multi player games

[456820]

okay some people would of noticed that currently there have been quite a few mp games in the beta testing forums
first of all i dont know anything about mp games
so why dont ofpec do there own mp games and play the beta testing games or even the ones in the missions depot
because i have wanted to play one of these missions but i couldnt play it online wich was a dissapointement because it sounded like a great mission

© You know where you saw it first

[qqqqqq]

OFPEC - by the community, for the community.

OFPEC is not a third party.   You are OFPEC.   Excellent idea.   You want it, you organise it.  

[greg147]

Sounds fun. I notice that MP missions are reviewed less than SP missions on the beta testing board, this could draw them level.
Good idea, if this got organised, i'd probably join in.  

[456820]

well since i dont know anything to do with multiplayer games i would luike if someone organised it for us all as i tried one mp game once and its a lot funner and harder then sp

[Fragorl]

Hm.....

This topic is close enough to one I was going to start, so I'm going to speak up here instead.

Towards the end of the beta testing party, I got playing some multiplayer games with a couple of people from the forum, you know who you are ;D. It was a helluva lot of fun. And this got me thinking (I know for a fact I'm not the first person with this idea). The official forum started up a thread for organising community games, ie just people from forum who wanted to get together and have some games. Unfortunately the thread was soon taken over by various clans and basically became devoted to clan recruitment and clan game organisation.

The same sort of thing would probably not happen with ofpec, because the community is smaller, closer knit, and everyone knows everyone (pretty much).

I did a search a while ago for a topic like this, and found some similar ones but not identical. To address what came up in those other threads
ofpec should NOT host or provide a server or be responsible for holding any multiplayer games in any way
ofpec should NOT have provide a detailed multiplayer listing of servers (this was one of the ideas suggested a while back)
ofpec would simply provide a page where members could organise the servers themselves, gave the IP, etc.

> qqqqqq
Yes, this is exactly what would happen. At the beta testing party, someone hosted the game and 4 or so of us took part. The lag etc. was fine, there were no problems.

The beta testing idea is a good one; because how on earth else do mulitplayer missions get tested? I know from experience that public servers aren't willing (or able) to add new maps that often; MP missions are usually tested out by members of the community at a lan or something like that. So this would definitely be promoting beta testing, as well as playing, of new missions. I think it's a great idea.

[qqqqqq]

Maybe a sticky topic on the beta board.

[Sui]

Unfortunately, we don't have the resources to host multiplayer games ourselves. We simply don't have a server available. However...

OFPEC is not a third party.   You are OFPEC.   Excellent idea.   You want it, you organise it.  

I couldn't have said it better myself
If anyone has any ideas or initiatives on how we can help you out, please don't hesitate to let us know.

[456820]

well i dont know anything about Mp games on ofp i only got into my first game today the first time its ever worked
anyway if greg147 want to help me if you know anyhing about Mp games
Note i know someone who has a Medal of honor server could you just change the game from mdeadl of honor to ofp ?

[greg147]

I could try to help out. I havn't organised MP games before, just played them, but hey, its worth a go  

[Fragorl]

456820:

as long as the server has a copy of the game, and the multiplayer patch 1.96, It should be fine.

[456820]

ill check if it has a copy of the game but i dont think they do from what i know its strictly a model of honor server
so a new server might be needed and do these cost ?

[Mikero]

If it's at all possible to achieve, this is a good idea (tm)

the beta board is an inappropriate place for MP missions. Inappopriate in the sense that there's no facility to test them 'live'.

>Server, would it cost

nope. All it needs is anyone on a dsl (cable) connection which automatically implies a 24x7 and reasonable speed.

server wise, the engine aint working too hard, so it can be a background task to whatever the computer normally does. (like umm errr reading emails )

The fly in the ointment is that human intervention is required (until someone writes some reasonable cgi code) to:

upload *the* mission

apply it to the engine's current inventory of selectable missions (generally involves a restart)

actually select and start *that* mission.

I think the real difficulty is simply organising X many people to all come in at a specific time and give a mission a road test. Since this is always going to be on the human intervention side, best ofpec can do I think is provide a 'service' listing MP games to be tested (their url) and perhaps a small 'how to' in terms of getting players organised.

[456820]

well i have a broadband with a 2mb speed but we have 2 computers running the internet alot so its does slow down from time to time but weve only got 1Gb download limit per day
would that beenough for a server then
if so where could i register or sighn up or what ever you do to get one then i may be able to host a few games now and then and i can also give a password or whatever to someone else here at ofpec so they can run MP games when im not around but obdvioculsy not everyone because that would just drain my limit right down
]
so what do you think of that ?

If it's at all possible to achieve, this is a good idea (tm)

lol just relised but a shame your too late check first post
aha

oh and another edit
i remember once on my mates medel of honor server they tried to create a lan game and then give everyone on the servers clan an IP adress wich they all linked to each other im not totally sure but it worked for them why dont we try it ? ill try and get more details about that soon if its a reasonable idea

[Mikero]

Well, one idea that Sui would have to agree with is to provide a sticky topic in the beta forum devoted solely to MP mission news. The beta news sticky (as you know) is advertising all new missions but performs a hidden role of providing a one stop shop for all the addons required. Sorta ingrained in testers now that that can go there and grab whatever. I'd see a similar role for the mp sticky that the word gets out than anything marked 'new' means new game times eg for given missions, and the readers will begin to bookmark this server of yours (eg).

If it loses interest, the sticky can get deleted. But certainly, a single sticky versus plastering comments in various threads, seems like a focussed idea to me.

Contact Machoman and Artak directly to see what they think.

[456820]

okay also i think the only reson there arent that many Mp games on the board is because Mp games dont seem to get tested as much but thats what i think but there are a few around recently wich is good to see that mp editing hasnt been forgotten

and the readers will begin to bookmark this server of yours

by bookmark do you mean just kind of secure a place saying im having this time tommorow ?
also server of mine i dont know where to get one what i need to do or much at all so can you fill me in on a few of these things also would the hossting a lan server work and give people an IP address
but would that interest hackers after ofpec was attacked by hackers aparntaly (i dunno where i was during that but i rememebr hearing about it) who knows they may still be on the look out so maybe Pm peope with it or is the best way still a server ?

il contact machoman and arktak if this idea does go ahead

[Fragorl]

Given that the server is going to be inactive for a fair amount of the time, would it not be easier to organise a host depending on who is currently there, ready and willing to play? So for example if at a certain time there are, say, 5 peple active and waiting to play some mission, one person just drops a line on the sticky topic, or in IRC, and says 'OK, MP server up at blah blah IP, we're playing (or testing) such-and-such a mission, join in the next 10 minutes' or something? Of course, it could be a little more organised than that; there could be designated times in the day so that people know when to look for games.

That way it's not one person shouldering the cost for a long time (as would happen if one person supplied a server on an ongoing basis), the cost is spread amongst everyone because different people play and host at different times. Plus it aves on wasted time when there is only one or two people playing, or no one at all.

Just my thoughts

EDIT

> Mission requires restart
From experience, it is possible to drop a mission into the OFP mission directory whilst the program is running, and then find it and play it, all without restarting the game itself. Of course, the same is absolutely not true of addons, so missions using new addons would indeed require a game restart.

[456820]

okay then after not going through with this idea i have sat around and not realy thought of it but now i have re thought of it and bumped this topic well not really bumped but whatever
anyways i have tried creating a LAN game in ofp and tried to join in the same game using my IP adress and then i joined in but i dont hink ofp liked the idea of me playing against me with 2 players so it didnt work

but i know my sis has done thins on Medal of Honor so it cant be to much different can it ?

so anyway i just need to test this idea before i can say it works with ofp but when it has been confirmed what do i do now

i was thinking of a sticky topic on the beta testing board wich basically says that multiplayer games can be done if you have a mission for testing get in touch with me and ill tell you from there basically to send me the mission start a topic and ill arange a time it can be played but of course other people can do this idea
since all they need to do is create a LAN game and give the people who wish to play there IP adress so you can now connect to that game

but anyway just thinking if anyone has tried this or anyone will try it for me and tell me if it works and then i can contact an admin i suppose for further details just need a bit of help on does it work ? and what to do after ive found out it does ?

EDIT - After re-reading some of the posts i noticed that Mikero said that

>Server, would it cost

nope. All it needs is anyone on a dsl (cable) connection which automatically implies a 24x7 and reasonable speed.

server wise, the engine aint working too hard, so it can be a background task to whatever the computer normally does. (like umm errr reading emails  )

well okay then but how do i go about creating the server and is it possible only to have it up at a certain time ? so its not wasting all my internet bandwith ?