LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

The only disappointment so far is the program not letting my son & I play across our LAN off the one copy - we could hot seat, so why not let us save time & play on different machines.
Or, have I missed something !

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

Time to buy another copy, I'm afraid. Same deal with the original Dominions.

It's good to support such a great product, though.

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

I'll skip the getting a second copy. For the very occasional LAN game, it's not quite worth it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">[short answer]
It seems simple but it crosses an important line. With hotseat it doesnt have to try and figure out the legality of the copy.

[longer answer]
Two computers can be two computers anywhere which means it can be given away to friends. Yes there are ways to recognize a lan but the ways to get around those are very common knowledge (proxies and such) plus involving very different code for each of the operating systems supported.

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

Hmmm, that sounds like a load of excuses. There are ways of fooling it, but those are not going to be handy for anywhere near most people. I doubt anyone would be willing to setup a vpn to play with random people on the net.

I know I was really annoyed when it didn't let me play on the lan, thats just crap. I really makes me very angry when copyprotections mess with legitimate Users. Paying twice as much to play on a lan is extremely frusterating.

Blah! ;(

--SD

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

On a LAN, you can always keep open a shared folder of the game directory on the non-host computer. The folder should be set with full read-write permission. Then at the end of each turn, you simply move the 2h file to the host's game folder, and after hosting, move the trn file back to your folder. It's hotseat on multiple computers... like PBEM, but being on a LAN makes it much faster and much less work.

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Wow thats so elegant and simple. If they are lan then they should be able to use a shared directory to do an MP game.

Have you tested this? Is the check for same-copy done only by direct connects? It seems to me that if it doesnt then it wouldnt be able to on PBEM either.

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

I'm on a LAN, but just with my parents, and they don't DOM=)

So I have not checked, but I cannot imagine how it would fail, unless the 2h files include the HDD serial number (or to be safe, a secret hash of the #). Anyway, you have to start the game as hotseat, not PBEM...

And thanks for the compliment http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Bingo. That slipped past me. That probably would make all the difference.

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

what if you just borrowed a friend's CD key? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well that would be illegal. And that would be an awful good friend. Sure not something Id do since there would be no way to gaurantee that the friend actually "gave it back".

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

Might be better to keep in mind that this is Shrapnels board, Illwinters game, and we are all here because we LIKE the game and would like to see more of it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

holy cramoly!!! My post was deleted! Cooooool!

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

AFAIK borrowing cd-keys doesn't work.

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

Oh but it does, and it has!

[ December 11, 2003, 23:57: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You telling us that you have done this?

What you might have seen is that you CAN use 2 machines with one set of discs. Hosting a game, being a server, doesnt "use up" a CD key according to the devs. Im thrilled with that. With one CD Im allowed to run my linux as a game server AND still play as a player with my windows machine.

Re: LAN play, or lack of it ??
 

Thats not what I mean.

My friend and my friend's friend played Dominions 2 together because one of them borrowed my CD key.

... not that I support piracy... buuut this is just informative. The guy who didn't have Dominions 2 didn't like it in the first place. Soo whatever.