This update's aim is primarily to ease the process of hosting and joining multiplayer games, especially via Steam.

Join Through Steam

• Steam Friends tab: The Join Game screen now opens on a list of friends who are hosting right now. See who's in a lobby and hit Join. The list refreshes every couple of seconds.
• Direct IP still works: The old address box lives on in the Direct IP tab for LAN games and anyone who prefers it.
• Join from the Steam overlay: Use Steam's Join Game on a friend's profile and you'll land straight in their lobby. Already in a game? A small gold notification lets you know a friend wants to join.
• Steam first, automatically: The game tries Steam first and falls back to direct addresses if needed.
• Lobby status line: The lobby now shows whether joining through Steam is on, with tooltips explaining each state.

Smoother Connecting

• New "Connecting..." screen with a Cancel button. The window no longer freezes while a connection is attempted.
• You can invite the same friend again after 30 seconds, with a visible countdown. Previously it was once per lobby.
• If a host closes their lobby or isn't hosting, you're told right away instead of watching a 10-second wait.
• Failed connections now tell you what to check: same Wi-Fi, guest networks, router isolation, VPN, or port 7777 for direct games. Where it helps, they point you to joining through Steam instead.
• The lobby's "Join IP" label now has an info tooltip explaining which address you're looking at.

Achievements

• Multiplayer game and win achievements, including all Conquest ones and A Step Into the World, now only count when at least one human opponent is in the match. Disconnect-farming doesn't count either.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a case where a friend's join request never reached the host and timed out after 15 seconds.
• Fixed host refusals (such as "not hosting") sometimes getting lost over Steam, which left players waiting on a timeout.
• Fixed a lobby closing in a way that dropped a waiting player's connection abruptly.
• Fixed pressing Alt+F4 on the Join Game address screen being treated as a host named "quit".
• Long error messages now stay on screen for 3 to 12 seconds, so you can actually read them.
• Fixed a misleading "UPnP failed" status that appeared before the router lookup had finished.
• Fixed a stray error being logged when a lobby closes.
• If joining via Steam isn't possible because the host has it switched off, the message now says so, rather than sending you back to the tab you came from.