Noob

jimkehn · #1 March 11th, 2007, 06:06 PM

Noobie here.

First....I have become addicted just playing the demo. Still not very good. Can MP PBEM be played using demo? If so are there 2 or 3 or 4 people out there who would like to teach this Noob a lesson or two??

Email: jimkehn@aol.com

Edi · #2 March 11th, 2007, 06:11 PM

Welcome.

Yes, MP games with the demo are possible. Gandalf PArker can help you with that part. He's even hosted a few himself.

Edi

Gandalf Parker · #3 March 11th, 2007, 06:40 PM

Actually the Demo version can play in regular MP games, but of course they have to be era 1 games.

I host demo only games, you can find them here
http://game.dom3minions.com/bin/demo_chk.cgi
but people seem to move quickly from demo to full version so those games dont seem to move very well. That page has a link to a how-to on joining a multiplayer game by direct connect (not the play by email version)
http://game.dom3minions.com/how-to.html

jimkehn · #4 March 11th, 2007, 07:27 PM

Thanks!!!! I'll check it out!!!

jimkehn · #5 March 11th, 2007, 07:46 PM

OK....I thought I got logged in as Kailasa (or whatever), uploaded my Pretender, then when I tried to log in again it couldn't. Port 8879.

Gandalf Parker · #6 March 11th, 2007, 08:16 PM

8799
but the game hasnt started yet. It needs 5 players to automatically start

jimkehn · #7 March 11th, 2007, 09:49 PM

Sorry for being sucha moron....but how does this work? How will I know when the game starts? Do I just keep logging in until it lets me then I'll know it's ready? Can you (or someone) be more specific how to play this online like this?

Gandalf Parker · #8 March 11th, 2007, 11:23 PM

Most MP games go pretty fast. Within a day people have filled it, and it tends to host at least once a day. Unfortunately, we dont tend to keep demo people around long enough to get them in a demo game. They either hate it and leave, or love it and buy it.

You might step into the " Dom 3 Multiplayer and AARs " and read some of the game threads there. It will give you some idea of how things tend to go.

jimkehn · #9 March 12th, 2007, 04:01 PM

Gandalf, Thanks. I guess the main thrust of my question was one of mechanics. Will we play by email? If not, how does the program work? Do I log in thru the network portal? And then does the server know I am on and send my turn automatically? Do I stay online while I play? When I am finished do I send the turn somewhere? Upload it? How does this all work??? Sorry....I've never done anything more tech advanced than PBEM!!! And, the Demo Tutorial doesn't talk about how this works.

Gandalf Parker · #10 March 12th, 2007, 06:49 PM

OK well you know PbEM and that this game was based on that, so you are way ahead of most.

The TCP/IP Connect method (internet direct connect) does the same thing but in the background.
When you connect,
A) if a turn is ready for you it will send it to you and open it
B) if you already sent a turn and the game is waiting for everyone else before hosting, then it will ask if you want to "continue where you left off" or "redo turn from beginning".
C) if you have finished a turn either while you were connected, or by working on it offline then your copy will send it
D) if the game receives your turn and begins hosting immeadiately (usually because you were the last one to send it in) then you can wait. It will give you your turn as soon as its done procesing everyones actions.

Because the game works on PbEM methods (you send file to host, host sends results back to you) you can break connect at any time as long as a file isnt being transfered right at that moment. By the way, the file you send to the host has an extension of .2h (to host) and the file sent back to you is .trn (turn file). This will be handy to know when you do get into a pbem game of Dom3.