Knockout City might seem like just another entrant into a sea of competitive multiplayer games, but it has a few things going for it. Made by EA and Velan Studios, Knockout City tries to put a spin on the esports arena shooter genre by turning it into a dodgeball game. Rather than firing guns, players pick up dodgeballs from the ground and throw them at unsuspecting enemies. The 3v3 matches are a well-balanced combination of tactics and frantic randomness.
Velan isn’t the first studio to bring a new type of esports-oriented multiplayer experience to the table. We’ve already seen how successful Rocket League got with a seemingly simple idea. The formula doesn’t always work either as Ubisoft’s Roller Champions has not really caught on. Nevertheless, the game has launched fully and you can play it for free. The game is also available on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and EA Play.
What’s different about this free-to-play launch though is that it is only available until May 30th. After that, if you wish to keep playing Knockout City, you’d have to buy it. This trial period has allowed a massive influx of players to try the game out. In fact, only in the short couple of days that the free-to-play trial has been out, Knockout City has managed to hit over 2 million players. The momentum shows no signs of slowing down any time soon either as the game has received stellar reviews from critics and players alike.
Knockout City is having server connection issues at launch
Despite all the praise that it is getting from the media and players, Knockout City has had its fair share of issues since its launch. Players have reported not being able to get into games, getting kicked out during matches, and sometimes not even being able to connect to EA servers at all. All of these server connection issues shouldn’t come as a surprise though.
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We’ve seen over the past few years that every time a big multiplayer game launches, it seldom goes smoothly. The servers get overloaded and then you’re encountered with these connection errors. However, the servers might not always be at fault and we’ve found that many times, the problem is actually at the players’ end.
We’re sure that EA and Velan are hard at work to release fixes for issues at their end. In the meantime, there are a few things that you can try just to make sure that everything at your end is running fine. So, here are some fixes for server connection errors while playing Knockout City.
1. Make sure you’re hardwired to your router:
One of the most important things that most people often ignore is the stability of your connection to your router. Most people on a console and some on a PC use a Wi-Fi connection to browse the internet. And, while that’s usually fine for streaming or browsing, it’s not ideal for gaming.
For a competitive multiplayer game like Knockout City, you need a connection that’s rock solid. A wired ethernet connection directly to your router is many times better than a wireless one. Furthermore, if you’re using an ordinary 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi router, that difference in quality can increase even further.
Connecting your console or PC to the router via ethernet can not only decrease packet loss but also massively improves your latency to the game servers. So, this will not only help with avoiding disconnection but can also give you a competitive edge over the opposition. We cannot recommend getting hooked up via ethernet enough. In fact, it could even prove to be the remedy to your problems.
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2. Turn on QoS to prioritize Knockout City:
If you have a lot of devices connected to a single router at home, connections to all these devices can get bogged down. This is due to the fact that a router won’t differentiate between someone who’s streaming content and someone who is playing a game.
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The different requirements here are that streaming video content does not require quick packet transfer since it can preload and buffer. Multiplayer games, on the other hand, rely a lot on the quick transfer of data to reduce latency. With so many devices connected at the same time though, this can get compromised. Thankfully, most modern routers have a feature built into them called QoS or Quality of Service.
Essentially, what Quality of Service does is prioritize bandwidth and packet transfer speed between devices. So, if you’re not connected via ethernet, you can still have a say in which device gets the highest priority for your internet bandwidth. Turning on QoS and prioritizing your console or PC can have a massive impact on the connection quality in games.
In order to turn on QoS for Knockout City, all you have to do is open up your router settings. Once you’re in, browse through the options and look for QoS and turn it on. After it has been enabled, you can add your console or PC to the QoS priority list.
3. Change NAT type and open up your ports:
NAT is essentially the security firewall that your ISP puts for traffic coming in and going out of your router. There are 3 types of NAT: strict, moderate, and open. The stricter the NAT, the harder it would be for a multiplayer game to have p2p connections for smooth gameplay. So, if you have a strict NAT type, your online gaming capabilities will be very limited.
There are some ways for you to open up your NAT type and allow more traffic to go through. Firstly, you should head into your router settings and select port forwarding/DMZ settings. These settings will allow you to add specific IP addresses for your relevant console and open traffic for it. In the DMZ settings, you can enter the local IP address of your console to allow it.
You can find this IP address either within the router’s connected devices page or via the connection status page on your console.
However, for port forwarding, you’ll need the relevant ports for Xbox Live and PSN. Here are the ports that you need to forward for both PlayStation and Xbox consoles:
Xbox ports:
- Port 88 (UDP)
- Port 3074 (UDP and TCP)
- Port 53 (UDP and TCP)
- Port 80 (TCP)
- Port 500 (UDP)
- Port 3544 (UDP)
- Port 4500 (UDP)
PlayStation ports:
- 80 (TCP)
- 443 (TCP)
- 3478 (TCP)
- 3479 (TCP)
- 3480 (TCP)
- 3478 (UDP)
- 3479 (UDP)
In case your NAT type doesn’t change to moderate or strict even after applying these settings, you’ll have to contact your ISP and submit a request to change the NAT type.
4. Repair game files for Knockout City:
Most new games get patches and updates more frequently to iron out any initial bugs. However, sometimes these updates can be interrupted due to various reasons and not download properly. This can lead to corrupted or out-of-date game files. And, as a consequence, your access to the multiplayer servers can get restricted.
So, checking the integrity of the game files and verifying them can help with server connection issues as well. Thankfully, you don’t have to manually sift through these files as most game launchers on PC allow you to automatically scan and fix any corrupted files. If you have purchased Knockout City on Steam, here’s how you can verify your game files:
- In your Steam games library, right-click Knockout City and open up the game properties.
- Within the game properties, head over to the Local Files tab and select Verify.
- Steam will start verifying game files for Knockout City and if any discrepancies are found, they’ll be fixed automatically.
In case you’ve bought the game via Origin, the process is more or less similar. Just head into the options and select the repair/verify game files option.
5. Get rid of background processes to prioritize Knockout City:
On PC, if you have a lot of applications running in the background, it can compromise your connection speed. Usually, most background apps are fine even for multiplayer gaming. However, in older Windows installs, these apps can pile up over time and take up a significant portion of your free bandwidth. This can end up hurting the connection speed in games like Knockout City that need a stable and fast internet connection.
- The usual culprits for this are apps that download stuff in the background, including updates and other files. So, you’re looking at apps like Chrome, Zoom, Skype, and most importantly, Windows Update. So, if your Windows is being updated in the background, you can head into the settings and pause the download.
- For other apps, you can open up the task manager and see what percentage of bandwidth each app is using. From there, you can sort them from high to low and close the apps that are eating up the highest amount of bandwidth. Another thing that you can do to limit this from happening again is turning off startup apps. To do that, just head to the startup tab of the task manager and disable the apps that you think are not important to you.
Prioritize Knockout City:
- You can also head into the Details tab of the Task Manager and prioritize Knockout City over other applications. Just find the game’s process within the list, right-click on it, and select a high or real-time priority. This will allow your system to allocate more resources to the game.
Knockout City is out now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch. The game also supports crossplay so you can play with your friends no matter where they are. The game is also a part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and EA Play subscriptions. You can check it out right here.
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