Guest player getting disconnected from the game after seemingly random amounts of time

[EasyEnzzo]

I'll start with the TLDR:

I've recently discovered this game together with a friend, and we've been trying to learn by playing 1v1s with each other or 2v2s against the AI. But out of 15 or so matches, we've only been able to complete 1, because the guest would always get disconnected. Sometimes instantly, other times after a minute or so, other times after 10 mins, etc. Longest match that eventually died went over an hour before the guest got DC'd. 

And now for details:
We've been playing through the 'game lobby', because the direct connection <with the 'Host game' option> always fails with the 20595 port error, which I was NOT able to fix despite attempting everything I could find on this forum.

The disconnection is preceded by a message in the top right corner of the screen which says that the other player is experiencing tremendous ping <although neither me nor my friend actually feel this 'lag'>, after which the game usually freezes with another message in the top right corner of the screen which says something along the lines of 'losing connection to the host'. And then the guest gets kicked after a few seconds with the 'lost connection' message. I'm sorry about the imprecision of the messages we're getting, I rage-deleted my recordings after the last gaming session. Last night we got disconnected without any warning, the game was perfectly fine one second and the next second boom, DC'd.

The game runs smoothly for us, FPS being capped at 60 and usually staying between 50 and 60 fps all game long, no matter how much army there is on the screen.
I do NOT know what our median ping is, but the game feels very responsive while playing with my friend. I would estimate somewhere between 30 and 40 ping. We live a few kilometers apart.

It doesn't seem to matter who hosts, the GUEST is always the one getting booted from the game. The host can continue the match if he would so choose.

I did NOT try to go into matches with other people and am not interested in doing so at the moment; my purpose with 0 a.d. is to play with my friend. If that's not possible...

I'll finish this post by saying that we are in pure love with this game, but the frustration we're encountering while trying to play in multiplayer is approaching monumental levels. 

 

If there are any ideas, tricks, tips, troubleshooters that can help the situation, please, do let me know. As previously stated, I love this game and would very much like to keep playing it. But not under the circumstances I described.


Thank you.

[Gurken Khan]

Hi @EasyEnzzo, welcome to the forums.

Maybe the FAQ can help you: https://gitea.wildfiregames.com/0ad/0ad/wiki/FAQ#multiplayer

[EasyEnzzo]

4 minutes ago, Gurken Khan said:

Hi @EasyEnzzo, welcome to the forums.

Maybe the FAQ can help you: https://gitea.wildfiregames.com/0ad/0ad/wiki/FAQ#multiplayer

As I said in the original post, I have gone through both the 'general' FAQ and the 'multiplayer' FAQ with regards to opening the 20595 port. The problem I'm describing is NOT covered in any FAQ.

We don't have issues connecting to each other through the game lobby. The issue is...well...what I said in the post.

[Dunedan]

44 minutes ago, EasyEnzzo said:

But out of 15 or so matches, we've only been able to complete 1, because the guest would always get disconnected.

Is your friend able to reconnect again after he got disconnected? As long as the host doesn't end a game or disconnects from the internet the game should still be visible from the multiplayer lobby and disconnected players should be able to rejoin it.

[EasyEnzzo]

58 minutes ago, Dunedan said:

Is your friend able to reconnect again after he got disconnected? As long as the host doesn't end a game or disconnects from the internet the game should still be visible from the multiplayer lobby and disconnected players should be able to rejoin it.

It did not cross my mind to try reconnecting. I thought once disconnected, the game is dead. Will try it first chance I get. Thank you.

[Stan`]

Only if the host disconnects else it's fine

[EasyEnzzo]

Update:

Reconnecting does work, but in matches against the AI I get an 'out-of-sync' error, which still kills the game. However, if the host saves the game, then restarts the lobby from the 'load game' option, everything is fine.

So i guess I could declare that my problem has been successfully bypassed.

Thank you, fellow repliers!