Two players playing remotely from one machine?

[Dogboy]

I am traveling with my son. We have two copies of Dom 3 (2 CD codes) but only one computer. I'm hosting from my LAN at home. Can we run Dom3 from two separate directories, with two different CD keys, to avoid triggering the CD duplicate detection?

Thanks!
DB

[MaxWilson]

I think it would be better to run Dom3 twice from the same directory, using the same CD key. Dom3 doesn't have a problem with one installation playing two different nations.

-Max

[Edi]

Replacing the key files alternately would also be an easy solution.

[llamabeast]

But anyway yes, I believe two directories with different CD keys count as completely different copies. Alternating keys would have the same effect.

[Psycho]

You can run from two different directories on the same machine. I've done that in the past.

[Gandalf Parker]

On a lan using a shared directory can be simple also.

[MaxWilson]

You can run from two different directories on the same machine. I've done that in the past.

Can someone explain why you would want to? Is it just so you can alt-tab between nations?

-Max

[Psycho]

No, it's two players doing their turns from the same machine. Both instances of Dom weren't run simultaneously, my computer can't handle that.

[MaxWilson]

But then why do you need two installations at all? Why not just run both nations from the same installation? There must be something I'm not understanding here.

-Max

[Psycho]

Two copies of the game - two CD keys

[llamabeast]

It's to avoid a CD key violation Max. You can't have two players in the same game using the same copy of Dom3.

[Zeldor]

llamabeast:

But it were your words that you can play since some patch 2 nations from one cdkey, as long it was played from same machine. And it was tested on llamaserver. And you even put a check for that on your server, notifying on a game status page that smth like that occured.

[Gandalf Parker]

Ive got multiple copies on my machine. In order to keep gods seperate. And personal projects of maps and mods. Its just easier to keep straight and clean up.

[MaxWilson]

It's to avoid a CD key violation Max. You can't have two players in the same game using the same copy of Dom3.

Yeah, what Zeldor said. I know my local hotseat games are (obviously) okay with one copy of Dominions playing multiple nations.

I guess my lack of MP is probably responsible for my confusion.

-Max

[llamabeast]

But it were your words that you can play since some patch 2 nations from one cdkey, as long it was played from same machine. And it was tested on llamaserver. And you even put a check for that on your server, notifying on a game status page that smth like that occured.

Ho hum, you're right actually. Obviously senility is setting in.

So, the actual restriction _might _be that you can't have two nations played by the same CD key _from different computers_. Well actually I'm confused, because I and others have had problems setting people AI in games we're playing in before. Either the AIing nation or our own has got CD-key-violationed, which is inconsistent with the above theory. I think perhaps dom3 actually changed to be more liberal. However, my belief that it changed could easily be my excuse for being confused.

That might mean that Dogboy doesn't actually need to make two directories. Or it might not.

[Zeldor]

I think it was changed somewhere around 3.11-3.15 patch. At least someone noticed it around 3.15.

[Dogboy]

I copied my dom3 directory, entered the second CD key in the copied directory, and set up a desktop shortcut to the dom3.exe, with my son's name on it. We play from the two different directories, and have had no problem with copy protection issues. I believe that if we had played from the same directory, the host would have seen us as breaking copy protection. In any event, this works fine. Thanks, guys! DB