CK3 Multiplayer seemingly takes ages to join?

[JayTee]

Even on LAN, it takes about 10 minutes for the file to go through, ck2 never had this issue and I'm confused, me and my brother are trying to play, the download/upload for both of us when he's at my house and at his house is 100/40 at both places.

What's going on?

Step 1. Join Game
Step 2. I paste his game ID and join
Step 3. Wait for about 10 mins, progress % bar on his side is very slow for my joining

The game save files aren't that large.. so why is this happening?

 

[AndrewT]

Being on the same Lan makes no difference, all MP play goes via the Nakama servers.

CK2 however uses Steam MP servers.

I see you have EU4, which can use eitherMP service at your option at startup time - do you find it is slow with the Nakama option but fast with the Steam option?

 

[JayTee]

Being on the same Lan makes no difference, all MP play goes via the Nakama servers.

CK2 however uses Steam MP servers.

I see you have EU4, which can use eitherMP service at your option at startup time - do you find it is slow with the Nakama option but fast with the Steam option?

I tested this with EU4. My Results:

1 min 21 seconds --> Nakama

23 secs --> Steam

So a lot quicker via Steam. The EU4 save file is 10MB while the ck3 save file is 30MB. So I guess 3x as big and 4x as long.. so 7x as long in total...

7 mins 15 seconds for CK3.... really long time

 

[AndrewT]

That is interesting, I have not seen other reports that Nakama being so much slower that Steam MP. Not really sure what to make of that to be honest!

Can you try connecting via a VPN and see if it is still like that?

Is this just happening between you two? Can you both test with some third person and see whether either, both, or neither of you get this problem in that situation?

Thanks!

 

[JayTee]

That is interesting, I have not seen other reports that Nakama being so much slower that Steam MP. Not really sure what to make of that to be honest!

Can you try connecting via a VPN and see if it is still like that?

Is this just happening between you two? Can you both test with some third person and see whether either, both, or neither of you get this problem in that situation?

Thanks!

Sorry it took so long, it is still the same via VPN and tested it with a third person, same thing

 

[AndrewT]

Sorry it took so long, it is still the same via VPN and tested it with a third person, same thing

Both you and your brother still get this slowness with a third person, are you saying?

Is there any way you can try this from some other location?

 

[MrParadux]

Are there any news on this problem? A friend and me are trying to play, but it takes 20 minutes for the save to transfer and if we have desynchs it can take upwards of an hour to even start playing. Sometimes that means we can't play at all, because we have limited time.

How can it take 20 minutes to transfer a 80 mb save file?

It wouldn't be as problematic, if we could just create a lobby, but since this game is basically hotjoin only, the save has to be downloaded every single time. It is really frustrating, seeing that the file isn't even that big.

 

[AndrewT]

Have you tried the things I suggested in post #4 above?

 

[MrParadux]

Have you tried the things I suggested in post #4 above?

We tried that and it helps by speeding the process up, but it still takes over 10 minutes to transfer a 80 mb save file. We also tried different host/client constellations as in who is the host and a different amount of players who join, but the result was the same.

Using a VPN helps and allows us to double our atempts, so that is a good start.

 

[AndrewT]

I see you have Stellaris, which can use either Steam or Nakama MP (as "Cross Store MP"). Do you get this same issue in either or both of those with that game?

 

[MrParadux]

We are actually currently playing a Stellaris campaign with three people and the save transfer takes a few seconds. Although the file size is currently around 3 mb.
We didn't configure anything and are connecting directly via Steam.

 

[AndrewT]

We are actually currently playing a Stellaris campaign with three people and the save transfer takes a few seconds. Although the file size is currently around 3 mb.
We didn't configure anything and are connecting directly via Steam.

If you all opt into the Cross Store MP option in the Stellaris launcher, you'll be using Nakama instead. Do you then see them MP issues you are seeing with CK3?

 

[MrParadux]

We tested it and the download speed seemed to be pretty much the same as it was in Crusader Kings. We transferred a 10 mb save in around 4 minutes, which actually seems to be slower than in CK3, but since the save is smaller, it isn't as noticeable.

 

[AndrewT]

Okay then, you (or one of the other players I guess) are having a problem with Nakama.

We have three possible workarounds that may solve it:

Disable IPv6
- Close CK3
- Go to Control Panel > View Network status and tasks > Change adapter settings (left side)
- Find your Hamachi Connection and Disable it
- Find your Internet connection adapter (for me, it was WiFi)
- Right click your internet adapter and select properties
- Scroll down to find "Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) and uncheck the box
- Select Ok
- Start up CK3 and should work.

Disable all other network adapters
Go to Windows Control panel.
Click on Network & Internet.
Click on View Network Status.
Quick Tip: You can also quickly access these settings by right-clicking the network icon in the taskbar and selecting the Network & Internet settings option.
Click on Change adapter options.
Right-click all network adapters that are not connected to the internet and select the Disable option.


Use a VPN
- Obtain a VPN
- Set the country to the US (why this works is also an enigma ><)
- Start the game
- Sign in and see if it "sticks"


Good luck!

 

[MrParadux]

Thank you for these suggestions. We tried them individually and in combination with each other, but sadly the download speed didn't improve at all.

We tried it with another person, too, and had the same issue there. So all three of us would have to have the same problem. We are located at different places around Germany and Austria, so it probably isn't connected to our specific location, I would guess. We have a few more people who have the game, but we'll need to organize them to get them together for different host/client combinations.

 

[AndrewT]

Even a VPN did not help? I'm surprised, I have to say.

 

[MrParadux]

Sadly no, the VPN did not help. We have tried it previously with different locations, but only now after your suggestion with USA which didn't improve the download speed. I'll try to get different host/client combinations going to get more information

 

[Alpars Han]

No, the suggestions you mentioned definitely don’t work. We always have to wait 20 minutes to connect to our friend under any circumstances. Moreover, using third-party software just to connect to our friend’s game is unethical. This is the developers’ problem, and they need to solve it. From what I understand, no steps have been taken regarding this issue since 2022. Then, when a problem is brought up, we hear a counterargument like, “the game isn’t making money.” Well, if there are such serious issues, of course, it won’t make money. Why would people want to buy a game they can’t even play?

Even a VPN did not help? I'm surprised, I have to say.

 

[zefir6]

Coping with the same issue. It makes multi basically unplayable - especially in combination with occasional crash or desync. Its especially frustrating due to the fact that even if both machines have the same save downloaded, it still has to transfer it, so you can't even use the most basic workaround, that worked in times of CKI horrible save game transfers, and do it yourself outside of game.

 

[Seijo-ki]

Hello, I've been having the same problems. And only beeing able to play by launching the game 30 minutes prior to the entended play session and having to pray for nothing to go wrong is sometimes just a slight bother... and sometimes it makes me want to straight just stop playing the game in multiplayer
(When something goes wrong, it often delays the session by 15 to 30 minutes depending on how many times someone has to relaunch their game to get their paradox account to properly connect before joining the game again with always a 15 minutes delay for the save-file to be transfered over the nakama servers).

Wouldn't it be possible to make it so that if the last transfered save-file has the exact same ID as the new one that you need to download when you attempt to join a game, that it would just assume the save-file is the same and join the game in matters of seconds by only loading the said file ?

I assume this solution would at least avoid one problem: when the joining at the beginning of the session goes wrong. Of course, that would not solve the need to relaunch the game after saving following a desynch or a crash, thus forcing the new download over the servers as the save-files do not line up anymore.

Further less realistic solutions:
Another possibility would be to be able to straight up send the save-file over other channels. (having a button ingame that allows to open the save-file directory to copy-paste the save-file and send it to someone over another channel (discord, teamviewer) that doesn't take 15 minutes to transfer 60 Mo AND isn't the responsibility of paradox, at least it would make ONE viable workaround, because no other client-side workaround will be able to magically make the servers more stable/faster).
Even better would be for the servers to allow faster upload/download speeds to make all those solutions redundant, but I doubt that will be a possibility if it is all outsourced.
The BEST would be user-hosted servers first for the longevity of the game and not having to rely on bad servers/netcode in the first place, but I doubt it would be realistic so far into the production cycle.