MacSoft has finally released a patch to Age of Mythology that is suppose to correct the dreaded online gaming issues with AoM I’ve spoken about frequently.
bq. Most of the changes for this version were for improving GameRanger support, which now works much better overall. In addition, the following specific changes were made:
– The initial connection process for GameRanger games is much more reliable now, especially when running behind a router.
– Added support for GameRanger Premium.
– Online games now work from dial-up connections.
– Startup movies are skipped when launching GameRanger games.
bq. In this version, you no longer need to specify the “OverrideAddress” in the ‘user.cfg’ file if you are running behind a router or gateway. In fact, if you are using this, YOU SHOULD REMOVE THE LINE FROM YOUR USER.CFG FILE. The game now automatically determines your external “WAN” address, so the “OverrideAddress” is unnecessary.
bq. While the “OverrideAddress” is no longer needed, you still need to route UDP ports 2300-2301 to your local machine (or place your machine in the DMZ) if you want to host games.
Hopefully this will finally fix the problems so many people have had with trying to play the game online. There are also quite a few other fixes so maybe I’ll reinstall the game and start playing again. I didn’t see anything related to the Initialization Failed Error though, so make sure you don’t have any partitions named “Data” when trying to play AoM.