at the model of Sword of the STarts for online play in massive strategy games...it's really good.

[quote]take a look at your router write down its name figure out which text on the router is the most likely to give results in google google up your routers name with "port" "port forward" or "port forwarding" if your router has a pw try username admin and password admin. Else google up the password, or blackmail whoever installed it. 10 minutes tops. [/quote] No need to be condescending...if you had read my post, you would know that I have a connection between a hardwa

I've had a game recently where the other team made it their goal in life to pool their funds and send the pirates after me. Even with the Vasari Xenophobia tech researched to the max, there just way too many of them, and I had to keep a bulk of my early game fleet at home, lest I lost my sole Volcanic planet, which happened to be right next to the base. It was a strange map becaues there were way more Ice planets, so that one Volcanic one was real important. I ended up incurring the w

I would disagree with the timer length. I think it needs to be at least 10 minutes. Think about it: In the beginning of the game it takes about 5 minutes to kill two guardians, and get a colonizer frigate out to a nearby asteroid. If you have to bombard a planet, which is very possible later in the game, you should have more time than at the very beginning.

I thought I would mention the difficulty I've been having finding games to play with ICO, and suggesting a possible solution. Last night I hung out in "Lobby 5" for about an hour or so, looking for a game I could join that featured a scenario I liked. I don't really like Kronac's Cross or Gateway, or Huge Random Map games (the latter because we'll all disconnect randomly before the game is over, lol). Or really anything with pirates. Eventually, I joined a Medium Random Map FFA, that

Eh...it seems it is a problem with my connection. The only thing I can do is wait to go home to my DSL.

@The Monk: I don't think dedicated servers are necessary for Ironclad Online to work this way. GPGNet and Ensemble Studios Online for example use the same ports, but have a different network code or something because they don't run into the same trouble that Sins does. Same connection and all that. Only thing different is Sins and Ironclad Online.

Yeah...well the good news is I only have 10 more weeks until I get to go back home to my routerless DSL, and hopefully I'll be able to host then. I'm still a bit upset though. I'm sure there are reasons, but I don't understand why the devs would choose this form of netcode peer to peer thingy opposed to 99% if the other games that use a more user-friendly system. Maybe in the sequel they will re-think the netcode and make it easier for us pedestrian instituionalize dwellers. After al

I played SoTS a lot. The games are comparable and if you even remotely liked SoTS you will like SOASE. The only things that will immediately strike you, though, as different is the missing customizable ships, and the totally real-time environment. Even so, you have plenty of customization options within each civilization. You can research upgrades to a unit or two that will change your strategy, much like researching a new kind of weapon and slapping it on a ship will change your strategy in