Installed Latest Patch (4/16) and still cannot connect $%!@&%

well did you forward ports and everything?

Can you describe what happens when you try to connect?

I hate to be negative, but gamers shouldn't have to figure out how to configure their routers to play a game.  There are many good guides (@the_Monk!), but due to the variety of routers, the fact that some routers are actually behind ISP-provided routers, the difference in the way you can choose to implement (or not) UPnP -or- port forwarding...

I mean really, it is no wonder some folks are frustrated.

But tips like these can be very helpful, and I'm not sure why they're not prominently featured:

Logging on to Demigod's Internet Multiplayer
--------------------------------------------
If you are having problems logging into Demigod to play on-line, the most
common issue is that your Impulse account does not have Demigod associated with it.

This can happen if you use one email address to buy Demigod and another email address
to create your Demigod account. We can merge your accounts together. The fastest way
to do so is to contact support@stardock.com.

and...

If you have problems connecting to other players, visit http://forums.demigodthegame.com/forum/526
where we will have a CVP Test application that will let you try connecting to other players.

This "CVP Test application that will let you try connecting to other players" sounds like a godsend (pun intended!).

But I can't find it!  Where is it?

I'm having a problem after the patch. i can't play multiplayer anymore. I can connect to them via pantheon or custom game but when the computer has loaded the arena the voice says a player has left the game leaving me alone with only AI.

In custom game it says "attempt to connect has failed" or something similar.

I played online this morning "without" any problems

No router or nothing, just the network card to the broadband

chaos40, beat me to it.

Seriously? Port forwarding is often necessary, especially with bad routers and P2P netcode. There are hundreds of PC games that require port forwarding. Yes, it would be better if Demigod could better circumvent NAT so port forwarding would not be necessary, but most games that aren't running the client-server model will require router tweaks.

If you are confused, please visit: http://www.portforward.com/

if someone wants to play computer games online, he needs to learn the basics of computers and network.

if you want to have driving fun with a motorcycle you have to learn it first, too. so ...

As much as I hate to say it, he is right in saying it is unrealistic to do so in order to play a game online, the more hoops you make your player base jump through, the larger the barrier to entry is, and the more likely it is they won't keep playing your game.  If you target audience is more casual players new to this genre that don't play a ton of PC games but think this game might be cool... the truth is those people will pick up this game.... run into issues connecting... maybe try a few times, and never play again.  Only the more dedicated players will continue playing and the community will be small at that.  Call it what you want, but if this game is trying to compete with DoTA, where only one person (the host) needs to have their ports open for 9 ppl to connect to him alone and play.... it is much easier to get online in that game... that it is in this one... because as a player I don't need to do squat to play... only to host.

Sounds like a dead game.  If the host leaves the room, the game will sometimes stay in the list.  This is especially true of games at the top of the list.

Keep in mind that Impulse Phase 3 (the current version of Impulse) includes the Impulse Reactor, which supposedly has advanced NAT negotiation features. I assume that the NAT negotiation isn't quite working as intended (networking is a real pain and it's unreasonable to expect a NAT-related tool to work on all systems on day 1), so stand by and you should be able to connect without any router modification in the near future.

@ VoW-Kryo:

Why is your MonkeyLord missing 2 legs?

Sorry for OT, but I MUST know.

This game has so much potential...I love the single player mode.

I'm still not able to get into a game. I've tried skirmish, pantheon, join custom games and so forth. I have my ports opened as per the guide and I can connect some people but there's always other people that don't connect and the game never starts. Also, joining custom games usually says "failed to join".

I was able to get as far as trying to host a game w/ the arena selection panel up but no one joined my game.

It's disappointing as this seems to be a great game w/ poor launch execution.

Or maybe I'm just doing something wrong.

However, it shouldn't be so hard to play the game the way it was intended to be played.

Please help.

This happens to me too. I'm not sure exactly what it means, but I've noticed that sometimes it seems that this is caused by the game being full (perhaps by people still attempting to connect). More descriptive errors would be nice.

I seem to have gotten a grasp of this p2p thingy.

To Vow-Kyro,
I thought that port forwarding and all that actually helped but it didn't. So what I did was to find people who were in the same country/region and play with them.

Guess what. It worked.

You may want to try to play with those in the same city or town. I know it's a little strange since for most games, I can play with US/EU players just fine, just that Demigod is a bit picky on who it chooses to shake hands with.

With that in mind. Pantheon games and Skirmish games are unplayable for me at the moment because the system does not know how to differentiate where I'm from. Custom games however, work like a charm. 

It is not the developers fault, to the guy who posted above, you are completely right.  He is a gamer and I assume he spends quite a bit of time on his PC, knowing his router and how to work with it will do him good.  I did not know how to port forward my router until I could not host games in Warcraft, now it is pretty ezy pzy.

Some superstitions that may be true from the testing me and several people did a couple nights ago trying to get a custom game working.

1) Failed to join game means the game room is dead.  The host left, but the server's still showing the room.  You can't join a room that no longer exists.  In fact, if you were the host, you might even see your own room in the list sometimes.

2) Failed to join game means the host created a game room with the same name as a room that was 1).  Change the names of your room.

3) The more people joining at once, the more likely nobody can join the room, because everyone has to make connections with everyone for you to enter the lobby.  If you're on vent or in-game chat, it's best to have one person join after the other instead of all at the same time.  Not as much of a problem with the kicking mechanism.

4) Check your ports.  Ok you forwarded your ports, but use a tool and check it really is open, there are several around the forum.  You may not be doing it right or there may be something else going on.

5) Even with open ports, if you have a crappy connection, e.g. someone's file-sharing on your connection, you may still not be able to join.

It's true that one should have a basic grasp of network connection in order to be playing online games, but you have to look at the big picture.

You paid for the game, with the assumption that it will work, that you can play both SP and MP, and that you don't really have to be doing anything else except installing it. Does the box say "Some assembly or modification required?" I think not. By all means, I'm sure many of us could easily reconfigure routers, but what about the people who can't?

For example:
University Connections
Locked Routers (for you kids out there)

In either of those situations, people are not going to be able to do anything about the router issue, most commonly the first in all likelihood. I'll be honest, I love the game, and I don't mind doing a few modifications to my home router to play it, but many people can't and shouldn't have to.

You can sit and gloat all you want if you're a techie: "if you own a computer you should be able to deal with all problems associated with it, yadda yadda i can do it haha yadda yadda". There are people out there who don't know the things you do. Give it a rest. Not everyone has spent as much time learning all of the intricacies of computer networking as you and I. Sheesh.

Well, to put things in perspective, back when I was at university, most Valve games did not work. Valve's response was, "Too bad."

At least Stardock is putting forward an honest effort to get things working for players, regardless of router configuration.

I think thats abit of a bad comparison. Uni networks are extremely restricted for a reason, thats not really the fault of a game company.

That's not my point. Stardock isn't saying "well it's not our fault," which is the response other companies would give. My point is that Stardock is doing its best to make things work in all sorts of environments.

Well put Raike. The reality is most games live or die within 2 weeks of launch. If the masses cannot connect by pushing an in-game button that says connect, they are going to walk. The game will end up with tons of lame reviews which will steer many more away before even trying to push the connect button. When the dust settles you'll end up with a small community and diminished profits and everyone wringing their hands. 

in some cases it helps, if your router is up2date and has a new firmware.

try this one.

For those of you complaining about port forwarding--you have to do it with consoles too.  It's a requirement of the Internet, not of the game.  Granted, I think that a server-to-client paradigm could work fine with Demigod, which would solve some of the issues; it would just require more of a server than most RTS games do, something more on the lines of FPS servers.

Would people pay $30/month or so for external servers for a RTS game?