How to play MP

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ruthlessferengi
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Post by ruthlessferengi »

i played it 2 years ago, you needed 20 $ to join life time fee, worked great. don't know it's status but still have the log in info to try with someone
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На безптичье и жопа воробей...
Ancient Klingon Battlecry
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Flocke
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Post by Flocke »

I searched a little more in the web and the solution for all the router and firewall troubles seems to be "NAT-punch-through".

The problem with routers is that the router will block every received package it doesn't know to which computer in LAN it belongs to as well as firewalls block every initial incoming package and only let replies on own outgoing messages pass.
So the solution is not to have any initial messages between peers behind a router and instead having a third party, something like a lobby server initiating and synchronizing the players, so that both send just their reply to each other at the same time.

here is more about:
http://www.rakkarsoft.com/raknet/manual ... rough.html
http://www.enchantedage.com/node/8
http://softwarecommunity.intel.com/arti ... g/3471.htm

And I analysed and thought a little more about botf and directplay.
DirectPlay is well documented and botf is directly using the dplayx.dll, so it has to be possible to emulate it and write a new library.
Furthermore I'm quite sure that all transmission lags could be solved. For example the transmission of saves seems to be that long cause botf seperates it in several tiny packages and sends them single by single, waiting for the check of all recipients before sending next little tiny package. So there might go a few bytes over the globe and back, then another few and so on :lol:
Cause dplayx.dll is handling the msg sending, an emulating version would be able to change this behavior.

Would be fantastic if anyone here knows about developing a network engine or programming with one like raknet.
But although I don't know a flake about it yet, all the recent troubles make me feel demanding it more and more.
NAT punch through would be great for botf2, too. I'm sure! So if there would be any chance? Anyone? :roll:

I don't think it would be possible to integrate that in warzone - I'm quite sure it has to be integrated in the network part itself. Maybe I'll dig in raknet or another lib in some time, but about all these tunneling stuff I give up. These troubles won't have an end... never ever.... *snif* :cry:
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Post by sean_west »

You have to pay to use Kali....

$20.

I am not that much of a hardcore fan just yet.
Like the bad guy from so many horror films,

I have returned
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Flocke
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Post by Flocke »

I think this topic could need a little update!
We've been able to solve more and more issues lately.

Issues that have been found getting mp to work with botf on eWarZone without of bypass future (cause bypass is very buggy and often leeds to freezing on race selection):

DX Port Test of eWarZone completely not passing:
You may be able to join in games, but you're not able to host
after some time, joining could suddenly stop to work as well
solution: You have to forward the ports of botf in your router.
Example: BT Home Hub 1.5

If having more than one computer you need to set up an internal static network ip as well, cause you may have to change forwarding settings in router every reboot of your pc otherwise. With just one computer ip normally shouldn't change anyway.

How to forward ports in your router or to set up a static ip depends on your router model. www.portforward.com may help you! Search for a DirectX 7 guid for your router model. There are guids for setting up a static ip as well.
A search on your favorite search machine or consulting your router manual may be a good idea, too.
If you can't get it to work yourself, we'll try to help ya the best we can, don't we? ;)

Often people make mistakes on forwarding like entering a wrong ip by mistyping or having looked up the wrong one. Or people enter the wrong ports in the wrong fields or something...
Sometimes routers are very complicated to configure and in very few cases they may just be not capable to get configured for this.
Sometimes you've to configure a build in firewall of the router as well.

It doesn't always have to be a router!
Sometimes modems have a build in firewall as well, or are including router functionality.

A workaround can be to plug your computer directly to your modem and configuring your pc to connect to ISP (Internet Service Provider) instead.

DX Port Test of eWarZone partially not passing:
The port test isn't programmed very well. It doesn't differentiate UDP and TCP protocol and it's very buggy on port 47624.
If a single port passes the test, you already may be happy with everything working. In practice it seems that at least port 2350 should pass the test, better 2300 as well. If forwarding and letting pass port 2300 to 2400 + 47624 on both protocols, UDP and TCP, all but 47624 should pass the test. 47624 sometimes may pass and sometimes not, you can recheck your configuration cause it's needed at least for hosting games with botf, but don't worry too much about it.
To get the saftiest possible, try test till all ports pass, if 47624 doesn't, restarting warzone or rebooting pc or just retrying a few more times may help, but normally I just would disregard 47624 :P

DX Port Test passing and still not being able to join:
If you're using bypass, freezing on race selection is quite common, you may have to try a dozen times to get it working, also with reloading after crash, so better try configuring everything to play without of bypass and make sure it's off. If bypass is active, a symbol with two computer monitors will get shown on right upper edge of your room.

There has been an issue discovered with installing to "program files" folder on vista and on xp recently. This is not confirmed as being general, but there have been already three people (including myself) reporting that after launching through warzone they always got the network configuring menu instead of getting race choosing menu (or galaxy configuring menu on hosting). This may be due to the space, so if you're having a space in installationpath, try installing to a different location. C:\botf always should work. Please report on this!

But mostly it's just not working cause of a firewall or defender program controling program control and internet interaction. Often they will show you a popup but you can't see it cause botf is maximized.
You either can deactivate the firewall (not recommended), or configure it manually or switch back to windows even after botf got frozed. This is easy in vista with [str]+[alt]+[entf] shortcut but isn't always working on xp.
On xp you may have to use the trick to go in standby mode instead: Type [windows] button, [alt]+[f4] then and awake the pc again after it got suspended. If shortcut isn't working, you may try [escape] button a few times and redoing [windows] button, [alt]+[f4], then , always giving the computer a second to react.

Some firewalls may need to open the specific botf ports as told on first page as well.
Often people forget about still having the windows firewall active beside having another softwarefirewall, so make sure you don't.

Windows Firewall should work fine after program got allowed. Currently I'm not sure if there has been more to configure, so please confirm.
With ZoneAlarm it's told to work with choosing the gaming mode - please confirm.
Outpost Firewall I've heard it may be little complicated but it's working - please confirm.
Norton Firewall works after allowing botf and ewarzone to pass through (confirmed by carcher).
I myself am using COMODO Firewall. On Vista you've just to set trek.exe to be a trusted application as well as ewarzone and it should work - on xp I had some issues, but that may have been fixed. The included defender can get deactivated - it's a little nerving.

Another reason can be a different botf version or a corrupt installation.
Often it helps to reinstall either botf or eWarZone. Sometimes even a reboot of the pc or a restart of eWarZone solves all problems.
Sometimes it helps to use the iso from afc download section instead, see here: viewtopic.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=142.
Just use jokers 1.0.2 patch as getting told here: viewtopic.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=99
If you're using the iso on a german machine, botf may not work before changing the language of botf, set in stbof.ini file (you can open with windows editor) from GERMAN to ENGLISH cause german content got ripped out from iso.
To get to know which version you're having, you can launch botf and look up the version number in left bottom edge on main screen. It should be 1.0.2 but it's not telling for sure that your installation really didn't get modded or something, so better just reinstall to make sure.

DX Port Test passing and being able to join but still not being able to host:
There has to be something blocking the connection on your pc.
Reason can be a firewall or defender like Windows Firewall or Windows Defender. Often people forget about them and even have another firewall active. Sometimes popups of these programs get overlooked and you have to go back to windows.

Hosting is more problematic for firewalls (as well as routers) than joining, cause other computers that are sending you messages to join your game aren't known by previos messages. If you join you initiate the process, the firewall get to know the ip you're sending your request to and will let the answer and all later messages from that ip pass through (and routers will get to know to which computer they'll have to forward to and often do this automaticly for any answer - that's what's happening on browsing the world wide web). If hosting, the firewall will normally just say no, I don't know you so keep out you may be an attack, I didn't invite ya! This is MY Party and it's a closed one! :twisted:

So what you might have to do on many firewalls is opening the ports botf is using explicitly!
With current Comodo install on vista 32bit machine I didn't have to after I set botf as being trusted once and having deactivated the nerving defender functionality that's controling every registry entry change and stuff.

DX Port Test passing and Firewalls and stuff configured and still many crashes in game:
So what's many? That's very depending on your internet connection, on provider on internet activity on everything. Make sure your internetconnection doesn't get overloaded.
I would say, with a good installation and just two players in game you shouldn't have more than one crash in 50 turns on normal galaxy screens. But this is differing very much from game to game and connection always depends on both people, with their both ISPs and location,...

There is a bug with the timer when turn ends and someone sets shiproutes in last second. Additionally, chat sometimes may cause a crash when messages happen on same time. Chat especially is buggy in tactical combat, but this seems only to happen when someone is having chat open while last one hits turn and turn is progressing.
Tactical combat often leeds to crashes, for example with Starbases and more than two players in fight or with very big fleets and long fights. Evading command got told as causing crashes more often.
In generel I would say you shouldn't get more than one crash in ten battles.
If having more, one of the Hades3D patches may help, as getting told in Patches Information here: viewtopic.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=99

BotF is a buggy game and you'll never get it stable, so be lucky if it's working and you don't get a crash every few turns. :)
Don't forget! With having Autosave active in botf options, you can easily continue after a crash. The Host continues and the joiners select New MP Game.
Sometimes the auto.sav (to be found in BotF folder) gets corrupted, always causing crashes or someone lost money, ships, all the build commands or something. You've a very big chance getting it back by loading last.sav instead. That's the auto.sav of the turn before that just got renamed by botf from auto.sav to last.sav and is to be found in botf folder as well. You've just to remove auto.sav and rename last.sav back to auto.sav and continue afterwards to load it.
You can rename auto.sav and last.sav to one of the other gamesaves like game12.sav and will be able to load it instead from loading menu of botf.
And don't forget, after ending turn, auto.sav and last.sav will get overwritten!

Anyway, you may check if firewall logged something, recheck it's configuration or even disable it (although disabling firewall isn't recommended as I never would). I've often had the situation before that one of my firewalls I had, like ZoneAlarm, Kerio Firewall or old Comodo version, blocked a package that seemed to be related to botf. :roll:

Using cable instead of wireless connection may help, too.

If more comes back to mind, I'll let you know.
Cause problems don't seem to find an end, I'll have to see if I'm able to realize a better and easier solution for my beloved favorite game :)
Last edited by Flocke on Sun Aug 31, 2008 8:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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carcher
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Post by carcher »

Hallo Flocke
I can confirm that norton works in Ewarzone :) I think the lobby client and trek .exe added themselves automatically after I'd forwarded the ports in the windows fiewall.I'm on xp BTW,and ,as you know,don't have too many problems in warzone :D
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Post by Pigman »

Thanks to carcher for late last night/early this morning running a trial game to see if some of my eWarzone problems have been solved/improved

We managed about 15 turns with no crashes, even in battles and were able to leave the game and reload

In the past the best I managed was 10 turns with crash on any battle and could never reload and play

What has changed to allow this improvement?

I only have one internet connection at home which is provided by my employer and doesn't use a router but uses a Zyxel DSL modem so port forwarding is an issue for me and no one seems to be able to help with my possibly unique setup

My work computer seems to have all sorts of horrible firewall protection also

So first thing I've done is stop using work computer with it's additional Zonelabs security and using one of my home PCs instead

Second thing is I have asked my ISP to provide me a static IP address


My work PC still fails all DX port tests, but my home PC passes all but first port (which it passes occasionally)

End result is I seem to be able to play MP on eWarzone.....Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Regards and thanks to carcher

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Post by Sir_Carnifex »

carcher wrote:Hallo Flocke
I can confirm that norton works in Ewarzone :) I think the lobby client and trek .exe added themselves automatically after I'd forwarded the ports in the windows fiewall.I'm on xp BTW,and ,as you know,don't have too many problems in warzone :D
I ran Norton for a long time on WZ and everything was fine. So, yeah, no problems in general. We did have two users tell us that Norton was the cause of their problems (sometimes WZ not logging or crashing) but considering we probably had minimum 15,000 different registered users, I'd say that amount is too small to be able to say Norton causes problems.

P.S. I don't like Norton whether it causes problems or not. :D
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Post by The_Nighthawk »

I can confirm the issue with the space in the installationpath as Flocke reports in his big post above. When installed to c:\program files\botf\ I couldn't connect to any games at all on WZ. Now that I've re-installed to c:\botf\ it works perfectly.
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Post by jhoevenagel »

Hi people,

I have been playing botf for quite a while now and UDM3 is very stable when playing with my brother on network (both XP). With a new laptop added with Vista we can start games (3 players). However, it will certainly crash after a while and when loading the game everyone can join in again. But when sending the savegame to the others the game on Vista crashes. Game continues only on the two other stations. This is always the case when loading a game. What could be wrong and what could be done?
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ryan98
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Post by ryan98 »

I would like to know the steps to take to restart a game? a friend was hosting and we got cut off and when we tried to continue in war zone his would load but not mine.
does he have to save and load from a saved game? or can he just continue?
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Flocke
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Post by Flocke »

continue and save are the same cause continue in fact loads a save named auto.sav! You could even rename that file to one of the others and load it normally, as well as last.sav, the backupsave from auto.sav of previous turn.
If you're using warzone, you shouldn't use bypass - as I assume you do - cause it's very troublesome on loading saves and sometimes needs over 20 tries and still doesn't work.
This is a very annoying issue with the only solution of not using the bypass but instead configuring your routers and firewalls...
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Pogue
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Post by Pogue »

New here and looking for possible fixes to direct IP multi-player games.
Anyways, there's been a lot of talk about port forwarding in this thread.
I noticed noone has mentioned setting their device to be in the DMZ on the router...at least for the duration of the game, then turning off DMZ.
Just a thought...
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Post by thunderchero »

Pogue wrote:New here and looking for possible fixes to direct IP multi-player games.
Anyways, there's been a lot of talk about port forwarding in this thread.
I noticed noone has mentioned setting their device to be in the DMZ on the router...at least for the duration of the game, then turning off DMZ.
Just a thought...
The reason it is best to port forward is DMZ open your computer to hackers

also I do not think DMZ or port forwarding is needed unless you use warzone or similar server But could be wrong. But on direct IP I never needed port forwarding or DMZ.

I only needed firewall allowed.

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Post by chestermike »

I have been testing my connection on warzone with Carcher (thanks mate). He loads the game up and it launches on my computer too, i click on new multiplayer game and then it comes up with directplay error. Anyone know what I can do to get this working?
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Flocke
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Post by Flocke »

chestermike wrote:Anyone know what I can do to get this working?
I must confess I'm getting a little bored by this. Always the same trouble! :lol:
Mostly this is due to some kind of firewall or router blocking, sometimes it's cause of a modified or corrupted botf or different mod version.
If you're using a firewall, have a look at it's log and assure dplaysvr.exe, warzone.exe and the right trek.exe are set as trusted.
Most issues already have been addressed somewhere in this thread.

I'm sure you'll find the reason, but if not, keep an eye on my sig. ;)
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