downloading now...

Patch notes?

Is it required, no (that's what the NAT facilitator is for).  Is it a good idea? Absolutely.  If you know what you're doing and feel comfortable making the changes in your router, forward those ports.  You can also use the ImpulseReactorOptions app located in the Demigod\bin directory to specify the ports used on your machine.  This is extremely useful if you have 2 people on the same LAN that want to play online, as you cannot forward the same ports to 2 separate machines.

You got upnp or something happening possibly

Thanks for the reply, Shirley.

I have been having difficulty opening ports on my computer (I've followed the various helpful links in this forum, but when I use a port checker, the ports remain closed and I remain unable to connect to any online Demigod game), so I'm hoping that there is a way to play Demigod online without having to open ports.

Nope, the NAT Facilitator allows this.  Firewalls for the most part will prevent unsolicited incoming network traffic (that is traffic where the original message is sent from outside the firewall).  When you connect to the NAT Facilitator, it is connecting you to someone else, but because the connection originated with your outbound request, replies are allowed through.  This is why you can still connect to the web with a firewall on.  The web just can't connect to you.

A good way to think of it is by imagining people in the game having phones that can only dial out, but cannot receive calls.  How do you call someone?  You would dial the operator, and have the person you want to connect to dial the operator as well, and the operator connects the calls.  This is basically what the NAT facilitator does.  It acts as the operator.