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.

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: [email protected]

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

· Mailing address:

Stardock
15090 Beck Rd.
Plymouth MI 48170

I plan to write a more formal report on Beta 3 shortly but here are some quick thoughts after spending the day with it with friends.

Briefly:

FUN. It is fun. It could use more balance and some pacing and some anti-cheese stuff but I feel pretty good about the fun level of the game.  

BUGGY. Oh god it's buggy. Forget playing multiplayer unless you close the game (exit to Windows) between each game attempt.  The Pantheon is basically a non-starter in this build.  I have had a high degree of success in connecting to other players but it only takes ONE player who's behind some nasty firewall to try to join your game to wreck it for everyone. This needs to be fixed asap. Lots of places where the UI locked up.

OVERALL.

High confidence in Demigod being a hit provided the following things are fixed:

1. Connectivity MUST BE BULLET PROOF. If you can't reliably get into games, Demigod will fail.
2. The Pantheon stats need a lot more data. We need a "Skill Score" (ala Boneyards and SupCom) as a way for ranking better.
3. The various bugs of course mus be fixed.
4. We need to pay very close attention to balance and cheese tactics reports in the forum.  I will be looking for posts that say [CHEESE].

Beta 3 of Demigod is out and a lot of new features are in which also means this will likely be the buggiest beta we’ve done yet.

Here are some highlights:

• Pantheon added.
• Better NAT for Skirmish.
• Torch Bearer has returned.
• His ice spells have changed a good bit.
• Frost Nova reduces movement speed.
• Rain of Ice reduces attack speed.
• When Deep Freeze is used on an enemy that is affected by Frost Nova, Rain of Ice, or Biting Chill, it will consume those effects and deal extra damage.
• Lord Erebus has returned.
• Mist has changed greatly.
• It now drains mana while in Mist.
• It deals damage to nearby enemies and heals nearby allies.
• Queen of Thorns' Spike Wave now vastly reduces movement speed for a short duration.
• Ground Spikes reduces armor.
• If a target is reduced to negative armor, they take additional damage.
• She is now able to Open and Close while moving.
• The Rook's Hammer Slam is now ground targeted.
• Wings of the Seraphim's effect breaks on taking damage.
• Bejewled Goggles will now help players spot objects that are normally invisible.
• Several items now have bonuses for Minions.
• The cost of items has been reduced a bit.
• You should definitely check out the artifact shop.
• Minion Idols now have different amounts of minions they summon and caps.
• For example, a level 1 idol summons 1 minion with a maximum of 2.
• The level 4 idols summons 4 minions with a maximum of 4.
• Plus countless of bug fixes and tweaks.

• ü WIP opening cinematic updates
• ü Fix for minion sliding
• ü Fixes to minions dealing with mistform
• ü Fixes to tooltip calculations
• ü Item fixes, including Twig of life, Parasite Egg, Restorative scroll, war idols.
• ü Balance and stat adjustments to 25 items.
• ü Cost adjustments to 30 items
• ü AI fixes, including Oak, Regulus, Torch, alternate game modes, bat swarm,
• ü Minion targeting
• ü Huge sound and VO triggering polish pass
• ü War rank display fixes
• ü Hardening the citadel upgrade system to prevent lockups
• ü Trebuchet updates
• ü Achievement screen fixes
• ü Range ring display fixes
• ü Targeting reticule fixes
• ü Texture display fixes
• ü Ability cooldown display fixes
• ü Stunned unit display fixes
• ü Stunned cooldown reset
• ü Adjusted summoning progression for yeti, shamblers, idols
• 1: Summon 1, Control 2
•       2: Summon 2, Control 2
•       3: Summon 2, Control 4
• 4: Summon 4, Control 4
• ü Citadel upgrade cost adjustments, reward adjustments
• ü Eliminated double-foul-grasp bug
•       * All Demigods and their minions can now attack air.
•       * Priests can not attack air
• * Artillery no longer attacks air
• ü Steering fixes for zero distance calculations
• ü Fixed particle and texture system leaks
• ü Minion guarding less error prone.
• ü Hammer slam now ground targeted.
• ü Slot count now displays correctly in the join screen
• ü Deeper contrast on unowned abilities.
• ü Selection highlight fixes for AA and multisample backbuffers
• ü Queen weapon no longer damages friendlies
• ü Oak now limited to a legal amount of mana
• ü Flag capture meter smoothing, UI placement
• ü Re-enabled windowed mode
• ü Swapped temp fake decals with permanent real decals
• ü Shared cooldown for teleportation items
• ü New faction art in various menus.
• ü Stored username and password
• ü Changed options echoed to chat in lobby
• ü Fidelity adjustments to skydome rendering
• ü Game options saving hardened.
• ü Demigod selectable by “H”
• ü Queen can transition on the move
• ü Mulch Shambler now deals area damage
• ü Mist and Ooze range rings added

Want to help us?

1) Download DebugView (dbgview) from Microsoft and have it running. It’ll tell you a lot of nitty gritty info about the beta that will likely help us.

2) Run windowed and use the F9 key to look at errors Demigod is running into internally. This can be useful.

3) If you have performance issues, make sure you tell us what OS you’re running, what video card you have, and how fast your CPU is.

4) Look for cheesey artifacts and items that wreck the game play for you. Now’s your chance to tell us where the balance sucks.

5) AI stuff. Have some strategies you think would be helpful for the AI to make use of? Let us know.

And now for a small sampling of the known problems…

- If you are unsuccessful at joining a multiplayer game and hit abort, odds are, next time the game UI will be locked up and you’ll have to terminate the Demigod process.

- While the Pantheon feature is in, it is very very buggy right now. As in, actually getting a pantheon game going is a huge pain.  We expect to make very rapid progress now that it’s actually in but if you’re easily frustrated, you may want to hold off until beta 3A.

- Often times when joining a game the whole UI just disappears when you click join.

- The connectivity still sucks.  It works great in an idealized testing environment but has a poison pill problem that we need to rectify – that is, it only takes one user who can’t connect to keep a game from starting. At least now, you can tell where it’s failing:

- We have a totally killer issue where if anyone plays a game with a map not included in beta 3 (like Cataract) that NOBODY will be able to connect online. We hope to fix this over the weekend. So for now, if you’ve found some clever way to get Cataract to work in beta 3, that’s great but please don’t try to use it.

FIRSTS
1. Who was your FIRST prom date?

Lori Wlodyka, 12th grade.

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love?

I sure do, every day (Sherry).

3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink?
A glass of wine I think.

4. What was your FIRST job?
I took out people’s trash to the dumpster for 10 cents a bag when I was little. Then I did babysitting, then I worked at an excavating company.

5. What was your FIRST car?

A 1984 Chevette!

6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today?

Co-worker.

7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning?

My daughter Ashley because she was using my chest as a trampoline.

8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?

Mrs. Reinbolt.

9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane?

The first one I remember was to Texas.

10. Who was your FIRST best friend & do you still talk?

Betsy in Texas. Still in contact on a regular basis.

11. Where was your FIRST sleep over?

At my friend Eric’s in high school.

12. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today?

Daughter, Ashley.

13. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time?

My friend Pat’s.

14. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?

Asked my daughter to quit jumping on my chest!

15. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to?

Never been to one.

16. FIRST tattoo?

NEVER.

17. FIRST piercing?

Nope.

18. FIRST foreign country you've been to?

Canada.

19. FIRST movie you remember seeing?

Bambi.

20. When was your FIRST detention?

Never got detention. Got suspended though!

21. What was the FIRST state you lived in?

Texas.

22. Who was your FIRST roommate?

Doug Coates.

23. If you had one wish. What would it be?

No comment.

24. What is something you would learn if you had the chance?

Some foreign languages.

25. Who do you think will be the next person to post this?

No idea!

I was pleased to visit GameStop and see Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition smack dab in the middle of the “What’s hot” shelf.

I have to say, ultimate edition came out pretty well with the original and the 2 expansions integrated together as a single entity.

Meanwhile, even though Elemental, Demigod, and Sins have gotten a lot of attention lately, there’s a new update of GalCiv II in the works.

It’s well known I wasn’t a Bush fan. I may have more in common with Bush on ideology but in terms of his personality, I am glad he’s gone. I think Bush is a good man, I just don’t think he was well suited to be President.

Obama, on the other hand, is very well suited to be President.  He has far more empathy.  Pundits don’t realize how much credibility Obama gets from people when he admits mistakes.

The big bummer with Obama, of course, is that he doesn’t understand economics and seems to have a very weak knowledge of history.

If Obama had really wanted to stimulate the economy, he could have simply abolished the payroll tax for say 6 months.  That would have made quite a difference to people.

On the other hand, Obama has some truly good ideas that Republicans should acknowledge.  The free market is a lot like a wild garden. Sure, it will produce food and spread but I tend to think that the most productive way to grow food is to have a farmer (the government) providing infrastructure.

A little watering can make a big difference just like a little infrastructure can.  Better roads, better more effective court systems, more police, etc.

For example, if the government could provide universal Internet service, even if it was at a very slow speed, a lot of private sector growth could occur.  That would be a worthwhile project  - a basic level of network access. 

Similarly, spending money on roads is worthwhile for much the same reason. Anything that lets citizens communicate and mix better is likely to become an engine for economic growth.

That’s why this “stimulus” bill pains me. It’s such a wasted opportunity.

Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, I can only imagine the heights of support Obama might have enjoyed if he had launch an obviously beneficial and huge infrastructure project like a massive road infrastructure upgrade across the country or an endeavor to make sure all users have at least 512bps wireless net access anywhere that’s remotely near civilization.

Greetings!

Tomorrow February 19th we plan to release beta 3 of Demigod.

Before I discuss what to expect, let's walk through where we've been so far.

BETA 1: September 2008.

The first beta focused purely on the engine. In many respects, you could have called it an alpha. It was designed to get a scope of the performance, test out the engine features (fog of war, particle effects, shaders, Demigod models, etc.).

It was explicitly designed NOT to be fun.

BETA 2: December 2008 (intended for November but we ran late).

This second beta focused on getting the Internet connectivity set up. It was not designed (or expected) to be bullet proof but rather to provide us with data. Similarly, while the game wasn't supposed to be fun at this stage, we took in beta feedback and user experiences with connectivity to focus on beta 3.

BETA 3: February 2009

So now we're in the meat of it.  The game mechanics are pretty much set at this stage.  This is where we look at balance.  Players are welcome to suggest anything they want but obviously, anything that's a major game changer would have to wait for a future update or expansion pack.

Beta 3 will have the Pantheon persistent universe tournmanet in it.  Right now, it's forces of light vs. forces of darkness (two factions) each with its own set of Demigods.

We are open to ideas on the pantheon and what other tournaments you guys would like to see in the Pantheon and how you would imagine them working.

So how well will the Pantheon work in beta 3? The answer is not well. It is going to take us a bit of time to tweak the logic in setting up pantheon games.  

Connectivity in skirmish (custom games) should be massively better than Beta 2D but still no where near where it'll be in the final game.

The Pantheon stuff should work just not terribly well.  Between now and release we'll be improving on this dramatically as we collect more data.

The main point of Beta 3 is to test out the architecture, make bug fixes, refinements, and balance the game.

BETA 3 EXPERIENCE NOTES:

It needs to be noted that for Beta 3 that we got the tournament stuff in by the skin of our teeth for this beta. So we don't expect it to work very well in beta 3.  We're going to be taknig in a lot of data and then release beta 3A hopefully next week.

A new cut scene will be introduced that tells the story

Logging into the persistent on-line Pantheon

Online I can play single player or multiplayer

Choosing amongst different maps.

The item shop and the health crystal

The item shop, where players customize their Demigod.

 
Controlling flags provides war points and additional powers which in turn give access to Citadel upgrades.

 
The Citadel. Protect at all costs.

Fortresses protect your Citadel

Towers of light and darkness protect each faction’s territory.

Demigod includes multiple game modes including Conquest (destroy enemy Citadel), Slaughter (Kill N Demigods), Dominate (gain the most victory points), and more.

Players earn favor points during the game which they can use to purchase items that become part of their on-line account.

The Torch Bearer returns

 
Artifact shops have incredibly powerful but very expensive items.

 
Controlling portals is crucial to victory as that is where reinforcements come.  If you control an enemy portal, you also gain experience.

Despite the incredible graphics, the Demigod engine is very efficient allowing it to run smoothly on older hardware (this screenshot was taken on a ThinkPad).