Why does this game have so many connection problems?

[khan]

In no other multiplayer game i have seen that many connection problems. On average, in every 2nd game there is a lagger or someone who loses connection or someone who just leaves in the middle of a game (their game crashed?). It seems like AoE2 HD multiplayer connections are super sensitive to interferences.

It is really annoying because a lot of time gets wasted. (Filling the lobby takes 5-15min, build up phase of a game takes 10-20min).

I dont think the problem is on my end because i have a very stable cable connection (no wifi) and no connection problems in other games.

[Wrzlprnft]

the problem the game suffers from is that due to the old peer to peer system, everything stays and falls with the weakest link in the chain. if one person has a bad internet connection to even one single other person in the game, it will lag. same with if one person has a bad GPU, or a CPU which can't handle the ancient single thread programm AoE 2 is.
most things would require a engine rewrite for it to be just solved. unfortunately it seems microsoft does not pay enough to do that. it's a long time goal, but the ancient source code of the game makes it hard for the devs to figure stuff out and change stuff without just breaking the system.
(some say the devs are just incompetent, but who are we to judge?)

[Jineapple]

Originally posted by Wrzlprnft:

the problem the game suffers from is that due to the old peer to peer system, everything stays and falls with the weakest link in the chain. if one person has a bad internet connection to even one single other person in the game, it will lag. same with if one person has a bad GPU, or a CPU which can't handle the ancient single thread programm AoE 2 is.
most things would require a engine rewrite for it to be just solved. unfortunately it seems microsoft does not pay enough to do that. it's a long time goal, but the ancient source code of the game makes it hard for the devs to figure stuff out and change stuff without just breaking the system.
(some say the devs are just incompetent, but who are we to judge?)

It being an old game is definitely an issue, but the devs are a part of it as well. There's a community patch for the CD version (written without access to the source code!) that performs better than the HD edition does.

[Xinnobun]

^ Yeah, and its called Voobly. And you will get stomped because only the starved elites use Voobly. I say "starved" because their population is declining and they're getting sick of facing each other so the only way they get new faces in is by lurking these forums and telling everyone how superior Voobly is to HD (Just browse around the forum, you wont need to search long until you find these starved players).

What they don't realize is HD is the only way new population can be introduced into the game. And by luring people to play Voobly, HD will be hurt with a decreasing population. Eventually, population on HD dies and the devs have no incentive to continue supporting & making expansions for this game. They already have multiple other games that they are working on and they'll go to wherever is profitable. Business 101.

Plus, in voobly, if you don't play a 'random civs' match, you'll face nothing but Hun players. How fun is that right?

[poke_ravi]

This game has had network problems since its release.

[Jineapple]

Originally posted by Xin`ಠ:

^ Yeah, and its called Voobly. And you will get stomped because only the starved elites use Voobly. I say "starved" because their population is declining and they're getting sick of facing each other so the only way they get new faces in is by lurking these forums and telling everyone how superior Voobly is to HD (Just browse around the forum, you wont need to search long until you find these starved players).

What they don't realize is HD is the only way new population can be introduced into the game. And by luring people to play Voobly, HD will be hurt with a decreasing population. Eventually, population on HD dies and the devs have no incentive to continue supporting & making expansions for this game. They already have multiple other games that they are working on and they'll go to wherever is profitable. Business 101.

Plus, in voobly, if you don't play a 'random civs' match, you'll face nothing but Hun players. How fun is that right?

No, it's called userpatch. Voobly uses that patch, but it's not the same thing.
Besides, there's quite some misinformation here - yes in total the playerlevel on Voobly is a lot higher, but it has a dedicated new player lobby from which smurfs actually get banned, unlike HD where you can easily run into smurfs at the 1600 level.

Voobly will never kill HD - many of the new players on Voobly actually use a compatibility patch for HD, which means that Microsoft already sold a copy of HD to them and made money off it. Besides, there are enough players who don't know about Voobly or will never switch anyway (and that's not even talking about the large SP population on HD which get no use out of a MP platfrom anyway)

[TriRem]

Originally posted by Xin`ಠ:

^ Yeah, and its called Voobly. And you will get stomped because only the starved elites use Voobly. I say "starved" because their population is declining and they're getting sick of facing each other so the only way they get new faces in is by lurking these forums and telling everyone how superior Voobly is to HD (Just browse around the forum, you wont need to search long until you find these starved players).

What they don't realize is HD is the only way new population can be introduced into the game. And by luring people to play Voobly, HD will be hurt with a decreasing population. Eventually, population on HD dies and the devs have no incentive to continue supporting & making expansions for this game. They already have multiple other games that they are working on and they'll go to wherever is profitable. Business 101.

Plus, in voobly, if you don't play a 'random civs' match, you'll face nothing but Hun players. How fun is that right?

What would you rather play ? A bugged and poorly optimized game, or a patch with tons of performance fixes, tons of new features that will never ever see the light in HD ? Personally I've made my choice, and I stick with the better version of the game, which is by far UserPatch.

[Xinnobun]

Originally posted by TriRem:

Originally posted by Xin`ಠ:

^ Yeah, and its called Voobly. And you will get stomped because only the starved elites use Voobly. I say "starved" because their population is declining and they're getting sick of facing each other so the only way they get new faces in is by lurking these forums and telling everyone how superior Voobly is to HD (Just browse around the forum, you wont need to search long until you find these starved players).

What they don't realize is HD is the only way new population can be introduced into the game. And by luring people to play Voobly, HD will be hurt with a decreasing population. Eventually, population on HD dies and the devs have no incentive to continue supporting & making expansions for this game. They already have multiple other games that they are working on and they'll go to wherever is profitable. Business 101.

Plus, in voobly, if you don't play a 'random civs' match, you'll face nothing but Hun players. How fun is that right?

What would you rather play ? A bugged and poorly optimized game, or a patch with tons of performance fixes, tons of new features that will never ever see the light in HD ? Personally I've made my choice, and I stick with the better version of the game, which is by far UserPatch.

Well would you look at that. Look everybody, its a starved Voobly player!

If you say its got "performance fixes, tons of new features", and all the great things about Userpatch, then why is the population declining?

I rather go to the one with a better future. It doesn't matter how well the userpatch is made, if the population is not there, it won't survive. And just like every dying game out there, only the hardcore dedicated players will stay till the last breath.

[TriRem]

Originally posted by Xin`ಠ:

Originally posted by TriRem:

What would you rather play ? A bugged and poorly optimized game, or a patch with tons of performance fixes, tons of new features that will never ever see the light in HD ? Personally I've made my choice, and I stick with the better version of the game, which is by far UserPatch.

Well would you look at that. Look everybody, its a starved Voobly player!

If you say its got "performance fixes, tons of new features", and all the great things about Userpatch, then why is the population declining?

I rather go to the one with a better future. It doesn't matter how well the userpatch is made, if the population is not there, it won't survive. And just like every dying game out there, only the hardcore dedicated players will stay till the last breath.

Oh don't worry I despise Voobly almost as much as HD, UserPatch is the best single version to play Age of Empires, and the gap will widen even more when 1.5 come out. I know that for most HD pleb anything that isn't HD is necessarily Voobly, but UserPatch has nothing to do with Voobly.

Playing 1.5 is like playing a new game, it is the HD version we deserved, while the official "HD" is nothing more than a cash grab that has basrely improved anything compared to 1.0c that came out in 2001...

As much as I like the expansions and the job FE has done, the performance is a disgrace for a game that came out in 2013.

I couldn't care less if there is more people on HD, I will keep playing the best version that exists.

And also rest assure, the Voobly population is still going strong and is nowhere near disappearing.

[Xinnobun]

Userpatch is just a patch, not even a gaming community. I find it funny that you're praising a patch so much and shltting on HD, yet you come back constantly to the HD forums? Why don't you stick with your beloved userpatch forums if you despise HD so much?

Oh.....that's because the population is weak in userpatch/voobly compared to HD :(

[Prosecutor Lurker]

An old code, butchered and remade by people not affiliated with Ensamble Studio's work before is pretty much a giveaway how the problems pop up. Same can be said for age of mythology thats barely playable online, let alone useful for competitive stuff.

Some old games are simply too hardcoded to specific handlers and thread priority that any patching cannot undo it, but probably encircle it until it becomes a problem again.

[Wrzlprnft]

just want to point out that HD and the userpatch do entirely different things.
the scope of Hd is way greater, and way more difficult, and that's why it has way more problems.

[gagman]

Originally posted by Wrzlprnft:

the scope of Hd is way greater, and way more difficult, and that's why it has way more problems.

explain please

[Viksteri]

Originally posted by Sir Pootisman:

In no other multiplayer game i have seen that many connection problems. On average, in every 2nd game there is a lagger or someone who loses connection or someone who just leaves in the middle of a game (their game crashed?). It seems like AoE2 HD multiplayer connections are super sensitive to interferences.

It is really annoying because a lot of time gets wasted. (Filling the lobby takes 5-15min, build up phase of a game takes 10-20min).

I dont think the problem is on my end because i have a very stable cable connection (no wifi) and no connection problems in other games.

well in 1 match for some reason every single player was lagging

[Whakahoatanga]

My dream would be a strong and united AOE2 on a well working game with all the features of Userpatch 1.5 and the graphics and civs of HD. You shouldn't have to install fan-made mods like Userpatch or Wololokingdoms, but come with the game itself.

We all love this game, let this not turn into a "my platform is better"-discussion.

[IamJeo]

OpenAge: http://openage.sft.mx/

Until then, platforms themselves are divided. BUT this doesn't mean that the age2-population needs to be thought as unfixably divided, as Xin`ಠ so much wants to believe.

The populations of all platforms are still part of the same age2-community, despite maybe having differing preferences about the content, especially towards the new Expansions. It is senseless to condemn populations of the platforms themselves, since they are part of the same development curve that a (new) player will undertake.

Once a new MP player gets into the game more, HD becomes a hard place to find games and then Voobly offers a solution to this, a parallel option to find games: with Compatibility patch you can play on both platforms, even simultaneously (and most importantly seek games, establish lobbies), only enhancing the learning curve, especially through functional clans that are atm mostly a Voobly-centered thing. (because Steam doesn't really offer very good platform for that, in comparison)

_________________________________________________

Ok, to the thread: the game's need for network traffic and CPU load increases with ingame population and is also dependent on some ingame scenarios related to pathing. Also the game works single-threaded so that makes the limit come at some point to everybody. I theorize that many, like myself, play this on laptop-platforms (perhaps with wifi) which may make the TGs rather laggy and prone to connection errors, which ofc due the mentioned p2p networking show to all others the game is shared with.