Introversion

I have a few question regarding multiplayer, would appreciate it if someone could give us a hand:

1. When hosting a match, how do you give your server a name?

2. On the Steam version can you invite a friend to join your game/ lobby (so far my friend and I have been unsuccessful in trying; we both have Steam)

3. Is there a LAN option? I haven't had the need for LAN so far, but I can't see an option to host/ join a LAN game.

Also, because we couldn't join each other's game, my friend and I tried hosting a game and then the other looking for it, however we couldn't find it (with no filters, all filters, each filter tried separately, and also tried switching who was hosting the game) - can anyone explain why this is?

Cheers

ZeroAlarm wrote:1. When hosting a match, how do you give your server a name?

Usually, the server name will be identical to your player name. You can set a different name only in preferences.txt (to be found in <steam dir>/SteamApps/common/multiwinia), add a line

ZeroAlarm wrote:2. On the Steam version can you invite a friend to join your game/ lobby (so far my friend and I have been unsuccessful in trying; we both have Steam)

No, not directly in the game. You need to improvise, like set up a password protected game and tell your friend the password via IM.

ZeroAlarm wrote:3. Is there a LAN option? I haven't had the need for LAN so far, but I can't see an option to host/ join a LAN game.

It's not an option, but LAN games are shown on the main server list in blue. They appear at the bottom of the non-started servers, you may have to scroll down.

ZeroAlarm wrote:Also, because we couldn't join each other's game, my friend and I tried hosting a game and then the other looking for it, however we couldn't find it (with no filters, all filters, each filter tried separately, and also tried switching who was hosting the game) - can anyone explain why this is?

No, I'm afraid not. Given enough patience (a minute or two), every game should get visible on the server browser, unless you did something fishy with your authentication keys (like share them). The problems usually only start when you actually try to join a game.

ZeroAlarm wrote:1. When hosting a match, how do you give your server a name?

The server will be named with your name. You can also monkey about with the preferences file to give a server a name.

ZeroAlarm wrote:2. On the Steam version can you invite a friend to join your game/ lobby (so far my friend and I have been unsuccessful in trying; we both have Steam)

As far as I know, the Steam version is identical to the non-Steam version (with the exception of achievements). You cannot invite people in the retail version, so I would suppose that it is not possible in the Steam version, either.

ZeroAlarm wrote:3. Is there a LAN option? I haven't had the need for LAN so far, but I can't see an option to host/ join a LAN game.

My understanding is that Multiwinia advertises itself on the LAN as well as on the internet. There is no particular setting for a LAN -- it should be automatic.

ZeroAlarm wrote:Also, because we couldn't join each other's game, my friend and I tried hosting a game and then the other looking for it, however we couldn't find it (with no filters, all filters, each filter tried separately, and also tried switching who was hosting the game) - can anyone explain why this is?

Could be a firewall. Could be that the host needs to enable port forwarding. Could be a lot of things. Hard to say without more information. Do you have a debug log (should be in the Multiwinia directory)?

xander

Cheers for that info guys.

No, we haven't done anything fishy (how dare you suggest such a thing! :p), infact I gifted him MW as an xmas present so we could play online, but so far we haven't had much luck! He's at university, which is quite strict when it comes to what ports are allowed to be open, so I guess it could be that. What is port forwarding btw? I'll get him to copy me his debug log when we try again later.

Port forwarding is telling your router that data packets of certain types coming from the Internet should be sent to one of your PCs. Usually, unidentified packets that don't belong to an already established connection are just discarded; port forwarding is usually the only way to make it possible to run servers on machines connected to routers. In Multiwinia, however, you usually don't need it; leave the setting in Multiwinia itself disabled.

If you want to give port forwarding a try, you need to tell your router to send all UDP packets for port 4000 and 4001 to your PC. Then you can (and should) enable the port forwarding option in MW itself. This is only useful if you're hosting. It won't do anything if you connect to other games.