Hi guys,

Thank you for being so patient as we work through our teething pains.

1.6.3.6 is live in the beta branch. A lot of code changed, so I want to let it simmer in beta for a day before putting it on the main branch (you know, in case there are any bugs).

I realize a lot of you have had a very inconsistent multiplayer experience, but this fix will be a big improvement.

Here's what got addressed:

• Added Chat (on the "t" key)
• Added "Search again" button to online session chooser to look for new sessions
• Sessions in the session chooser are now always sorted by the column, and then by the proximity of the server to you (as reported by steam). Games earlier in the list will be closer than games later in the list.
• Session chooser now shows more sessions (although latency may be high on the ones at the bottom).
• Fixed crashes in session chooser screen
• Fixed mysterious "Host Disconnected" message when trying to join an online game.
• Fixed endless connecting screen when joining an online game
• Connection chooser now sorts by number of friends playing by default.
• Added more descriptive error messages when trying to join a game
• Removed "Hosted by: [unknown]" when steam won't tell us who the host is.

Additional Information:
There are some cases when a game will not show up in the session list:

• If the host has not set their Steam presence to "Online".
• In an Endurance game, if anyone has gone past 100 meters, or has been playing more than 1 in-game day the game issues a message stating that no one else can join, and the game will no longer show up in the session chooser.
• If the host has marked the game as "Invited Friends Only" in Host Settings/Who can join, you won't see it. Also if Who can join is set to "Friends Only", only friends of the host will see the game.
• Sometimes games may not be visible if the host is running a different version than you are. We try to minimize this.

Also, I wanted to point out that if your friends are playing, you can join their game by going to the Steam Friends panel, right clicking on your friend and choosing "Join Game" (this still won't work if they are in an Endurance game that is no longer joinable).

Finally, there are many reasons why you may not be able to connect to a game. Steam has a bunch of reasons related to blocking and clans and so forth. I've made the error message much more clear, so you should at least know why you couldn't connect.

Ok, this has gone on long enough.
Thank you again, for your patience, and if there are no problems with the beta, look for it to go live tomorrow around this time.

-john