Crashes? Beware! WiFi connection officially not supported.

[SlimBones]

In short, "Live Chat" confirmed that Wi-FI connections are not supported by Pirates of the Caribbean Online. This is not explain under "Minimum Requirements"

This may be old news to some but I was very suprised. I installed the game for the first time a couple of days ago so I could play with my nephew. Before the jail was even done loading I had my first crash. I didn't think much of it and retried. I then had crashes every 5-10 min as I rushed through creating a character and opening tutorial. I could not get past the canon practice.

I read through all the completely useless "support" and FAQ's on the official web site. I even tried reinstalling, adjusting screen resolution and lowering the video settings (mostly in desperation since my PC had no problem running WoW & GW's on high settings). Finally I gave in and decided to contact the Live Chat. That's when I was told if that if you rely on WiFi, you're out of luck.

I just can't believe they would cut out such a large segment of users. I would thing Disney could afford developers with the nessicary skills.


Here's the transcript (Names Changed):

The initial submission was:
The game crashes every 5-10 minutes


SERVER:Customer is waiting for Response...

TECH: Hello Mark.
MARK: Hi there :)
MARK: thanks for your help
TECH: I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble. I see you describe the game crashing every 5 to 10 minutes. Is that correct?
MARK: yes, I recently installed the game for the first time
MARK: and it has not let me play greater than 10 min without a crash
MARK: I could not find much on the website in regards to this issue
TECH: Do you use a wireless connection?
MARK: yes
TECH: That is the most likely cause of the disconnects you describe.
TECH: Wireless is not supported by Pirates, and causes this exact issue.
MARK: that's unfortunate
TECH: As the first troubleshooting step, please try connecting to your router using an ethernet cable, and then trying to play.
MARK: and this causes the whole game to crash? not just a server disconnection?
TECH: Lossing connection to the server causes the game to crash.
TECH: Can I help you with anything else today?
MARK: ah got ya, no I'll give that a try.
TECH: You're welcome, and thank you for choosing Pirates Online Chat support. Have a great day!
MARK: thanks you too [TECH]

SERVER:Agent has closed chat session.

[Aliese]

That's not necessarily what it is.

I say that because I tried to play on one of my office computers that had a direct connection to the router. It crashed all the time. I then tried to play on another computer that connected to the same router, but wirelessly - next to no problems.

I never figured out what the deal was, but I suspect something was on that computer that Pirates didn't get along with.

[SlimBones]

You're right, "not supported" doesn't mean it won't work just that they didn't bother to make it compatible with standard. I just wanted to post this because it was very frustrating trying to figure out the issue for my self. I saw all these threads about random crashes and nobody once mentioned that wifi was not supported.

I just hope that they're going to do something about it soon... if anyone else is having this problem they should write an unhappy letter like I did, lol. >.>

[Kat Stormhawk]

I have played pirates on two different laptops. The first laptop I used at the bare minimum requirements to run the game and no hardware acceleration. I did not have frequent crashes, but I did crash here and there. I was using WiFi. My second laptop I next to never crash. The game runs very good and I am still using the same WiFi connection.

I agree with you though. More and more people are using WiFi connections. It is the new norm, so they best jump on board with it, or lose a large potential player base.

[Mystdee]

I play wireless, and DO have some disconnects, but not that often . . . . frustrating, for sure. Most people prefer wireless, so more and more will be trying to play with it, seems a real important issue to "fix" the agent, seemed not to be very concerned. . . . too bad.

[Dr. Zeppers]

Wifi is just not as reliable has a hard wired connection. Interference in different places manifests itself differently on different networks and machines. Weak signals, signal drops are much more frequent, as they compound any connectivity/lag issues that a user may have to thier ISP alone.

Your not likely to have many online games of this nature say they support wifi connections.

Wifi can be used. People use it, and successfully.

Someone mentioned they were surprised it wasnt up to 'standard'. They absolutely code to the standard. Wifi connections communicate just like a hardwired one (as far as the network protocol portion the game developers control). Wifi unlike a hired wired connection, will often have moments of signal drop or loss, or its smaller bandwidth pipe may become choked. When this happens it causes lag (or disconnect in the case of a drop). The more code they put in, to resolve these situations, the more lag will be introduced, because the game will now have to review, monitor, and attempt to hypothesize what it is a player will be doing when/if they lossed/drop signal or got seriously lagged.

I have played numerous games online for years, and the wifi players are always the ones having the most problems. Im just basically saying that a properly configured hard wired connection is going to work better than a properly configured wifi connection, thats a fact.

Hey, we use what we have to get our game on though... and wifi works. I know I have played over a wifi connection myself. That tech may have been just using an easy 'out'. It's not a wrong answer necessarily, but it doesnt mean its the right answer for your situation. Did you submit log files, etc for them to review and identify the problem? And did they say that it WAS because of loss of connection? Or did they just 'suppose' it.

The problem your having doesnt even sound like a connection issue to me though. I dont think that part is even played across the net (its the opening 'walkthru'). I would try it hardwired to the net to see if that is the issue, but just doesnt seem likely to me.

You've likely done it, but maybe uninstalling and reinstalling the game would help.

As far as "most people prefering wireless", this isnt accurate at least not in the online gaming world.
Thats like saying "most people prefer playing online games on laptops", which I seriously doubt is true.
Although some people use wifi solutions in thier homes to connect desktops to the net, this is not that common.

You just dont hear the people with properly configured hardwired connections having that many connectivity issues.

[SlimBones]

Yeah, I've play 2 other MMORPG's very regularly on this same set up and never encountered such an issue. I mainly wanted to post this thread for people who could not find another solution to their crashes. I looked through many many threads on various forums, searching for "crash" and found no mention of this issue... Thanks for the replies



edited for spelling