That's a strange problem. I don't have much experience with networks, but it could be a problem with your network. Are you using a router and have you opened any ports? It could be related to the router or its settings. I still suggest you to try with GameRanger to see if it solves the problem.

Remember that to play AoE online it is necessary to open some ports. I think that in GR help files they mention which are those ports.

It is explained in this very site, main page, under FAQ - Router/Firewall - "Port Forwarding".

GameRanger has UPnP, which deals with connections automatically and you don't need to open ports (except if your router is old and doesn't support UPnP).

Unfortunately, staple router and port troubleshooting is inapplicable here. Default router firewall behavior generally only blocks unsolicited inbound traffic from the internet, and shouldn't interfere with local area network connectivity. Similarly, a proper virtual private network establishes direct communication between two or more systems, bypassing the router firewall and any need to open ports on it (in this situation, software firewalls such as the built-in Windows Firewall still apply and may block traffic).

I play a number of other games through Hamachi without the corresponding ports open, and they work fine. Many older games never had or no longer have an online matchmaking service, so using a VPN to leverage LAN connectivity methods is often the only way to play online. Tunngle would probably be a better known example of a VPN amongst gamers.

GameRanger doesn't establish connectivity through a VPN, but, since I experienced this in a true LAN game, I'm uncertain GR would yield different results. But I'll consider trying it there and bring news about how it goes when I get around to it... could be awhile though.

Thanks though.

Slightly relevant omission: Every game that has frozen in this fashion included computer players. But I seldom play without them, so I can't speak to non-computer games not exhibiting this problem.

Hello Belix,

I have the same problem. Playing with my sister on lan via GameRanger stops the game around 20th-30th minute. Looks like the more actions you do (in the late game) the bigger chance to halt is - just an idea.

About the chat: Im not sure, but I think even from the host or the client chat does not work, I will test it today!

But when quitting the game then the game continues for other player, now just came in my mind to connect some computer without a team and just let him quit when the game halts. Does this help if he is not the host but just the player like others are? (will test it)

So my plan is to analyze the problem to understand how it works and then to boot my Assembly skills and to try to find the Quit function and then the function that when gets executed continues the game and to apply it when the game stucks so the game could continue.

If you would like to contact me and discuss the problem, feel free to write me. I'm not sure when I will solve it due to my uni time :P

BTW. What did GameRanger fix? Because we're playing only via GameRanger and it halts, so looks like they fixed nothing, hm?

[This message has been edited by azka (edited 11-11-2013 @ 05:45 AM).]

Hi azka. Sorry this reply is a bit late.

I haven't gotten around to playing AoE again yet, but I didn't expect GameRanger to fix the issue. Thanks for confirming that.

When a player quits, I don't think any behaviors are being fired that fixes the problem. The games seem to be stuck waiting for missing data, so when someone quits there's no reason for the remaining player's game continue waiting.

If the game wasn't so laggy/unreliable, I'd happily play it more often, but in this condition it's difficult to enjoy when every game runs the risk of being lost.

Well I am playing with my sister once a time and 3 bots. Around 20th or 30th minute it stucks and does not transmit the data from host (me) to a client (sister) however it transmits some packets but they're not the data one. So it looks like some function stucks cause of lag and then does not want to unstuck.

But it is strange, any time I leave or my sister leaves, the game continues. We did not try it with more than 2 players, if it would also work. But if one of us leaves, the game goes fine. Quit game should be pressed. Did not try other way of leaving, like killing the proccess, but I think it would not help.

Her notebook crashed so we're not playing nowadays and dont know when I could test this. Like 1 of 4 our games crashed last time we played. So I had to wait like 2 hours for the bug to happen, which is very time consuming to fix this :/