Local Multiplayer Impossible while Offiline

:arrow_forward:GAME INFORMATION

:point_down: These details are CRITICAL; DO NOT skip them or your issue may not be reviewed.

THIS AFFECTS THE ENTIRE DE SERIE!

  • GAME BUILD #: 101.101.47820.0.6624001
  • GAME PLATFORM: Steam
  • OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 10 and Windows 7

:arrow_forward: ISSUE EXPERIENCED

:point_down: DESCRIBE THE ISSUE IN DETAIL (below). LIMIT TO ONE BUG PER THREAD.
Cannot play a LAN game while offline.
It is considered as a bug when LAN mode cannot be played and a LAN scenario.

THIS AFFECTS THE ENTIRE DE SERIE!

:arrow_forward: CONSEQUENCE

:point_down: What are the long term repercussion?
People with no internet access CANNOT play these games.
When the official servers eventually get shutdown for good, the game could no longer be playable in multiplayer.

:arrow_forward: FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

:point_down: How often does the issue occur? CHOSE ONE; DELETE THE REST!

Experimented in the 2021-06-02T21:00:00Z server maintenance.

  • 100% of the time I want to play OFFLINE and when the game gets updated. (ALWAYS)
    This includes while being in a place where there are no internet connections (Family house),
    the official servers are down and also simply putting Steam Offline for some reason.

:arrow_forward: REPRODUCTION STEPS

:point_down: List CLEAR and DETAILED STEPS we can take to reproduce the issue ourselves… Be descriptive!

Here are the steps to reproduce the issue:

  1. Open any Age Of Empires DE game.
  2. Disconnect your internet connection.
    1.1. Or wait until the Official Servers are down.
  3. In the main menu, “MULTIPLAYER” is grayed out.

:arrow_forward: EXPECTED RESULT

:point_down: What was SUPPOSED to happen if the bug you encountered were not present?
It is expected to be able to play in LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN) while no connection to the official’s servers is available.

It is acceptable that ONLINE (WAN) game mode is disabled when no WAN connection to the official servers.

A local area network (LAN ) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, school, laboratory, university campus or office building. By contrast, a wide area network (WAN) not only covers a larger geographic distance but also generally involves leased telecommunication circuits

2021-06-02 - 17:55 EST : LAN - Wikipedia

:arrow_forward: IMAGE

:point_down: ALWAYS attach a PICTURE (.jpg, .png, .gif) or VIDEO (.mp4, YouTube link) that highlights the problem.

:arrow_forward: GAME FILES (SAVE / RECORDING)

:point_down: Attach a SAVE GAME (.aoe2spgame) or GAME RECORDING (.aoe2record) of the match where you encountered the issue. Link it below if using an external file service.
None. Can’t open a game.

1 Like

You still need to connected to the internet to play LAN
Not sure if they will set it up that LAN still works when the servers eventually aren’t around. The original AOE 3 LAN works really well, you don’t need an ESO account or anything as long as you are online. Hopefully this will be the case for all the DE games.

I saw that it still needs to be ONLINE… but it defeats the purpose of LAN itself…

I have only ever used LAN features though the local internet. I honestly don’t know how to set up LAN games without the using my home internet :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

this piracy prevention thing is annoying, people with genuine copies are being punished. make LAN available without internet pls.

There is unfortunately no such thing as a LAN game in DE. Multiplayer games are played exclusively via the provided server infrastructure. For now we have no way of setting up our own servers, and DE does not support peer-to-peer play.
While I wish this was different (and maybe changes at some point) it is what it is.

2 Likes

AoE: DE had it, I wonder why it has been implemented for AoE: II DE

1 Like