Desync + Lag Issues in Multiplayer

[Jwr3]

I really enjoy playing Barony online with friends, yet there always seems to be some issues while hosting. Playing through steam servers leads to desync in later levels, causing other players to be seconds to minutes behind the host, sometimes even being a whole floor behind the rest of the party. Occasionally some players are disconnected while playing for whatever reason as well.

Trying to host through a direct ip (hamachi) seemed to work slightly better in comparison, yet lag became more of an issue around level 30 onward, and random disconnections still occur with certain players.

Are there any fixes for a more reliable online experience?

[Zeroicedragon]

I feel you man, I've tried everything, from Hex editing the seeds so that they match, to backing up the save files; It's quite unstable, and trust me, I love the game, but it is just too unstable in multiplayer

[Jwr3]

It's really unfortunate. Having played a good few multiplayer games, this is the only one I've had such issues with. Oddly enough, multiplayer runs perfectly fine when playing with one specific friend of mine, though I'm not exactly sure why that is

[45]

save and reset as you get to the later levels, its a memory leak issue, having everyone restart game when it becomes a problem fixes it.

[Jwr3]

I tried that with a full party where we saved after every 5 levels to play it safe. Everything seemed fine until around level 30. By that point, one player was getting some horrible desync. When we all managed to get to the final floor, that player was disconnected by the game. After saving and retrying, each of the other players were forcibly disconnected as well

[JudgeTy]

Originally posted by Jwr3:

I tried that with a full party where we saved after every 5 levels to play it safe. Everything seemed fine until around level 30. By that point, one player was getting some horrible desync. When we all managed to get to the final floor, that player was disconnected by the game. After saving and retrying, each of the other players were forcibly disconnected as well

Just tried a 7 player game. I was the host, around lvl 5, 2 players were kicked, tried to save and reload, they never were able to join back in.

Managed to start a new game with 5 players after many lobby desync restarts. Got to lvl 16 then one player started lagging (he's in the same house as me), then lvl 17 I disconnect at exactly midnight eastern time last night (7/3/2020).

Tried to do the save, no one could join in, constant disconnects, including me in the lobby.

Is there a way to run a dedicated server? Could dev's make a dedicated server d/l? I think your servers are not up to the task especially during sale peaks.

[mistersneak]

Hey guys, sorry you've all ran into some trouble. As somebody already mentioned, we're aware of an issue that occurs when games have been in-session for a long time, and the save & quit / relaunch workaround is our best advice until we can work out a more permanent fix.

Direct IP does tend to be a lot more reliable, and is definitely less taxing on the game than Steam networking, though is markedly less convenient for most people, and introducing a VLAN like Hamachi brings in its own variables that are out of our control.

Barony is peer-to-peer, so there's going to be a lot of variability in your experience depending on how reliable the client and host's connections are. We do not have Barony servers of any kind to host multiplayer, so peak player population shouldn't have an impact. Really every individual's networking setup can introduce problems into the connection. As Jwr3 mentioned, the game's handling of networking isn't bad for everyone! Trust that I wish it were better for everyone though. It's something we continue to work on and seek out new solutions for.

I have not heard this many issues with players getting dropped -- sorry it seems to be effecting quite a few of you. We aren't aware of an issue in Barony that could be causing this but would definitely be interested in making the multiplayer experience as stable as possible.