A bunch of stuff noone will want to answer. Please help.

A bunch of stuff noone will want to answer. Please help.

Discuss your problems with the latest release of the engine here. Problems with games, maps or other utilities belong in their respective forums.

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SFU2236
Posts: 9
Joined: 25 Sep 2005, 01:52

A bunch of stuff noone will want to answer. Please help.

Post by SFU2236 »

Alright, I'll adress the "major" issues I'm having first.

My cousin and I have the same mods/updates for TA, and we have the latest TASpring.

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First, we wanted to play an online game. So, I made a server, and he joined. All paramiters for units and resources where above what I'm used to in TA, if that matters.

So my cousin got in. He told me, via ventrillo, that he saw the map at an odd angle, which I suspected was normal. He said there was a countdown, and the text saying something similar to "Attempting to connect". The countdown reached 0, and he was kicked.

We tried again, got the same results. Then he made the server, and the same thing happened to me. We got a little aggrivated, and I suspected that a firewall would be the problem, even though we both had TAS accepted with the Microsoft firewall. So we both turned it completely off, he made a server, and I "timed out" again. I made a server and we got the same results.

He has a 1m connection, I have a 4.1+m connection, speed wasn't the problem. We have no idea what went wrong, and we are both pretty used to odd online problems after a bunch of years.

Everything should have worked, according to FAQs, and other players.

Any advice?
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Alright, now my last "issue", which really isn't that major.

I want the left hand side "panel" a bit bigger. The text is barely readable, but some of it is perfect size. The building icons seem impossibly small. I can't tell the difference between half the units, and there really isn't a noticable ingame options panel to set visuals and all that. At least, from what I've noticed.

I suspect it's my desktop resolution, but with my setup I really cannot lower it.
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Now I just have a simple question. I absolutely love the TAS battleroom, and I want to know if I can use it for basic TA games and the such.





Any help is highly appreciated.
Gnomre
Imperial Winter Developer
Posts: 1754
Joined: 06 Feb 2005, 13:42

Post by Gnomre »

The host needs a port forwarded. That port is 8452 UDP by default. Other players don't need the port forwarded, just the person who is hosting. On that note, however, I suggest using the Lobby server software (on the downloads page) to host your own battleroom, or even better, just join the official one and password your game off from the other players there if you're really that paranoid. When running your own server, you must have the Sun Java runtimes installed, and once they are, you just run the LanServer.bat file and set the battleroom to connect to your IP on both machines.

IF you choose to run your own server, the person running the server will need port 8200 forwarded as well as the port used for hosting. I'm not sure that one (8200) can be changed. The port you host the game itself on can be changed in the client, however, in the host game dialog.

Whether you use the official server or not, I strongly recommend using the multiplayer client simply because of its far superior interface for setting up the game.

Next matter, the camera angle: He just needs to hold shift and press the middle mouse button to change the camera until it is in an overhead view. There's a keyboard version of this, but I can't remember what it is offhand, sorry.

As for the side panel, there's no way to change its size without editing the game's source itself, and even then it's not as simple as changing one or two values. The only way to get around this, as you figured out, is to decrease your resolution. Maybe the new GUI they're working on will be scalable.

Finally, what do you mean by "basic TA games" in regards to using the battleroom for it? If you mean 1997 OTA, no, the battleroom won't work with it, since it is designed specifically for Spring. I've already mentioned above how to use the server software for your own use with Spring, though.

Hope that helps.
SFU2236
Posts: 9
Joined: 25 Sep 2005, 01:52

Post by SFU2236 »

Yeah it helped, but I was hoping for a retartedly easy solution. Kind of a, point-click "hey I'm in" kind of thing.

Seems like an aweful lot of work just to host a game.


By basic total annihilation games... I mean, Total Annihilation itself. The non-spring version, of course. I assumed the client only allowed for spring games.
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Maelstrom
Posts: 1950
Joined: 23 Jul 2005, 14:52

Post by Maelstrom »

Not being able to host is a common problem for people new to the game All you need to do is Forward some Ports for your router. Instructions on how to do this are on this site.

http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm

Work out which router you have, and click on it. Then click 'Port Forwarding for the *INSERT ROUTER NAME HERE*'. From that page, select the 'Default Guide' hyperlink, as Spring does not have a guide yet. Follow the instructions on this page, forwarding the port 8452, with UDP selected instead of TCP. These instructions might seem complicated, but they are really quite simple once you try. I was able to do mine in about 5 minutes. This only needs to be done once, and from then on you should have no problems hosting.

On another note, how do other games do it? How do they bypass port forwarding?
Gnomre
Imperial Winter Developer
Posts: 1754
Joined: 06 Feb 2005, 13:42

Post by Gnomre »

Every game I have ever played has required ports for hosting. HL servers, UT servers, everything... some games, though, such as the UT series and Spring don't require ports opened to join games, so long as the host has his stuff set up properly. I'm guessing it just has to do with the quality of the thought put into the netcode and the procedures taken when implementing it, but I'm by no means an expert in that field.
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Maelstrom
Posts: 1950
Joined: 23 Jul 2005, 14:52

Post by Maelstrom »

THAT would explain why noone joined my UT servers...

Ah well as long as it is the same for every game out there, then i guess its fine. What would be good is if there was a couple of dedicated servers that people could join, stop them having to forward ports as their not hosting. Im not sure how a dedicated server would work for an RTS, but its worth a shot.
SFU2236
Posts: 9
Joined: 25 Sep 2005, 01:52

Post by SFU2236 »

Wow. It shouldn't be nearly so complicated to host a game, and I've never had to do such things with any other game, included the listes ones.

Anyways, I cannot do what that site wants me to do in order to host. Too many computers on my network, and so few of them belong to me, I'm not about to waste six or seven hours just to get a few practice rounds in with a friend.

I'll wait for supreme commander.
Gnomre
Imperial Winter Developer
Posts: 1754
Joined: 06 Feb 2005, 13:42

Post by Gnomre »

Even on a network of many, you can't afford one port???
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Kuroneko
Posts: 483
Joined: 03 Jan 2005, 05:32

Post by Kuroneko »

Gnome wrote:Even on a network of many, you can't afford one port???
With all due respect, I don't think SFU2236 knows what he's talking about. A lot of games require ports to be open to host, thats nothing new to the gaming world. Clients rarely if ever require ports to be open, Spring does require any open on the client side either. I know for a fact that Half-life and the entire UT series all require ports to be opened in order to host a game, as I've been playing them for years now. Perhaps you should consult your network administrator. Unless you're on a campus network, then you're prolly just screwed. The campus network would explain the 'too many computers'.

-e-

Almost forgot, the original TA also required ports to be open, and more than likely so will Supreme Commander.
mongus
Posts: 1463
Joined: 15 Apr 2005, 18:52

Post by mongus »

several "ill wait for supc" kids in the forum hisotry.

like that game will ever be released!

:lol:

its just funny see them, they have such a "commercial" mind. :?
SFU2236
Posts: 9
Joined: 25 Sep 2005, 01:52

Post by SFU2236 »

I've hosted plenty of games without ever having to go through 6 computers at 11PM and spend half an hour on each of them.

That's what the link wanted me to do.


Now if there was just a quick, easy to do link or process, that would be nice, aside from doing a long, complicated, stressfull tast.
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Maelstrom
Posts: 1950
Joined: 23 Jul 2005, 14:52

Post by Maelstrom »

6 computers? Why does it need to go through 6 computers? All I needed to do wass log into my router and add a port with the handy add button...

What complicated setup do you have that requires forwarding through 6 different computers?
SFU2236
Posts: 9
Joined: 25 Sep 2005, 01:52

Post by SFU2236 »

Erm... I won't be able to reconnect to the network if I do this.

Anyways, I got a friend to do it so it's ok for now. I still want to do it on my computer, but I can't set anything with a static IP.
BadMan
Posts: 146
Joined: 07 Oct 2005, 03:05

Post by BadMan »

Static ip means it doesn't change. Thats good if you want to set something in stone. Also, all you need to do is have just the one port open on just your computer. Knowing the ip of your computer makes it even easier.

Its just:

Open port 8452
on computer xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Thats all there is to do. Repeat for 8200 if you wish to host a game.
Liam
Posts: 93
Joined: 02 Nov 2004, 22:43

Post by Liam »

i'm going to go ahead and guess that the site suggests setting all computers on your network to have a static internal ip (something which takes around 30 seconds per computer to set up, i might add) so that when you forward ports on your computer, it will always go to you, instead of one of the other computers having your ip due to dhcp. what exactly do you expect the SYs to do about this? the only thing they could do is implement UPnP to automatically forward ports, which your router would have to support and have enabled, and i doubt any of the games listed that you claim to have never have done this with have that functionality. so either you haven't been hosting games, or this is before you had a router.
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