Hi, I'm Jim. I'm a Dominions Addict.

[LDiCesare]

Temp subs may be a pain if you trash them, but you can't do worse than stale turns, and any permanent sub is usually better than letting a player go ai and screw whatever diplomacy existed.

[Tyrant]

Temp subbing is not for a newb, but coming in as a permanent replacement is good way to get a glimpse of the later game without a big investment of time or emotional attachment.

As to settings, the VPs are pretty variable, but, as others have said, the basic game settings are usually standard or close to it.

Worthy Heroes is by far the most common mod. It's simple and easy, all it does is add and improve the national random heroes.

[Xox]

There is also a difference between "network" games and play by email (pbem) games. You may need to ask questions about both when you do pay a mp game. But network tends to be easier.

And it is helpful to set up a shortcut of the dominions III program on your desktop (in Windows) with something like this:

"C:\Program Files\dominions3\dom3.exe" -C --ipadr whateverservername.com --port ####

in the target box


the whateverservername.com part changing to whatever server is being used and the port #### changing to whatever port is being used

and

In the "start in" box put

"C:\Program Files\dominions3"


that way you go right to the networked game without entering the server and port number each time you play your turn.


You can make a shortcut for each networked game you are playing.


Pbem games are easier to host with great setups like llamaserver.net, but i personally find playing them awkward, painful, and I end up missing turns a lot. Lots of other people have no problem with pbem though.

[JimMorrison]

Xox said:
There is also a difference between "network" games and play by email (pbem) games. You may need to ask questions about both when you do pay a mp game. But network tends to be easier.

And it is helpful to set up a shortcut of the dominions III program on your desktop (in Windows) with something like this:

"C:\Program Files\dominions3\dom3.exe" -C --ipadr whateverservername.com --port ####

in the target box


the whateverservername.com part changing to whatever server is being used and the port #### changing to whatever port is being used

and

In the "start in" box put

"C:\Program Files\dominions3"


that way you go right to the networked game without entering the server and port number each time you play your turn.


You can make a shortcut for each networked game you are playing.


Pbem games are easier to host with great setups like llamaserver.net, but i personally find playing them awkward, painful, and I end up missing turns a lot. Lots of other people have no problem with pbem though.

See, now that's the kind of very pertinent information I thought it might be nice to have stickied. I guess it makes a nice icebreaker, but it just seems like having the technicalities of MP posted in a prominent fashion would save a lot of effort across the board.


Curious, if I were to host, is it possible with any computer on a dedicated internet connection? Obviously rather than a domain name, I would just have my IP itself, but is it that simple? And if so, can only one game be hosted on a machine at once?

[lch]

JimMorrison said:
Curious, if I were to host, is it possible with any computer on a dedicated internet connection? Obviously rather than a domain name, I would just have my IP itself, but is it that simple?

Yes, yes. As long as it's possible for users to connect to your ports and no Firewall or NAT interferes.

JimMorrison said:
And if so, can only one game be hosted on a machine at once?

You can have multiple instances of game servers running. I am using the wonderful "screen" command for that. You could achieve the same if you launch them as background process, but then you'd have to look up PIDs if you need to kill one.

[JimMorrison]

Screen command? As in, windowed mode, or....?

I don't tend to get any sort of crash or freeze with Dom, so I can't imagine needing to just kill one. My comp is usually very stable for weeks at a time, so I'd only need the occasional 10 min to reboot and get the games back up.....

I might look into hosting 1-2 soon and see how it goes, thanks Ich.

[lch]

JimMorrison said:
My comp is usually very stable for weeks at a time, so I'd only need the occasional 10 min to reboot and get the games back up.....

That sounds like Windows. Forget anything that I wrote which confused you.