Newcomer / Intro Wings and Squadrons for dummies?

[AB Normal]

Hello everyone,
in every sense I'm an old player rather than a newcomer, but I've never tried wing missions or joining a squadron.
Now, thanks to Epic my son installed the game, and i created a new account, and we want to play together in the same instance, but it seems impossible.
I've created a private group and invited the boy, and he accepted, but it seems we're unable to find each other: even when at the same base, his ship doesn't exist in my instance, and mine doesn't in his.
I've tried to switch to open play, with the same result. And more, when I try to create a wing, the result is he's "Unavailable for wing play". Although he connected to my private group, in the player's description (in the group management page) he appears as "Solo". Obviously, I did not take any screenshots, to show what I'm saying.
I suspect I don't fully (or even partially, to be honest) understand how the game works in making two players meet in the vast space, so I'm here asking for help from the more savy commanders.

In the mean time, I'll show him the ropes, and will try to convince him that putting four different weapon types on a small ship is not really a recipe for success in PVP.

Thank you in advance,

ABN

 

[Para Handy]

Instancing is sometimes really infuriating.

I have always found it best to go to comms panel, social tab, scroll to the friend and invite to wing, then one of us switched on the wing beacon and the other goes in supercruise in the same system, locks on to the wing beacon and disengages at it. From then on the wing connection has always stayed stable for me. Of course you actually need to be able to see that they are online in the comms panel social section.

Can you not see each other in the "Social" option at the main menu? What does it show in the "Friends" page of that Social selection? (Should show the last time they were online.)

 

[AB Normal]

Instancing is sometimes really infuriating.

I have always found it best to go to comms panel, social tab, scroll to the friend and invite to wing, then one of us switched on the wing beacon and the other goes in supercruise in the same system, locks on to the wing beacon and disengages at it. From then on the wing connection has always stayed stable for me. Of course you actually need to be able to see that they are online in the comms panel social section.

Can you not see each other in the "Social" option at the main menu? What does it show in the "Friends" page of that Social selection? (Should show the last time they were online.)

Thanks for the info. I usually try to contact him through the comms panel, but the "Invite to wing" option is reddened out and not selectable - then, there's another rather relevant question arising: what'sa wing beacon?? Remember that I'm a complete noob regarding multiplayer...
Tonight I'll try again, and I'll post some screenshots too, if the issue won't be resolved.

ABN

 

[Para Handy]

Thanks for the info. I usually try to contact him through the comms panel, but the "Invite to wing" option is reddened out and not selectable - then, there's another rather relevant question arising: what'sa wing beacon?? Remember that I'm a complete noob regarding multiplayer...
Tonight I'll try again, and I'll post some screenshots too, if the issue won't be resolved.

ABN

In your right-hand UI on the ship page you will see an entry "Beacon" there you can turn on the wing beacon. This provides you with a signal in supercruise that wing-mates can lock-on to and when you get the "safe to disengage" message, doing so instances you with the person who's wing beacon you were locked-on to.

 

[CMDR Jago Kain]

You say your son is playing on an Epic account but are you also on a PC? Cross-platform play between Playstation/XBox/PC is not possible.

 

[AB Normal]

Oh well, now I come to know what's that Beacon tag. Maybe in a couple of nights we'll be good to go.

And yes, we're both on PC so no cross-platform limitations for us.

Is there somewhere a guide to wing play? So in the future I won't bother you with dumb questions.

ABN

 

[Krieger]

Your son being "Unavailable for wing play" could be a networking issue. Both machines must allow incoming connections for the P2P protocol used by ED to work. The game takes care of this by using UPnP to open a port on the router. I'm not an expert on networking but if both your machines are behind the same router that could complicate things. Maybe someone with more networking knowledge than me could comment?

 

[CptArcher]

May have to forward the proper ports. You can select different ports on each computer and make sure the firewall has the ports forwarded.