I’m trying to set up a game for my friends, but no one can find the game even if we specify the IP address. Is there something we are missing. It was working one week ago, but now no one can find the match regardless of who hosts.

Edit: We added rules to the advanced firewall settings to prevent firewall interference, and we can join games from the master server list. For some reason we just can’t see or join a game of our own.

Edit2: the tilde key console shows that “BAD CD keyBAD CD key” is written over and over and over.

Edit3: changing cd keys eliminated the error, but still cannot find or connect to friends’ servers.

Firewall?

We added rules to prevent the firewall from interfering, and we can join games from the master server list. For some reason we just can’t see or join a game of our own.

I remember Quake 3 Arena (which this game uses as an engine) didn't allow multiple clients sharing the same CD key in a session. I wonder if the same is happening here? The GOG installer may be using a default key for everyone.

If you wanted to check, the game saves them in:
D:\GOG Games\Star Trek Elite Force\BaseEF\efq3.key
D:\GOG Games\Star Trek Elite Force\BaseEF\expefq3.key

Your parent path may be different, of course. I presume the first is base game serial, the second is the expansion.

Thanks, I will look at this. I thought the GOG version would scrap the use of the cd key, and we can join a public server listed in the “internet 1” and “internet 2”, but maybe there needs to be an edit here for our own server.

We did determine our keys are identical, however changing them with verified replacements did not help.