How to improve Network Play?

Hi. I'm not exactly sure where to post this. Figured the technical forums would be better but I'm not lamenting about some bug. Decided to just post in GQ so bear with me.

First off, I'd like to thank SI for bringing such a great game. I've been with you guys since CM2 and FM2010 is by far the best gaming experience in the series I've had yet (since the conversion to FM ).

Anyway, i decided to FM on a network with a friend. Haven't done this since FM07. We've experienced this slowdown thats rather annoying. After clicking continue, the status says "Waiting" on my screen (i'm hosting) but over on my friend's pc, its stuck at processing.

I've had some suspicions on the possible causes but rather than fiddling around, i figured it would be best to try and post this. Hopefully there would be gamers who are more experienced with the network code/system?

I'm hosting on an adequate e6750 with enough ram and a GTS250. My mate's on a weaker laptop thats a lil dated but capable of running FM satisfactorily. We're both on broadband so connection speed should not be an issue. Anyway, on to the suspects ,

1) Leagues - I have Dutch, German, French, Spanish as view only (defaults for depth levels), with English as playable.

Could this multiple leagues caused a strain on the laptop? I always assumed that a large percentage of the processing would be done on the host pc. If so, it shouldn't be an issue as i play with a greater number of leagues in my solo game and it's been a breeze.

2) Windowed - I run windowed but my friend runs full-screen. He has a habit of alt-tabbing out.

I know processing doesn't halt when in windowed mode (and I'm in a different program window). I'm not sure if it halts or slows down when you alt-tab out in a regular full-screen mode.

3) Scouting - See below

OK i admit. I've gotten a little lazy with this. I have a habit of just loading up my compiled shortlist and getting my scouts to scout every player. Sounds alright yes? Problem is my shortlist has about 600+ players hehe. Not sure if this is causing the slowdowns.

Anyway, those 3 are all i've got at the moment. Would appreciate if any of you gamers who play network games more frequently to chime in. Any advice?

Any kind soul can offer some advice?

Whats the game speed and the computer peformance in terms of stars? Try port forwarding your router, turn off all ant-viruses(on both computers)

Head to the network forum, thats why your getting no responses. I am suprised this hasnt been yet. The mods must be getting lazy:D

5 and 4 stars. Thanks for the suggestions. Didn't occur to me to post in the online forum

the slowdown is a given its always happened unfortunatly me and my mate just try to muster on , also the processing time in network games is werid, for instance ive found in single player i hit continue i go forward 1 maybe 2 days, in the network game i jump forward 12 hours ive followed all advice from the online forum but unfortunatly it doesnt seem possible to get a considerable speed boost

a speed boost was gained when i upgraded my broadband to 10mb (but thats understandable)

There will always be a lag in multiplayer as connections are made player to player rather than a dedicated server.

As for processing you can set an option that makes all players continue after a certain amount of time (e.g. after 50% click continue count down for 1 minute before forcing to continue.)

I do wish SI could implement support for Dedicated Servers, official or 3rd party.

i understand there will be lag but its bad when you click something and it takes an age before anything happens, (Thats with no AV runniong port forwarding done and both on 10mb (10 down 1 up) connections

There will always be a lag in multiplayer as connections are made player to player rather than a dedicated server.

As for processing you can set an option that makes all players continue after a certain amount of time (e.g. after 50% click continue count down for 1 minute before forcing to continue.)

I do wish SI could implement support for Dedicated Servers, official or 3rd party.

Already set up forced continue. That out of sync processing is rather annoying. I'm beginning to suspect that certain elements aren't processed on the host machine, but on other players machines ?? Might explain the processing on the other side.

The multiple leagues even although they are view only may have a bearing on the processing taking so long. It just adds to the amount of data processed.

What's the upload speed for your bb connection and whoever is playing with you?

Haven´t tried online gaming on FM10, but on FM05 -> FM09 everything has runned smoothly. Will report back tomorrow after our first game online on FM10..

It's your upload speed that matters. Most people even if they have great dl speeds have pathetic upload speeds. Only run the league you are playing in. Turn off sounds and all other options.

Whenever we have the issue that one guy is on processing, the guy could so far also notice the problem by seeing that in the background the continue icon was already back at 'continue' instead of 'waiting'.

Easy solution whenever this happens: Manually stop the processing as the affected user by clicking the browse tab and then you are back in play with hardly any delay if you keep an eye on the background when feeling it takes longer than it should

hth

Ah thats an idea. Never thought of that before. I'll check with my friend if he can do that instead. Thanks for the suggestion.

To AndyH: Not exactly sure about the upload speed but it definitely should not be less than 512kbps. I don't think that the connection is the problem though as we've played in a similar fashion on other games and the lag isn't that bad. Unless of course FM2010 sends a lot more packets of information throughout as compared to other games?

I would imagine FM sends a lot more information than other games but I could be wrong.

What speed is your internet connection and what ISP are you with/