Can't connect to opponent in lobby

[SteveMcClaire]

Some changes have been made to the system to try to alleviate this issue -- please let let me know if you see an improvement or not. Thanks.

[Steiner33]

Today I have been able to play several battles
Thanks

[mukikakku]

I can't connect to the multiplayer lobby, tried couple of times, last trial yesterday evening CET. I already posted this at the slitherine forum; in case you are reading both, sorry for the repetition.

I used to play close combat years ago and I’m still great fan of the series. As a matter of fact, I’m such a great fan that I bought not one but two licenses for the Close combat: Gateway to Caen and installed it onto both of my laptops. Apart from occasional bootcamping via SP battles&operations (not really interested in playing against the poorly performing AI), my main goal was to setup an ongoing, regular head-to-head grand campaign with a friend utilizing the multiplayer feature of the game.
Now, I’m quite sure it comes as no surprise to you, I have been sorely disappointed with implementation of the multiplayer feature of the game. When attempting to register in the multiplayer lobby I just get: “register new user failed. lobby system error.”
I (and I imagine many others as well) have paid for a multiplayer feature that works. With “works” I mean a fast, reliable connection whenever the user wants. When I commit to a grand campaign with tens of hours of my (and friend’s) valuable time I need to be 100% sure I have no crashes, saving works reliably etc. to put it simply you don’t deliver what I (and many others) have paid for.
While I know this might be futile, I would still like to make a suggestion: As it seems that you don’t have necessary resources for a properly implemented online multiplayer how about developing (or allowing someone to develop) an add-on /upgrade that would allow a local multiplayer via a LAN connection or otherwise completely bypassing the lobby server. I’m not into coding myself but I imagine a bugfree multiplayer is much easier to accomplish via LAN than an online solution. Personally, I have little or no use for lobby / matchmaking etc. as I organize my own matchmaking inhouse.
When suggesting solution(s) please remember: multiplayer that works sometimes is even worse user experience than a multiplayer that never works. The multiplayer has to be reliable.
Please give this a game a chance,
make it work.

[SteveMcClaire]

Sorry to hear you've run into an issue with the lobby system. Have you been able to register successfully or is it still giving you an error?

[mukikakku]

I managed to register and log on to lobby. Great; a big step forward!
I have no clue what was wrong previously, tried on several occasions.
Within a couple of days I should be able to test actually playing head to head, will post here how it goes.

Thank you for a prompt reply on both forums, appreciated.

[mukikakku]

Got it working!
Best regards.

[mukikakku]

Somehow I have feeling that the registering from the multiplayer lobby screen didn't work. When I first registered elsewhere a matrix/slitherine unified login account and then with those credentials logged in the multiplayer lobby everything worked fine.

[SteveMcClaire]

Hi mukikakku -- so you were unable to register from the lobby but you were able to log in to the lobby using an account name and password you created elsewhere on the Slitherine site, is that correct?

[mukikakku]

Yes, that is correct

[SteveMcClaire]

Thank you for the information. I will look into it.

[RD Knight]

The forum isn't working again! The host (me) could not get connected with my opponent (hetser). A week ago (22/21) the connection did work. But, last Tues. we had the same trouble as we are having tonight (3/29/21). Please reset/fix the service mechanism for connecting opponents ("lobby").

[PipFromSlitherine]

ORIGINAL: RD Knight

The forum isn't working again! The host (me) could not get connected with my opponent (hetser). A week ago (22/21) the connection did work. But, last Tues. we had the same trouble as we are having tonight (3/29/21). Please reset/fix the service mechanism for connecting opponents ("lobby").

Sorry you are having issues. The server appears to be working correctly at the moment, unlike last time you saw the problem. Can you describe the issue specifically - what is happening, and is it a binary failure (never see, fail to connect) or a connection issue (things are slow, keep failing, etc).

Cheers

Pip

[RD Knight]

PiP....I realize the software guys want specifics about lobby connection and game running problems, but without good knowledge about the logic mechanism, such specific info is difficult to provide. Based on my complaint, and the other ones that have been made for this game's lobby/opponent connection process, I should thing that a software guy familiar with the lobby connection process should be able to troubleshoot the problem and fix it. Or is this too much for us to ask of Slitherine, for the appropriate resources to be devoted to this "older" game?

But, to repeat my observed problem, Hetser and I connected in the lobby (we saw each other). I hosted and invited him. My screen was showing that I was still waiting for our games to connect, yet there was a notation at the bottom of my screen indicating that we were connected. This condition does not allow our games to connect and transfer data. This is a consistent description of the problem we had on 3/23 and 3/29.

[PipFromSlitherine]

ORIGINAL: RD Knight

PiP....I realize the software guys want specifics about lobby connection and game running problems, but without good knowledge about the logic mechanism, such specific info is difficult to provide. Based on my complaint, and the other ones that have been made for this game's lobby/opponent connection process, I should thing that a software guy familiar with the lobby connection process should be able to troubleshoot the problem and fix it. Or is this too much for us to ask of Slitherine, for the appropriate resources to be devoted to this "older" game?

But, to repeat my observed problem, Hetser and I connected in the lobby (we saw each other). I hosted and invited him. My screen was showing that I was still waiting for our games to connect, yet there was a notation at the bottom of my screen indicating that we were connected. This condition does not allow our games to connect and transfer data. This is a consistent description of the problem we had on 3/23 and 3/29.

We have devoted significant resources tracking down and fixing issues people have had. But in this case everything seems to be working exactly as it should and you are STILL seeing issues, so we need more data. We will dig deeper.

Cheers

Pip

[RD Knight]

PiP...Thx for the prompt reply. "...you are STILL seeing issues, so we need more data. We will dig deeper."....this is all that we can ask for.

[RD Knight]

OK PiP, Hetser and I had the same problem not connecting tonight (4/5) as we did last week (see previous posts). This game's Lobby appears to have become unreliable. Same problem as before, we both connect to the lobby and we can see each others screen name in the Lobby. I host Hetser and the game appears to launch, BUT then stalls and does not advance to get us connected.[:@] AND, as a reminder, before these connection problems started, we were connecting and playing the game without trouble! Therefore, my conclusion is that there is something amiss with the Lobby system....STILL

[RD Knight]

PiP....the Lobby System is a mystery! On Tuesday evening (4/6/21 @ 2000hrs) Hetser and I were able to connect and play a battle. On 4/5 and tonight (4/8) the "Lobby" would not connect us to play...after repeated attempts. Is there a band width issue that is throttling access to the game if too many players are in the game(s)? There sure seems to be an intermittent blockage issue. What are your IT specialists saying ?

[PipFromSlitherine]

Can you give precise timings for your unsuccessful efforts. Are you sure the problem isn't a local bandwidth issue on one of your machines?

Cheers

Pip

[RD Knight]

Hi PiP.. Re: timing of our "no connection" issue, I mentioned the following in my last...

On Tuesday evening (4/6/21 @ 2000hrs) Hetser and I were able to connect and play a battle. On 4/5 and tonight (4/8) the "Lobby" would not connect us to play...after repeated attempts

. Hetser and I play during the same time frame on the nights we do play (1930 to 2000 hrs, PDT [GMT -8]).

Re: A band width issues at our end, that isn't something we can evaluate easily. I live in the greater Los Angeles, CA area, so hardly think I would have a problem with band width. Hetser lives in a more rural area near Montreal Canada. But, that said, the majority of the times we have played the game has operated as designed. On the nights we have had problems, there has never been an internet interruption. We know this because we talk to each other by voice on a dedicated "Teamspeak" channel. The TeamSpeak chat is activated every time we play.

So, the mystery continues....

[Fazedh]

Having more or less the same issue as RD Knight above.

Myself and a friend (in-game names Fazed and ike123fi) have played several games during last week without issues. Today, however, we are entirely unable to join for a multiplayer game, the game keeps trying to establish a connection to the other player when attempting to host.

I do notice we do not see the chat messages sent by each other and I also noted only the player who logging in last can see the other player in the lobby - the player who logs in first only sees himself. This gives me the suspicion that somehow the server is at the moment not properly connecting the players and only shows "ghosts" of the other player thus explaining the inability to establish a connection.