First, to be honest the HOI multiplayer is actually still far from being "playeable" like other multiplayer games. It's only for the patient and people who can take a lot of frustration without giving up. But... the reward is well worth it!!!
So if you are impatient and look for a "Battle Net"-like multiplayer you can actually stop reading (hopefully till the next patch is out). But if you are patient and have a lot of time chances are good that you'll be surprised how much fun HOI is in multiplayer - and you will find what singleplayer could not give you.
You might ask why I posted here and not in the Multiplayer-Forum - the reason is simple: This post is for the people who logged into VNet, saw nobody, continued singleplayer and will prolly not take a look into it as long as they don't know WHY they did see no one. My intention is that after reading and discussing here in the thread those people WILL visist the Multiplayer-Forum and discuss there - and also give VNet a 2nd shot...
Ok, here we go:
1. VNet
Ok, you wondering why no one is in VNet? Well, to some degree people are simply in a running game and are not shown in VNet. The other issue is that due to the still not that huge playerbase in multiplayer a lot of people log on, see no one listed and log out. 30 seconds later one more takes a look and logs out. If they'd stay 5-15 minutes they'd prolly find enough players for MP, but oh well...
The few people who don't log out fast but rather go afk have the problem that they can leave no message "be right back" "afkitchen" or whatever, so other people log on, say "hi", no one answers and so they log out again.
Conclusion: be patient. Stay in VNet. If someone does not answer he is prolly afk. If you're lucky he is right back or a game that just lost a player needs a replacement (suddenly a bunch of players show up and ask you to join a savegame) - and you can finally show your skills (unless he messed it up and that's the reason why he left, hehe).
2. The Host
HOI has a LOT of data to manage. Especially in wartime. You really need a good host or you will lag like hell.
Conclusion: A good host is the most important thing. From my experience 1MBit+ will work for 8 players. The UPSTREAM is usually the bottleneck (I have 768down but only 128up for example) - so check who got the best line and let him host.
3. Getting Started
Ok, you got 8 ppl ready to rumble? That's nice, but sometimes people drop (esp. after downloading savegames). Same goes for people joining and leaving a game before it's launched. So you might need a few tries till it runs and pray for no new player to log into the game right when the original players getting back in. Best is to meet in a different channel...
Conclusion: This is the most annoying part. Finally you got all players, but the game crashes *sigh* - be patient, it WILL pay out
4. The Game
There we go. You got 10+ hours spare time and want to have fun? You will have it - congratulations
Conclusion: HOI MP games need a LOT of time, but if someone leaves (as long as its not the host) you can continue the savegame later or simply find someone new to continue.
Ok, sounds not like fun to you?
Hmm, what about reading some in the MP forum?
Especially AAR's can give you a slight feeling how much fun MP is.
But: MP is not SP - your "enemies" are usually pretty clever and can - for example - make a very successfull sea landing.
In my last finsihed game (10 hours playtime) Japan and Italy had a HUGE battle with UK and Australia in India. Must have been like 40+ divisions on both sides. Unfortunately that opened the USA the chance to land with 20+ Divisions in Japan (besides that China and USSR DOWed Japan too) and *SPLAT* we lost. As Germany like six months ago I did not want to DOW Turkey and Persia to keep US WE from exploding - but in the end that could have at least saved the divisions there *sigh* (Battle in India started long ago and grew bigger and bigger - so don't think we were totally clueless, think it became a personal thing between Japan and the UK, hehe).
In the finished game before (14 hours playtime) I played russia and had nothing to do (except splitting up China with Japan and Persia with Italy ) since the Axis did not manage to take down France and were overrun when the USA joined the war. I was really thinking about joining the Axis for fun, though
And in my first finished Game (16+6 hours) as russia I was DOWed from Japan and short after that from China!. I had to give up Sibiria (thinking that China and Japan will fight each other there - but they just conquered my provinces *grr*). Italy and Germany expanded very early and I had to fight them in the west while fighting China in the east. Right when the US landed in France and asked me to launch a counterattack with the few divisions I had left China stabbed in my back again, trying to break thru my weak defenses in the east with 40+ divisions. So Germany Italy signed a cease fire with me and Japan and me signed a cease fire + "divide up china"- pact. If I'd have simply ignored china the game would have been over much earlier, but I got really angry at China and the Allies not caring what their ally is doing
In the end I encircled his forces but had problems to destroy them (snow, mountains, numbers) but still managed to get back a lot of my lost territory. Axis front in France was finally defeated and Japan was also invaded by the USA, so they surrendered.
----------------
I am sure I forgot a lot of issues, please feel free to add comments, experience or questions - or take a look in the MP forum
So if you are impatient and look for a "Battle Net"-like multiplayer you can actually stop reading (hopefully till the next patch is out). But if you are patient and have a lot of time chances are good that you'll be surprised how much fun HOI is in multiplayer - and you will find what singleplayer could not give you.
You might ask why I posted here and not in the Multiplayer-Forum - the reason is simple: This post is for the people who logged into VNet, saw nobody, continued singleplayer and will prolly not take a look into it as long as they don't know WHY they did see no one. My intention is that after reading and discussing here in the thread those people WILL visist the Multiplayer-Forum and discuss there - and also give VNet a 2nd shot...
Ok, here we go:
1. VNet
Ok, you wondering why no one is in VNet? Well, to some degree people are simply in a running game and are not shown in VNet. The other issue is that due to the still not that huge playerbase in multiplayer a lot of people log on, see no one listed and log out. 30 seconds later one more takes a look and logs out. If they'd stay 5-15 minutes they'd prolly find enough players for MP, but oh well...
The few people who don't log out fast but rather go afk have the problem that they can leave no message "be right back" "afkitchen" or whatever, so other people log on, say "hi", no one answers and so they log out again.
Conclusion: be patient. Stay in VNet. If someone does not answer he is prolly afk. If you're lucky he is right back or a game that just lost a player needs a replacement (suddenly a bunch of players show up and ask you to join a savegame) - and you can finally show your skills (unless he messed it up and that's the reason why he left, hehe).
2. The Host
HOI has a LOT of data to manage. Especially in wartime. You really need a good host or you will lag like hell.
Conclusion: A good host is the most important thing. From my experience 1MBit+ will work for 8 players. The UPSTREAM is usually the bottleneck (I have 768down but only 128up for example) - so check who got the best line and let him host.
3. Getting Started
Ok, you got 8 ppl ready to rumble? That's nice, but sometimes people drop (esp. after downloading savegames). Same goes for people joining and leaving a game before it's launched. So you might need a few tries till it runs and pray for no new player to log into the game right when the original players getting back in. Best is to meet in a different channel...
Conclusion: This is the most annoying part. Finally you got all players, but the game crashes *sigh* - be patient, it WILL pay out
4. The Game
There we go. You got 10+ hours spare time and want to have fun? You will have it - congratulations
Conclusion: HOI MP games need a LOT of time, but if someone leaves (as long as its not the host) you can continue the savegame later or simply find someone new to continue.
Ok, sounds not like fun to you?
Hmm, what about reading some in the MP forum?
Especially AAR's can give you a slight feeling how much fun MP is.
But: MP is not SP - your "enemies" are usually pretty clever and can - for example - make a very successfull sea landing.
In my last finsihed game (10 hours playtime) Japan and Italy had a HUGE battle with UK and Australia in India. Must have been like 40+ divisions on both sides. Unfortunately that opened the USA the chance to land with 20+ Divisions in Japan (besides that China and USSR DOWed Japan too) and *SPLAT* we lost. As Germany like six months ago I did not want to DOW Turkey and Persia to keep US WE from exploding - but in the end that could have at least saved the divisions there *sigh* (Battle in India started long ago and grew bigger and bigger - so don't think we were totally clueless, think it became a personal thing between Japan and the UK, hehe).
In the finished game before (14 hours playtime) I played russia and had nothing to do (except splitting up China with Japan and Persia with Italy
) since the Axis did not manage to take down France and were overrun when the USA joined the war. I was really thinking about joining the Axis for fun, though And in my first finished Game (16+6 hours) as russia I was DOWed from Japan and short after that from China!. I had to give up Sibiria (thinking that China and Japan will fight each other there - but they just conquered my provinces *grr*). Italy and Germany expanded very early and I had to fight them in the west while fighting China in the east. Right when the US landed in France and asked me to launch a counterattack with the few divisions I had left China stabbed in my back again, trying to break thru my weak defenses in the east with 40+ divisions. So Germany Italy signed a cease fire with me and Japan and me signed a cease fire + "divide up china"- pact. If I'd have simply ignored china the game would have been over much earlier, but I got really angry at China and the Allies not caring what their ally is doing
In the end I encircled his forces but had problems to destroy them (snow, mountains, numbers) but still managed to get back a lot of my lost territory. Axis front in France was finally defeated and Japan was also invaded by the USA, so they surrendered.
----------------
I am sure I forgot a lot of issues, please feel free to add comments, experience or questions - or take a look in the MP forum
