Carcassonne's online multiplayer makes a dramatic recovery

As bargain hunting Xbox Windows Phone gamers are surely enlightened, the fairly new Carcassonne is function of Microsoft's Blackness Friday calendar week sale which ends today. Until now, we've had mixed feelings about Carcassonne due to its ridiculously grindy Achievements and broken online multiplayer. Thankfully, one of those issues is now fixed at terminal. Carcassonne's online multiplayer now works!

Server of the damned

At launch, Carcassonne'southward online multiplayer part was about 90% broken. As I explained in our review:

"…The game's server is admittedly terrible. I couldn't invite my friend for over 10 minutes because the game merely wouldn't connect to Xbox Alive, fifty-fifty though its leaderboard continued simply fine. One time we finally started our game, nosotros both got disconnected after a few minutes of playing. You lot can resume a created game without the other person being online and brand a motility, but again, you'll fight the loathsome server bug each fourth dimension you try to resume."

In fact, on two separate occasions I joined a group of six players attempting to go the Achievement for winning a full online game. Both times we spent an 60 minutes trying to become everyone into the aforementioned room. At best, only ii-5 people were able to join the room, so we never got to play. Very frustrating!

Battle of the developers

Surprisingly, information technology wasn't a fan who took Carcassonne'due south broken online mode the hardest. No, the developer of the iOS version of the game, The Coding Monkeys seems to accept gotten the most bent out of shape over it. To be clear, the Windows Phone and Android versions come from Exozet Games. Both developers come from Germany, equally does the original lath game. Past all accounts, the iOS version is superior to our port, featuring an original single-player fashion and the ability to conversation in-game - ii aspects the Windows Phone game sadly lacks.

So what set The Coding Monkeys off? An errant tweet from Microsoft's @WindowsPhone Twitter account. The tweet has since been deleted, but you tin still discover it cached online. A screenshot:

Alright, then the iOS dev doesn't desire people confusing the Windows Telephone version for their work. They seem awfully angry though. The anger seems to stalk from user complaints almost our game'south broken online features. Just look:

Before long, Exozet caught wind of the commotion and asked The Coding Monkeys to arctic out:

Could there be a longstanding rivalry betwixt the developers? Information technology almost looks like one party is bullying the other. Would any of our High german readers similar to chime in on the iOS dev's final comment toward Exozet?

Solving the technical issues

I feel for Exozet in this situation, considering the broken online mode (not to mention the tweeting error) truly was not their error. As the programmer explained to us:

"During our tests and Microsoft'due south approval process prior to the release, the online service worked fine, of course. The issues seem to be a effect of an issue with Microsoft's backend systems which is specific to the production servers."

The problem was actually out of their hands. All they could do was sit down tight and wait for Microsoft to fix it.

Thankfully, the big MS came through this time. They managed to fix the backend problem and restore Carcassonne'southward online multiplayer to working lodge. Players don't even need to download an update. You just commencement an online game and it works.

Even the 'Quick Search' matchmaking feature plain functions better now. A reminder from Exozet: "Ane thing many players don't seem to know: You lot can have your own anteroom past creating a custom friction match and entering 'public' in the fellow players field."

I'm not crazy almost the matchmaking feature considering it requires all players to be online and looking for a game simultaneously. But hey, at least the feature's speed has improved.

Fourth dimension to build some cities

Let'south not let the server issues and drama of clashing developers to overshadow the good news hither. The Xbox Windows Phone version of Carcassonne is an accurate adaptation of a very enjoyable lath game. While the online manner could be better, at least information technology's possible to play against other people now. If you're looking for a quality board game to play on the go, don't miss information technology.

Carcassonne costs $two.99 and there is a free trial. Go it here on the Windows Phone Store.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/carcassonnes-online-multiplayer-makes-dramatic-recovery

Posted by: leetersibithe1997.blogspot.com

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