RoL - With Friends Like Gamespy, Who Needs Enemies?

I was planning on blaming elves. goddam elves. Always messing up things.

So does anyone know why BFME2, works great?
Brad are you able to play at least random games? I can play random games, or duels that I send, but I can’t play any custom matches it seems.

So with the waning of RoL threads in the last couple days, does this mean that folks are basically giving up? I have essentially moved on to other games.

I’m very frustrated as the core game design in RoL is fantastic. And it’s really at its best in a good team multiplayer game. There are a lot of synergies in team play (you can use abilities to help your teammates), the complex unit abilities means you can actually do some strategic planning (Blue, you attack clockwise and I will support you with a token force - once they commit, I will Shok-Jump to the counterclockwise capital and take it out, etc.) In general its the best online RTS design I’ve seen, bar none.

BUT THE ONLINE SERVICE IS UNRELIABLE CRAP. And is essentially unplayable in any kind of consistent fashion.

Is anyone still plugging away? Can you get games reliably? Is it worth continuing to try to play online?

Are there any plans for some sort of meaningful fix/patch/what-have-you that will actually help? And if so, when?

Dan

Yeah I’m starting to slowly stop caring for the game. Without being able to set up custom matches with the guys here, I’m pretty much forced to play rushathons with the random games, and it’s getting boring fast.

I have given up until things are better, yes.

Random thoughts.

  1. Regarding more ports needed for peer-to-peer vs. 1 port for client-server: Not true. Look at bittorrent. It’s opening 1 or 2 ports, and it’s “peer-to-peer”. My guess is that gamespy has separately implemented each service using a separate server, which will then require its own port. Something that requires 10 ports open? I’m guessing that the game itself is using 1 port, while the rest of the gamespy infrastructure uses 9 ports? And then leaves it up to the game itself to coordinate all the comms between the 9 ports just to match up a game? It seems excessive…

  2. I thought that Microsoft DirecX had some match-making stuff & communications stuff embedded in it? What happened to those? I was mildly surprised that a MS-studio game uses Gamespy.

I’m still enjoying it, but then I really like playing Random 1v1 and team matches.

It has certainly been stable enough for me to play those.

Hate to say it, but if anyone wants to I’m up for some BFME2. They still haven’t released patch 1.04 yet, and that’s not even the big balance change one.

Yeah, the Rise of Legends multiplayer has been really pathetic lately. I’ve been playing a game a day or so for the last week, and sometimes it’s easy enough to get into a Play Now or a custom game. Other times, it’s not so easy.

Today, there were upwards of 150 people online and the PlayNow button just left me hanging. I repeatedly got the ‘Unable to stage a game’ error message when trying to host a custom game. I eventually was able to play by joining other people’s custom games, but that seemed to stop working just now. So I give up.

And I haven’t even bothered trying to play with people I know, partly because they haven’t been around, but partly because that just leads to heartache.

Hamachi works fine, and playing here on the LAN works fine. So the actual networking during gameplay seems to be just fine and dandy. But the matchmaking is inexcusably borked. Good going, Big Huge, Microsoft, and Gamespy! To whichever one of you has dropped the ball and left it rolling around two weeks later, I extend a hearty ‘Eff You’.

-Tom

The disappointing thing is that Rise of Legends, and its beautiful UI (and hotkeys in particular) now makes it incredibly painful to go back to BFME2, and its “click on the icon, because you have no idea what in the hell the hotkey is” system.

Showing that I am the ultimate pessimist, the BFME2 connectivity has spoiled me with RoL, and the RoL UI has spoiled me with BFME2.

Clearly I just need to go play Civ 4.

Yeah, I was trying to play some BFME2 last night. It’s really odd how your brain gets wired to a certain interface and it’s hard to bop around among games. As an erstwhile hardcore flightsimmer, I think I have an easier time of than most people, but it’s still tough.

Here’s a tip: in BFME2, ‘G’ will not select your goblin cave and you have to hold down both mouse buttons to give your units a formation order. Urk.

-Tom

Yeah, that double buttons shit threw me too. It’s like playing EMACS.

BFME2, EA… beating BHG? Am I taking crazy pills here?!

Well I’m going to head on now for bfme2, if no shows up I’ll try some Rol again.

One thing that I miss from Bfme2 , is how the world powers can really change the flow of the match.

I’ve been playing some random 1-1 matches in RoL but am growing tired of laughing at my own jokes because XwerewolfX has the intellectual capacity of a squashed apricot.

I’ve got a copy of BFMEII winding its way to me. I expect I’ll bounce between the two games looking for some Qt3 action.

/shift-click

I had a couple of those disappointing times over the weekend in RoL where I was way ahead of someone in resources, territory held, and units (per the end game summary), and yet when the big fight happened, I lost (and went on to lose the game).

This is a consistent problem for me in RTSs. A major area of weakness for me is the actual fight. I do not know whether it is because I am buying the wrong troops, not microing them enough, using the wrong stance, or whatever, but I will just routinely have a larger army, teched to the same or better level than my opponent, that just seems to melt away.

I think there is something fundamental about the army side I just don’t get.

Do you focus fire?

Despite owning a lifetime license, it’s been sometime since I’ve looked at ASE - is it simply a matter of Gamespy WTFPWNing the developers/publishers and any matching services being totally under their control? If so, bah humbug to Gamespy.

Using your hero powers is a must. Whether it’s a healing power or an area effect damage. Also you might want to have a seperate group for your heavy hitter units that way you can have them focus fire on the stronger enemy.

Also do you upgrade your units? It’s pretty important for the cuotl and vinci.

The last time I tried to play RoL was Saturday morning. I tried for 45 minutes to get a game, any game, and couldn’t. I think I left quick match for any game run for a half-hour to no avail.

I didn’t try Sunday or Monday. I think RoL just isn’t grabbing me. I really want to like it a lot, but it seems every game is the exact same thing. Same build, same strategy over and over and over. Its just who does it the fastest wins.

I really need to give another faction a go before I give up on it. Ill have to start playing the Alin. However, just how Alin players fight me, it seems to be the same thing they do over and over and over. Same with Vinci.