A Co-op connection problem solved

[Zieg]

Hopefully this will help others if they are having problems connecting or staying connected with a co-op friend.

Short answer/observation: A high number of individual item (meaning large stacks) will wreck connectivity. Read below for the detailed version.

I play Outward with a friend, and I recently posted a problem we were having. He would host, and sometimes when I tried to enter his game I would get through [loading items] fine, but hang up on [positioning players]. Tonight we spent our entire session troubleshooting and found out what the problem was.

I get to play more than he does, but I wouldn't do anything we haven't already done without him. So I spent a casual session a night collecting ingredients, making potions, breaking things down, etc. so we wouldn't have to do the tedious stuff when we did get to play. As a result, I had a LOT of items. What I mean by that is 53 iron, 92 salt, 10 stacks of arrows (300 total), etc.

When we started playing (before I started my collection sessions), we didn't have any real problems. Once I started accumulating more and more, the [loading items] went by relatively fine, but I would start hanging up at the [positioning players]. These were the times that I was either trying to transfer items to his world, or just wanted to come in with a 110 lb. pack. I would have to really pare things down to finally get into the world.

Thinking the problem was corrupted/bad coding on a particular item, we spent a session carrying things over five items at a time. Through the whole process I hung up twice. The rest went just fine. So once we got all the items over to his game we called it good for the night.

Tonight started as a completely different experience.

• When he got into his game, being in the lighthouse (and only the lighthouse) was really glitchy, acting like low fps or slight rubberbanding.
• When I tried to enter his game, the [loading items] took a LOT longer, but then I would go through the [positioning players] part fine. Once in game, in the village there were no problems, but once I entered the lighthouse it was a matter of one to two minutes before I dc'ed.

Still unsure of the true problem was sheer numerical count or bad coding on one particular item, we began to sell unnecessary stuff, then have his character sleep for three days to clear the vendor inventory. When then started to notice the more high count stacks we sold, things got a little smoother. AHA!

SO, instead of selling off the rest, we started taking things back to my character's world, and I would dump them in the chest in the lighthouse, stand outside the lighthouse then log into his world without a lot of high count stacks.

SMOOTH. AS. BUTTER.

So to recap, having a high number of individual items (meaning large stacks) affects co-op connectivity, whether you are coming into someone's world with high volume, or if you are in lighthouse with a very full chest.

Hopefully this helps give some insight to anyone else who might be experiencing co-op connectivity.