Multiplayer Campaign in the works!

[Zalmoxis]

Hey, I have an idea, why not have Iluvatar make one map for every perceivable terain, to use for MP.

[Rodion Romanovich]

I don't know exactly how the thing you suggested will work, but a safe method that can be combined with any other mods and doesn't involve affecting your R:TW installation is the method I suggested over here yesterday: http://www.forumplanet.com/strategyp...22&tid=1619501

Apparently the people in that forum aren't interested, so if there's any interest in this forum I'll post a topic for that and I'll set up an mp game. I'll write a small C++ program that stores all campaign data in a txt-file and whenever someone makes a decision I type in those moves in the program and it'll do all the calculations and determine things like rebels, how much income the turn gives etc. etc. This system is IMO better than modding R:TW because it can allow you to form a campaign better adapted for multiplayer. For example it can be shorter - consist of maybe 10 battles per player on average instead of 150 like in R:TW singleplayer. I can also make changes so that there are fewer rebel/brigand armies than in singleplayer but when there is a rebellion it'll be larger in number of soldiers (but still mostly consist of crappy troops though).

[Wishazu]

sounds cool, mate but i like the idea of playing a complete campaign with my clanmates. however im sure you`ll get some interest here, post a seperate thread for your idea mate :)

[[seminoles]shadow]

wow a multyplayer campain!!!!!! Thats awsome guys!!!But after u ended ure turn wouldn't u have to wait a whole lot of time for the others to go??

[Zalmoxis]

I don't know exactly how the thing you suggested will work, but a safe method that can be combined with any other mods and doesn't involve affecting your R:TW installation is the method I suggested over here yesterday: http://www.forumplanet.com/strategyp...22&tid=1619501

Apparently the people in that forum aren't interested, so if there's any interest in this forum I'll post a topic for that and I'll set up an mp game. I'll write a small C++ program that stores all campaign data in a txt-file and whenever someone makes a decision I type in those moves in the program and it'll do all the calculations and determine things like rebels, how much income the turn gives etc. etc. This system is IMO better than modding R:TW because it can allow you to form a campaign better adapted for multiplayer. For example it can be shorter - consist of maybe 10 battles per player on average instead of 150 like in R:TW singleplayer. I can also make changes so that there are fewer rebel/brigand armies than in singleplayer but when there is a rebellion it'll be larger in number of soldiers (but still mostly consist of crappy troops though).

Ok, have you started on it yet? Also, how will battles be fought?(I would hate to have to open multiplayer and then disband soldiers every time I fight)

[AquaLurker]

When a battle is to be fought you minimise the battle window on campaign map, save the game and load up multiplayer to play the battle vs your opponent. then fight the battle use the logfile calculator to work out what units were lost, then load up campaign and disband the units lost in the online battle.

Sorry but don't mind if I ask this of you, wouldn't the player lose all his campaign bonus if the battles are fought this way?

Just a thought and great work.

[Swoosh So]

What campaign bonus are you referring to?

[Swoosh So]

Legio xxxx are you any good at coding?

[Rodion Romanovich]

Ok, have you started on it yet? Also, how will battles be fought?(I would hate to have to open multiplayer and then disband soldiers every time I fight)

My system would just be that the game leader uses the .exe file I make. Those who take part in the game make their decisions and then the game leader types in those decisions and the .exe does all the calculations (which would be tedious to do by hand) and then tells what happened and which battles have to be fought. The players who are to fight a battle must then appoint some time when they will fight the battle as usual in multiplayer, then they both send in the results. I assume all players who take part in it will be serious and not send in stats that are wrong.

An alternative way of doing this could be by makes a website with ASP or PHP or something where people will type in what decisions they want to make during a turn then the server calculates everything. If so, no game leader would be necessary. But it unfortunately also requires some place to host the website, which I haven't got. Perhaps the C++ program will be the best idea but I'm open to suggestions.

I haven't started it yet so I'm still thinking about the best way of solving everything. At least I can guarantee it is possible to do this as the coding part is pretty easy. All that needs to be done is that rules etc. will have to be specified more in detail - something that I can do either alone or together with those that are interested in taking part in the campaign.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Legio xxxx are you any good at coding?

I know C/C++ etc. and can write standalone programs and usually produce bugfree, fast running code quickly. I'm however not good at modding ready programs, I've only just started learning stuff about dynamical linking and ways of making programs patchable/modable so I'm a newb at that.

[AquaLurker]

What campaign bonus are you referring to?

Command Bonus(or penalties) you get from the generals and all the silver chervons. And if then general won the battle, he will not gain new traits for winning the battle. But I guess that can't be help.

[Swoosh So]

Yes aqua some things u must sacrafice in order to have a mp campaign, to make it simple we were going to use a system where troops get 1 valaour per 2 general stars to a max of 3 valour on a unit, this would at least take into account the good attacker good defender bonuses as these show before battle. Amp thought of a system wehre you could record a generals wins losses bt for me its too much admin for the players as i dont want any admin at all in the mp campaign.

Anyhow ive hit a major snag scripts dont work to take turns so unless i can get a coder to acitvate 4-5 commands in the rome console this project is doomed, if i cant get that done were looking at playing campaign in version 1.0 and battles in 1.2 which i wont release but if iit comes to that and people want to know how to do it ill tell them how...

So what i need is someone who can modify the 1.2 exe and flag these 4-5 commands active, anyone here know how to do it? ive tried everyone i know and none of them can do it.

[Wishazu]

cant you ask Creative Assembly?

[Cealin]

That's shitty Swoosh..

I really thought it was going to work out, but now it seems fiction.. :(

[Swoosh So]

wellthe situation changes day by day apparently now scripting can run every turn but i wait on myradrall to make one, and hes busy with his own mods.

[Swoosh So]

Im not the programmer kind even this scripting is probably beyond me but i will get this done one way or the other.

[Myrddraal]

Sorry about this guys, I have been busy :embarrassed:

Swoosh, could you send me the script I sent you, I think I've lost it and I want to try correcting it....

[Cealin]

Light has fallen upon the world!

[Swoosh So]

Ok script sent check ur pm box.

[Myrddraal]

Thx Swoosh, I'll try to get it to work

[Swoosh So]

And thank you for taking hte time without your help id be stuck :)

[Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe]

dont wanna sound stupid or anything but once this is complete will anyone wanna join a game with me so i can learn how to do these battles properly :) also how does map selection work for the battles.

Why not just editing the custom_location.txt and fight in the place as it is on the campaign map?

That's a 2 minutes mod process...

Louis,

[Swoosh So]

If you tel me how to do it ill be more than happy to add it.

[Nigel]

Check out this thread, Swoosh. All the info you need should be in there.

[freakofnature]

I googled Multiplayer Campaign and came accross this post, as well as rumors that the developers will or will not make multiplayer (depending on what you read).
I am fairly new to RTW, but not to the TW series. I am interested in what you are doing, and I might be willing to help out when I can. I am a software engineer, but I have never worked on games besides a little bit on Half Life and simple Java games like chess, checkers, etc.

If you are interested in some help, let me know, I'll see what time I can pull together to get some tasks done.

[Myrddraal]

Hi freakofnature, welcome to the forums.

At the moment, our work on the mutiplayer campaign is just starting to pick up. You might want to read the thread in the forge about the 'hot - seat' beta.

Basically the way it works is it uses an in game script to switch control between two or more players. At the moment, at the end of your turn you save and email it to the next player, who plays his turn using the script, who then emails it and so on...

But if you're a software engineer, then you might be able to help us elimiate this stage. If there was a program which ran in the background and checked for a file of a certain filename (the save game), detected it, automatically sent it and deleted it, and played a sound when the files arrived, this would cut out having to minimise the game etc.

This is really a long shot, and I have no idea if its possible, but can a program simulate mouse clicks on the screen? If it can, then a program in the background could run the script which would cut out that section too, which would completely automate the game....

I don't know if thats possible though, and you may not want to put so much work into it, but anything at all would be very welcome..

[freakofnature]

Most of the stuff you have described I could do in my sleep with java. I would avoid using emails though, since you rely on an email server to deliver the email in a timely manner. For 2 players, you could directly connect to each other and transfer the files directly between each other. You just have to worry about firewalls and routers, things like that. For more than 2, you would need a completely different approach. You could have one person host and everyone connect to that person, and act as a server to pass files between all of the other players. This could also be done with some sort of stand alone server. Another option would be to use some third party server to communicate between each player, like IRC or something.
That stuff I could get something simple running in an hour or so. Performing mouse clicks, or using Keyboard shortcuts to save and load, would more than likely require C++, which would take me slightly longer than doing it in Java. I have used a program called WinBatch which is more of a scripting program that will allow you to click on things with a script, but I don't think it is free.
In the long run, you would probably want to hack their exe's and dll's and alter the code to do everything automatically for you. That would take a lot of work. If you could find enough engineers and programmers willing to work on it, you probably could get a smooth system working well.
Another suggestion, you might want to look into some sort of source control so people working on this don't have to constantly be asking for the lastest changes other people have made. www.sourceforge.net is a nice place to set up a project like this. It comes with free source control, web space, and download servers (needed if this became very popular).

[Swoosh So]

Freakofnature could you contact me on msn? susiebrydon03@hotmail.com

[Myrddraal]

awsome, and swoosh or FON, you can contact me on msn at mad_toad@hotmail.com.

[Zalmoxis]

So, is it to be released anytime soon?