Cannot get multiplayer to work anymore. (Player count 0 and new message from server -> New problem?)

[Action_Boo]

Hello everyone, and Happy New Year!

Describing this problem may take a while, but maybe sorting this out will be helpful for people who cannot get the multiplayer to work. So please bear with me.

First things first: in december, my brother and I started to play BG:EE in multiplayer for old times sake. We knew that there were issues with the multiplayer from the get-go, so we tested it a bit on Demeber 30th and got it to work. Then, on New Year’s Eve we engaged in a lengthy session (approx. 10 hours of playtime) and everything worked fine for the most part. However, when we tried to play again yesterday we couldn’t get the multiplayer to work anymore, no matter what we did.

We thought, now, before we ask Steam to refund the game we could go step by step through the problem we encountered and maybe find a solution with the help of the forum. To do this, I will first describe the measures we took get multiplayer working in December, and then move on the (seemingly) the new problem we encountered yesterday. I would also ask kindly for help from the devs that seem to have an eye on this forum.


1) Measures to get multiplayer working

First of all, over the process of trying to get multiplayer to work, we took several measures, both in December and now. I will list them now in a structured list. This list recounts most of the mulitplayer solutions people found over the years, so it might be helpful to the community in itself. Bear in mind that we tried (probably) all possible combination of these options which took us roughly five hours.

• We tried to connect to the game normally via the “Join Game” screen using the servers
  
• We tried direct connection.
  
• We used Hamachi to create a virtual network and establish a direct connection on it.
  
• We switched who of us was hosting the game and who tried to join it.
  
• We hosted games with and without password protection.
  
• We avoided confirming the password or IP for direct connection with the enter button and used the mouse.
  
• We forwarded the usually specified ports (2300-2400; 6073; 15000; 47630). One time, we did so globally, then we specified the rules to the devices we played from. I even went so far as to remove every other device I own from my home network.
  
• We disabled our antivirus clients when playing.
  
• Since we use different Windows versions (he uses W10 and I use W7) we tried to run the game in admin mode, and in compatibility mode.
  
• We created exceptions for the game in our Windows firewalls, and tried playing with them disabled. (On W7 you can disable this altogether, on W10 we disabled all related network security (there are a lot more options on that OS))
  
• Since I use an AMD GPU, I disabled its settings client and all of its overlay functions.
  
• We disabled the Steam cloud saves for the game.
  
• We tried disabling the Siege of Dragonspear DLC and starting multiplayer on an older version of the game. (We are on 2.5.17.0)

The good news about this: on December 30, we managed to get our multiplayer to work. This carried over to the next day when we played. Between then and yesterday, we didn’t make any changes to our setup, fully expecting to be able to play again. No luck, however.


2) New problem joining a lobby?

With all our parameters staying the same, both yesterday and today we encountered the following problem when trying to play in multiplayer. I will go through it step by step:

• One of us is hosting a game like usual.
  
• The other player tries to join the game.
  
• Immediately after joining a game, in the Join Game screen the number of players in the lobby drops from 1 to 0.
  
• After some waiting, the joining player enters the character arbitration screen. Then, both players have a different experience.
  
• The joining player sees the message: “Waiting until the servers can admit new players,” on the top right on his screen. We googled this verbatim, did not find any results for it, and don’t know what it means exactly. After a while, the message changes and it says: “Ready to play.” However, the joining player will only see that there is a host; he will not see any characters from the save game, no portraits etc.
  
• The host, however, sees every character from the save game (obviously) and he can see the joining player, even when on the joining player’s screen the “Waiting until the servers can admit new players” message still appears. However, as soon as the host tries to give the joining player any permissions or characters, the latter is kicked from the game. On the other hand, if he does not do it and just waits, the multiplayer session will be terminated either way.
  
• Using Direct Connection via Hamachi, the same problem seems to occur. It just happens faster.

Yesterday, as well as today, we tried solving this problem, again using lots of the combinations of solutions from 1). However, it was impossible to get a game going for us.


Summary:

The new things here we didn’t find anywhere on the web are

• The player count in the Join Game screen dropping to 0 upon clicking “Join”
  
• The message “Waiting until the servers can admit new players” that appears for the joining player

My questions would be, whether anyone here encountered the same problem and maybe has a fix for this. Or whether the devs are aware of the problem and already working on a solution. We would be really happy about any help, since we would hate to write a ticket to Valve for a refund and to give up on the playthrough.

I hope we can sort this out! In case I forgot any measures we took, I may add them later.

[The_Val]

Any update on this?

[Planewalker]

Last update concerning multiplayer was two years ago on the official forums.

Multiplayer flat out doesn't work anymore.

logfile states pings_since_last_response_= 1412887486

So it is fair to assume that their servers are down, maybe permanently.

[Jona]

I've had similar problems recently. You might try submitting a technical support message through their new service desk with details about your experience. I submitted a support request about unstable multiplayer connectivity and did at least get acknowledged from some sort of response. They might appreciate the more detailed information you have though. I am wondering whether increased traffic slows down their servers. It's interesting to note that in your original post, you seemed unable to have a stable connection when it got closer to a holiday...

[Jona]

so did you ever get it to work?

[Action_Boo]

Nah, we never got an answer to our report from the studio. Sorry mate.