Two quick noob questions
 

I just got the game here at work and skimmed the manual. Well, flipped the pages and glanced as they went by. :-)

Anyway, I have a few questions:

1) I have win/mac/lin at home. When I ordered, I saw no option to chose O.S., so I just ordered and hoped. Will I be able to install to all my machines from one CD, or am I going to have to download something?

2) Assuming I can install to my machines, will I be able to (legally) have someone play at each of the machines at the same time? E.G. with starcraft you could boot up a certain number of network clients from the same disk (2 or 3, can't remember).

-Jeff

Bonus Question: How do I tell this board to show the oldest post first?

Re: Two quick noob questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes, atleastit was so with Dominions I.

Quote:

2) Assuming I can install to my machines, will I be able to (legally) have someone play at each of the machines at the same time? E.G. with starcraft you could boot up a certain number of network clients from the same disk (2 or 3, can't remember).

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No, but any number of players can play on the same computer. It might be possible if you manually moved the files to the game folder of the hosting computer and after hosting to the other computers' game folders... But that slows it down. It might be possible to launch multiple copies of the same DomII executable through LAN, though, and that could work too if it doesn't slow things down too much.

Quote:

Bonus Question: How do I tell this board to show the oldest post first?

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Try "printer friendly" option at the bottom of the page.

Re: Two quick noob questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Actually I think the CD Key would prevent this, although I can't say for sure as I've never tried it, and won't be trying it in the future. I also believe (though I could be mistaken) that such a process would violate the license agreement.

Re: Two quick noob questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Actually I think the CD Key would prevent this, although I can't say for sure as I've never tried it, and won't be trying it in the future. I also believe (though I could be mistaken) that such a process would violate the license agreement. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">On my Linux LAN, I once tried to have the game launched multiple time on the same machine, but with displays on different machines. It worked, technically, but the slowdown (like, OpenGL over the LAN) was so slow it would serve as an excellent copy protection.

(that was just testing - I was the only one before the various computers)

Re: Two quick noob questions
 

Thanks for the responses all. The answer to one question, at least, is that all 4 installs: solaris, linux, mac, and windows, is on the CD.

As for multiplayer - I have no intention of violating license agreements; I know that with Starcraft (and other games), they gave you the ability to play on a LAN using one CD. I'll have to read up.

Thanks (and looking forward to gaming tonight),

-Jeff

Re: Two quick noob questions
 

You cannot play on a LAN, with more than one CD key that is the same.

While you could install from the same CD, you would still need to buy 3 more CD keys from Illwinter, which basically means buying 3 more copies of the game.

The spawn option/ idea found in Starcraft is, as far as I know, not used anymore. Probably something to do with pirating.

Re: Two quick noob questions
 

Actually if you are playing on a LAN you can use 1 Key to play on multiple computers based on the type of game (not TCP/IP or PBEM). This only works on a LAN.

Re: Two quick noob questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I'm sorry, come again?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "play on multiple computers based on the type of game (not TCP/IP or PBEM)".

Dominions II supports 3 types of play: TCP/IP, which is accomplished by a server hosted on one computer, through which others connect using the "Network" option; PBEM, where the .2h files are manually copied by somebody or something into the game directory, whereupon the game is hosted as if it were a single player game, and then the .trns are doled back out to the players, and Hotseat, which is effectively a single player game where one screen controls multiple nations.

Are you saying that there's some sort of detection built into the game for TCP/IP games that are confined to a LAN address space?

Re: Two quick noob questions
 

I am not sure how the CD Key check works. I think every .2h file contains the cd key as well as the Mac Adress or whatever is used to identify the client pc.

You can actually trick the game by using a master password and letting the host have a quick look in every player's turn. This way the host would replace the above mentioned information with his own. The downside is that the host would get to see everyones turn.

[ March 18, 2004, 09:42: Message edited by: PrinzMegaherz ]

Re: Two quick noob questions
 

You can do multi-computer "hotseat" game where you basically shovel the respective directory to and fro. Hotseat games do not limit the number of human players joining them - only tcp/ip and Pbem games are limited to one CD-key per player.

Hotseat is fun, anyway. Anyone remembers those good old Warlords I sessions? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Two quick noob questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">This doesn't maky any sense either. The only file that is altered by taking a turn is the .2h file. Therefore, "shovelling the respective directory to and fro" simply means you are moving a lot of data which is not actually altered, and only the 2h files are truly being shuffled around....which means that the game is the same as a PBEM game!

This entire CD-key thing becomes very confusing as a result.

To add to the confusion, I recall a few weeks ago, a friend told me that he had managed to counter the message indicating that multiple Users were using his CDkey.....in a single player game, and that he was unable to continue his game past turn 40-ish, when it occurred. I have no idea how multiple copies of a CD key could be in use in a game which consists of precisely one human player, and can only assume this is some sort odd bug or glitch in the means by which it attempts to discern such things. Go figure. I never trusted these sorts of things anyway. They're nothing but trouble, and you'll never hear of a pirate complaining about it.

Re: Two quick noob questions
 

On a LAN you can set a directory or files to be shared. With it shared, you can play from that same directory on the LAN, but you set up the game in a Hotseat Fashion where someone has to hit the host button in order for a new turn to proceed. Each player plays their respective turn from a workstation on the network.

For more information use the "search" function.

[ March 18, 2004, 10:25: Message edited by: Zen ]

Re: Two quick noob questions
 

Thanks Zen, that works for me.

I have a windows box, a mac, and an old, old, old laptop with linux on it. I may be getting a surplus sun box as well. Not sure if I'll have the time, but it would be pretty neat to run a game using all 4.

Yes, I'm a geek. :-)

-Jeff

Re: Two quick noob questions
 

You might want to exclude the Windows box from the game, due to the battle replay incompatibility bug. If the Windows box hosts, all players except that box see incompatible replays. If another box hosts, the Windows box will see incompatible replays.