Different loading times in MP

**Jonnydread** · September 16, 2018, 05:43 AM

My game is installed on a SSD, the game of my friend whom i play multiplayer with on a HDD.

Before and after large battles (>4 armies) the difference in our loading time is so big that my timer reaches 0 before he finished loading.
Changing textures and models helps with the loading times before battles, but not after battles.
What else can we do?
I should add that i get disconnect when the timer reaches 0.

**♔Greek Strategos♔** · September 16, 2018, 06:19 AM

I'm not really an expert for MP advice (I'm an old fart and I don't play online) but I could use more info about your hardware and connections, wifi or Ethernet etc plus submods used from both of you.

**sol_ilya** · September 16, 2018, 06:49 AM

My HDD slowly loading a campaign map. I also have 4 GB RAM. While Jonnydread waits till I finish loading timer counting. When it reaches zero he disconnects. I finish loading and receiving a message about his disconnect. We do not use any submod, only DEI. Sometime I finish loading while he is waiting and we continue, sometime I did not finish in time. Ethernet stable network.

**Jonnydread** · September 26, 2018, 08:36 AM

For anyone with the same problem:
Minimizing the game and setting the priority of the Rome2.exe to "low" in the Taskmanager does NOT slow down the timer at all.

**ScipioTheGreat** · September 27, 2018, 12:25 AM

Originally Posted by Jonnydread

For anyone with the same problem:
Minimizing the game and setting the priority of the Rome2.exe to "low" in the Taskmanager does NOT slow down the timer at all.

Lol don’t think it works that way my friend. And there’s a great thread on CAs forums regarding tips and optimizations to make MP work better

**Jonnydread** · September 27, 2018, 06:56 AM

Originally Posted by ScipioTheGreat

Lol don’t think it works that way my friend.

There are actually quite a few games that can be slowed down this way. The in-game battle timer also slows down during huge fights in MP.

Originally Posted by corsair831

Tell him to lower his graphics to the lowest possible (including his resolution to 800x600) and he should load fast enough for you to play. Then increase his settings till you find the sweetspot.

The problem is that the sweet spot changes a lot depending on the location of the battle, participating armies and units, casualties during the battles etc.

We managed to get the loading times closer to each other after a fresh Windows installation and lowering the settings drastically, but i still don't really get the necessity of this disconnect timer.

**corsair831** · September 27, 2018, 05:24 AM

Tell him to lower his graphics to the lowest possible (including his resolution to 800x600) and he should load fast enough for you to play. Then increase his settings till you find the sweetspot.

**ScipioTheGreat** · September 27, 2018, 05:25 AM

Just change the turn times if anything

**corsair831** · September 27, 2018, 05:35 AM

He's talking about the 5 minute timeout, changing the turn time wouldn't fix that unfortunately

**ScipioTheGreat** · September 27, 2018, 07:06 AM

What In the world? Is it just from starving the program of cpu power so it basically slows down from lag?

Nonetheless, there could be several possible issues causing this, and my general assumption is your setup is seriously lacking in some regard. I’ve played MP campaigns with a fellow from Argentina who’s internet speed definitely leaves you with much to be desired.

I wouldn’t bother until you guys troubleshoot the problem, cause even if you somehow manage to miraculously beat the 5 minute load timer, desyncs and other connection issues will just continue to follow

**Jonnydread** · September 27, 2018, 07:34 AM

Originally Posted by ScipioTheGreat

What In the world? Is it just from starving the program of cpu power so it basically slows down from lag?

That was the idea.

Originally Posted by ScipioTheGreat

I’ve played MP campaigns with a fellow from Argentina who’s internet speed definitely leaves you with much to be desired.

The problem is not the internet connection, but the huge files for DeI. Vanilla R2 loads considerably faster.

Originally Posted by ScipioTheGreat

I wouldn’t bother until you guys troubleshoot the problem, cause even if you somehow manage to miraculously beat the 5 minute load timer, desyncs and other connection issues will just continue to follow

We did actually beat the 5-minute load timer (keep in mind that this only happened during huge battles with 4 custom armies on both sides) and we experienced desyncs "only" a few times in ~200 rounds. We played a vanilla campaign before and the desyncs there were definitely more frequent.