[FIXED!] Not able to create games

[Stryck]

I'm getting the same problems, I can get into the main menu, but can't make a new game, do the rolling demo, or a tutorial. It just sits at the preparing screen doing nothing.

Things I have tried: Reinstalling Defcon (3 times), reinstalling Steam entirely (once), rebooting (once), all to no effect. As you can see it authenticates fine, just goes no further.

Here's my debug.txt file:

Defcon 1.0 steam built Sep 26 2006
Parsing archive main.dat...DONE
Parsing archive sounds.dat...DONE
Client listening on port 5011
Parsing Coastline data (1776 islands) : 47ms
Parsing International data (2753 islands) : 20ms
Parsing City data (2745 cities) : 30ms
Authentication key set : 'Sxxxxxxxxx
Connection established to MetaServer, listening on Port 5009
Steam Authentication Initiated
Steam Authentication : Starting Steam
Steam Authentication : Starting Steam API
Requesting data from MetaServer : LatestVersion
Requesting data from MetaServer : MOTD
Steam Authentication : Logging On To Steam
Steam Authentication : Getting Steam Id
Steam Authentication : SteamID = 76561197968734218
Steam Authentication : Getting Encryption Details
Requesting authentication of key xxxxxxxxx
Received data from MetaServer : LatestVersion
Received data from MetaServer : MOTD
Received Authentication : xxxxxxxx : (keyID xxxx) : Accepted
Authentication HashToken set to -1609806939
Requesting data from MetaServer : UpdateURL
Requesting data from MetaServer : sb
CLIENT : Disconnected
Server started on port 5010
CLIENT : Attempting connection to Server at 0.1.0.4:5010...
Received data from MetaServer : UpdateURL
Received data from MetaServer : sb
Steam Authentication : Getting Steam2 Auth
Steam Authentication : Getting Steam3 Auth
Started requesting public IP:port for socket 5080
MetaServer enabling UDP broadcast for LAN discovery...SUCCESS
MetaServer : WAN registration enabled
MetaServer : LAN registration enabled
Steam Authentication : Requesting Authentication
Socket 5080 identified as public IP 67.161.92.83:65202
Steam Authentication Accepted : FULL GAME USER
Authentication key set : 'xxxxxxxxxxx'
Requesting data from MetaServer : ServerTTL
Received data from MetaServer : ServerTTL
CLIENT : Disconnected
SERVER : Shutting down...
SERVER : Shut down complete
Disconnected from MetaServer

[nameghino]

My guess, and this is without being able to see the code; you should be more informed to check this, is that because there's no clean exit, defcon doesn't release the socket requests correctly. Since they still exist, the next time it tries to use the sockets, windows tells defcon to bugger off and defcon then manages to pluck out of thin air a random set of numbers (at a thought, could be an error number return code), and use it as an IP. Restarting would fix this if the system in question had no problems freeing the sockets, but if a router or the network deviced holds on to the sockets after a reset, the problem can re-occur.

If none of this is correct, please slap me for spouting crap at 4am

NeoThermic

It's a very clever thought, and could be the reason, but, for that to happen, Defcon must run ok once, stay opened, and then be run again. In my case, I installed Defcon from scratch, first time, and then went into the tutorial. Nothing happened. Tried to create game, nothing happened...

Hope that helps

[andee]

I'm having a problem like this running under wine. The moment I select a menu item the will start the game engine, I get this pagefault (Wine 0.9.21)

fixme:winedbg:be_i386_is_func_call Unsupported yet call insn (0x10) at 0x7eec58d9
First chance exception: page fault on read access to 0x0000000c in 32-bit code (0x004194b4).
Register dump:
CS:0073 SS:007b DS:007b ES:007b FS:003b GS:0033
EIP:004194b4 ESP:0034faac EBP:00f83b30 EFLAGS:00010246( - 00 -RIZP1)
EAX:00000000 EBX:0050c4e8 ECX:00110020 EDX:00110024
ESI:0034fae0 EDI:00f84708
Stack dump:
0x0034faac: ffffffff 00f83b30 0050c4e8 0034fde4
0x0034fabc: 004df05b 6fe4a249 0046a7cd 0046a7d6
0x0034facc: 6fe4a235 006708a8 00000002 00000000
0x0034fadc: 826f8c36 65646e61 00000065 00000000
0x0034faec: 00000004 00177df0 00052b70 00000000
0x0034fafc: 00000001 00000000 00000000 00000000
fixme:ntdll:RtlNtStatusToDosErrorNoTeb no mapping for c0000119
Backtrace:
=>1 0x004194b4 in defcon (+0x194b4) (0x004194b4)
2 0x00000000 (0x00000000)
0x004194b4: movl 0xc(%eax),%edx

Hope this is useful!!

[Steven]

I'm having a problem like this running under wine.

I've said this before, the Linux port is in development. Be patient!

[Megatron-UK]

My guess, and this is without being able to see the code; you should be more informed to check this, is that because there's no clean exit, defcon doesn't release the socket requests correctly. Since they still exist, the next time it tries to use the sockets, windows tells defcon to bugger off and defcon then manages to pluck out of thin air a random set of numbers (at a thought, could be an error number return code), and use it as an IP. Restarting would fix this if the system in question had no problems freeing the sockets, but if a router or the network deviced holds on to the sockets after a reset, the problem can re-occur.

If none of this is correct, please slap me for spouting crap at 4am

NeoThermic

It's a very clever thought, and could be the reason, but, for that to happen, Defcon must run ok once, stay opened, and then be run again. In my case, I installed Defcon from scratch, first time, and then went into the tutorial. Nothing happened. Tried to create game, nothing happened...

Hope that helps

This is exactly what happened in my situation. I purchased and downloaded the game, authenticated ok and then tried to start a new game and play a tutorial - I got nothing. I could exit the game cleanly and found in the log file a similar junk IP address (0.1.0.5 or something).

There is something clearly wrong with the client/server network code, as this is happening with quite a few people. Despite everything I do, I cannot get the game to play.

This should really be submitted as a bug report that needs sorting asap.

[leegent]

Same thing happens to me, looks like the server is binding to the first available network interface.
Unfortunately in my case, my first interface ('Local Area Connection') is the 'Microsoft TV/Video Connection'. A quick 'ipconfig' reveals the IP address for this interface: 0.1.0.4.
Look familiar?

I'm gonna try disabling that interface or, at least, unbinding TCP/IP from it. With a bit of luck, that'll fix it.

[Megatron-UK]

I'll check when I get home from work tonight, but if that's the case, then there really needs to be a drop down selection within the options menu to allow the user to choose which network adaptor to use (these days most people have more than one; especially laptop users with IR, 802.11 and Bluetooth).

If someone is only trying to play a local game or tutorial it makes little sense to try and bind to an external interface (whether ethernet or a usb modem) - the most sensible option would be to use the loopback device (127.0.0.1), as that will be available on any system with TCP/IP enabled.

[leegent]

Bingo!
I unbound TCP/IP (Windows won't let me delete the connection and I can't be bothered to faff around with safe mode) and now the Lobby window finally pops up.
At last, I can play at work

[Megatron-UK]

I have now confirmed that this is the cause of the problem in my case also.

I've had to disable my bluetooth, firewire, and onboard NIC in order to get the game to use my additional pci-x gigabit NIC.

If the developers are reading this, then please please please change the default behaviour so that the user can choose which interface to bind the server process to.

Resorting to the 'route' & 'ipconfig' to diagnose which interface the game is trying to use and then disabling additional network interfaces in order to get the game to run is not really a good solution.

Alternatively, do like I said, and make the processes connect to 127.0.0.1 by default and then let the user choose which interface to use for internet/lan play.

[leegent]

Glad to hear it

Why not edit the original post title to include 'FIXED' or something in it, in case others have the same problem?

[hubbla]

ive encountered the same problem (tutorial, new game and join game doesn't work)
but i still don't know how to fix it. would you please describe in small steps how this
could be fixed??

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------add

it works after ive added steam.dll; steam_api.dll; tier0_s.dll and vstdlib_s.dll to the
\Valve\SteamApps\common\defcon folder. those dlls were in ...\Valve.
now all the demo functions seem to work as they're supposed to.

[MadSeven]

Same problem here; did a reinstall, a reboot, then noticed under tools; network....
The ServerSeqID starts looking for a free ID, starting at 0....since it does about 2 per second, a 15000 second wait should see you clear of the problem
Neo; the sockets should be clean after a reboot, or timed out after a full day work really...? A router and/or network device holding the socket for hours on end?

[MadSeven]

I am currently debugging this issue, and I believe it is either a high-load issue on the metaserver (in which case, you may just need to wait it out) or it could be NAT problems. Can you guys please tell what brand and model number your router is? Moreover, tell whether or not you have one (for those who haven't specified)?

Steven, are you any further with this? The game has worked fine since launch, then this behaviour started yesterday. Router nor firewall were changed, I am more inclined to think there is an issue with sockets. I'm currently watching ServerSeqID count from 0 to ....( it just passed 5333). According to the tools -> network I am (server) sending out 0.0 KB/s and receiving the same. Client SEQID is on -1, sending 0.1 Kb/s, receiving 0.
Defcon IS however happily broadcasting (port 5009 to 255.255.255.255), and equally happily being dropped by ISA04. No other traffic seems to be coming from Defcon at all.
I have the same; CLIENT : Attempting connection to Server at 10.6.2.11:14561, however, that is my PC's ip.
I did not change the default ports for defcon either.
*puzzle*
[EDIT] Disabling then enabling the NIC does indeed work, still intrigued to know why...And yes, it's the only network interface, no bluetooth, MYTV, serials, USB-dongles, Nada...[/EDIT]