It seems literally impossible to have a successful multiplayer game that lasts into modern times.

The constant resyncs and client computer's game crashes have been part of every CTP2 mp game I've tried to play so far (about 10 games so far).

This seems to be the case for everyone who has posted here, so what's the deal? How could they have released this game with unplayable multi-player?!

This is not to mention the many smaller, annoying, but non-vital mp bugs (ie: I've "entered" the Renaissance about 24 times now, and keep getting told about how my human opponent has begun work on Aristotle's Lyceum - which was already built 1,000 years ago.)

Is anybody having a successful mp experience with CTP2? Is it just us LAN players with these problems?

Can anyone from Activision honsetly tell me they've played this game in mp mode from start to finish without game-crippling bugs each and every time?

What of course makes this all so frustrating is that when it does work, it a whole heap of fun to play against other humans! Please get this stuff fixed very soon, Activision.

The number of multi-player users of CtP2 is a tiny, insignificant fraction as compared to the whole, according to Activision. In fact, it's entirely possible that you and I are the only two people in the world genuinely interested in the feature. Everybody else is perfectly content to play single-player against the ever-challenging AI.

Hence, Activision doesn't feel compelled to get this silly little "multi-player" feature working properly just for radical extremists like you and me who insist upon it. I mean, after all, what kind of software company caters to the desires of its customers? That would just be plain silly.

1) Resynches every turn early or late in the game
2) Nonhost players crashing on resynching
3) Nonhost players game hanging on resynching
4) Conquered cities after a resynch belong to the original owner and the player's units used to conquer the city disappeared.

I personally have not been able to finish one multiplayer game on our lan because one nonhost computer becomes so unstable that they crash EVERY turn. Well, some are crashes, sometimes their game just seems to close with no error. Either that or their computer hangs while attempting to resynch. As host of two games I also noticed that whenever i beached my units from a coracle both nonhosts immediately resynched.

quote: Originally posted by igarcia on 12-05-2000 01:54 PM of course there will be some issues we either could not fix or fixing them would have delayed the release of the game for a few more months.

Robm, igarcia didn't so much imply this as come right out and say it. @8-/

And though it's very disheartening, I could see Activision cutting some minor corners in order to get their product out earlier, but this... I again echo the sentiments of all of us here on this CTP2 mp forum: CTP2 multiplayer quickly becomes unplayable!

igarcia, I'm not sure why you have to ask me what specific problems I've been having when I spelled them out in my original post, and others have listed the same main complaints.

Please see Jerk's list above for a concise summary.

I ask again: has anybody at Activision played a successful mp game from start to finnish that wasn't crippled into unplayablility by the major bugs listed above? Anyone outside of Activision for that matter?

igarcia, I appreciate you responding to this thread. I sincerely hope you will pass on these complaints to those who can fix CTP2's multiplayer to make it playable.

There are other problems/bugs/annoyances [ie: lame inability to make diplomatic negotiations during opponents' turns - Civ2 could do it 4 years ago!], but I don't really want to distract Activision from fixing these main major issues that are keeping CTP2 mp from being what could be great game, but is currently just an exercise in frustration.

The Former Patton..DrDanger Red October....

Hoooray!!

P.S. Could you guys let me know what your network configuration or Internet connections are like? Please be specific and don't just say, "I have a cable modem and all my other games work" that does not help. Also if you post your network setup please include everything like your firewall, proxy server, Internet connection sharing etc. I need to get as much information as possible.

What the hell? How about "Fixed the synchronization issues".

How about sending a product out the door that works? Maybe have a little bit of responsibility before making people pay $40 for a half-ass attempt? If you state on the box that it is a Multiplayer game, maybe it should be??

Fix it. That's all I have to say. Get Activision off it's profit-margin butt and fix it!!

My roommate and I gave up playing CTP in order to wait for the patch to come out. I guess we must be some of the minority who really only enjoys the competiton from another human gaming over a LAN network.

At any rate, so this isn't just a ***** session...I will admit the game did appear to last a bit longer before the "resync" every turn began, but at 910ad the same thing started happening...resync on the non host machine every turn...the Aristotle wonder being reported every turn...the resyncing player losing all production and the map reverts to displaying stone age cities.

and remember, I HAVE USED THE PATCH!!!!
this patch did fix several bugs, but i still cant get past this specific error

and YES, i have attempted all procedures that the customer service represenatives recommends in correcting computer configuration for the game

our resynch error did seem to always occur around 800AD -- 1200AD
we have tryed playing this with full intentions of avoiding specific problem causing things (like spybug, or killing settler crash bug)
we have restarted our games countless times from countless years, and we just cannot seem to get past the resynch errors...they are impassable from the games standpoint

even configuration alterations dont seem to change the results..we always get a game crash

COMPUTER #1:
Pentium III 450
Windows 2000 Professional
256MB RAM

COMPUTER #2:
Pentium II 450
Windows 98
128MB RAM

Computers are on a LAN connected thru a Netgear hub.

Have tried both computers as host, and experienced the problems listed by Jerk above.

Installed the patch, and this has helped some of these issues. Need to play more to give detailed info about bugs that are still there.

Here's one, though: Public Works on the client machine doesn't get updated correctly, sometimes making a player go many turns without getting his PW points. Sometimes this means the player will get 4 turns worth of PW points at once, and sometimes those PW points are lost forever. I've also seen the PW points go down at the start of my turn even though they should be going up by 1,000 or so. I should note that this is without using any Mayors at all.

quote: And to the Rev, yes we are able to finish a multiplayer game with 4 ai and 4 human via lan.

Well, I'm glad someone has been able to accomplish this feat, but it would be nicer if it was someone who actually had to shell out $50 for the game.

And that's going to cause Activision a huge problem on Christmas day. Lots of people are going to unwrap their brand new copies of CTP2. If they play single player they might be happy for a few days, till they discover that the AI never conquers anyone. Then they'll figure out that if they start conquering other civs they'll get a growth advantage the AI never gets and thus win. Thus in single player the AI is very easy to beat. Kinda boring kinda quickly.

And if they discover that they've got a friend who also has the game, they'll try to hook up via TCP/IP or LAN, and then find out that the game is buggy as heck in multiplayer mode.

So either way, Activision's reputation as a developer of games is about to take a major hit because the marketing people pushed the game to market in order to get the short-term cash flow over the Christmas holidays.