Hello all! So I just created an account online and then downloaded the game, but when I input my username and password on the homescreen, the game seems to get stuck on the "attempting to connect to server" screen — it'll fill up to around 75% and then won't progress further, even after 30 minutes or so of waiting.

I can confirm that my internet is normal and quite fast (wifi connection), and I've tried rebooting my laptop, resetting my password, and redownloading the client, but nothing seems to work. Would anyone have any thoughts/insights into what the issue could be? I haven't even created a character yet, I just created the account. I'm also in Europe, in case that might be a factor. Also I'm running Windows 11.

Many thanks in advance!

From what we can see, you were able to log into the game and make a character at a later point, after you posted this..

Can you tell us what you changed, if anything?

For instance, was there a Windows-level application block on the network connection? ("Windows Firewall has blocked some features of this app").

Or, did something else change about your network connectivity?

We're always very concerned when people are unable to connect for some reason. Operating Systems and Firewalls and the Internet at-large are constantly shifting in how they approach networked applications like ours, and it's kind of a constant challenge for us to keep adapting to give the game the best chance of successful operation.

Indeed! I actually didn't have to change anything, I had it running on the "attempting to connect to server" screen and it ended up going through after a bit while I was doing something else.

I wasn't timing it exactly, but it seems to have been around 40 minutes-ish. I didn't see any evidence that the firewall was affecting it (no pop-ups or notifications) and there were no changes in my wifi network or speed that I could see.

Right now I'm trying to connect again, and it's been about 15 minutes. This time, I can time it and see if I notice anything.

Thank you for your reply! If there are any specifics that I can provide that could be helpful, please let me know!

Man, that is super strange.

I would suggest the following, if possible:

1) Go into Options -> Advanced -> Network

2) Change "MTU Discovery" from "Automatic" to "Compatibility Mode"

3) Hit Apply and then try reconnecting again.

Let us know if that improves anything?

Wow, that's definitely the fix, it connected immediately!

Thanks for the suggestion and for the help!

Well, I'm glad to hear that helped, but also rather concerned that it was necessary.

We'll have to add some more debugging to things next week and see what we can learn. We may need to ask you to disable that setting again (switch it back to Automatic) once we have more logging in place on the server, so we can try and understand what's happening with your connection.

"Compatibility mode" really degrades some aspects of the network connection, so the game will work better for you if we're able to figure out what's wrong.

If it's possible for you to turn MTU Discovery back to "Automatic" and try logging in a few times, now, that would be helpful.

Once you've tried it a couple of times, please feel free to flip it back to "Compatibility Mode" and continue playing, we'll investigate further based on whatever data we're able to collect from those login attempts.

I just set it back to Automatic and it works perfectly! No issues on my end, and it only took a couple seconds to connect. I'll plan to continue using Automatic. Many thanks for the fix!

So glad to hear that! Thanks much.