Multiplayer setup help

[Trumanator]

Can you set up an internet game on a computer and play on that same computer. Me and my bro want to have a game going, but we don't really have/want to have a third computer going just to host.

[Tifone]

Just a normal game with both players set as "Human" will do the job if I understand correctly what you're asking ;) It's called "hotseat mode"

Have fun =)

[Gandalf Parker]

But if you want to see how server mode is done you can do that also.

Start Dom3, go to Network, then Setup a Dominions Server.
Pick a port number like 19191.
Then a Game name.

Now open Dom3 again, choose Network, Connect to a Dominions Server. Put the IP and port that it showed in the other screen. Make your selections and start the game.

Now going back to the server one, select map and game settings, then host it.

As you can see its abit of a pain. Its only useful doing it that way if you plan to host a game later and want to see the Hosting side and Player sides seperately.

Gandalf Parker

[Trumanator]

We've done hotseat before, but that isn't possible. I'm at college and he's at home, we both have Dominions on our computers, and we want to play with/against each other. Will Gandalf's suggestion work?

[Executor]

You can just send 2h turns to each other, you send to your bro, he hosts and send the turn back and so on, and set a password so he doesn't cheat
I'm playing like that against my brother, or just create a game on Lama for the two of you.

[Gandalf Parker]

Yes that will work.

[Trumanator]

Exector- what do you mean by 2h turns, and how would I go about sending them back and forth?

[Executor]

When you end the turn a file is created in the savegames folder of that game, it should say something like eg. early_Mictlan.2h file, you take that file E-mail it to the other person than he puts it in the game folder, hosts the next turn, and send you back your early_mictlan.trn, you copy it back to the game folder and so on.
The same like Llama server.
I'm not sure I explained this good here is the link to Llama's FAQ how to do it.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=35160

[Gandalf Parker]

Or by my method he can connect directly to you and play as though on a server. Or you can both just start one of the games on my server and play with the two of you.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showpost.php?p=636957&postcount=1

[Trumanator]

Well this is the way I think we're going about it.
1: He starts dominions and sets it up as a server
2: He starts dominions and connects to the server as a player.
3: He emails me and tells me the port number IP, etc.
4: I start dominions and connect as a player.
5: GAME ON!!!
As a sidenote, the reason that he is being the server is that for some reason I can't connect to gmail with a dominions server running. Any ideas on why? Also, does he need to keep the server running 24/7 or is there some way to restore it after exiting?
> Thanks to Gandalf and Executor for their help.

[Gandalf Parker]

Its fairly easy to restart the server on a game. So dont worry about shutting it off for the night.

[Trumanator]

Well, I'm back with yet another question. So the person who isn't running the server types in the IP address of the server, but since the server is on a different network, that person just gets an error message saying it can't be found. Is there some way to link the server to an email account or something, or do a setup similar to dom3minions? I just like to have control over things.

[lch]

You need a route between the networks so that they can find each other. If the server is behind a router, you could configure it to forward the game port to the external network (WAN, the internet), too. Or place it in the DMZ as a last resort if your router supports that and if you don't manage to do the port forwarding. If you can't get it to work this way then you need to use a VPN like Hamachi. This will install a virtual private network as network device and allow you to access the server over this VPN. PBEM involves mostly manual work of sending and receiving the emails with the turn files.

[Trumanator]

Hmmmm. Well unfortunately since I'm using the college network I don't think I can get into the router. Is there a way to automate the email stuff? I don't relish explaining how to do it manually to my bro and his friend who is going to join us.

[Gandalf Parker]

You could write them a bat file giving them a desktop shortcut which would email their turns, then send it to them.



Gandalf Parker
--
"the term 'impossible' is a technicians term which translates to 'its possible but probably more trouble than its worth'. "

[Trumanator]

You could write them a bat file giving them a desktop shortcut which would email their turns, then send it to them.



Gandalf Parker
--
"the term 'impossible' is a technicians term which translates to 'its possible but probably more trouble than its worth'. "

Huh?? I could use one for myself, but I've never even HEARD of a .bat file :confused:

[Gandalf Parker]

On Windows (actually a holdover from DOS before it) a BATch file is a text file with a list of commands to be carried out. Its executable (like a program). Its not a level up to "programming" but its higher than just a shortcut link. If you use Outlook then the guts of it would be something like this...


"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Outlook.exe " \
/c ipm.note /m mybro@example.com \
/a "C:\program files\dominions3\savedgames\mygame\abbysia.2h"


That would be:
open Outlook
create a note
mail it to mybro@example.com
attach MyGame Abbysia file


Gandalf Parker

[lch]

Hmmmm. Well unfortunately since I'm using the college network I don't think I can get into the router.
As I said, if you install Hamachi on both your computers you can use that to ignore the firewall. You'll both get IP addresses which you can use to connect to each other.

You could write them a bat filehttp://www.skewsme.com/images/bats1.gif

[Trumanator]

How do I configure the server's IP to match the Hamachi VPN?

[Gandalf Parker]

First you might want to check a site such as http://Whatismyip.com/

That is an internet site which will tell you what IP it sees you coming from. That would be the IP that other players need to use to get to you. Its different than the local network IP that you might see from programs on your machine (including Dom3)

[lch]

No. With Hamachi, you enter a VPN. That's a virtual network where both of you will get additional IP addresses that you can use to connect to each other and play. They're displayed in your client window, something like 4.xx.yy.zz. Use those to connect.