Rediculously long freezes and NAT issues

from Demigod Forums

Whenever I Browse custom games in Demigod the game simply locks up on me. Sometimes I'll get lucky and it wont freeze and I'll be able to attempt to join a game only to be unable to connect for some reason, which then causes the game to freeze. This issue isn't limited to the custom games browser; sometimes i happens to me while trying to log in, or even when I try to skip the intro video.

Secondly, whenever I am lucky enough to join my friend's games (which is rare) everything seems fine until I end up timing out to the host and it says something to the extent of "NAT Facilitator Error".

What is really bothering me is the incessant freezing. I can't go 20 seconds without the game completely locking on me, and whats even worse about this is that at least half of the time the freezes are so bad it forces me to manually restart my PC because I can't alt-tab, control alt delete, press the windows key, ect.

I have really enjoyed the little that I have actually played (In fact I'd say im really loving it) and I don't want to request a refund. If this is a problem on my end please tell me how to fix it.

2,336 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top

The menu hangs and freezes are very annoying... I think they know about this issue and are workign on it.

 

Generally when I get a menu freeze, I don't bother frustrating myself continually restarting and trying again and again... I just exit out go do somethign else for 10-30mns and come back and it's generally better.

 

I'm sure the issue will be fixed soon...

Reply #2 from Demigod Forums Top

Im just a clueless player and not really been haxoring the code to figure out exactly WHY it does that, but my experiences are same if that offers any help, heh.

The code seem to be done in a way that if pantheon server is lagging and not working as suggested or ping is too long or any number of the reasons your free to pull out of a magicians hat it simply freezes the program AND your computer. The priority of waiting/requesting soem connection with pantheon servers exceeds priority of all other stuff running your programs and its frozen until that data comes or... not. Supposedly after they get server issues ironed out that wiating time should be considerably less at the very least.

I personally wish it would not been coded in that way, it is as you say rather tiring and annoying.

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Demigod Forums Top

Yea, basically the cause is there are still not enough servers to handle all the connection requests. We added a lot of servers today but there's a bunch more being prepped as well for tomorrow. 

The reason it gets slow is that it makes an HTTP request to get some data on one of the servers and that's basicaly the time it's taking for it to get a response.  

Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top

Thanks for the response. I'll surely try playing tomorrow.

Reply #5 from Demigod Forums Top

I have the same issues with freezing in the custom games browser and also a complete inabilty to get into a multiplayer game.  I go through the weird "attempting to connect to/connected to" thing, but I never wind up in a game lobby, I just get "you have been disconnected from the NAT facilitator".  A couple times I've had to bring up task manager to close Demigod because it generated a fatal error after an especially long freeze following a failure to start a multiplayer game.  

I've done all the port forwarding and everything as yet suggested, all to no avail.  I was sort of enjoying the single player game until I started noticing weird bugs in the AI opponent -- at one point the enemy Demigod literally went into a corner and gave up. One of my minions just kept hacking away at him and he didn't attempt to move or fight back for at least five minutes (I took pity on him and killed him with my Demigod hoping he would respawn and get back his will to live -- he did.)

I guess I'll just put this one on the shelf and stay tuned for news that it's come out of beta.

Reply #6 from Demigod Forums Top

mcbond, I had the same error and found it was an issue with my router's firmware.  I have a dir-655 and updated from 1.21 to 1.22 beta firmware and do not receive the NAT facilitator message anymore, and am able to connect to games and play.  That said, it still takes a lot of trial & error, time, and patience to get into a working game, and once there, it takes a lot of luck to not have 1 or all players drop and be exchanged for ai's.  I'm frustrated, but I'm gonna be as patient and hopeful as I can.  Tomorrow's another day :p

Reply #7 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 3
Yea, basically the cause is there are still not enough servers to handle all the connection requests. We added a lot of servers today but there's a bunch more being prepped as well for tomorrow. 

The reason it gets slow is that it makes an HTTP request to get some data on one of the servers and that's basicaly the time it's taking for it to get a response.  
End of Frogboy's quote

But why does it wait? Come on! I haven't seen any of you Stardock reply to this question yet: why aren't these requests asynchronous?

If websites that use AJAX like Google weren't asynchronous, your browser would freeze while they make the HTTP request. Run these requests in a separate thread so the program doesn't freeze! I thought this was common sense for programmers.

There doesn't seem to be a timeout either... so if the server is down, it will just sit there for eternity.

Reply #8 from Demigod Forums Top

Run these requests in a separate thread so the program doesn't freeze! I thought this was common sense for programmers.
End of quote

Well having to handle asynchronous request is more complicated and more error prone than handling synchronous one.

And in any case, there will be a moment where you need to wait for the request to come back with the answer before doing anything else.

Reply #9 from Demigod Forums Top

It's not as complicated as you make it out to be... and I don't think it's more error prone at all.

And no, that's unacceptable. Why is this the only game that freezes when doing stuff like this? This is bad coding, period.

Reply #10 from Demigod Forums Top

I find P2P connection saturate the network completely and it tends to slow down everything.

 

Reply #11 from Demigod Forums Top

I can download via a dedicated server at my maximum connection and still be able to access VPN to my work without too much lag.

If I try doing that with a torrent running, no chance.......