The In Game Overlay

The In-Game Overlay

Press F5 in the game to open the 5th Echelon overlay; F5 or Esc closes it. On most laptops and some keyboards the top row controls brightness or volume, so press Fn+F5, turn on Fn Lock (often Fn+Esc), or choose another key in Settings › Game. The key opens it only while the game is in front: switching to another window closes it and frees the mouse. While it's open it has its own mouse cursor, and the game gets no mouse or keys.

The header shows the version, and on the right Connected · <ping> ms · <server>, or Not connected.

The overlay is drawn at your screen's own size, so its text stays sharp below 1080p too. It's on by default; turn it off, or choose its key, in Settings › Game (In-game overlay, opened with).

When the game starts

A notice in the corner says Signed in as <you> and how many friends are online, with Press [F5] for friends, invites and match settings. With Internet play set to LAN or VPN only (Settings › Network), it adds Internet play is set to LAN or VPN only: players elsewhere can't join you. If it says something else, see the error banners below.

The tabs

Six tabs: Friends, Find players, Chat (on the community network), Invites, Match and Server. Friends, Chat and Invites show a count when something's waiting, and the overlay opens on Friends or Invites when it is.

Friends

• Want to be your friend: friend requests for you, with Accept, Decline and Block.
• Your friends: with what they're doing ("Online, in the menus", "Spies vs Mercs · in a match with …", "Offline"), and Invite (when they're online), Join (when they're in a party or public match you can join: Joining a friend), Remove and Block.
• On other servers: friends playing on another server of your network. To play together, one of you joins the other's server: the launcher's Friends card has a Join button for it.
• Waiting for an answer: requests you sent, with Cancel.
• Blocked: who you've blocked, with Unblock.

The note at the top says who can invite you on this server: everyone, or only friends (the server decides; community servers are friends-only).

Find players

Search by part of a name, or leave the box empty and press Search for everyone online. Each player has Add friend, Block or Invite. Each shows their identity (e.g. ID K7QF-2M9D (name reserved)), or no identity.

"Not your friend Kiwi from play.example.org" means someone has a friend's name but isn't them: a different player using the same name on a server outside your network.

Chat

Global, Lobby and Messages with your friends, with a box to type in; right-click a name to add them, block them, report the message or delete your own. Each line shows when it was sent. New messages pop up at the top right as Settings › Notifications says. All about it: Chat.

Invites

Invites waiting for you, each with a countdown (they last 30 seconds), Accept and Decline. Accepting takes you straight into their match.

Invites also pop up in the corner of the screen: press F5 to accept or decline. With Join invites automatically on (Settings › Game), you join as soon as one arrives.

Match

Change the lobby you're in, before the match starts:

• Players needed to start: the match waits for this many players.
• Most players: the most allowed in the lobby (Spies vs Mercs classic is 2 against 2, co-op is 2).

Above the mode's own size (2 for co-op, 4 for Classic, 6 for Frontline, 8 for Blacklist, Team Deathmatch and Capture), it says in amber More than <n> players can crash or freeze the game for some players in this mode. It's still allowed: plenty of big lobbies play fine, but most of the crashes and freezes in reports come from them. A Spies vs Mercs map has 5 starting spots a team, so a sixth player on a team starts elsewhere. (From 0.4.6, on a 0.4.6 server.)

For example, co-op with more than two players, or Spies vs Mercs with fewer than four. Outside a lobby it says Host or join a lobby to change these.

Server

Row	Shows
Address	The server you're on
Signed in as	Your name there
Response time	Your ping to it
Server	Its version
Other players reach you	How other games reach yours (below), and your ping to the server, e.g. · 44 ms to the server, measured every 20 seconds
Your identity	Your identity's short id
Game add-on	The client's version

Other players reach you says how you're connected for matches:

It says	Meaning
Direct, router port opened	Your router forwards the game's port: the best case
Direct, local network	Players on your own network reach you directly
Through the server's relay	Your router can't be reached from outside, so your matches go through the server. Works fine, with a little more delay
Direct, no router port open … others may not be able to join you	Nothing forwards the port, and the relay isn't in use. If friends can't join you, set Internet play to Always through the server (Settings › Network)
Local address only (NAT traversal is off)	Internet play is set to LAN or VPN only
Asking the server for this PC's public address...	Still finding out; it settles in a few seconds

The ping is your game's own round trip to the server, so it's the number to quote when you report lag.

Sign in again signs the game in to the server again, e.g. after the server restarted. It usually does this by itself.

More on how this works: Playing Over the Internet.

Notices

Short notices appear at the bottom of the screen for a few seconds:

• <name> wants to be friends. Press F5 to answer.
• <name> accepted your friend request.
• Invite sent to <name>, or Couldn't invite <name>. Host or join a match first, then try again.
• Blocked <name>. They can't see you or invite you.

A card above them says what just went wrong, and why, for 15 seconds:

• Couldn't join: …: a full lobby, a locked or closed one, or different game data (and whose game has the mod).
• Nobody is hosting <mode> right now: your search found nothing, but matches of another Spies vs Mercs mode are open; the game only finds the mode you search for. Pick that mode, or host yours and wait.
• The host migration didn't finish: the host left and nobody could take over within 15 seconds, so you've left the match (the game would otherwise wait on Host has changed. Migrating match... for ever).

Before maintenance

From 10 minutes before your server (or the whole network) goes down for booked maintenance, a notice in the corner says how long is left, for how long, and the admins' note:

• Server maintenance in <n> min: This server goes down for about 1 hour … Finish your match before then.
• Network maintenance in <n> min: Friends and invites pause for about 1 hour … Your match carries on.

The launcher warns earlier, under Play: see The Launcher › Maintenance.

Other players can't reach you

An amber banner at the top centre, Other players can't reach you, means the server's NAT helper isn't hearing from your game, so matches with other players won't connect. It says why, and goes away by itself once the server hears from the game again:

It says	What to do
The server hasn't heard from the game (for <n> s) … A firewall or antivirus may be blocking the game's UDP traffic to the server (port <p>).	Allow Blacklist_DX11_game.exe (or Blacklist_game.exe) in your firewall or antivirus. If it lasts, restart the game
Windows won't let the game send to the server (UDP port <p>) … Allow the game in your firewall or antivirus.	Allow the game in your firewall or antivirus
The server's NAT helper can't be found … Check this PC's internet connection.	Check your internet connection
The server hasn't registered this game yet … If it lasts, restart the game.	Wait a moment; if it lasts, restart the game

More: Playing Over the Internet.

Error banners

A banner at the top centre means the game isn't connected to 5th Echelon properly:

Banner	What to do
5th Echelon isn't set up: No server is set for the game.	Open the launcher and press Connect on a server
Couldn't sign in to the server: Your account or password was refused.	Quit the game, open the launcher, and press Fix everything
Signed out by the server: Signing in again didn't work.	Same: quit, then Fix everything in the launcher
Lost the 5th Echelon server: Reconnecting now. Invites are paused until it's back.	Wait a minute: it reconnects by itself (servers restart briefly when they update). If it lasts, check the server is online in the launcher, and switch servers if it isn't
The server refused this game: This server needs 5th Echelon <version> or newer … Start the game from the launcher to update it.	Quit and start the game from the launcher, which updates it. A game always started from Steam or Ubisoft Connect is never updated
Waiting to sign in again: The server had too many sign-ins from this game	Wait a few minutes: it tries again by itself
The game was started offline: It was started with -offline …	Remove -offline from the game's launch options in Steam (the game's Properties › General), and start the game again