Can't join any ladder games

kandaker · 2 Mar 2025, 17:12

This started about a week ago, and still persists with FAF client 2025.2.1. It has reproed daily for at least 7 days. Before this, I've been playing FAF for years, both ladder and custom games.
I can get in the queue for ladder games as normal. When a game starts, I get sent to the connection screen with the table that shows connectivity between the players, and the square which should show the map, as normal.
But the map never draws.
The connectivity yellow/green squares change a bit as usual. After a while (when all is well) all the diagonal squares turn green. When they have pulsed green for a bit and just as I would expect the game to start, instead the green squares for the other players go dark/transparent. After that I can sit on this screen indefinitely. The ICE debug window looks like I'm still in contact with the other players when this happens (but the other players quickly drop off - I'm guessing that's because the game fails to start because my client isn't joining correctly).

I've tried uninstalling and re-installing the FAF client to address this.
I've been thinking about whether this could be due to the DDOS attacks of the coturn servers (since I do rely on coturn servers), but other players are telling me in chat that they use coturn servers and that they're able to get into ladder games most of the time at the moment.

Any ideas about what could be wrong, and steps to fix?

magge · 2 Mar 2025, 17:44

Can you share a replay and ice log, please.

kandaker · 2 Mar 2025, 17:58

@magge
ice-adapter.log
game_24389195.log

Are those the relevant logs?
I see some errors in the ICE log, but have no idea whether those are related to the issue I'm experiencing.

kandaker · 2 Mar 2025, 18:03

Actually, I realized I'm not 100% sure those two logs are from a game that completed to the point where I got the screen above. It's possible it might have been from a game which didn't get that far (e.g. because some other player didn't turn green). Here are new logs which definitely come from a game which landed me in the state I describe above.

ice-adapter.log

game_24389665.log

kandaker · 2 Mar 2025, 21:49

I just tried ladder 1v1. That worked on the first try. But 3v3 has been failing at least 20 times over the past week with the above behavior.
With the 1v1, the map rendered on the connection screen, and then the game started.
I wish I had some idea about what the root cause might be. Perhaps it's related to the maps in 3v3 and my client not being able to render them?

magge · 3 Mar 2025, 10:41

I am not sure, if it is related to DDoS, the recent patch, which may cause connection issues for a small amount of users, or your network environment.

What security software are you using?

Can you check this thread and when you are done going through all points, posting some WinMTR result, please? Also with Bandwidth and Load Test.

kandaker · 3 Mar 2025, 18:59

I figured this out. It's not due to any networking issue.
The problem was that somehow FAF or the java executable were blocked in some new way from accessing %USER_PROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Gas Powered Games\Supreme Commander Forged Alliance\maps... There were java.nio.file.NoSuchFileException issues in multiple log files.
I turned off Windows Security "Controlled Folder Access", and things work. I think that had been turned on when I had the machine connected to work many years ago.
I have no idea why this lack of folder access became an issue now. I think it is due to some change with 2025.2.0. But it could be a change in the java executable or elsewhere.

miki1900 · 3 Mar 2025, 19:45

me too! same problem and started 2-3 days ago!
i think first it was firewall or i havent map (auto download error) but i dont know

i changed location map and that ruin a game. I reinstall and now i have this connection error me too!

new java update 02-28

miki1900 · 3 Mar 2025, 19:38

This post is deleted!

miki1900 · 3 Apr 2025, 21:28

@kandaker

how works? do u have windows 7?
i cant solve this problem.

icon, security, edit? i have windows 7 but same problem since 2-3 days, i tried firewall

kandaker · 20 Mar 2025, 15:39

If you're having the same symptoms, including the map image never showing on the connection screen, then you might not have the same root cause (Windows 10 "controlled folder access" turned on). Something else might be preventing either the FAF client or the game from accessing the maps folder. Perhaps the two (FAF client and game) are looking for the maps in different locations. I would start trying to figure out if there is something going wrong with the map download, generation, or loading by the game.

As an aside, using Windows 7 at this point is pretty scary from a security perspective. I realize even installing the FAF client is also a kind of scary security issue, but using Win7 is next level. If you can update to an OS which gets regular security updates, that would be a good idea. Don't do any banking or such on that Win7 machine!