I just found this thread and thought I'll post my problem also here. I hope Frogboy still reads our posts here!

As I pointed out in my thread I always get the "Cannot connect to a NAT facilitator." error. Everytime I want to play a Skirmish, Custom Game or Pantheon I never see my or any other name in the Connection Info box and sooner or later I get this error.

Via ImpulseReactorOptions.exe I specified port 6200 - 6250 and I forwarded port 6200 - 6250 UDP, port 6000 UDP and port 6073 UDP to my machine. I use a Router (WRT54GL) behind a Routermodem (Zyxel.. something), but the Router is in the DMZ of the Routermodem, so it only functions as the DSL Modem for my network. (I also tried putting my PC directly into the DMZ of the Routermodem, same result.)

According to the info in a beta thread, Demigod connects to the NAT facilitator through port 6000 UDP to cvp1.stardock.com or cvp2.stardock.com. A friend can confirm that demigod connects to cvp2.stardock.com throug port 6000 UDP. I can ping those addresses just fine. However, when trying to connect to a custom game tcpview never shows any connection attempt on port 6000 UDP from Demigod, which I find really weird. Demigod says it is unable to connect to the NAT facilitator, yet it never tried connecting in the first place.

This only happens with my internet connection in vienna. In my hometown, I have no problems with my IPCop router.

While connecting to other players pre-pantheon game, there was no progress being made. I opened the connection details, there were 8 of us, only a couple connected to each other, and nothing changed for a minute. I'd love to know the technical issues behind it as I'm a computer engineer with lots of networking experience!

I admit I skimmed most of this thread, but should add another perspective.

Problem #1

Custom games list is... ummm... wonky. Refreshing it is not always reliable. Joining custom games occassionally results in being directed into a wrong game. Normally, I play with a same group of 20 or so people. We always use Ventrilo to hook up and put passwords on our games. Ocassionally, when trying to join the game created by one of us, we'll end up in another room (or if this other room already went away you'll get 'failed to connect' error). Redirection may happen before the password prompt or after. We also had strange people that did not type in the password get put into our game room.

Problem #2

Once in the room, people will randomly have 0 pings to each other. I say randomly because the same people will have had just finished playing a game together, and all of a sudden they cannot establish a connection with each other. This connection problem usually happens after a few people already joined the game (from experience, if more than 5 people try to connect to the same room you're very likely to get the connection problem). Once a person has trouble connecting to another, the two of them will most likely not be able to re-establish the connection. No matter how many times they reconnect. Reforming a room and having people join in a different order will often solve the problem. But this may have to be done many times.

Lately I've been seeing a lot more of one-sided 0ms pings, where one person shows it green while the other is red (I'm assuming this means that one person has connection to the other, but the other has no connection to them).

the only thing i see is that i've been removed from NAT Fascilitator

or disconnected - but that doesn't matter

Yeah I should've been a tad cleared; I understand its the one bad apple throwing the game into disarray, I just don't see why that one player can't be dropped and the rest of us can get on with it, just as you say.

One more issue I have is with the Player/AI team distribution. I just managed to get into a game with another player, an 8v8 with 6 bots and the two of us. This would've been satisfactory, but I was put on the same team as the other human player, making it far too easy and to be honest pretty dull. I knew that the amount of A.I. per game is being addressed as you play more games, I'd just like to see the team distribution sorted too.

I am having trouble getting in to any games at all. It always says "this player has not connected to anyone yet" and it doesn't look like anyone could connect to me either. Nothing ever gets dropped, it just says its connecting me and it never ends. I opened up all ports and everything so I don't know what the deal is.

i think i have solved my problem! i did not use the ports from monks instructional pdf and instead used impulsereactoroptions. i still have port 6073 open from monk though. i also changed my router settings on those ports to use both tcp and udp.

so if you have issues try this:

-make sure you have a static ip. if youre not sure or dont know how to set it up go here:http://portforward.com/networking/staticip.htm

-open port 6073 both udp and tcp. if you dont know how to open ports go here: http://portforward.com/

-open impulsereactoroptions.exe from demigod's bin folder

     -check the "specify nat port range" box.

     -i left the default ports.

-open the port range indicated by impuseractoroptions on both tcp and udp. again if you need instructions http://portforward.com/

doing this has made my broken game fixed! if you are still having issues, give it a shot.

I have never been able to connect to one of my friends with the game and only once or twice to another out of maybe 100 tries. Most times it simply would not work at all and give the old one-size-fits-all error message, disconnected from the nat facilitator etc. Now the error message we get is that I have been licked from the game I'm attempting to join. I assume that is just a generic response because I know my friends haven't actually kicked me at all.

I figure this is the most appropriate place to ask. This thread is getting towards the long end of things so I apologize if it has been stated and overlooked the resolution. I am experiencing issues similar to what several users above me have stated. Most games will display connected to otherguy1, otherguy2, otherguy3, etc. Then upon starting the game I will hear "a player has left the game" one or multiple times and of course be left with only myself in the game with bots (I assuming this since I have a ping of 0 to them) or only 1-2 other humans.

Given the situation at hand I am unsure if I am being kicked (hearing only a single "a player has left the game") or is it instability in the connection and players drop as the map is loading.

I would disagree about the speed of getting into games as it loads and connects reasonably quickly, at least as of last night. However regardless of the speed, doesn't do much good without humans at the other end instead of AI.

When I host games, a few people join, but they all end up getting kicked. So far, I have not been able to play one online multiplayer match.

I have yet to even get into a multiplayer game.

This is happening to me too, but I think I'm the player who's left the game because everybody's ping is 0. Its especially frustrating because everything appears to be finally connecting quickly during the "connection info" stage before the game.

You're not the only one, even after following Monk's to the letter.

Waiting for a fix