Gamespy for multiplayer?

[CrushProject]

accourding to http://www.empireatwar.pexgames.com/?show=news&news=4277&lang=en

eaw is going to use gamespy for multiplayer?

 

Wow this by far is the worst thing ive heard about this game by far. Gamespy has sucked BAD everytime ive ever seen them. Even for a newer games like Dawn of War, theyve been absolutely terrible.

 

Does this shake anyone elses faith in this game? I realize alot of people dont care about multiplayer, but what about those of us that ONLY care about multiplayer? Is this game not for us? Gamespy is a clear indicator of cutting corners on cost. Is this a sign of other things to come?

 

I really dont mean to make a 'we're doomed' thread, ive been more excited about this game than any other game ive EVER heard of, but is there anyone else out there that is thinking about avoiding this game now due of this choice of using gamespy? I cant say enough bad things about gamespy...

 

EAW looks sweet, and perhaps ill still get it just for LAN play, but im really upset with this choice. Anyone else? Gayspy suxxx. bad...

 

ive told myself more than once never to get another game that uses gamespy....

[DarthMaulUK]

I agree. Gamespy has no sense of community at all. DoW, which I play alot online is awful. It was only 3 weeks ago that they decided to WIPE CLEAN everyone' stats!!

 

Servers are down alot, people drop out of games and trying to find a game to play is annoying. The MSN Gaming zone had its problems but at least it helped create a good community

 

DMUK

[TxShadow]

GameSpy was terrible for BF1942 for me. I just quit going to it and used the ingame features to access servers.

 

I truely hope that they do not use GameSpy... that will be one BIG mistake.

[El Mariachi]

NOOOO, not gamespy! I strongly sugest LA an Petroglihp to develop their own server system like Blizzard did by creating Battlenet.

[Sparky]

NOOOO, not gamespy! I strongly sugest LA an Petroglihp to develop their own server system like Blizzard did by creating Battlenet.

 

Don't hold your breathe...Blizzard created their own because they planned to produced more than just one game that uses it, same way with steam. There's no point in creating your own system if you are going to only use for 1 game.

 

Plus how long do you want to wait for this game? They do this it will push the game back another 3 months.

[TxShadow]

If it means having a "decent and reliable" multiplayer, than yes, I would wait three months for it.

 

We can play the demo plenty until then.

[Teradyn_pff]

I certainly hope that Gamespy will not be the only way to connect to a game. The 1vs1 campaign mode begs for a direct connect to IP option.

 

If any Petroglyph members read this thread, please share what you can about this aspect. Gamespy sucks, has sucked, will probably always suck... it will single-handedly drop peoples enjoyment playing this game by 20-50% by itself alone. And this is not an exageration. One of the big deals about this game is the 1v1 campaign mode in the Star Wars setting and if that is rendered a problemfest, not something people will bother recommending to their friends so they can play.

 

Please, any info?

[Guest JediIgor]

If it's something like Rome: Total War where they have a lobby and people can enter games and chat to everyone before the game is launched, it will be okay. If we have to use Gamespy Arcade (doubt it, this isn't the 90s), then that would be adverse to multiplayer.

 

Though I wouldn't mind if they rolled their own Battle.net clone (means Gamespy has to compete more for its services, means it will be better), its better that they spend their time improving gameplay .

[SirNuke]

Many of their programmers have experience with Westwood Online. Though I am sure EA kept control of the servers and software used on Westwood Online (is the service even up anymore, I wonder?).

[Teradyn_pff]

Hmm, good question, but I still think that the 1vs1 mode should have direct connect to IP option. No need to have intermediate connection slowing that down.

[Ghostly_Substance]

Gamespy? What the hell are you thinking? Just make your own little server since your going to be expanding anyways gamewise. Having to host a game without a password protection sucks and also not being able to connect also sucks.

 

Thank god for Direct IP Join/Host

 

You know what we should do? We should all build up our Empire of Imperials or Rebels and turn them into Viruses and attack Gamespy then EA shall be next If we get sued then blame the units that turned into viruses

[Delphi-PG]

Gamespy has sucked BAD everytime ive ever seen them. Even for a newer games like Dawn of War, theyve been absolutely terrible.

 

Being the multiplayer lead designer on this game and having worked on the C&C line, Generals and BFME, I am fully aware of the connecting issues, exploitation, and lag players find with the GameSpy system or so they think. In most cases it is not GameSpy but simply bad integration.

 

I'm not going to promise that EAW will be 100% solid and will have no online issues. I say this because in all my years of working on RTS games (10+), they receive more online testing in first day of launch than they do through the course of development. Something is always bound to arise.

 

One of my biggest worries is connectivity (4-players or more). This was horrible for BFME and Generals, and I want to assure you we are doing our best to make sure we catch as many problems as possible before we ship. I can't tell you how often I am sending e-mails making sure our QA is testing larger games. Petroglyph will be playing EAW multiplayer up until the day it goes live to the public. If we have to issue a day 1 patch to fix balance and connectivity issues before the game goes live we will. If another patch needs to be issued 1 month later to fix more issues, than so be it.

 

Having been a community manager on C&C, I’m fully aware of how players can abuse the system. I’ve been very hard on GameSpy and Lucas about making sure our player profile wipes and disconnect tracking systems are all in place before this game goes live. Rest assured myself and a few other devs will be very active playing games with the fans, so we will be fully aware of exploits and balance issues as they happen. This is my promise to you…

 

My hope is that we can work together and nail these issues as a group when they arise.

[Juggernaut1985]

How will playing Mods online work?

[Ghostly_Substance]

Ya good question. Stupid me thinking of a gamespy boycott

 

Ya what if we have Legacy of War, ROR mod, D.R.A.K Faction, Clone Wars Mod, Halo mod, and couple other ones. Would you actually download all those on seperate computers and join people online to see how they play with those mods?

[Foshjedi2004]

I would like to know this as well. Obviously both users would need the exact mod or else it wouldn't work.

[Teradyn_pff]

Thank you for the reply Delphi. Is there any way you could let us know whether or not LAN and Direct Connect (without Gamespy) are going to be options?

 

As for the Mods, keep in mind, that the way this game is being developed, the main game is a mod on the engine, as it were. So if you and the others have the exact same mod files, then there should be no problem that wouldn't also arise in a LAN game. Time will tell, but I don't think that Petro has time to deal with things like that when they are testing their release version. At any rate, I would prefer them test what they are releasing and deal with mods later...

[DarthMaulUK]

Having said all that. I can't see how gamespy can deliver the sort of experience Empire at War will deliver for online play.

 

Im there now, and Dawn Of War is having MORE problems. Its daily and to be honest, a game like DoW that has sold extremely well, only has around 200 players tops at its peak online - maybe gamespy has somethign to do with that?

 

I keep my fingers crossed

DMUK

[Darth Tyrant]

Having said all that. I can't see how gamespy can deliver the sort of experience Empire at War will deliver for online play.

 

Im there now, and Dawn Of War is having MORE problems. Its daily and to be honest, a game like DoW that has sold extremely well, only has around 200 players tops at its peak online - maybe gamespy has somethign to do with that?

 

I keep my fingers crossed

DMUK

 

I agree.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn 889]

i don't play online (I'm not allowed). But i've played HAlo 2 on a live link recently and there was alot of problems on the link with other X-box's crashing and having to quick the game wouild this happen on EaW if i started to play it online? (there were 4 x-box's and 16 players).

[Junker]

Thank you Delphi once more to give me the information about the online servers some weeks ago.

We think in the multiplayer Q&A of eaw.net will be such a question with the servers. So we decided to make a news only for the german sector. But another side translated it into english... The Community is small and everyone knows everyone.

[Infinite_Xero]

i don't play online (I'm not allowed). But i've played HAlo 2 on a live link recently and there was alot of problems on the link with other X-box's crashing and having to quick the game wouild this happen on EaW if i started to play it online? (there were 4 x-box's and 16 players).

 

It if the host crashes, then everybody gets the boot, if a client crashes, they just exit the game and everybody else continues on playing

To ensure system stability, you can reformat your hard drive(s) and to a fresh install of windows (patch it up of course)

Also, having broadband (Cable, DSL, T1, whatever) is ALOT better for gaming online, you get less lag, and your connection is alot more stable.

If you have a dial up (phone line) connection, don't play online, its just no fun

 

and crashing and connection problems are just part of life when you play games online

you get used to it

[Guest JediIgor]

i don't play online (I'm not allowed). But i've played HAlo 2 on a live link recently and there was alot of problems on the link with other X-box's crashing and having to quick the game wouild this happen on EaW if i started to play it online? (there were 4 x-box's and 16 players).

 

It if the host crashes, then everybody gets the boot, if a client crashes, they just exit the game and everybody else continues on playing

To ensure system stability, you can reformat your hard drive(s) and to a fresh install of windows (patch it up of course)

Also, having broadband (Cable, DSL, T1, whatever) is ALOT better for gaming online, you get less lag, and your connection is alot more stable.

If you have a dial up (phone line) connection, don't play online, its just no fun

 

and crashing and connection problems are just part of life when you play games online

you get used to it

 

Nope, sorry, every RTS I know of has peer-to-peer multiplayer.. that's also why getting 8 players or more without lag is so hard . You'd think they would switch to running a master server but *nooo*

[Nevets]

I hope the muiltiplayer works out for the best. I have friends that want to play this game just for the multiplayer aspect. They think it is cool that 4 of us can get together and play 4 other people.

 

Not sure if this has been done before, but should be very unique in this game. You have the with all the planets, the space and land battles and your friends all systematically controlling their parts of the galaxy. Should be fun.

[Guest JediIgor]

I hope the muiltiplayer works out for the best. I have friends that want to play this game just for the multiplayer aspect. They think it is cool that 4 of us can get together and play 4 other people.

 

Not sure if this has been done before, but should be very unique in this game. You have the with all the planets, the space and land battles and your friends all systematically controlling their parts of the galaxy. Should be fun.

 

I would definitely like it if they could have 8 player games where 4 people control the Empire, and 4 people control the Rebels. They could control the entire faction, or it could be like "four empires" and "four rebels" but with locked teams. Galaxy map with 2 players is great, but why not 4 so we can have 3 simultaneous battles .

[Nevets]

Yup, you could either take out planets seperately and systematically or a full four pronged attacked towards a single target.

 

I really wonder how this work. Delphi said only one battle at a time, but is this true with multiplayer?

 

logically it would seem that it would be 4 for the rebellion, 4 for the empire and you do your own thing. Wouldn't make sense to have all four of you just go planet to planet together each fighting over what At-At you control.