Let's go through a couple of points here and then I'm going to lock this thread.
I am more concerned with Stardock. Sins of the Solar Empire was a terrific success but they are too busy with Impulse in the hopes of becoming the next Steam. I wonder how much different Demigod would have been if Stadock abandoned all the money and time wasted on Impulse and just concentrated on developing good games. P2P was a mistake. They should at least offer client/server as an option. They should open it up to modders (I get tired of hearing that they can't because maps are 3D models - all modders have access to 2D software, this is just and excuse). They really need to address some ongoing issues like sound problems esp. with USB devices.
Stardock did not develop Demigod. Nor did Stardock develop Sins of a Solar Empire. In both cases, Stardock is the publisher. Sins of a Solar Empire is client/server. Demigod is peer to peer. Those choices were not made by Stardock. Stardock's work on Impulse has nothing to do with Demigod.
Demigod does not use Impulse for multiplayer. It never has. Impulse does not provide multiplayer connection services.
it takes me 3 hours of searching each night to play 1 or 2 games.
I'm sorry but this is nonsense. Unless there is something seriously wrong with your setup or your ISP, most people can get going in a custom game in a few minutes.
Now that said, as I've outlined elsewhere, Pantheon and Skirmish is still horrible. Custom games are still not ideal.
no wonder Atari is in big money problems atm, you release a game with alpha netcode
sorry but somebody has to say it right?
Yes. You're a real hero as no one has brought up Demigod's connectivity problems. It's amazing because in the 7 weeks the game has been out, no one has made a post or commented about Demigod having even the slighest problem with its netcode...
Opening a few ports to play a game, yes you need to do that for some other games too that's normal, but the problems most of us have with trying to play a game online it's UNACCEPTABLE n/o
We agree. Stardock - THE NORTH AMERICAN PUBLISHER - came to the same conclusion and took developers off its other projects to intervene to create a new system that took it from being completely broken to merely unacceptable. We didn't throw the problem into GPG's lap nor did we turn it over to Atari. Our name is on the box and we made a decision to take care of it.
If you wonder why most publishers and developers don't interact with customers, this thread is a perfect example of it. Threads like this make me think of people being pissed off at the firemen because they didn't put out the fire fast enough in their house.
CLEARLY the game shipped without enough stress testing on the NAT fascilitator the game used. I think that's obvious. We all agree. An entirely new one had to be developed. It has gotten a lot better for people and it will continue to get a lot better.
But it does no good at all for people to make posts like this trashing us. To be honest, it makes me want to say "screw it" and just close the "shitty forums".
We know, for a fact, that most people can play online without incident. How do we know? Because the system tracks each connection attempt and each connection abort or fail. Hence, we know that 90%+ people can play custom games fine. Skirmish and pantheon are a different matter.
As the publisher of the game, we are doing everything (and then some) to resolve these problems as quickly as possible. I'm sorry that's not fast enough for you. It's the best we can do.
I am a big believer in market forces. Anyone who feels Stardock has somehow not been doing its best to make good fixing problems that are its responsibility but are not of its doing should vote with their wallets and never purchase anything from us again because frankly, it's a two-way street. Anyone who doesn't think we're providing a good service to them is not someone I would want as a customer.
