Questions on Multi-player gaming

[MILAMBER]

I see so many of you play multi player with eachother. I am very interested in trying this out, and have a few questions. Any help would be appreciated.

Character generation- Do you keep the same characters and use them over and over? Where I to start out in a game, would I have to start out from scratch, or create a character at a similar level to the ones the people I am playing with have.

Game Progression- Can you pause? When you pause, I am assuming it pauses the game for everyone else too, correct? Does this cause problems?

Saving games- Do you start a new game every night, or are all of you in various stages of the game, and you save and pick up where you left off the next day.

Will everyone hate me because I have a 56K at home and can't do anything about it till next month?

Thank you in advance for the help! Hope to see you out there in a game soon!

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Tremble and despair, for I am power! All here are now judged, and are found wanting.

[Epona]

Hi Milamber, I haven't played multi, so I was just lurking on your thread.

Would you mind shrinking your sig slightly pretty pleeze? It's bigger than the screen width which means you have to scroll back & forth to read all the text in posts which is a bit irritating. Looks cool though, but... big...

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Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

Epona of The Laughing Hyenas and The Ladies Guild.

[Cloudbringer]

Originally posted by MILAMBER: I see so many of you play multi player with eachother. I am very interested in trying this out, and have a few questions. Any help would be appreciated. Character generation- Do you keep the same characters and use them over and over? Where I to start out in a game, would I have to start out from scratch, or create a character at a similar level to the ones the people I am playing with have. Game Progression- Can you pause? When you pause, I am assuming it pauses the game for everyone else too, correct? Does this cause problems? Saving games- Do you start a new game every night, or are all of you in various stages of the game, and you save and pick up where you left off the next day. Will everyone hate me because I have a 56K at home and can't do anything about it till next month? Thank you in advance for the help! Hope to see you out there in a game soon!

Milamber-

1. You can generate a character of your own or import a saved character. More specifically- Open a single game, roll up a character and save it (for export) in the Character Record screen. Or save one from a game you have already. Or when you connect to the host of the game, you have the option to roll up a char. right there. Obviously it is more considerate and time consuming to just import a pre-rolled character.

2. If the host gives permission for pausing then you can pause. In my game we all have all the permissions. YES it causes problems! LOL You need to work with your partners on a system that appeals to you all for dealing with pausing. It takes a lot of getting used to, since all of us pause at will in single games. But admittedly it is the UNpause that can cause most difficulty for partners!

3. The host saves the game just like any BG2 game. (or IWD) The saved game is ONLY on the host's machine.

4. 56k modem...UGH...my problem too. But no, it is workable. Depends on the people you are playing with. My adventuring companions are the most patient people I ever met! You may find your game lagging..ie: cursor moves like it's in glue, or all the video slows down and cursor is stuck. You will get dropped out of the game in some heavy battles when there's a lot going on too. Just re-connect.

There are lots of people looking to hook up for a game..I bet you have no trouble getting one going!!! BEST of luck and ask for help any time!


Cloudy

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Storm-Queen
StormCloud of the Black Knight
Heart Mind Soul Forever

[MILAMBER]

Sorry Epona, I'll get to work on it now, I forget not everyone has bigger monitors.

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Tremble and despair, for I am power! All here are now judged, and are found wanting.

[Lady Avalon]

I wanted to give multi-player a try, but for some reason, could not get it to work. When I connected on M-player, it said I needed to install the update for the game, which I already did. I would like to give this a try also, sounds like fun.

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Seeker of Truth

[Cloudbringer]

Originally posted by Lady Avalon: I wanted to give multi-player a try, but for some reason, could not get it to work. When I connected on M-player, it said I needed to install the update for the game, which I already did. I would like to give this a try also, sounds like fun.

Lady Avalon,

HELLO, first of all! Second...ditch MPlayer and ck your manual for a TCP/IP connection. Direct connection with the host computer. Just line up the people you want to play with and the host gives them the IP for connecting. This is in the manual too. But check all the BG2 threads on multiplay from last month, I posted there and so did Charlie and others.

Also and I cannot stress this enough!:

ALL players must have IDENTICAL versions of the game. That means same PATCHES. So be sure everyone installs right versions BEFORE they try to connect. It is most frustrating for everyone involved if the versions are incompatible because only the ones matching the host can connect.

Cloudy

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Storm-Queen
StormCloud of the Black Knight
Heart Mind Soul Forever

[This message has been edited by Cloudbringer (edited 04-09-2001).]

[Epona]

I'd also like to try multi - although I think it's out of the question at the moment because I work full time and have my finals coming up. But would like to give it a try some weekends later in the year. I have no idea how it works though, I have never played any game online.

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Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

Epona of The Laughing Hyenas and The Ladies Guild.

[MILAMBER]

Epona and Lady Avalon,

If any of you ever want to try let me know, either by post or email, and we can give it a shot. Hey, we can't make fun of eachother if we are all doing it for the first time right?

Epona, once again, sorry about my sig, it should be better now.

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Tremble and despair, for I am power! All here are now judged, and are found wanting.

[Sazerac]

The only way I would ever play multi would be if I knew the people well enough. I have heard far too many horror stories about p-killing to make me ever want to attempt multiplayer in an unknown environment. From reading some of the posts in the W&W forum, I can tell there are a few (not many, but a few!) posters there that fit that (p-killing) profile to a T: aggressive, stat-mongering, and kill-happy.

How do you as multiplayers deal with this threat? Is it really a threat, or is it just so much hype? Not trying to be ignorant here; I'd really like to know, as a solo player for 20 years...is it worth it?

[Charlie]

Hi Milamber.

You can either generate a character or import one from BG1. All players should start at the same level, that's to say all low level at the start not all level 7 or whatever.

Personally I think it's best to start from scratch with your companions. That way you will each learn about your character and your playing partners in a progressive manner rather than diving in at the deep end with a mix of high and low level characters. People have different styles and differing ideas on things so it's nice to learn about and compromise with your team mates early on.

Pausing pauses everyones game at once. You can set the pause options to suit your character, they don't all have to be set the same. My thief auto pauses on detect traps, whilst my partners in crime pause on spell cast. Everybody is set to pause upon enemy sighted. Pausing/unpausing can create problems if you're not careful and can be very frustrating. It doesn't take too long to work things out for the best though and you soon gel into a rhythm. Upon pausing in our game each player will type k (ok) and until three k's are in the talk bar the game doesn't unpause. The exceptions to this are after a spell is cast (the pausers name is listed) that person will often unpause immediately he has selected his/her next action as this pause affects nobody else bar the person listed. The same goes for trap detection, there's no point in awaiting everyones approval to disarm a trap. Any player can pause at any time if in difficulties, this way you can "scream" for assistance or "shout" warnings to others.

You don't start a new game every time no. Our game has been running for some months now and the host machine is the only one capable of saving the game. Game saves work precisely the same as in a single player game, including the autosave and quick save methods.

It's unlikely any one will hate you using a 56K modem although obviously a cable connection is superior. A modem will work adequately and to an acceptable standard. It can cause some slow down and lag during major fights where there is a lot of spells and information flying about but by and large should fare ok. There are various things that can be done to reduce lag etc and we'll happily go through any technical stuff you want to know "as and when" ok. One member of our group (of 3) is using a modem whilst the other two are on cable and we've had no real difficulties in that area save the occasional boot.....but that can also happen with cable and its occurence with both connection types is infrequent.

I would recommend playing multi-player to anyone. Be prepared though, it's a massive game and group play is slower than single play so you want partners who are going to stick with it if your aim is to finish the game as a group.

Feel free to post again and I or someone else will answer any questions you have, I know there are or were a good few people on these boards looking for multi partners so hopefully you should be able to link up with someone fairly soon.

I hope I've answered your questions ok and I'll bet that someone else has answered them long, long before I finished this reply.

Best wishes.

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One love, peace.