How do *you* join a friend's game?

[=Snappy=]

There are a variety of ways to do this, yet all seem broken or flawed in some majorly inconvenient way.


1. The Steam Friends features seem to be broken. "Invite to game" and "Join game" both give an error -- "server is not responding" or some-such.


2. The in-game server browser is not a great solution either. Usually my friend and I are both using the main "Internet" tab of the browser to find a "gg". Then, when one of us finds and joins one, the other person would have to sit there for 5 minutes and refresh the "Friends" tab, to find the game. Not even an option, for reasons that are hopefully obvious.


3. Even "manually" looking for the same game in the "Internet" games tab often fails, because for whatever reason the master server seems to return different results for each of us, even when we use the same exact query! (So, sometimes one of us can't see the server the other wants to join!)

More filtering features in the server browser -- filter by map name, filter by game length, wave #, etc. -- would make it easier to narrow down the server list to a more digestable size.


4. The "best" option I have come up with overall, is for the 2nd player to join the game by IP, by using the "Open" command. But, it seems the IP is not always readily visible, to the player who is already in the game.

Is there some console command to show the server IP you are connected to? (There must be, right? Surely?)

If all else fails, the 2nd joiner can look up the IP by using "View Game Info" in Steam Friends, but this requires the 1st joiner to be logged into Steam Friends which is not always the case, or even desirable.

-----------

Am I missing something here?

What is the easiest (i.e. fastest, most-reliable, least-labor-intensive) way for 2 ppl to join the same Killing Floor game...

... without using Steam Friends?

and, just for kicks,

... using Steam Friends?


TY.

[ᵗᵗᵛpudnpop]

Have a friend join an empty server, use friends tab in browser, done. It's really that simple, at least for my group of friends.

[Monster]

I have a problem more often than not it will tell me sever not responding when itry to join some servers . So me and my friend have to find another.... Its just irratating.

[abugaj]

Yup i had the same problem Monster had over and over. So frustrating i had to joi n a random game but i still had a good time cuz they were good. Still want to set up a match with my friends though.

[MRU♠]

Here's the solution for you guys.

Joining friends have been buggy for as long as I know. When you try to join a friend and get the "server is not responding" message, you still have the IP of the server on top of the window. Copy this IP, then go to Multiplayer->internet games, right click and choose "open IP" -> paste the IP, BOOM you are in.

[qq~]

Yeah, MRU nailed it. That's probably the best way to join someone besides using "Open IPhere"

My favorite way to join servers is by adding them onto my favorites tab. That way I can see what wave they're on, what my ping would be, how full it is, what map, and even spectate instead of join if I feet like it.

[=Snappy=]

ty for responses.

Originally posted by Robo:

Have a friend join an empty server, use friends tab in browser, done. It's really that simple, at least for my group of friends.

This is no good if the friends tab takes a disruptively long time to refresh. Which it seems to.

Originally posted by UMADggnowqq:

Yeah, MRU nailed it.

Actually, "nailed it" would be if he suggested that you open the console and type "open [paste the IP]" and press ENTER. Using the GUI is just .... no, we don't do that. ;)

As covered in item #4, this is the best method I have come up with, too, but it's still lacking. It's just ridiculous that this process should take this much manual labor.

[MRU♠]

Snappy.

What I posted before. The player in game don't even need to know the ip of the current server. By using your steamfriends and join game, you can always see the server your friend is on.

[=Snappy=]

Originally posted by MRU:

Snappy.

What I posted before. The player in game don't even need to know the ip of the current server. By using your steamfriends and join game, you can always see the server your friend is on.

...unless you don't want to log into steam friends ;) if my friend can just tell me the IP, then I don't have to log in.

[MRU♠]

Ah yes, that's true. Most of us don't see that as a problem I guess :)

[GunsForBucks]

Originally posted by =Snappy=:

Originally posted by MRU:

Snappy.

What I posted before. The player in game don't even need to know the ip of the current server. By using your steamfriends and join game, you can always see the server your friend is on.

...unless you don't want to log into steam friends ;) if my friend can just tell me the IP, then I don't have to log in.

Wut? am I missing something here... to play multiplayer you need to log into steam? yes? If you are logged into steam you have access to your steam friends just shift-tab in game. If you have an IP you can just type or paste it in the GUI for it when you right click the server browser and open the "Open IP" selection.

[=Snappy=]

Originally posted by GunsForBucks:

am I missing something here...

yes, i think you are. steam login and login to friends are two separate logins.
I generally do not want to sign into friends unless I "have to", due to performance issues, spammy notifications, and simple privacy reasons.

And lest u think this is total madness: left 4 dead 2, for example, has figured out some magical genius way to allow me to see and join friends' games, and vice versa, without either of us having to actually be signed into friends. (Wow, valve team does a UI thing right?! no way!)

[รερɦᓰ²⁷]

As said here you can use "open ip" function. To get the ip go to your steam friend tab, right click to the name of your friend, click join the game (something like this I don't know how it is named in english I have it in french xD) and you have a field with the ip appearing, select it xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx right click "copy", close that, go to the game server list, right click to the server frame and choose "open ip", right click in the field and "paste". Press the enter key or click OK to join.