Over-the-Internet play

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 11 Aug 2003 22:49

I saw the topic explaining how to play TTD over the Internet. Also the more recent Patch alpha is supposed to make this more stable on XP/2K which is what most of us seem to use these days.

My question: would it be possible to set up some sort of central online gaming interchange, like they have for wargame sims? Where you could go and join a game in progress, start one, etc.? That way by browsing there, it could tell what your settings were, and be able to exchange settings of two people wherever who wanted to start a game.

Post by **orudge** » 11 Aug 2003 23:04

Well, I could relatively easily create an online lobby site, with a downloadable client (like the MSN Gaming Zone) that sets up the multiplayer game with TTD. But TTD's multiplayer is so unstable it wouldn't really be worth it.

SHADOW-XIII · Post by **SHADOW-XIII** » 11 Aug 2003 23:08

indeed ... it is not worth to do it ... but idea is great and if MultiPlayer will be somday stable then it should be mention again

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 11 Aug 2003 23:30

I guess I thought I'd read that the newer Patch version was more stable. Is that one of the things that is of higher priority, or is it fixable, or just hugely complicated?

Post by **orudge** » 12 Aug 2003 00:17

Hugely complicated and very hard to fix. You'd basically have to rewrite most of the networking code, Josef has said in the past.

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 12 Aug 2003 00:35

The original TTD wasn't designed to work over IP at all, was it? If I recall correctly it was for IPX. How did you make it work on IP, anyway? Some sort of shell for the IPX packets? I'm not terrible surprised that it would need a rewrite of the networking code. Actually, I would have thought it would be easier just to rewrite the networking code, rather than try to update it.

eis_os · Post by **eis_os** » 12 Aug 2003 07:54

Ask Joe Booth, the creator of the windows port,
I think Shadow-XIII has already written an email ....

SHADOW-XIII · Post by **SHADOW-XIII** » 12 Aug 2003 08:53

yes I wrote a mail to him but no response ... if 2 week will pass without reply then I try other mail, also if anyone has got ICQ, then he can try via ICQ (number at FishUK page) ... also there are some telephon numbers (but I will only phone to England if all other ways will not be sucsseded)

troopper5 · Post by **troopper5** » 12 Aug 2003 11:03

We'll have to wait for Josef to answer this. If it is possible i can ask from the makers of All-Seeing Eye, that would they make online servers.

Post by **orudge** » 12 Aug 2003 11:55

krtaylor wrote:The original TTD wasn't designed to work over IP at all, was it? If I recall correctly it was for IPX. How did you make it work on IP, anyway? Some sort of shell for the IPX packets? I'm not terrible surprised that it would need a rewrite of the networking code. Actually, I would have thought it would be easier just to rewrite the networking code, rather than try to update it.

The Windows version of TTD supports TCP/IP. It only supports TCP/IP on a LAN basis, but I could create a program which forwards the appropriate ports over the Internet to the other computer.

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 12 Aug 2003 15:24

Sounds like that would be the way to go then. I guess it would be a program that knew where the central TTD Online Game HQ was, and relayed to it; then the central registry would relay between whoever was supposed to be playing the games, or some such.

Post by **orudge** » 12 Aug 2003 16:36

The actual game would be a direct link from computer to computer (not going via the server). The server would just be for players to meet up, etc.

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 12 Aug 2003 17:29

Right. The game would link to the central server, and the server would transmit the necessary addressing information back to the game so as to communicate with the other player.

Here's another question - Is it possible to have more than two players in one game? You can have, what, 6 computer players, could you have that many human players?

Post by **orudge** » 12 Aug 2003 17:56

No, not without some major work done on the game.

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 12 Aug 2003 17:59

Well, I guess we can put it in the wish list. Personally I think the ability to have more than two human players would really make it a fun challenge, particularly if it was possible to do so across the Internet at large.

eis_os · Post by **eis_os** » 12 Aug 2003 19:16

more than 2 player is impossible
(The savegame format only knows two player too, but this would be the smallest problem)

103er-Fan · Post by **103er-Fan** » 12 Aug 2003 20:32

I played TTD over internet about two weeks ago with a friend, though both of us have DSL connections, the game was very slow and it crashed on both PCs after around 4 months ingame time (which were very long by the way, since the game was so slow).

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 12 Aug 2003 22:16

So it sounds like what is really needed, in an ideal world, would be a completely rewritten networking subsystem. Well, maybe someday if we get more workable code from somewhere, who knows.

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