Demigod: User Manual – Trouble Shooting

from JoeUser Forums

Troubleshooting

So you’ve bought your game, brought it home, installed it and something isn’t working right? Didn’t those losers test this game? Why can’t those greedy game developers insist on shipping games that aren’t done? Just because game developers are chick magnets doesn’t give them the right to ship this kind of junk! Right?

In reality, there are really three types of problems that 99% of users run into. There are video card issues, networking issues and genuine bugs that weren’t found by testing.

Video Card Related Issues

If the game is running too slow for you, there are 3 ways to cure it:

Get the latest version of your video drivers!

First, you can make sure you have the latest video card drivers. Before you assume you do, check again. During our beta testing with real world players, we lost a lot of time due to technical users assuming they had the latest version of their drivers just because their drivers are only a month old. Often times, a new game comes out and a bug in a driver is found and fixed.

Turn down the video settings

Turning the Fidelity down to low, lowering the shadow fidelity, and turning off anti-aliasing are keys to getting better performance.

image

Can you get a better video card?

Demigod doesn’t require high end video cards to run. But it does require a video card that supports Pixel Shader 3 which is a techie term for non-ancient video cards or super low end video cards. Pretty much any $40 video card will do the trick.

Learning about your computer

If you click on the Start button and hit Run and type dxdiag it will bring up a program that will tell you a lot about your computer. If none of this worked, check your sound drivers too and see if you can update them.

Still stumped?

You paid hard earned money for this game. You don’t care how glamorous the life of a game developer is. You want your game to work NOW!

First, make sure you have the latest version of the game. New versions of games often remove lines of code like this:

pCrashOnBillJohnsonOfVirgina->(TRUE);

Sometimes, games ship with lots of these. But if we haven’t found your particular line of code in the game then contact support.

If support can’t help you solve your technical issue, you can return the game directly to Stardock for a full refund. We don’t care where you bought it. It could be Germany, Russia, or Boyne City Michigan (just kidding, nobody actually lives in northern Michigan). Just include your receipt with a print out of the return authorization code that support gave you and we’ll refund that amount.

Connectivity

Separate from technical issues there is network connectivity. That is, the ability actually get multiplayer games going.

Because Demigod relies heavily on low latency, it is a peer-to-peer game. That means, all players have to be able to connect to one another. This is different from a client/server game (like Sins of a Solar Empire or Team Fortress 2) where you are fine as long as you connect to the host/server.

Demigod introduces a new technology called Impulse Reactor. Amongst its many capabilities is the ability to seamlessly connect multiple users without those users having to open up ports manually on their router.

Unfortunately, there are many types of routers and many types of firewalls out there some of which are difficult to go through.

Here are things you can do to increase the speed and reliability of Demigod connectivity:

1. Open up ports 6100 to 6200 on your router if you can.

2. Disable (temporarily) any anti-virus programs you’re running. Some of these are designed to block what Demigod is trying to do.

3. Disable (temporarily) any firewalls on your computer or router.

4. Demigod uses UDP based networking (as opposed to TCP). Make sure UDP traffic isn’t getting blocked.

If that doesn’t help, visit us on the Forums where we have applets and people who might be able to help.

Contacting Stardock

· By email: support@stardock.com

· Forums: http://forums.demigodthegame.com/

· Mailing address:

Stardock
15090 Beck Rd.
Plymouth MI 48170

10,986 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top

Ok, pretty good :).  But there are a few things that need to be edited:

So you’ve bought your game, brought it home, installed it and something isn’t working right? Didn’t those losers test this game? Why can’t those greedy game developers insist on shipping games that aren’t done? Just because game developers are chick magnets doesn’t give them the right to ship this kind of junk! Right?
End of quote

There should probably be a comma after "installed it."  Also, the third sentence should have "games that are done" instead of "games that aren't done" since I assume you are saying that devs should insist on shipping finished games.

In reality, there are really three types of problems that 99% of users run into. There are video card issues, networking issues and genuine bugs that weren’t found by testing.
End of quote

Remove "really" from the first sentence (it is redundant), and maybe change "run into" to "encounter" so you don't end with a preposition.  Maybe change "There" in the second sentence to "These".

During our beta testing with real world players, we lost a lot of time due to technical users assuming they had the latest version of their drivers just because their drivers are only a month old
End of quote

"are only a month old" should be "were only a month old".

Demigod doesn’t require high end video cards to run. But it does require a video card that supports Pixel Shader 3 which is a techie term for non-ancient video cards or super low end video cards. Pretty much any $40 video card will do the trick.
End of quote

I don't like this because it makes it sound like you are saying that the user has a sucky computer - you basically say that they probably have an ancient video card, which sounds a little insulting.  Maybe reword it somehow?  Also, low-end should have a hyphen, I think.

That is, the ability actually get multiplayer games going
End of quote

Should be "the ability to actually".

Lastly, you mentioned three common issues (video card issues, networking issues and genuine bugs that weren’t found by testing) but never addressed the genuine bugs!

 

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

2. Disable (temporarily) any anti-virus programs you’re running. Some of these are designed to block what Demigod is trying to do.

3. Disable (temporarily) any firewalls on your computer or router.
End of quote

These two are actually pretty worrysome. I mean, it's one thing to say "Well, turn off your AV while you're patching", but having to turn off AV and Firewall to play is cumbersome, and generally undermines the reason for at least the firewall :P

Hopefully these two things will be less of an issue soon..

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Demigod Forums Top


1. Open up ports 6100 to 6200 on your router if you can.


End of quote

 

Throughout beta 2-3, the automatic port for hosting is 6073.   Maybe this will change after release, or you should expand that range.

 

Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Annatar11, reply 2

2. Disable (temporarily) any anti-virus programs you’re running. Some of these are designed to block what Demigod is trying to do.

3. Disable (temporarily) any firewalls on your computer or router.
These two are actually pretty worrysome. I mean, it's one thing to say "Well, turn off your AV while you're patching", but having to turn off AV and Firewall to play is cumbersome, and generally undermines the reason for at least the firewall

Hopefully these two things will be less of an issue soon..
End of Annatar11's quote

 

This is a pretty typical recommendation for games though.  Doesn't mean you necessarily should, but he's not saying anything most gamers haven't heard before either.