If you can't connect to multiplayer, what are your specs? (PC)

[LaikaFromSpace]

This might sound a bit weird, but bear with me.

My husband bought Grounded so we could play multiplayer. He installed it on his brand-new, custom-built PC. No matter what we did, he couldn't see my lobby to join, and couldn't get host at all (just got the spinning loading screen, or, maybe 5-10 minutes later, an error/crash). The last-ditch effort was to install the game on his older gaming laptop and...it worked perfectly! The computer it was running on was the only different factor -- otherwise, we were in the same house, using the same high-speed internet, both via Steam, etc. 

His new PC is, on paper, more powerful with better specs than his gaming laptop, so it's weird that multiplayer works on one and not the other, right? It made me wonder if the multiplayer connection issue is some hardware or software compatibility problem (?). Obviously it could be a million things (I'm not a developer lol) but I'm curious to see if there's any link to PC specs...

PC (multiplayer didn't work): AMD Ryzen 2700, GeForce RTX 2080, Windows 10, 32GB RAM

Laptop (multiplayer worked): Intel i7, GeForce GTX 1070, Windows 10, 16GB RAM (< my laptop's the same, and multiplayer has always worked for me)

[RazielDERF]

I don't think it's a hardware issue. I would instead take a look at your NAT settings to your router. Go here https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026770/xbox-open-these-network-ports-for-xbox-one

These are the ports that should be opened or forwarded.

It also goes without saying that all drivers on the pcs should be up to date. Also any updates to windows is never a bad thing. 

Besides this there is a known issue with Steam and connecting with other players. There will be a patch coming out soon that will address this I hope. 

Hope this helps.

[LaikaFromSpace]

Interesting. I haven't seen any mention of the port open/forwarding thing as a possible workaround for the multiplayer issue (and this article specifically is referring to an Xbox One, which... n/a?). But could be worth looking into, although, as I said, it's now working fine for us. Have you seen anyone else say that updating their port settings has resolved their multiplayer issues?

I wasn't looking for a solution but am simply curious to see if there's any overlap. I know I said I'm not a dev but I do work in tech and learned a long time ago to start by asking basic questions and work up from there, rather than vice versa

Edited August 13, 2020 by LaikaFromSpace
Repeated myself