Multiplayer

Seik · #1 September 3rd, 2001, 02:36 AM

How to setup a multiplayer game correctly?

Me and my friend want to play SE4 in our small LAN (only 2 PCs).

What is the best way to setup those 2-Player games?

Everytime one of us finished his round the other has to load that file (turnbased).
That s ok.

But the thing that is boring: everytime we have to click "Load" - and then click much more to go to right path (SE4 doesn t remember the Last "load"-path.

Is it possible to let SE4 remember this path?

When I finished my round the file for my friend is saved on my PC - so he must click his way through all this folders over network to go to my ../savegame.
When he finished I have to the same thing to go to his ../savegame folder.

We can t use batch-files because the filename changes every round
(gamename_playernumber_round : TEST_1_00023).

Are we doing wrong?

Or is there another easier way to play the game in LAN?

Suicide Junkie · #2 September 3rd, 2001, 04:14 AM

The very best way would be hotseat.

If the "local" part of LAN means in the same building, walk over and use the same machine.

quote:
When I finished my round the file for my friend is saved on my PC - so he must click his way through all this folders over network to go to my ../savegame.
When he finished I have to the same thing to go to his ../savegame folder.

I've come up with three options for you to consider. There are always other solutions, of course.

Option 1 (quick & easy)
Share the savegame folder and map a drive directly to it to save time there.
You then just click "S:\" for SE4 savegames.

Option 2 (research required, but even easier once working)
There is a PBEM helper that will run SE4 for you, saving the trouble of loading games.
I don't know about all the settings or options, but it will save you the local busywork.

Option 3 (upgrade the batchfile, do some work between turns)
You could also have a batchfile that will copy ALL the savegame files.
You just go and delete the old saves while waiting for the other player, so your batch file dosen't transfer megabytes at a time late in the game.
Extract the attached "Lanmod" to your SE4 folder, and then write the batch file to copy everything in the lanmod\savegame folder across the network.
This will protect your other savegames, so the batch file won't affect them. To play other savegames, edit path.txt back to "path := none", or do the change directory thing.

Seik · #3 September 3rd, 2001, 06:36 PM

thx suicide_junkie.

That will help for the first time. But I think SE4 is a game that needs a better Multiplayer option.

Only PBEM is not enough. Something like Moo2 I think is enough.

Manshark · #4 September 22nd, 2001, 10:34 PM

Has anyone used something like VNC for multiplayer? I think it would be the best option to play in a LAN, It basically amounts to playing in the same PC, no saving and loading. I have not tried it yet, I am not sure if VNC outputs graphic modes or only windows gui calls. I think its worth a try. It could also be used over the internet, but only with upstream connections faster than 512kbps. Anyone interested can go here www.tightvnc.com and give it a try. Also, only the PC running SEIV needs to be running windows, the clients can be Linux, and other flavors. I only have a 56k modem connection and no LAN, so if anyone tests this out there, let me know what results you got. Thanks.