Step By Step Guide to Configuring TCP/IP Multiplayer

[Resident Alien 2]

I got it to work and played a couple of moves with a host and two player PC's, one of which was connecting via the Internet and the other was on a home network.

Here is a step by step guide on how I configured things.

My test Network Configuration was:
------------------------------
Home Network
1. Cable Modem
2. Linksys BEF SR41, 4 port network hub and cable modem router.
3. Host PC , Win XP, SE4 Gold.
4. Player 1, Win ME, SE4 Gold.

Connecting Via Internet
1. Player 2, Win NT 4 laptop, via dialup ISP, SE4 Gold.

See P93 - 94 of SE4 Gold Manual

Configuration Steps (Skip stuff you don't have or need)
-------------------
1. Configure Host (Win XP)
a) My Host PC is running Norton Firewall (NIS 2002). I configured SE4.EXE as a program that can communicate with any TCP or UDP port, incomming and outgoing, to and from any IP address.
b) Deactivated built in Win XP Firewall.

2. Configure Linksys BEFSR41 router, via Internet Explorer configuration pages.
a) click on 'Status' tab and record your WAN IP ADDRESS. This is the IP remote players will connect to.
a) Click on 'Advanced' Tab, then on 'Forwarding' tab.
b) Set Service Port Range 6716 to 6720, to forward 'Both' protocols (udp and tcp) to the INTERNAL IP of the Host (XP) pc on the home network. On my network this is 172.16.9.100.
c) Click on 'Apply' and continue.

3. Start SE4 on Host PC.
a) New Game, configure map and stuff as per normal.
b) Add an empire file. This isn't the one you will be using but I found it works if you do this.
c) At Game Mechanics window choose Different Machines, Simultaneous Moves, enter Multiplayer game filename (note this down and tell the players before they start setup), choose TCP/IP Host. Click Begin Game.
d) Host screen displayed and it sits there waiting for players to connect.
e) At this point the players need to know your WAN (Internet) IP ADDRESS and the Multiplayer Game Filename.

4. Player 2, via Internet
a) Dial into ISP, connect to Internet.
b) Start SE4.
c) New Game.
d) Add an empire file. This isn't the one you will be using but I found it works if you do this.
e) At Game Mechanics window choose Different Machines, Simultaneous Moves, enter Multiplayer game filename , choose TCP/IP Player. Click Begin Game.
f) TCP/IP Player screen is displayed. Enter the WAN IP ADDRESS (host needs to tell player) at Host IP Address and enter a Player Name. Click Connect to Host.
g) Should connect, get message saying waiting for all players.

5. Player 1, Via home network.
a) As above, from point b.
b) Instead of WAN IP ADDRESS, use the INTERNAL IP of the host on your network.

6. Host.
a) Players are listed on screen as they connect.
b) After all players are connected, Click Begin Game

7. Player 1 and Player 2
a) Click Create Empire and add new or existing empire file. Click Begin Game.
(Add a password to your empire files.)

8. Host
a) After a player has added an empire the host can then click on Add Empire to add an empire file. Click Begin Game.
b) After all players have created empire, host clicks Process Turn.

9. Host and Players
a) Click Play Turn, do stuff, click end of turn.

10. Host
a) Process Turn, status is displayed on screen.

11. Repeat, until you reach victory

[ 16 March 2002: Message edited by: Resident Alien 2 ]

[Cylapse]

Heh, any way to recover from a boot?

That would be seriously appreciated in a TCP IP game... Now my closest ally has DSL so it aint an issue, but before it was a ROYAL pain. Id constantly have to redo my turn... Or maybe I was locked in retard-mode or somethen and did something wrong. But whenever he was disconnected Id havta quit the host, restart it and salvage what I could...

Any thoughts, advice?

Now Ive gone onto using the batch-file method, which fooken rocks, I gotta say.

[TsunamiDragon]

Ok. So i got a major problem. Everybody knows, ship designs take FOREVER to make. So lets say im playing offline. I make an empire, i start the game. i make my designs. I save my empire. Everything is all cool and all. I make a new game, i reload my empire. My ship designs are still there. Wahoo

The problem is, when i play tcp/ip with my friends(im the host by the way), and i load up my empire, the designs aren't there. But the really messed up part is, when i make a design, with one of my deleted ship names, it says error name already exists and stuff. So my ships MUST be somewhere, or invisible. Anybody else have this problem? Guys i need Moocho help, i e-mailed customer support but they didn't reply.

[dumbluck]

I don't think customer support answers emails anymore. They have a website where you log your problems now... Of coarse, that was a long time ago when I used it...

[Merry Jolkar]

Last night, I set up a LAN game using the steps described by Resident Alient 2 (thanks! ). But, we wanted to include particular A.I. races and play humans vs. A.I. At RA2's step 7, where the host adds empires, you seem only to be able to add one empire: the one the host is playing. If you try to add specific computer controlled players, it says you can only add one empire. If you try to add one A.I. (planning to add self next), it says you have to play the race you are adding. (Oh, and if you add specific A.I.'s in the intitial setup (RA2's step 3), they do not appear in the game, a fact we discovered after playing 30+ turns and exploring all of the map without ever encountering a foe! I wound up just setting up the game to add a few A.I.'s, and we wound up with different A.I.'s (and more of them!) than we wanted. Any ideas?
Thanks!

[Fyron]

Try adding the AIs when setting the game up, before hitting Begin Game.