LAN multiplayer issues with 3 players

[sheeepie2]

Hey! My dad's set up a VPN recently so that I can play Stronghold Crusader HD LAN whilst I'm at university, and whilst it seems to work fine with 2 players, as soon as a 3rd player on the same network joins the game runs incredibly slowly (in terms of gamespeed/animations, not client fps) until one of the players (seemingly randomly chosen) is disconnected after about 30 seconds and the game then runs smoothly onwards. Does anybody know what might be causing this and/or have a solution?

We have also tried gameranger, which I have previously had working with friends at home, but right now when my dad attempts to connect to me he gets an endless 'waiting for host' message. I'm suspecting this might be a port forwarding issue which is difficult for me to resolve, being on university internet. Both our firewalls were off when attempting.

[Augustus]

Intense lag or (somehow) an extremely slow computer can do this. Because of the nature of this game, the "chain is only as strong as the weakest link".
Make sure you're all on the same version of the game as well.

[sheeepie2]

Originally posted by Augustus:

Intense lag or (somehow) an extremely slow computer can do this. Because of the nature of this game, the "chain is only as strong as the weakest link".
Make sure you're all on the same version of the game as well.

I imagine we're all on the same version as we've all just reinstalled on steam today.

Lag could have been an issue, but 2-player games always worked fine but 3-player was consistently having issues. We also tried all 3 combinations of 2 players and all were fine.

Hardware I doubt is an issue, we're on gtx 1660ti, 1650ti and 960 with CPUs and RAM of similar level.

[Augustus]

how far are you from each other and how is the internet connection? Google has a built in internet speed tester if you type in 'speed test'. If someone has bad internet then GameRanger is your best bet as virtual LANs like Hamachi can have somewhat high bandwidth requirements for smooth connections.

I think I had your same issue once. I'd try having everyone restart their routers/modems and PCs. In your case the former might not be possible and let's just hope that it's not the Uni's ♥♥♥♥♥ internet.

Edit: Now that I think of it, the VPN might be the issue. VPNs are huge bandwidth consumers. I'd try installing Hamachi or a virtual LAN of similar caliber on all the players and direct connecting that way instead. VPNs kill ping and dont exactly play nice with GameRanger because i may have tried to use GameRanger with a VPN as well.

[sheeepie2]

Originally posted by Augustus:

how far are you from each other and how is the internet connection? Google has a built in internet speed tester if you type in 'speed test'. If someone has bad internet then GameRanger is your best bet as virtual LANs like Hamachi can have somewhat high bandwidth requirements for smooth connections.

I think I had your same issue once. I'd try having everyone restart their routers/modems and PCs. In your case the former might not be possible and let's just hope that it's not the Uni's ♥♥♥♥♥ internet.

Edit: Now that I think of it, the VPN might be the issue. VPNs are huge bandwidth consumers. I'd try installing Hamachi or a virtual LAN of similar caliber on all the players and direct connecting that way instead. VPNs kill ping and dont exactly play nice with GameRanger because i may have tried to use GameRanger with a VPN as well.

At uni I'm hitting a pretty consistent 600mbps upload and download, whilst them at home they have around 60mbps and the ping between us is 30ms. We tried it with an OpenVPN connection on LAN and have also tried gameranger without the VPN active but everyone but the host gets stuck on 'waiting for host' in-game. My dad's hosting on gameranger and he's also ensured that all Stronghold and gameranger ports are open.

It's strange because I've gotten 8-person games working in gameranger before with friends, I just can't remember how we solved the waiting for host issue :/

[Augustus]

Things can get a bit iffy i've noticed if two people are trying to play via GameRanger and are on the same router. This only applies if two of the three people are in the same home/internet connection

[GRhin]

Try using gameranger and windscribe VPN, it will handle the portforwarding for you.

[Lime1]

i have this issue also