I also tried to host and have horrible lags.
It also lags on my computer, close to always in every game. I forwarded Port 6100-6200. My download Speed is around 25000 kbit/s (3000 kbyte/s) and my upload speed around 2600 kbit/s (320 kbyte/s)... My hardware is also more then enough to play the game.
Its really no fun to play laggy games. Its annoying if every second it freezes for two seconds. I wonder why it can't just be the way that only the people who have a bad connection lag. Why does everyone have to lag?
And no, its not my computer or not possible to do it different. Warcraft 3 for example works perfectly well. If someone lags then its only him that lags (as long as it isn't a real major lag) and in 90% of the times the games are perfect even with 12 players. So why does Demigod have to freeze every some seconds?!
I considered getting the game but like that - no way. Its really taking away a lot of the fun while playing if it isn't running smooth.
My ping is pretty good (ping google.de = 24ms), my upload speed is also more then high enough. Its higher then the download speed of most guys that have 'normal' DSL 3000 or something... So if its not working with me then it probably is not working with anyone.
I understand that it transfers different data then warcraft but come on... It can't be THAT much compared to other games. If > 80% of the games that have 6 players do lag all the time that really is not even debatable.
So yeah, i'm kinda glad that i now tried the demo and was not buying the game.
They use servers rather than p2p. By having servers, 1 person sends the sam info to everyone and only recieves info from each person about their individual actions. In p2p, everyone runs the simulation and sends there sim with their individual actions to EVERYONE else. This means in p2p you send at minimum 5 times the info if you are not the server. Since most people have limited upload, this is the main cause of people's issues.
Why can't they use servers in Demigod like it is the case in most of the games that work perfectly well? I don't get it ...
I should tell that i just played 4 games. The lag issue was also there but maybe its just a coincidence and the next 4 games will be without lag, who knows...