How long do you have to wait for a game?

[mmaestro]

So the last couple of nights, I've hopped online to try and get a quick game with real people instead of the CPU. Nothing. Now, i'm probably at a disadvantage that I live in the US Mountain Time Zone, and can only really get the time at 10:30 or 11:30, which is 5:30am in the UK, but I've sat around waiting for a game for 10 minutes and found nothing, I've tried hosting and nobody comes, the servers just seem dead. How long do y'all normally have to wait, and what sort of hours do you normally play?

[Feud]

I don't wait for games, games wait for me.

They usually wait around 3-5 minutes.

[Nimbus]

Everytime I go on it takes 30 seconds to 1 minute to get in game. Looks like you can't connect the the metaserver or something along those lines.

[mmaestro]

I've seen a few games running, maybe a dozen at most, usually less, but only once have I seen an open game (and he quit as I tried to join). I'm guessing it's just the time zone.

[RabidZombie]

That's probably because no one can connect to you.

[Artemis]

I'm normally on after 7pm UK time and there aren't many servers about, but if I host a game it takes only a couple of minutes to fill a 4-player map.

Hosting seems to be the way to go, I'm guessing there's a fair number of people just waiting to join. Plus, it means I get to up the crate drop rate...

If nobody joins when you host I'd agree with RabidZombie, it might be worth checking the threads about connection problems. See if you can arrange with someone to double check that it actually is possible for people to join your servers.

[Donat]

I just host under the guise of "Join Now!" So people know i'm not AFK and click all the faster since your name is = to the game's name.

[Puzzlemaker]

make sure your ports are open; people can't join otherwise.

[mmaestro]

Well, I had the chance to give it a try this afternoon (evening UK, obviously).

So. Many. Games.

So I think the problem fundamentally is I'm trying to play at a time that most people just aren't online. Oh, and irony of ironies - first game I managed to successfully join, was a guy wondering why his CPU was talking back at him....

[deeCee.]

I always host games and theres always sum1 who joins in like 2 seconds.

[tabasco boy]

I've seen a few games running, maybe a dozen at most, usually less, but only once have I seen an open game (and he quit as I tried to join). I'm guessing it's just the time zone.

thats strange i see a dozen or more everyday and it could get packed. try checking your firewall or router settings maybe there something there preventing you from connecting to the server properly.

or probably its your ISP trying to throttle back as i been hearing lately.

[MrBunsy]

or probably its your ISP trying to throttle back as i been hearing lately.

I doubt they would decide to block just IV's master server, and if for some reason they did you'd have a good reason to demand a refund (from your ISP, not IV)

[tabasco boy]

or probably its your ISP trying to throttle back as i been hearing lately.

I doubt they would decide to block just IV's master server, and if for some reason they did you'd have a good reason to demand a refund (from your ISP, not IV)

you wont believe what those ISP's are up to lately. it doesn't have to be IV metserver i could be some services/ports thats generally used by other progams aswell. i noticed lately that once in a while ISP's block certain ports in the 6000-16000 range especially comcast, cox (US) im sure NTL and BT (UK) does the same too.

and some of them controls the uploads/downloads due to excess bandwidth consumed by certain customers but due to lots of complain they're trying to clean up their act.

here's one of a dozen news http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Bell-Canada-Throttles-Wholesalers-Doesnt-Bother-To-Tell-Them-92915

http://consumerist.com/consumer/leaks/comcasts-we-dont-throttle-bittorrent-internal-talking-points-memo-315791.php

http://www.physorg.com/news94981460.html