Introversion

Good afternoon.
Is it possible to use the dedcon on a local network, without access to
metaserver?

I'm afraid not really. Without contact to the metaserver, the server itself will run (with DEMO mode restrictions, IIRC), but it's not possible to authenticate the clients, so they may be treated as demos as well. Or not work at all. Umm. I suppose I should check how the clients behave and how regular hosting would work in such a situation and duplicate that.

Yes, the server tries to get a response from metaserver, after a timeout goes into a demo mode. This request is not critical, all the same original game allows you to play, as in any way is not the first day of play at work during the lunch break:)
Just wondering what use dedcon, this arrangement in one place, and keeps statistics.

bert_the_turtle wrote:I'm afraid not really. Without contact to the metaserver, the server itself will run (with DEMO mode restrictions, IIRC), but it's not possible to authenticate the clients, so they may be treated as demos as well. Or not work at all. Umm. I suppose I should check how the clients behave and how regular hosting would work in such a situation and duplicate that.

Bert: I am honestly curious about this. Several years ago, I recall that Defcon had an "Unknown" authentication status for when it could not connect to the metaserver. This status was equivalent to "Authenticated," only without metaserver access. In that status, shouldn't LAN games work the same? Or have there been changes to how authentication is handled in the last several years?

xander

Yeah, I remember now why I made that decision. The regular game client has two checks on the authentication key: one local, one with the metaserver. Dedcon can't have the local check, it's secret; that only leaves the metaserver check. Without the metaserver, the server won't be able to verify its own key. It can still tell if two clients are using the same key, though, and the clients do their local check; even if the server key is invalid, it's still guaranteed that there is one valid key per player. So I suppose that by now (whoever wanted to pirate this game has found his way or given up), that extra bit of zeal can be dropped.

Quick question that Google/forum search didn't answer; is there a way to change the AdvertiseOnInternet to 1 (from 0) for watching recordings in such a way that it stays '1'? Right now, every time I watch a recording on my desktop, I have to manually try to change it.

Well, yeah, but it's a bit complicated. You can use the "-c" command line option that lets you execute commands. So instead of

you execute

Typing that out doesn't help, of course. On Unix, you'd write a small wrapper script for that. But since you're on Windows and starting recordings with a doubleclick, presumably, you need to dig into regedit, search for "dedcon.exe -l", and append the -c stuff there. Sorry, I forgot which registry key it is. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dedcon.Recording\\shell\open\command if I read the installer script correctly.

Thanks! I'll have to try that.

Also, it may be that 1.6 causes Dedcon recordings to display 'Connection Problems' when the game is over. I was on 1.43 and didn't have this problem when others did, then recently updated to 1.6 and started having this issue. Now you can't read any chat after the game. Could just be coincidence though.

In addition to the problem Ace described, I have a problem with connecting to dedicated servers. Usually I only succeed at 3rd try:
1) It seems like I connect successfully but right when I see myself inside the server, I get "You have left the game" message;
2) At second attempt, it just doesn't connect, "Attempts: ..." increases on and on;
3) 3rd attempt to connect is usually successful.

It's pretty disturbing, especially on passworded servers, where I have to enter password 3 times

Could it be the version numbers? 1.43 Dedcon vs 1.6 Defcon. ?

That's a possibility. You can test it, the version number the servers report is configurable.

(Terribly busy myself right now, sorry that I can't give it and other issues the attention they deserve. And using this as a reminder to self: territories are sometimes logged wrong.)

Buggy game, might be dedcon config, but don't recall seeing this before:

http://sfcon.demoszenen.de/dcrec/2011-0 ... _17.17.zip

I think this is the order:

(MOR) vs FF

1. (MOR) has it set to 'ready'
2. Sever kicks FF for not being 'ready' (refusing to ready)
3a. Game immediately starts
3b. Mrmot joins
4. Only (MOR) has territory and can place units
5. Victory timer didn't start at 20% (I think it started at 0%)

[EDIT]
Well, apparently, I derp'd. Big time.

Apparently, you need to run Dedcon as Admin in Windows 7, and I assume the same for Windows Vista.
Okay, nothing to see here, move along.
[/EDIT]

Hey, I am having issues setting up a Steam version of Defcon as admin on a Dedcon server.

I have tried setting the "key ID" to "OWNER" (minus quotes), but the server keeps renaming me from "alf666" to "fake alf666", no matter what I try.
I suspect this is because I am using the Steam Defcon key as the Dedcon server key, and then trying to join the game while using the same key.
Also, would running the Dedcon server on the same machine as the Defcon client be an issue? Oh, and I'm using Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

Here is my authkey.txt file, and my ConfigFile1.txt file:

authkey.txt:


ConfigFile1.txt:

I managed to get rus|Mike's problem accidentally reproduced locally when setting breakpoints in the debugger. Must be related to lag and the client sending multiple login packets. Hopefully, I'll be able to investigate.

Meanwhile, new beta build, 1.6.0_svn1034. Changes since 1.6.0:


The territory change thing was a really funny one. I had cities in SA once, but NA's territory to place my units in. The score ignoring fixes the fake game end that was reported here, the command ignoring fixes the incompetent hacks reported lately. The purpose of ConnectionTimeout is that you can set it to something comfortably high while playing back a recording with a bug so the debug client you connect can hit breakpoints and you have time to step through and investigate. The rest are regular bugfixes.

We seem to have a nasty fellow going around. Players: report strange events to the server owners. Server owners: send all the logs of those events to me. Also, please update to the version from one post up. Yeah, I know it's not marked as stable, but 1.6.0 has the issue that important information is not included in the recordings.
I'll make a quick build that combats the cheap login spam, should be ready within 24 hours.