While I've been having no problems with connecting to games, I HAVE been having identical problems with the chat overlay. Same error message as one displayed in your first image.

ERROR: Closing Link: MyName[~MyName@IP address] (Excess Flood)

I've actually been recieving exactly the same problem when dealing with the chat system in "The Political Machine '08 Express", so I'm thinking it is probably a personal system/firewall conflict with the Impulse Reactor, rather than Demigod itself. If it is of any consequence, I am running XP service pack 3, and I'm hiding behind a "Norton Internet Security 2005" firewall.

I had the same problems here, but I just solved it. If any of you are using PeerGuardian, it is now blocking Stardock's IP when it's accessing Demigod for multiplayer. Right click on the blocked Stardock and Cognet Communications (it pops up every time Demigod accesses multiplayer) and select allow. Worked for me

OK, not everyone has PeerGuardian, but if what I saw was any indication, something is blocking Stardock's IP when multiplayer is accessed, and that is causing the problem.

I'm having exactly the same problem. I haven't been able to join or host any games, which means I haven't played a single game yet. Quite a bit annoying considering I payed for this. I forwarded the requested ports but I still get the "CVP host fail error" message and "attempt to join game failed" message. The strange thing when I try to host games is that sometimes it says it hosted on port 0 (auto on or not). But I think that has nothing to do with the error message I get because I get it anyway even if it managed to host on the recommended 6073 port. I'm not using a firewall or this peerguardian (windows firewall is set to unblock demigod and impulse). I also tried it with the windows firewall off and it remains the same. I'm using windows xp service pack 3. I don't know much about such stuff but in case it's importent I recently had to enable UPnP for another game in order to play it (and it solved that problem) but for demigod it didn't work (no clue if these problems are connected).

How can it be a firewall problem if I can play either pantheon games and Beta3 games. Besides, there is no response yet from SD/GPG.

Called my provider and they said they'll take a look. Now everything works, i can join and host games and finally enjoy it. The only thing is I'm not sure whether the new update or my provider did the job thanks Twisted for the hint!

The old error is back in today's new beta. Plus, every new update are 400MB for me, instead of the 1.25MB

Try typing /reconnect in the ingame windows several times. I could connect twice with that, not worth it but still works.