Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Technical & Gameplay Problems Problem joining Multiplayer with friends

Hi there,

strange problem:
When my friends starting a lobby they can join each other without any problems. I am not able to join. Also if I'm starting a lobby they are not able to join my game. We all using GOG for that. It dosen't matter if we use the online lobby and connect to the lobby (the lobby is visible!) or by using the direct link code or GOG invitation.
And now the strange thing:
Once in a while (feels like every 100 tries) it works without problems! Yesterday I started a lobby and one of my friends was able to join. He logged in and out of my session. Worked with invitation direct join and with code... until I closed my lobby and started a new one. He wasn't able to join. Also I wasn't able to join him.

First thoughts: Firewall, network etc. But: if firewall blocks that stuff it would block it everytime. That drives me crazy.

Both other friends using the same provider. I have a different provider. When I use a hotspot with my phone it seems to work fine.
I tried to explain that to my provider and asked to check routing between the providers. Answer was: Buy a fixed IP and the problem is gone... I don't think so...

Anyone have an idea on that?

the provider is correct that this is your network not the game but there are other option to having a fixed ip... they could set up a tunnel which frankly tends to solve more handshake issues than a fixed ip anyway

how far apart are these other two friends from your location? are we talking America and New Zeland type senario

Hi Ussnorway, thanks for your reply!
We are all located in Germany, round about 60 km radius.

Anyone knows how the game / Larian establish the connection between the clients?

It's peer to peer, the person starting the game/lobby is the host. So connection issues is usually due to local reasons, for which could be many causes. Though fixed IP is unlikely (very unlikely) a fix.

I'd recommend emailing supportbg3@larian.com on this

Thanks @The Compser will do

Larian will tend to assume Steam with their support questions but it's worth a test yes

If you all live in the same area a lan party will give you a clear game vs network answer ... Are there any differences in setups i.e, you all use the same build of Galaxy / off line install, you has the same Windows and dx11?

Ok, problem found, but not explainable:

My friends and I tested several scenarios on my desktop computer: DX11/Vulcan Client starting from GOG Galaxy client and with the Exe, wired / wireless connection to the router, disabeling firewall, hotspot from phone,....

Except the hotspot everything showed the same result: do not work most of the time but once in while it suddenly is running until host is starting a new lobby.
A last thing I was testing, just to be sure that there are no problems with my computer: I grabbed a laptop from work, copied the game files on an external SSD, starting the game directly with the exe and... it worked! I was able to join several times also when a new lobby was created.

First thought: f@!§!!§k
I use my computer also with several virtual machines using Hyper-V. So maybe virtual switches could cause the problem... So my FRIENDS decided that I have to do a clean Windows installation.
So I installed Windows 11 from scratch just running OS, drivers and graphic card driver package. Then I started BG3 with the exe directly from the folder and it worked like a charme, tested with one of my friends. We decided to play in the evening a little bit and I continued installing several other things.

In the evenings same behavior as before: Cannot connect to the game! Hypervisor wasn't installed at that time... but GOG. I uninstalled GOG Galaxy, running the game as EXE and it worked. Without any problems.
And then the funny thing happened: The same problems started on one of my other friends. He then just killed every GOG related process, starting the game directly with the exe and everything worked fine.

Result:
GOG Galaxy caused the problem as long as it is running in the background. When it was running, I was not able to join the lobby in any way. I can see it, but I cannot join. Why? No idea...

wow, thanks!
After a long time, we finally were able to play together. The fix should be pinned until they properly fix it.