Could Not Connect to Franchise Server

malcmall

M
Is there any idea when this is going to be fixed. I have had this problem since the first update. Start playing in franchise then after a few minutes the message "Could not connect to franchise server check your internet connection". If you save the game or wait it will continue to play and then you get the message "There has been an error communicating with the franchise server."

This is the only game I have had problems with. I have over 200 hours in the game before this started to happen. Gave up playing and came back and still not fixed.

I have put it on the issue tracker about three weeks ago along with at least seven others with the same or similar problem. Then there are more on the tracker that have expired. I have tried all the suggestions out there none work.

Will this be fixed or will it be continued to be ignored!

Apart from this it is a great game,I really enjoyed Coaster too. I bought this mainly for franchise but cannot play it as it is.
 

Faodaghan

F
I'm encountering the same problem - sometimes it's okay to play for hours, sometimes it's only a few minutes - no other program has any problem with my internet connection... for fun, I just did a test run when the problem occurred today and started streaming some youtube just to see if there was any "stuttering" there - it doesn't seem to be a problem with my internet connection, must be the communicating part where something goes wrong... how human! ;-)
It only irks me because lately I've also seem to have a problem with exiting to either the main menu or quitting altogether... the game just crashes and has to be terminated by using Windows task manager. After that, I have to verify the integrity of the game files via Steam in order to be able to load the franchise save. So I'm not too keen on quitting just because there is a problem with communicating with the franchise server... sometimes it just goes away (at least for a while) if I wait a little.
It might be I'm playing on an older computer with an outdated operating system (some older version of Windows... they're going through new ones so quick I don't bother keeping track with the names anymore).
Otherwise, this is a very fine computer and completely sufficient for my daily needs, so I'm trying to put off buying a new one as long as possible... greenbacks don't grow on trees, after all. ;)
 

NL_Mutso

NL_Mutso
Faodaghan said:
It might be I'm playing on an older computer with an outdated operating system (some older version of Windows... they're going through new ones so quick I don't bother keeping track with the names anymore).
Click to expand...

Just curious, what are the specs?
Windows10 has been installed with factory settings on PCs for the last 5 years (approx), so do you meet all the minimum requirements at least?
(disconnecting/crashes are issues that you hear a lot from gamers with lower specs computers from a lot of different games)
 

Faodaghan

F
Erm... ;-) I think my machine is about ten years old, at least eight, and it wasn't the newest model then. As for the operating system, I've been around since Windows 3.11, I had '95, then '98 (which was quite good and stable), then they started messing up the names... I stuck with 98 for a long time, I think there was one I completely missed out on (Windows 2000?), then I got XP when XP was old and tested and tried (and it ran on my other machine until the beginning of this year, when I gave up the machine), I think the OS with this machine might be Windows 7, maybe even 8, but definitely not 10 (I think 10 was the one some pop-up insisted I should upgrade to because it was all new and flashy - and I hate new and flashy ;-), especially when it's promoted by an irksome pop-up) In my experience, trying to install the latest OS on a geriatric computer usually leads to more problems than it's worth, plus everything becomes even more laggy, and in the end you're being convinced you need to go to the store and buy a new computer... it's just all become too fast for me, I grew up when you knew you had the telly on (and they were showing Star Trek) when you heard the word "computer" in your house. ;-) It's highly contradictional to everything I was taught - if you get quality, you can expect it to last a lifetime... my mom's fridge had its 50th birthday in 2018 and then it started having hick-ups - my mum died at the age of 75, 10 days after the fridge "died", and this one was in fact the only one she'd ever bought. True, I suppose it was energy efficiency class H++ (or even further on in the alphabet), but as for the use of resources in being made and wasted when thrown away... drifting off, sorry. ;)
 

NL_Mutso

NL_Mutso
I think your pc isn't fully capable of running the game and pushing your pc to the limit.
Which also means more problems, especially during performance spikes. Usually for the minimal requirements they mean a clean computer with those specs.

Started with DOS myself, W3.11, W95, W98, W98SE, WXP, Wvista and Windows 7 eventually upgraded to Windows 10. Which actually helped the performance of my older PC (2009), which was one of the latest models back then. But that depends on a lot of other stuff.
And that one isn't able to run PZ at all. (replaced the graphics card a few years ago for a really cheap one)

Haha, the fridge comment.. Most mechanics/repair guys all say the same. Quality for those products dropped when they introduced energy-saving. My parents are the same and most electronics lasted for 20-30 years. (except for TV and computers)
 
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Faodaghan

F
I just followed a hunch and manually re-installed the graphics driver - it promptly told me that last time I had a GPU crash (which it never did before when the game crashed, but I made it out to the main menu once and had a graphics bug, maybe that's where the hunch came from) - I now know I'm indeed running Windows 7 and have a Geforce GTX 750 working in the machine... minimum requirement lists GTX 770, so maybe that's indeed the issue. Probably. Likely. ;-) A lot of the games I play don't require a lot of Graphic Card power (I've developed a bad motion sickness over the years... back in the time I was relatively okay when we were playing Doom and the likes, but it got worse. A lot worse.) On the plus side, after re-installing the driver I've tested exiting to main menu once (again, the communications problem), and this time it didn't crash. I may have to stick to smaller zoos, though ;) I did use foliage and stuff sparsely, though... I know how my machine handles cities with a 50.000+ population in Cities: Skylines.
For now, I'd still evaluate the game as "playable with hickups" on my machine. I stick with games I like for a long time, and this one is not the first that one day will be run on a computer matching its requirements (I won't get around upgrading forever, sigh) and yes, there's that part of me that is already looking forward to then being able to go for maximum graphics quality and effects... and it'll boost the fun of playing the game once again then.
It's not the first game I've ever run on a machine below minimum requirements either... ;-) I think that honour goes to Lucas Arts' TIE Fighter - my friend and me ran that on a 286/25... I remember writing custom-tailored autoexecs and juggling with XMS and EMS memory a lot... then my friend upgraded to an early 486, and they told him he couldn't run Wing Commander IV, and he did... with almost none of that screenshot-slide-show-stuff... ;-)
 

Arrakai

A
This seems to be mostly a weekend problem. During the weeks, I get maybe one or two "can't connect to franchise server" over a single day, oftentimes non at all, but during the weekend it gets much much worse. It usually starts during friday evenings, when I can get up to one-two an hour and then at saturdays it is at it's worst, with two-five disconnects an hour, sometimes more... I guess it is because alot more people play during the weekends and the franchise servers can't handle that. Whatever is causing it, it's frustrating as hell
 
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