Dominions 3 and multiple rigs: [Gaming in Person]

[Arralen]

Internal IPs are most likely in the 192.168.x.y range. Start a command line window and type "ipconfig /all". You'll find a LAN ethernet card listed with IP given.

1 PC has to be set up as "host", though one player might play on this machine, too. You'll have to start 2 instances of Dom3 on this machine. The instance which runs as host does not need a seperate KEY - only the player (clients) need one each.

For hosting, make a seperate shortcut with the following command line options:
PATH\dom3.exe -fsmw --tcpserver --res 800 600 --port 4000 --noclientstart

This will start up Dom3 in a small window, without sound and music, and will take you directly to the "enter game name" screen (hint: if you want to continue an old game, just use its name). After you entered the game name, the server is waiting to accept connections from the clients. On top of the window it will show the local ip and the port its running on (set to 4000 by the command line switch).

Now start up Dom3 on the different players PCs and chose "network game, connect to server", type in the IP and port number given by the server.
If you're playing on the same comp the server runs on, use "127.0.0.1" for the IP, or "localhost" if that doesn't work.

When all players are connected, hit "start game" on the small server screen.

[Bluebird]

The technical term is NAT, or network address translation, that maps different internal IP addresses to a single external IP address (on different ports).

[Arralen]

You don't need any NAT if you're setting up a LAN game

[BigJMoney]

Thanks a lot for the replies! I only have one more question. What's the easiest/cheapest physical configuration? Do I have to have a router, or is there a way to get some kind of non-router hub these days that would still create a LAN? Trying to configure router permissions is a real headache that I'm trying to avoid; plus they can be a might expensive.

=$=

[tibbs]

I think the cheapest way is to hook a hub to all the computers.

[Archonsod]

If you only want to run older ethernet you can build a bus network without a hub. I don't think you need a hub for a firewire network either, but you would need to make sure all of the PC's have firewire ports.

You don't need a router unless your looking to share an internet connection (or you want to subdivide the network, but that would be silly...). You can probably pick up a cheap hub for pennnies. Configuration is as simple as plugging the PC's into the hub. You won't need to worry about anything else unless you want to share files across the network. The only other thing which might be a problem are firewalls, but most should let you specify permissions by email address (if the network isn't connected to the net, you could simply turn off the firewalls).