Vista - Battle for Middle Earth II

Okay, so I picked up BFME2 from Best Buy a few days ago and put it on my Vista laptop. I have to say, I'm impressed with the game, except for the multiplayer. My friend has an XP laptop and he also as BFME2. The first time we tried playing together, something really wierd happened. I've never seen it before. Anyway, I couldn't see anyone else in the chat room or any other games, yet he could see me and my games, except he couldn't join them.

So we messed around with the settings, we tried disabling firewall, running in admin/compat and all that stuff. We forwarded the ports, and turned off our router firewall temporarily. We finally go the idea to create an ad hoc network and it worked first time. What I want to know is why it didn't work when we were connected via the router, as I like staying with the router. It's a pain to get us both on the ad hoc network each time.

Can anyone please explain or tell me how to fix this?

ZeratuelX

Does this game connect to a central server or is each instance of the game a server unto itself?

I believe each one is a server, as we can connect to each other without a router

It's an EA game, so that suggests, as with every EA game I know of, that you must first log on to EA's master server. Once logged on to the master server, you can then see the lobby. If you're not seeing the lobby, then that suggests you're not logged onto the master server... or there's some problem?

Not sure how to explain what's happening to you guys, but not until you log onto the master server are you able to select what type of game you want to play: online or host a LAN. At least that's what this page suggests about half way down, step 10, getting into a game: EA - Battle for Middle-Earth II

Do you know if this game has a dedicated server? If so, you could install it on a third machine on your LAN, it would sync up with EA's master server, and you both would see it.

As to the specifics of you not seeing the lobby, maybe this thread will help? Battle for Middle Earth 2 Heaven: Frequently Asked Questions

That's impossible, there is no way. Let me restate what I put in my first post:

I had no connection to the router whatsoever, in fact it was off. There was no internet at all. It is impossible for me to have been connected or need connection to a master server.

OK, suit yourself. I gave it my best shot... gave you a link to the guys who make the game, but oh well.

I got an idea - you said you did port forwarding - on the computers or ***on the router***?

The router.