Multiplayer tips?

BOTF Strategy Guide

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Dewbacca
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Multiplayer tips?

Post by Dewbacca »

I've enjoyed playing various mods,and even original over the years for what it is as a single player game. My efforts to get multi player games going have never been very fruitful, and I've also heard for years (and assumed) the computer AI can't compare to the challenge of a human opponent.

Now, that being said, I'm sensing some potential differences between single and multi player, so I'd like to ask folks to toss Tips, Strategies, or just known shortcomings of multiplayer BotF in general... and maybe even specific Mods.

Let's acknowledge before hand the primary issues, lining up various players for more than 50 turns as well as simply connecting.

Single player I have the luxury of micro managing my empire. Turns may take 30+ minutes on larger games. Larger fleets also take more time on larger maps, directing multiple fleets towards multiple targets, selecting ships for repair or setting replacements in route from source of manufacture...

In my mind this has to be addressed with smaller maps and game resolves in 100 turns of wishing you had more cash?

What are the experiences of the community and how can we improve this interaction/ function?
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cleverwise
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Re: Multiplayer tips?

Post by cleverwise »

I totally agree about micromanaging and have been known to spend 20 to 30 minutes on one turn too. It does help with making for a stronger empire.

Playing a human (or humans) is always different than the AI for sure (in any game). Personally it seems the thing to do is connect to Skype and chat away while the game goes on. That way you can do some micromanaging while carrying on conversations and passing the time when not your turn.

Another option is if you have multiple systems you can play BotF on one and while the other player(s) is/are doing their thing you can surf, email, social network, etc. Personally I think the Skype option works well because you can chat and even do some trash talking about how your empire rocks. ;-)
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KrazeeXXL
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Re: Multiplayer tips?

Post by KrazeeXXL »

I do not recommend running skype in the background. BotF needs a steady flow of packets. download managers, instant messengers... all this stuff can lead to disconnects and it will for sure.

mp "tactics"...

1. get lucky with minors and dilithium
2. use phantom dil to pump out ships as fast as you can
3. scrap ships to get more money to build even more ships (retarded, isn't it?)
3. check your savegames to know exactly where anyone and anything is
4. if you see your opponent isn't ready then finish him off - should be done under 20 turns easily
5. if 4 doesn't apply: send your fleets asap to the next major to extort ridiculous amounts of money from them to build an even bigger fleet which you can use... you guessed it already: to extort more money from other majors to build even more ships to do the same
6. crash/QQ your game if you aren't able to win and blame it on the game as it crashs always anyway

yup, mp is great. I'd rather play Watch Dogs which is prolly the worst game in PC history.


edit: there is a certain percentage of players to whom all of this ^applies to. And there are some to whom it doesn't apply at all. That's pretty much the reason why mp is dead.
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cleverwise
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Re: Multiplayer tips?

Post by cleverwise »

KrazeeXXL wrote:I do not recommend running skype in the background. BotF needs a steady flow of packets. download managers, instant messengers... all this stuff can lead to disconnects and it will for sure.
Well BotF can't be that network intense. People Skype all the time with modern games running HD graphics with little to no issues. BotF doesn't begin to transfer that kind of traffic. However internet speed and quality of connection would be a determining factor. :-)

I am not saying it should be done but it isn't that hard either. We are talking about a game from the 90's that could work on dialup.
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KrazeeXXL
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Re: Multiplayer tips?

Post by KrazeeXXL »

the network engine of this game is extremely fragile. it needs a steady flow of packets and doesn't react well to any kind of lag.

I'm speaking from experience and have played this game over mp quite a bit...

funny how it ran better when icq or any download service was deactivated... wanna argue about my xp? I think not.
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Re: Multiplayer tips?

Post by thunderchero »

KrazeeXXL wrote:I do not recommend running skype in the background. BotF needs a steady flow of packets. download managers, instant messengers... all this stuff can lead to disconnects and it will for sure.
I will agree it has an effect, even having browser running (do not even have to be surfing web) will cause more disconnects.

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ruthlessferengi
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Re: Multiplayer tips?

Post by ruthlessferengi »

Dewbacca wrote:I've enjoyed playing various mods,and even original over the years for what it is as a single player game. My efforts to get multi player games going have never been very fruitful, and I've also heard for years (and assumed) the computer AI can't compare to the challenge of a human opponent.

In my mind this has to be addressed with smaller maps and game resolves in 100 turns of wishing you had more cash?

What are the experiences of the community and how can we improve this interaction/ function?
a lot of patience, sorting ur ports, making sure you have identical installation copy of the game and finding reliable human player partner is key.

In my limited expeerience, mp gameplay if pretty much mod and tech dependent, with vanilla and fluids on late tech being more of a death match situation as the map is smaller than for epic mod games at t2-3 where micromanagement and wide colonization is key to huge earning potential 10,000 per turn plus and enormous fleets - in excess of 300 ships but turn 90 (like in udmL). however, this game was and remains THE most frustrating games of all time due to frequent crashes and disconnects...

I routinely run yahoo msgr with wz to keep in touch in case of silent drop (especially with hamachi) while keeping background prgms at a miniumum.

i found xp or win7 32 bit OS based games, non-mpr mp games in UDM were most stable in my limited experience with a few players. MPR is key, however, if you want to play on win8 computer, but after about 100 turns i get frequent ntdl errors and crashes every secod to every turn.... Having said this, there are several players who find mpr as stable as non mpr in mp games. unfortunately this has not been my experience.

key thing is to find a reliable opponent that will hang through multiple crashes and will stay put for multi-session mp games - if you do, and put up with a few crashes, you will not regret this. keep trying...
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