33 replies to this topic

[the bigg]

I could be interested, but only if we're playing with BGT (see below).

You should use some VPN software for playing multiplayer (rather than getting messy with dynamic IP and port forwarding); I've heard good things about Hamachi, but I don't know if it's available on Fisher Price Macs.

Re: characters, I think you should start with a team in Chateau Irenicus (or Candlekeep if you use BGT) and then stick with it for all the game (if some player cannot continue, somebody subs in and controls his character). Having somebody rejoin with a new character is a lot of busy work IMHO (and ripe for exploits like joining as a post-dual Kensai(13) -> Mage).

If you start from Candlekeep, it's also feasible to have six people join up with pre-generated characters and make the party workable (somebody can dual to cover egregious gaps, and a team built this way will probably more fun to play than a fully optimized team); if you start from Chateau Irenicus, characters are too developed to make a respec feasible.

[Darziak]

I'm also considering to install things like Weimer's Item Upgrades, would you guys like that for an MP game?

Sounds fine to me.

[Daulmakan]

Multiplayer BG is something I've yet to try. I might give it a go, but I figure the most difficult thing would be settling on a time/schedule, given the diverse international nature of the players.

[Zyraen]

K that's 2 more mod components in the mix

~SETUP-ITEMUPGRADE.TP2~ #0 #10 // Shadows Of Amn Item Upgrades -> Revised consistency plus version: v38
~SETUP-ITEMUPGRADE.TP2~ #0 #11 // Throne Of Bhaal Item Upgrades -> Revised consistency plus version: v38

I will amend the earlier post as well on the install list.

@thebigg :
Thanks for the tip on the VPN software, probably might give it a spin

About BGT... well, actually, I never got BG before. Not that much inclined as well ^^;; maybe I'm just chicken.

Actually, I think the reason not to go 6 Characters is that I've tried before with a friend (3 chars each) and the result was... difficult, so to speak. We were playing on core rules, but there's a lot more to take care of when you're with 3 chars each. Needless to say, organising 6 players to actually form a party is not easy. I'd much rather 3 decently powered chars with less reloads, rather than 6 meant-to-work-closely-as-a-team characters having multiple, multiple reloads much of the time. From experience, reloads take a long time as computers synch and all.

That said, these are just MY prefs I have no doubt there are others interested to take you on in a BGT game! Full Party of 6 etc etc Why not open a separate thread for it ?

Edited by Zyraen, 25 February 2011 - 02:43 PM.

[the bigg]

Actually, I think the reason not to go 6 Characters is that I've tried before with a friend (3 chars each) and the result was... difficult, so to speak. We were playing on core rules, but there's a lot more to take care of when you're with 3 chars each. Needless to say, organising 6 players to actually form a party is not easy. I'd much rather 3 decently powered chars with less reloads, rather than 6 meant-to-work-closely-as-a-team characters having multiple, multiple reloads much of the time. From experience, reloads take a long time as computers synch and all.

Right, I forgot that reloading in multiplayer is painful. That's reason enough to carefully plan and minmax your party (and start from BG2, since you'll be reloading a lot while you're level 1 and your minmaxed half-orc Barbarian tank has 17 HP and AC -1).

That said, these are just MY prefs I have no doubt there are others interested to take you on in a BGT game! Full Party of 6 etc etc Why not open a separate thread for it ?

Because I'm not going to organize it

[Zyraen]

(and start from BG2, since you'll be reloading a lot while you're level 1 and your minmaxed half-orc Barbarian tank has 17 HP and AC -1)

Yeah lol, my friend told me about an NWN or IWD ( I think was IWD ) game starting with a level 1 Mage or Sorcerer, and while it was very entertaining to listen on how many ways a 4 HP butt can be liberally whupped, its not something I'd care to try in Multi-Player (and probably not even in Single Player)

[Eric P.]

It's been recommended in some forum before to not install SHFLM from BG2 Fixpack, but to install all other components. I'm surprised that a couple components are left out of this installation, but I'll follow the above list 100%, and see if that will yield a playable game.

- E

[the bigg]

SHFLM is buggy (or so I've heard).
Meira (authoress of Amber) said that joined a game with a random guy on Battle.net; she was hosting, and noticed that, since she had the Fixpack and Amber installed, so did the other guy (much to his surprise). I don't think anybody really tried to figure out exactly what things must be installed on both games and what can be installed on just one (both in terms of syncing missing resources, and handling resource conflicts).

[Eric P.]

SHFLM is buggy (or so I've heard).
Meira (authoress of Amber) said that joined a game with a random guy on Battle.net; she was hosting, and noticed that, since she had the Fixpack and Amber installed, so did the other guy (much to his surprise). I don't think anybody really tried to figure out exactly what things must be installed on both games and what can be installed on just one (both in terms of syncing missing resources, and handling resource conflicts).

We're getting something of an education on this sort of thing right here, right now I remain curious about exactly what about SHFLM causes any errors; I don't believe I've experienced any issues related to it. My habit has been to omit that, and to install every other BG2 Fixpack component. For purposes of this mp experiment, though, I'm following Z's list to the letter, to be on the safe side. I've got a playable game now, but we have yet to successfully connect for mp play (in either direction).

- E

[Zyraen]

Me and Darziak got a game going last night. Was pretty good at least where we didn't screw up...
To make sure our installs were the same, I duplicated the following to make sure we got the same thing.

/override
baldur.exe
bgmain.exe
chitin.key
dialog.tlk
weidu.log

[Eric P.]

Following Zyraen's advice, I installed and ran a tool called hamachi (in a Terminal shell session). This allowed me to connect to his network, and see the other peer who was also connected, but Zyraen was unable to ping me, and from my end, BGII was unable to connect to his mp game. We're at a standstill on this issue now.

Is anyone out there willing and able to advise on how we might connect to play BGII multiplayer?

Thanks!
Eric

[Zyraen]

I theorize it might be due to some minor differences in the installation due to EXE file. When I sent Eric a .RAR containing all the files in the override, he couldn't load it and it crashed. He said that Mac requires different .EXE of Baldur.exe and Bgmain.exe, is that true? Could that be the cause? Then again, Eric said he had joined in BG2 MP games before in the past.

Hmm meantime anyone else want to join in the game? I have the two .RARs saved over in my gmail.com, it should make it easy for someone to set up an identical install. As per my earlier post, it contains the Override Folder, Chitin.Key, Dialog.TLK, Bgmain.Exe, Baldur.exe and Weidu.log

Basically delete or rename override & weidu.log, followed by uninstalling all the files in the .RAR into the BG2 Directory. Of course this is best if its a separate installation from your main, mod heavy installation

Edited by Zyraen, 27 February 2011 - 06:40 PM.

[Eric P.]

I theorize it might be due to some minor differences in the installation due to EXE file. When I sent Eric a .RAR containing all the files in the override, he couldn't load it and it crashed. He said that Mac requires different .EXE of Baldur.exe and Bgmain.exe, is that true? Could that be the cause? Then again, Eric said he had joined in BG2 MP games before in the past.

Hmm meantime anyone else want to join in the game? I have the two .RARs saved over in my gmail.com, it should make it easy for someone to set up an identical install. As per my earlier post, it contains the Override Folder, Chitin.Key, Dialog.TLK, Bgmain.Exe, Baldur.exe and Weidu.log

Basically delete or rename override & weidu.log, followed by uninstalling all the files in the .RAR into the BG2 Directory. Of course this is best if its a separate installation from your main, mod heavy installation

My experience has been that. if the .exe files are anything other than blank, empty, 0 Kb files, the game crashes shortly after launch. The .exe files in Zyraen's archive are "real" and usable (I suspect) by the Windows version of BGII. I could use the archive if I had virtualization software, but I can't justify spending the $ on that, as I have no other use for it.

We still need to discover the exact cause of the failure, and see if it can be corrected. I even took down my firewall, but that didn't give us a successful mp game connection. I messed with settings for VPN (PPTP) and 802.1X (each selectable using OS X's Internet Connect options), but still no joy. 802.1X has some authentication and configuration options that are unfamiliar, so I didn't change those. As mentioned, Hamachi lets me make a connection to the network, but still the game itself fails to connect to mp games...and apparently, GameRanger isn't an option, as it states that there's no Mac <-> PC play possible via GameRanger for BGII.

Thanks,
Eric