Here's a brief overview of the major issue that I experienced:
1. [EDIT: This appears to be resolved by giving AvP_Classic.exe permission from the Windows Firewall; I wonder why it wasn't given to begin with.] Game connection error. I kept getting the message for about 85-90% of my join attempts. I appeared to have particular trouble with COOP or TAG games. Earlier in the day, at around 8-9 p.m. CET, I seemed to have little problem getting on servers, though I wasn't able to play then. When I did try, at 11 p.m. EDT, it was a chore. Next I tried around 1 a.m. EDT. It was my first successful joining of a Coop game and the ghosting and was terrible. Then I got on a SDM server that started off smoothly, if a bit empty of non-aliens, but eventually made for a fun and varied game. 0 issues, though there may have been a couple of server resets - not sure if it wasn't simply due to the game rules (time wasn't out, though). Still, getting to that point was troubling. It would have been helpful if I'd at least been aware of the issues that prevented me from joining other games.
2. Matchmaking and game browser. I've been told GOG is working on improving that UI, but as it is, given the issues above, there's some serious tweaking to be done. I'd be more accepting of a limit of 8 games listed if I was guaranteed connectivity to them; again, this was anything but. So, some necessary additions to the UI would be: server/ player pings, species per game, private games, multiple-page game listing, game search, verbose error messages and diagnostics.
3. I tried hosting a server between about 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. EDT. Initially, people had a hard time even seeing it. Eventually, near the end some people were able to successfully join, but only groups of up to 2, and they soon left. Due to the lack of information, I was unable to determine if something was actually preventing people from joining, like I had experienced, or if there simply was little interest.
In conclusion:
Expanding server infrastructure? $10,000. Hiring additional networking programmers? $200,000. Organizing a somewhat successful stress test? $17,000. Biting the head of an unsuspecting Predator? Priceless.
Post edited October 22, 2014 by Spinorial