Two quick noob questions

jaif · #1 March 17th, 2004, 08:17 PM

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?

Endoperez · #2 March 17th, 2004, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jaif:
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?

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).

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?

Try "printer friendly" option at the bottom of the page.

fahdiz · #3 March 17th, 2004, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Endoperez:
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.

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.

PhilD · #4 March 17th, 2004, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by fahdiz:

quote:
Originally posted by Endoperez:
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.

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.

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)

jaif · #5 March 17th, 2004, 11:58 PM

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

Spacepain · #6 March 18th, 2004, 12:49 AM

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.

#7 March 18th, 2004, 07:31 AM

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.

Norfleet · #8 March 18th, 2004, 08:17 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Zen:
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.

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?

PrinzMegaherz · #9 March 18th, 2004, 11:16 AM

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 ]

Karacan · #10 March 18th, 2004, 11:49 AM

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?