So, is MP technically stable/fun?

[Chaingun]

Try to answer my questions honestly; you don't need to convince me to buy HoI2 because I already decided to.

First question: How often (if ever) do you crash in HoI2? You don't need to make any comparisons on what effect this has on gameplay (I know from EU2 myself). I just need a rough number estimate of crashes per hours on an average. I know this varies a lot depending on what people you play with etc. (or rather the stability of their computers), however if you can average it I'll be satisfied.

Second question: How much fun is MP compared to SP? Obviously, in MP you'll have much more intelligent enemies than in SP, however I'm concerned about game balance bits considering rare materials etc. Another not so important thought I have whether do anyone play cooperative countries in large MP? The trouble I have here is that there may simply not be enough players to take on a decent set of countries in a regular campaign, and much less allow for cooperative play when other countries are needed. For example, if you don't have an Italy player, you're not going to put two players in Germany.

 

[Citizen_X]

Try to answer my questions honestly; you don't need to convince me to buy HoI2 because I already decided to.

First question: How often (if ever) do you crash in HoI2? You don't need to make any comparisons on what effect this has on gameplay (I know from EU2 myself). I just need a rough number estimate of crashes per hours on an average. I know this varies a lot depending on what people you play with etc. (or rather the stability of their computers), however if you can average it I'll be satisfied.

Second question: How much fun is MP compared to SP? Obviously, in MP you'll have much more intelligent enemies than in SP, however I'm concerned about game balance bits considering rare materials etc. Another not so important thought I have whether do anyone play cooperative countries in large MP? The trouble I have here is that there may simply not be enough players to take on a decent set of countries in a regular campaign, and much less allow for cooperative play when other countries are needed. For example, if you don't have an Italy player, you're not going to put two players in Germany.

This hoi2 is the most stable paradox game i ve seen in mp, i think i ve only crashed one time with last version. Crashes are weirds currently.

I dont play SP because i'm bored as soon as i start. The real fun is in mp. You dont need many people for play a fun and balanced game. Its question about pick the correct nations, scen, and players.

 

[Wishing_Well]

I concur with X both about Mp stability and fun.

Hopefully with 1.2 there are far less balance issues, and limited house rules are needed. For instance most people have enough sense to understand that the game won't get far if Axis can't get rares.

Co-op does take place in quiet of a few games, as you usually have a stable player base, but also people that come and go depending on their availabilities. "One standers" fill in the gaps, sometimes as minors, sometimes as co-players.

 

[Majorball]

Its much better than HOI 2...we may get a few crashes during Jap war with China but overall very few crashes. MP is the only way to play really. SP is good but not really a challenge.

 

[Wishing_Well]

Since we are speaking of crashes, is there a vast majority that has experienced them during big naval battles?

 

[Durruti (A)]

I have to agree with major ball and citi ... hoi2 is all about MP.

And naval crashes WW... master Rodolf claims the crashes have to do with subs being in the same stacks as surface ships o

BTW has anyone come across the death crash bug since 1.2 ?

 

[unmerged(39405)]

"master rodolf" for one hasnt experienced any crashes during/after big naval battles with 1.2 patch.. even if there was subs in same stacks with surface vessels though havent had that many naval battles since the 1.2 was published.. but trust me, that was a very real proplem with 1.1... hopefully not with 1.2

 

[unmerged(22728)]

I just need a rough number estimate of crashes per hours on an average.

i was in two games with new 1.2 patch this weekend. in first one i dont recall any client CTD.. but we only played 2 h and no war

in the other game with 9 players and 6 of them was co-op.. 3 players was having some kind of trouble, one gave host a lot of lag report (i never see this lag report in 1.1 so maybee pop-up windows is a new function add to 1.2) anyway he never chat ingame so he might have alt+tab away and do other buisness.

the 2 other is more intresting though.. they both run into freeze at some point in game (for one it was solved by just pressing pause awhile) and there was some delay we notice in 1.1 also units taking hit in a province they not suppouse to be target in or be in. a de-sync problem. pehaps slower speed solve matter.

so 7 h total MP-play one day and no crash, one have to look up for de-sync issues during heavy fight though.

co-op seems to work out also, perhaps to early to tell.. one have master economics though or u run into strange results. divide it betwen fronts or air-ground sector also works.

Ofcouse MP is more fun, i really enjoy this new co-op feature.

 

[Termite2]

I have played over 100 hours ver 1.2 mp on a LAN[5 pl}, haven't had a crash yet. Sometimes 1 computer will lag and you have to pause game for it to catch up.
The only problem I have seen is that sometimes a tech completes; but shows up as not having finished. Even when you go back to a save game, it is the same result; this happens about 3 years after game is started and only to 1 player, country played seems to have no effect on this.
Other than this, game is very stable; you just have to watch out for lag problems and pause when detected.

 

[unmerged(17563)]

I play in 2 games based in Australia with 8 players all with min connections of 256/128.

We can run on normal speed while peace reigns but must slow to below normal when the war starts else we get lag. We have had very few crashes, and most rehosts occur cos someones connection has dropped for totally unrelated reasons.

We find that a simple rule of no rares trading except for axis in the first month and no ecnomic warfare ie no having 500 a day extra for no reason, solves any resource problems.

The game is a lot better in MP, the ai is very good but not the same as a human. In our games we have UK, USA, SU and a minor usually Australia vs Ger, Ita, Jap and usually Romania. I find that playing a minor is better then doing a co-op

Game is actually better then Eu2 in MP imo

 

[Elijah]

Its very stable, yeah.

 

[unmerged(44398)]

Memory Requirements

Hi all,

we played the new version of HOI last week-end with five players for the major powers except Japan.

It was _very_ stable (no crash at all), after we had replaced the two weakest computers by more powerful ones (and after disabling a few firewalls and reconfiguring network adapters ;-))

Before that, the game got stuck quite often during the "command phase" for no obvious reason. I do think, that the critical factor was the limited amount of RAM. Hence, I recommend strongly to play HOI2 MP on computers with more than 256 Mb - though the minimal requirements state that 128 Mb may do.

Cheers

Karsten

 

[korny]

it is horrid, prob the worst MP on the market - nothing but sync issues and lag - it playable at times but you have to play soooo slow it not even worth the effort...

Matter of fact this is the last paradox game I will ever buy - I keep thinking they are going to fix MP in their next game but they are using a 15 year old turn based MP approach and its just too slow and clunky for what it needs to do...

 

[unmerged(5892)]

it is horrid, prob the worst MP on the market - nothing but sync issues and lag - it playable at times but you have to play soooo slow it not even worth the effort...

Matter of fact this is the last paradox game I will ever buy - I keep thinking they are going to fix MP in their next game but they are using a 15 year old turn based MP approach and its just too slow and clunky for what it needs to do...

Korny, you say the same thing for every Paradox game, if you really had such a bad experience, you'd think you'd learn...

In my experience, the system requirements, host upload speed, and having reasonable connection speeds for all other players is the key issue. I played a game through to 1943 the other day with not 1 single crash (LAN). There are some de-sync issues, but these are easily fixed with better connection speeds, or a slower game speed setting.

 

[unmerged(28537)]

yes mp is far fart bteer than sp escp 38 scen and is pretty stable thanks to 1.2 however master rodolf (hehe) I did crash in a massive naval battle agaist porta recently and their were no subs involved

 

[korny]

Korny, you say the same thing for every Paradox game, if you really had such a bad experience, you'd think you'd learn...

In my experience, the system requirements, host upload speed, and having reasonable connection speeds for all other players is the key issue. I played a game through to 1943 the other day with not 1 single crash (LAN). There are some de-sync issues, but these are easily fixed with better connection speeds, or a slower game speed setting.

Yes I do cuz I keep hoping they will improve it - it is not that hard to keep a
game in sync but paradox continues to ignoring the issue (the game just needs to run at the speed of the slowest computer but noooooo the host just keeps piledriving the other computers and they cant keep up then the game falls apart)...

This is how Paradox MP works:
1. host writes a file to the harddrive with the current orders
2. host downloads file to clients harddrive
3. client reads file from HD and processes it
4. client then writes a file to HD uploades it to host
5. host reads file from HD and processes client file
6. back to #1

Does this sound a little clunky and primitive to you???

No wonder it falls apart so easily and takes up soo much bandwidth...

 

[unmerged(43564)]

Is it tacnicle stabile and fun?

Is it tacnicle stabile and fun? Well its a interesting question you ask.

It is usualy stabile, depend on were all players are.
I have 20 MB down/up and somtimes some lag on me if i host- so it depand on a lot.

To play it, Vnet must be operativ in the first plase, and if it is (as it usualy is) - the qualety depends on the players- some games is shit, but in another hand, if you play in a organized group it is usualy very good.

It is also possible to have good games with no group, but not evan close to the qualety of a satbile group.

High Command

 

[Stripe999]

Is it tacnicle stabile and fun? Well its a interesting question you ask.

It is usualy stabile, depend on were all players are.
I have 20 MB down/up and somtimes some lag on me if i host- so it depand on a lot.

To play it, Vnet must be operativ in the first plase, and if it is (as it usualy is) - the qualety depends on the players- some games is shit, but in another hand, if you play in a organized group it is usualy very good.

It is also possible to have good games with no group, but not evan close to the qualety of a satbile group.

High Command

Yes, I pretty much agree with these and the other comments in the thread (except Korny's). I play regularly with a friendly inter-continental group of 8-10 players each weekend (see the MP forum, Warden's posts, for details) - we do have a crash now and then (maybe on average twice in an evening), but not enough to be a big problem. We play at Below Normal or (in intense situations) Slow, and I think that lag issues are likely to arise without very fast connections at anything above normal.

I think that co-op play is great and I'd like to see it more. It obviously hleps introduce newer players, but more significant is that fact that it should enable a faster speed (i.e. at least Below Normal, maybe Normal). There is usually one country (often the UK) which needs a slower speed than the others, and one (often the US) which would like a faster speed: if you have a UK player for Europe and another for Asia, they should be able to handle a higher speed notch.

Playing with random people on the forum is a good way to get a feel for MP, but there are some tiresome types around (boasting, swearing, dropping out without warning) so a regular group is the way to go for regular play.

Nick

 

[unmerged(43424)]

We play on internet, 8 people, and we managed to get it to 1st january 1943.

The MP is ok, crashes sometimes (2/3 times over 5h), but it's still really playable. Some lag, but since we pause 5mn every months for order, we don't have much trouble with lag.

Still, I noticed that naval thing which makes you lag a bit. I guess the pathfinding might be in cause.

Still, MP is definitly the best way to play HOI, a great experience, especially if you're playing with a good group.