LAN play, or lack of it ??

Delphinium · #1 December 5th, 2003, 03:45 PM

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 !

Adept · #2 December 5th, 2003, 04:57 PM

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

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

Delphinium · #3 December 5th, 2003, 05:00 PM

I'll skip the getting a second copy. For the very occasional LAN game, it's not quite worth it

Gandalf Parker · #4 December 5th, 2003, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Delphinium:
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 !

[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.

SalsaDoom · #5 December 10th, 2003, 03:58 AM

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

Saber Cherry · #6 December 10th, 2003, 04:12 AM

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.

Gandalf Parker · #7 December 11th, 2003, 02:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
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.

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.

Saber Cherry · #8 December 11th, 2003, 03:53 AM

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

Gandalf Parker · #9 December 11th, 2003, 04:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Anyway, you have to start the game as hotseat, not PBEM...

Bingo. That slipped past me. That probably would make all the difference.

Argitoth · #10 December 11th, 2003, 06:29 AM

what if you just borrowed a friend's CD key?