Manual Multi Player Games
Original 1996 manual, converted verbatim from the game's manual.doc.
A player can either create a multi-player game, or join one. If you create a multi-player game, you become the "host" for that game, and can control who joins the game.
This section will first walk you through playing a multi-player game, ignoring which network protocol you select. Following that is a section devoted to each protocol, including troubleshooting.
Choose "Create Network Game" from the Main Menu. The following window will appear:
Enter your player name, then select a name for the game you wish to publish, and enter a short description for the game. Other players choosing which game to join will see this name and description so you should list how good you are and what type of game you are looking for, etc.
Once you have entered this information, you will be able to adjust settings for Computer Opponents, Starting Position, and World Size. These settings are described in the section on starting a single-player game. People joining will be able to see these settings too.
Now choose CONNECT. You will see a window entitled "Publish a Game" shown below:
First choose the network protocol appropriate to your network (modem users will need to click ADVANCED to enter a telephone number).
If you want to have a private game with just your friends, enter a password. If a password is entered by the host, all players joining the game will have to enter the same password. Players who do not enter the same password will not see the game.
Settings under "Additional Players" have the following effects:
Until Colonize
Players will not be able to join the game once all players have selected their race. Once all players have selected their race the game will start.
Final Approval
Game will not start until the host accepts or deletes joining players from the list. This gives you a final chance to review all players after they have selected their race and then start the game.
Can Replace
Allows players to join a game in progress by taking over control of a non-human (AI) colony. When this happens the game will pause for a couple of seconds while the game is downloaded to the new player.
Note: A player cannot create a new race, only take over an existing computer player. If there are no computer players then the game cannot be joined while in progress.
Server (no human player)
Allows you to create a game on your computer that you will not be playing in. You can join this game from another computer.
This is useful if you have a large number of computer players because with no human player, there is no need to render the maps at 24 fps leaving a lot more CPU time for the computer players.
If you start a game in this mode see the section below on quitting a multi-player game for a description of the window that comes up.
Once your settings are chosen, click PUBLISH GAME. Three windows will then be displayed:
A window entitled "Game Players" lists players who have joined your game.
The >> in front of a name shows you. To the right is either a description if you are waiting for that player or a percentage if that player is loading the game (at 100%, the player has landed on the planet).
The Start button will start the game. You cannot press this button until you have chosen your race (see below). When you press this button the game will start. Any human players who have not chosen their race will be dropped.
If you selected the Final Approval option in the Publish a Game dialog then you must press Start after all players have selected their race.
The Delete Player button will delete the selected player. You cannot delete yourself (we felt deleting yourself was a sign of low self-esteem).
A deleted player can rejoin so if someone is annoying you by trying to rejoin, you have about 15 seconds after deleting them to start the game before they show up again.
Your Address is your network address. This is very important if you are trying to create a game over a TCP/IP or IPX network that is not able to use IServe. You need to tell people attempting to join the game this address so that they can enter it in their advanced settings.
Internet Server is the address of the IServe server your game has connected to to publish your game. If people trying to join your game are connecting to a different IServe, they will not see your game.
Note: If Enemy Nations™ cannot find IServe it will report {none} here. In this case you are probably; a) not connected to the network, b) there is a firewall at your company blocking communication, or c) you have the wrong address in your advanced settings.
VDMPlay Version is the version of the Windward Studios™ network library you are using. All of the released versions (as of this printing) are supposed to be compatible. But it is possible that mis-matched versions could be why someone cannot join your game.
Enemy Nations Version is the version of Enemy Nations™ you are running. As of this printing all released versions of Enemy Nations™ can talk to all others. However, it is quite possible that future versions will be incompatible and in that case, will not allow games between them.
The second window is the Choose Race window as described in the single-player game section. In this window you need to choose your race.
Once you choose your race the Choose Race dialog will disappear but the others will remain until the game starts.
To begin loading your game, choose a Name and Race, as in a Single-Player Game. When all players have reached 100%, the game will begin.
The third window is a common chat window. In this window you can chat with other players. This window remains during game play.
However, this chat window is for messages to all players only. If you want private chat and e-mail you need to research the appropriate items.
Choose "Join Network Game" from the Main Menu. The following window will appear:
From this window, choose the network protocol appropriate to your network (modem users will need to click ADVANCED to enter a telephone number). If the host of the multi-player game entered a password when creating the game, you will need to enter the same password in order to join the game.
Once your settings are chosen, click PUBLISH GAME. A window entitled "Game Players" lists potential players who are connected to the network.
All available games will be listed in the list on the left. When you select a game in the list (note "select" here means select an item in a windows list box, not join a game) it will give a full description of the game on the right.
Note: Here we are showing the game we created for the dialogs shown in the previous section on creating a game.
The first 5 items on the right show the settings for the game that the game creator selected. The final item lists what type of game. There are three types: a) New Game which is a brand new game being created; b) Loaded Game which is a saved game being restarted. The game is not presently being played – everyone is joining it; c) Game in Progress is a game which is presently being played where you can take over one of the computer players.
Note: There is an inherent latency in networks. Therefore you can join a game that actually started or was killed 5 seconds earlier. So occasionally you will join a game only to be told it is gone.
The lines listing the net addresses and versions are identical to those described above for creating a game.
The second window is the Choose Race window as described in the single-player game section. In this window you need to choose your race.
Once you choose your race, the Choose Race dialog will disappear but the others will remain until the game starts.
To begin loading your game, choose a Name and Race, as in a Single-Player Game. When all players have reached 100%, the game will begin.
The third window is a common chat window. In this window you can chat with other players. This window remains during game play.
However, this chat window is for messages to all players only. If you want private chat and e-mail you need to research the appropriate items.
In multi-player games there is a complete e-mail and chat system in the game. (It is not there for single-player games because the computer opponents really don't have much to say.)
Note: Chat from this window is between 2 players. The Chat all players can view is always available but for alliances and directed insults you need this Chat which is person to person.
The e-mail window looks like this:
When the game begins you cannot send mail or initiate a chat session. You need to research the appropriate items in order to use these features. However, you can receive messages and chat from other players who have researched the appropriate items.
The first button is to read the selected message.
The second button is to send an e-mail message to someone.
The third button is to reply to a message.
The fourth button is to forward a message. Forwarding is a little different in Enemy Nations™ from a normal e-mail program. You cannot edit the message, only forward it. Therefore when you receive a forwarded e-mail you know it's exactly what that person received. This allows you to show one player that another player is planning to attack them.
The fifth button deletes the selected message(s).
The sixth button refuses a message. This will return a message to a player telling them it was refused. You can only do this if you have not read the message. If you receive a message that was refused you know the player is not even reading it.
The seventh button is to initiate chat with another single player. You can keep chat windows up with all other players simultaneously if you wish.
The eighth button brings up the global chat which is for chat with all players at the same time.
The last button allows you to set options in mail.
If a player leaves a multi-player game in progress, the computer AI will take over for that player. However, the person creating the game (the host) must stay on-line until the game is over.
The host may quit as a player (allowing the computer AI to take over), but stay connected as the server machine. If the person creating the game quits, all other windows will be closed and the following window will come up:
This window will also come up if you create a game with no human player. You can also access this window from the file dialog if you are the server.
Delete Player will delete the selected player. You cannot delete yourself (that self-esteem problem again) or any computer player. If you delete a player the person playing will be dropped from the game and the AI will take over that player.
Pause Game will, you guessed it, pause the game.
File will bring up the file dialog.
Minimize will minimize Enemy Nations™. This is useful if you've been killed but are still hosting. You can then get back to other things that are less important than playing Enemy Nations™.
You can change whether or not to accept new players and the password at any time.
If the host wishes to disconnect altogether, another player must save the game, quit, and then start again by loading the game.
Any player can save the game at any time.
IServe is short for Internet Server. IServe is a means to let players find each other over the Internet without having to know each others IP address, or even that the other is there.
Note: IServe should also work on an IPX network if run on a server. However, since most MIS managers probably won't allow IServe to be run on a server, it has not been tested thoroughly and is not supported for IPX.
We have IServe running on our server windward.net. However, we have included IServe with the product for people who are either on a network that is not connected to the Internet or is behind a firewall.
All that you need to do is run IServe on any computer on the network. When you run it you will see the following:
Name is the server name that players should put in their advanced settings for TCP/IP (see below). Socket is the socket setting they should use.
Note: Socket 1707 is assigned to Windward Studios™ for IServe. You should use this value because any other value may conflict with other applications.
The list box in the bottom half will list games presently available to join. The caption will list how many games presently exist.
Once a game starts IServe is no longer used. It exists merely to help people join games. Therefore the network traffic to IServe is minimal and has no affect on playing the game.
There are a few options in IServe. You usually don't need to set any so they are only documented in the on-line help.
Network protocols are still a giant pain in the ass. The software is not easy to configure or use and the interface is designed for network gurus. So don't feel bad if you don't understand exactly how your network works.
Troubleshooting any protocol consists of two steps. Step 1 is to determine if the connection is good. Step two is to determine why Enemy Nations™ isn't working on a good connection. (Most of the time the problem is Step 1 but unfortunately Step 2 is also occasionally a problem.)
In this section we will go through each protocol and discuss the advanced settings and troubleshooting that protocol.
The advanced settings in TCP/IP looks like this:
This shows the default settings for TCP/IP.
The Server IP Address is actually used for two different purposes. First, if you are connecting directly to a game that is created, you can enter the IP address of that game here and it will connect you directly to that game.
Second, Enemy Nations™ looks for IServe running on the machine at that address. If IServe is running on that machine, it will connect with IServe. If you are creating a game Enemy Nations™ will register it's IP address with IServe so others can join your game. If you are joining a game, Enemy Nations™ will ask IServe for all IP address it has to list out available games.
Note: IServe will send newly created games to all games looking to join after the initial list of games is received. So you do not have to re-publish to see games created after you start looking.
Note: You can enter either names or IP address.
The Socket is the channel you are communicating on. All players and IServe must be on the same socket. 1707 has been assigned to Windward Studios for Enemy Nations™ so it is strongly recommended that you not change this number.
Step 1: Make sure that all of your settings above are correct. If you are connecting directly to another game or to another copy of IServe, check with the person at the other end and verify the settings.
Step 2: Make sure that you can communicate with the other machine. To do this you want to ping the other machine. Bring up a DOS box and type ping windward.net (substitute the name of the server you are connectiong to). You should see a response like this:
If you get any kind of error message then you cannot communicate with that machine for some reason. If this is your problem we can't help you – you need to talk to your network support team.
In this case you should try pinging other servers to determine where the problem is. Start with a system close to you and then one at another corporation.
Note: windward.net is down about once a month, usually because we lose power for over 5 minutes.
Step 3: If you can ping the machine you want to connect to but cannot join a game, bring up the Advanced dialog and press the Diagnostics button. To run the diagnostics, both you and the person creating the game need to be running it. The diagnostics are designed to get two specific machines connected.
The advanced settings in IPX look like this:
The Net Number and Node Number should normally be left blank. These will identify a specific machine and can be used to connect to someone creating a game if there is a bridge or router between you and the other machine that don't pass on broadcast packets.
The IPX Socket is the channel that communication occurs on. This must match on all systems. Novell would not assign us our own number so we randomly picked this socket number. This number may conflict with an existing application in which case all players should change to a different number.
Note: We requested Novell to assign us a socket number and they agreed to do so. However, when they discovered that Enemy Nations™ would run on Microsoft's IPX instead of requiring Novell's IPX, they then decided to not assign us a socket.
Step 1: Make sure that all of your settings above are correct. Check with the person creating the game and verify the settings.
Step 2: Bring up the Advanced dialog and press the Diagnostics button. To run the diagnostics, both you and the person creating the game need to be running it. The diagnostics are designed to get two specific machines connected.
The advanced settings in NETBIOS look like this:
The LANA is the LAN Adapter Number. This was originally specified so you could have multiple net cards in one computer. However, today NETBIOS generally runs on top of another protocol such as TCP/IP or IPX and each separate instance of NETBIOS has a separate LANA.
This is a giant pain because all systems playing the game must be on the same NETBIOS protocol. If you are using the NETBIOS running on top of TCP/IP and the others are playing on the NETBIOS running on top of IPX then you cannot communicate with them.
There is no easy way to determine which LANA on one machine matches the LANA on a second machine. On two of the test systems used for Enemy Nations™ LANA 0 on one talked to LANA 7 on the other and LANA 7 talked to LANA 0.
The drop down combo box will only show LANA numbers that there are protocols loaded for. This is generally only 1 or 2 values. If it's one value you're set (assuming the other players have the same NETBIOS loaded).
Otherwise you can either select one, try to connect, if it fails, try the next. Or you can use the Diagnostics which will get two machines talking. (NETBIOS was the primary reason we wrote the diagnostics.)
The Name is a unique name Enemy Nations™ assigns to your computer. It is virtually impossible for the name Enemy Nations will pick for you to not be unique.
However, you can override this setting. If you do and the name conflicts you will get an error when you try to publish a game.
Step 1: Make sure that all of your settings above are correct. You probably have the wrong LANA number. Remember, the LANA numbers commonly have to be different to communicate.
Step 2: Bring up the Advanced dialog and press the Diagnostics button. To run the diagnostics, both you and the person creating the game need to be running it. The diagnostics are designed to get two specific machines connected.
DirectPlay is not supported in this version of Enemy Nations™. DirectPlay II did not support guaranteed delivery of packets and DirectPlay III shipped shortly before we did, not leaving enough time for testing.
DirectPlay support may be available in a future update.
There are a couple of items common to all of these protocols.
First, only 2 person games are supported. Even if the person creating the game has 2 MODEMS, Enemy Nations™ only supports a 2 person game.
Second, a more efficient method is to use the Win95 support for a LAN over the serial port and run IPX on top of that. This not only gives you faster communication (IPX's packet protocol is better than ours) but it will also allow any number of players if you have enough MODEMS.
Note: In a MODEM game the joining player calls the creating player.
Third, MODEM and TAPI always require you to enter the advanced settings to set the phone number. They remember the number last used but do not keep a list of names and numbers.
Fourth, Enemy Nations™ assumes that all machines have a 16550 UART or better buffering serial port. Virtually all Pentium systems and internal MODEMS have this.
Fifth, Enemy Nations™ really needs at least 28.8 MODEMS to handle the traffic generated in heavy combat. Enemy Nations™ can handle slower modems but you will see lags when you have 50 units attack your enemy's 70 defenders.
Step 1: Make sure that all of your settings above are correct. Are you talking to the correct port? Are the MODEM settings correct?
Step 2: There is no Diagnostics for the serial port. Instead, bring up a communication application on both ends and see if you can connect with that. Once that connection is successful, then use the same settings for Enemy Nations™.
Step 3: If you the systems actually connect in the status box that comes up but they don't connect, exit back to the main screen, bring both systems up to the first create/join screen, click publish for the system creating the game and then for the one joining 3 seconds later.
The advanced settings in MODEM look like this:
The first setting is the Port number the MODEM is connected to. The combo-box will only show ports not in use so if a communication application presently is using the MODEM, you will not be able to select the correct port.
You must enter the phone number to call in the Number box. This string is passed directly to the MODEM dial command.
To change the settings for the MODEM press Settings and you will get this dialog:
Note: A ^M (carriage return) is appended to all strings.
Init is the string sent to initialize the MODEM. It is strongly recommended that you copy the string that your main telecommunication application uses to initialize the modem and paste it into this entry.
Auto Answer is the string sent to the MODEM when the player creating a game publishes the game. It puts the MODEM into auto-answer mode.
Dial Prefix is the command pre-pended to the phone number to dial the phone.
Dial is placed after Dial Prefix but before the phone number. If you need to dial 9 to get an outside line you should place a 9, here. (The , forces a 2 second pause.)
Note: When the joining player publishes a game the modem is sent the string Dial Prefix + Dial + Number + ^M.
The advanced settings in TAPI look like this:
The top combo-box is a list of all TAPI devices you have installed on your system. Select the one you wish to use.
Settings are the settings for that device and are specific to the device. (The dialogs reached here belong to the device, not to Enemy Nations™.)
Number is the phone number you wish to connect to. If your TAPI device is properly installed, you do not need to include items like access codes or 9 to get an outside line.
Direct Connect
The advanced settings for Direct Connect looks like this:
Direct Connect is a fancy way of saying a serial, null-modem, or RS-232 connection. In any case, it's a connection between two machines using their serial port.
Port is the port number the cable is connected to. The combo-box will only show ports not in use so if a communication application presently is using the port, you will not be able to select the correct port.