Intermittend issues with login and crashes

[Sonderbeast]

Hi folks, I got the itch and decided to play the ol' p99 again but I've been having some issues with the client (title).

A summary of the issues I've had over the past couple days is as follows. I'll boot up the client, log in and the server UI will be blank black about 90% of the time. That tenth time I'll be able to see everything and log into p99 just fine, log into a character and play for a while and then I'll crash while zoning. Then I'll have to go through the process again until I can see the server again (sometime I have to wait a couple hours).

Once in a while I'll pop into character select and all my toons are missing (like the patch files need updated)

Once I got the 1017 message.

Troubleshooting:
So far I've tried rebooting my router which doesn't seem to have a consistent effect.
I've tried a fresh install and have the same issues.
I tried adjusting my resolution in my eq game file to match my native resolution for the crash issue (not sure I did that correctly, however).
I've tried praying to a few different dieties including the agnostic one.

So far none have solved the issues.

Any help?

[Kavious]

These are networking/routing/ISP issues

If there are packet problems you'll get blank servers and crashes while zoning. Where most modern programs/games will verify and request new packets, old EQ does not do this and is not fault tolerant.

Sometimes its shotty wifi and going wired can alleviate problems. Sometimes its routing/ISP issues you can do very little about. If you have access to a VPN or tether/hotspot theres a chance it can bypass routing related issues

One thing you can try with the blank server list is Middlemand. Its a login helper that filters the list so it only tries to load Project1999 servers limiting the traffic its trying to load. You do have to edit your eqhost for it to work, the download/instructions are on its Github page https://github.com/rm-you/p99-login-middlemand/releases

[Sonderbeast]

Update on resolved issues.

I followed mcoy's suggestion to change to a different service pack, and after switching to SP3 my zoning/camping crashes seem to have been fixed.

I tried most of the suggested options, got a VPN, tried middlemand, power cycled my modem, and nothing really seemed to resolve the issues. I then tried turning off my 'fast startup' option in my power settings so my pc would go through a normal reboot, and the issues with server connectivity seem to be better. It's 9am EST about 250 people on blue, we'll see if it continues to work. I'll give a follow up tomorrow.

thanks!

[Sonderbeast]

Update is...

Still having the same server login problems. Seems less so in the a.m. but still happens. idk

[BoneyBoney]

Interesting, as I've been experiencing a myriad of problems after returning to the game with a two year gap.

The main one is the game crashing in OT, near the dock. Zoning in is fine but as it nears the dock, the whole client locks and needs a task manager kill. It seems quite a few Kunark zones are similarly affected. Tried adding ini updates for CPU, without success. Set compat on the exe without success. Parts of it seem random too. For example, I logged back in after a crash in OT, game client seemed OK, panned and it locked again. Relogged again and it all seemed fine. Logged another char, crashed at the same part.

The other crash I get from time to time is that my keyboard simply stops interacting with the game. UI controls, like clicking stand and sit work fine but nothing responds to keyboard (and of course the keyboard is fine, the client is the focus and so on). Only fix is to restart the client.

The usual other crashes accompany all the above. Alt-Enter to go fullscreen dies. Camping out can random pop a crash dialog and so on.

It's not at all what I remember from even just a couple of years ago.

[Sonderbeast]

Interesting, as I've been experiencing a myriad of problems after returning to the game with a two year gap.

The main one is the game crashing in OT, near the dock. Zoning in is fine but as it nears the dock, the whole client locks and needs a task manager kill. It seems quite a few Kunark zones are similarly affected. Tried adding ini updates for CPU, without success. Set compat on the exe without success. Parts of it seem random too. For example, I logged back in after a crash in OT, game client seemed OK, panned and it locked again. Relogged again and it all seemed fine. Logged another char, crashed at the same part.

The other crash I get from time to time is that my keyboard simply stops interacting with the game. UI controls, like clicking stand and sit work fine but nothing responds to keyboard (and of course the keyboard is fine, the client is the focus and so on). Only fix is to restart the client.

The usual other crashes accompany all the above. Alt-Enter to go fullscreen dies. Camping out can random pop a crash dialog and so on.

It's not at all what I remember from even just a couple of years ago.

I remember a while ago having similar crashes where the problem had to do with the resolution setting of the game. Try googling p99 resolution fix or p99 crash fix and see if you can find any of those posts.

[Sonderbeast]

Crashing and login server issues persist. I decided to do a full re-installation of the client. again. 0 server login issues for about 30 minutes. I was able to log in and out of characters, in and out of the account several times without any issues. Felt like I had finally figured it out. Then went in to adjust screen resolution to my native res (1080p) and suddenly server screen blank again. What gives. I'm probably going to quit trying and move on to a different game as I have already put in an absurd about of time trying to troubleshoot this.

[mcoy]

Crashing and login server issues persist. I decided to do a full re-installation of the client. again. 0 server login issues for about 30 minutes. I was able to log in and out of characters, in and out of the account several times without any issues. Felt like I had finally figured it out. Then went in to adjust screen resolution to my native res (1080p) and suddenly server screen blank again. What gives. I'm probably going to quit trying and move on to a different game as I have already put in an absurd about of time trying to troubleshoot this.

It's a 4:3 game. Try using a resolution at that aspect ratio. On my wide monitor a 1600x1200 window at 2x scaling nicely fit in half the screen.

-Mcoy