A Potential Evolution for EB Online

[vartan]

Good day players,

Could you package a VPN (Hamachi), VoIP (Mumble; Ventrillo; TeamSpeak), chat rooms, game tracking and more all into one piece of software? Well, as the player LazyO brought to my attention at the Guild forum, one developer has done precisely that with a software called Evolve. Even if it did not do any of the voice/text-chatting and tracking that it claims to do (alongside a slick overlay), there is no mention of a limit on their VPN capability (and that, for us Hamachi users, is something that could be very, very enticing). As such, I would like anyone who is willing to help try this software out to do so by downloading it, creating a nickname (cannot be changed!) for him or herself, and joining a group and a party that I've created for us (both called "EB Online" without quotes; groups and parties are the equivalent of chat rooms and networks for those of us more familiar with Hamachi). Let me know how this goes and if we have no problems with it (make sure you turn Hamachi off if you are testing this out), then we might have found ourselves a new platform!

Best of luck and thanks in advance.

Vartan

Related links:
Evolve

UPDATE:

Turns out all you need to do is join the group called EB Online. Instead of one permanent party like we have in the form of a Hamachi network currently, players will create a temporary party per battle and invite the players who will partake in that battle. As such, unlike in Hamachi, each party represents the players and only the players needed for each battle. Keep the EB Online group chat tab open as that is where you will meet and arrange battles (just like you all do in Hamachi network chat).

NB: If and when you Vista/Win7 users get a network security pop-up every time you connect to a party, please choose Public option for max security. Home/Work isn't "unsafe", it just means other Home/Work set-up users can see any shared files/folders you may have.

[TheShakAttack]

Signed up. My username is Shak.

[TheShakAttack]

Just an update:

Kiv and I tried a "test battle" on evolve. It works fine and in fact, seemed to run a bit smoother than hamachi.

There are 2 things I would note:

1) You need to make sure your adapter settings are correct: for Kiv and I it worked when we put the "evolve" network below the wireless, local network and hamachi.

2) Messages you type up in "groups" and "parties" are viewable to people when the join, even if they were typed up before you joined.

Overall it seems nice and slick, and without having to "join" everytime you log in, less hassle.

[vartan]

I have been in direct contact with Kival and Shak during their testing on Evolve itself and am glad to say that we are having success. I recommend more of you come on and try as well. Make sure you join the EB Online group as that's where you'll meet any of us that happen to be online. I linked to it in the original post. Let us know if you also have success and I will likely replace Hamachi with this new platform.

[Lazy O]

Just to be on the safe side I think we should still stick with hamachi until we test this out fully, yes this means 2v2 and 3v3.

[TheShakAttack]

Thus far, everything is working great. We still have not tested 2v2 or 3v3 yet though.

Full recommendation.

[vartan]

Just to be on the safe side I think we should still stick with hamachi until we test this out fully, yes this means 2v2 and 3v3.

I agree.

Also, I forgot to mention something. The first time you join a party you will come across a pop-up. Make sure you click on "Install" to allow the software to install the Evolve network adapter. Then, before you start your first battle, make sure you fix the network adapter priority. By default, Evolve network adapter is first on the priority list. Place it anywhere below (preferably immediately below) both local and, if applicable, your wireless wifi network adapters. If you don't do this, you won't see the other players in the lobby.

[dreijer]

Hey guys,

Sorry for jumping directly into your thread here. I'm one of the developers behind Evolve and we noticed you guys were trying us out, so I just wanted to let you know that we'd love to hear any feedback you might have while trying out the party system (and Evolve in general). We're very interested in improving Evolve so it "just works" for as many people as possible.

With that said, I'm a little unclear on two things I've seen in posts above:

1) Why do you need to move the virtual network adapter around on the Windows priority list? That was a thing Hamachi often required, but I'm not sure why you need to with Evolve since we make sure to hijack broadcast traffic properly? If this really is a problem, I'd love to figure out why so we can fix it.

2) "NB: If and when you Vista/Win7 users get a network security pop-up every time you connect to a party, please choose Public option for max security. Home/Work isn't "unsafe", it just means other Home/Work set-up users can see any shared files/folders you may have.". I'd highly recommend selecting Work rather than Public since the Windows Firewall might block broadcast traffic (or other things) that your game needs. Evolve has a built-in firewall that should protect you against most common "dangerous" ports.

Again, I hope you don't mind me jumping in here. :)

Happy gaming!

[Lazy O]

So far we tested with 3 players no lag.

[Kival]

1) Why do you need to move the virtual network adapter around on the Windows priority list? That was a thing Hamachi often required, but I'm not sure why you need to with Evolve since we make sure to hijack broadcast traffic properly? If this really is a problem, I'd love to figure out why so we can fix it.

I've no idea why, but it worked only ofter we've done that.

2) "NB: If and when you Vista/Win7 users get a network security pop-up every time you connect to a party, please choose Public option for max security. Home/Work isn't "unsafe", it just means other Home/Work set-up users can see any shared files/folders you may have.". I'd highly recommend selecting Work rather than Public since the Windows Firewall might block broadcast traffic (or other things) that your game needs. Evolve has a built-in firewall that should protect you against most common "dangerous" ports.

The evolve firewall does only help against outside attackers, it does not prevent other members of a "party" to have a look at your shared files/folders If I understand correctly. You can prevent that also in other ways but if public works I'd rather use it.

[vartan]

Hey guys,

Sorry for jumping directly into your thread here. I'm one of the developers behind Evolve and we noticed you guys were trying us out, so I just wanted to let you know that we'd love to hear any feedback you might have while trying out the party system (and Evolve in general). We're very interested in improving Evolve so it "just works" for as many people as possible.

With that said, I'm a little unclear on two things I've seen in posts above:

1) Why do you need to move the virtual network adapter around on the Windows priority list? That was a thing Hamachi often required, but I'm not sure why you need to with Evolve since we make sure to hijack broadcast traffic properly? If this really is a problem, I'd love to figure out why so we can fix it.

2) "NB: If and when you Vista/Win7 users get a network security pop-up every time you connect to a party, please choose Public option for max security. Home/Work isn't "unsafe", it just means other Home/Work set-up users can see any shared files/folders you may have.". I'd highly recommend selecting Work rather than Public since the Windows Firewall might block broadcast traffic (or other things) that your game needs. Evolve has a built-in firewall that should protect you against most common "dangerous" ports.

Again, I hope you don't mind me jumping in here. :)

Happy gaming!

1) Our game requires that the VPN network adapter be prioritized after the network adapter with which the user is connected to the Internet. Therefore, to be safe universally, I have all my players make certain the VPN we use is placed after both the LAN adapter as well as the WiFi adapter (if applicable). The latest version of Hamachi thankfully does this by default and so we do not have the issue of reprioritizing today. Unfortunately (for our particular game), Evolve by default gets top priority. As such, testing confirmed that indeed we cannot make multiplayer gameplay with that default setting. After reprioritizing we were able to play as usual. For the record, this is an issue with Rome: Total War.

2) The issue is not with outsiders, but from within the community itself. I recommend our players require a password for networked computer access as well as to turn off public folder and file sharing. This does not hinder our gameplay as we have been doing this for a while now. This is only so that we make certain the only way players are using our system is for the game and not for sneaking into other people's shared folders and files.

Thank you for your concern and I hope our feedback is of some help to you developers. And thank you for the wonderful software. Now I don't have to worry about writing a custom VPN for this community.

[Lazy O]

OMG THIS THING HAS VOICE I WAS HEARING LMT PLAYING GUITAR WITHOUT EVEN REALIZING IT


Epic historical battles here we come.

[Arjos]

Joined ^^

Just to be on the safe side I think we should still stick with hamachi until we test this out fully, yes this means 2v2 and 3v3.

Just one way to sort it out: evolve people! :P

[The Celtic Viking]

Joined.

[antisocialmunky]

OMG THIS THING HAS VOICE I WAS HEARING LMT PLAYING GUITAR WITHOUT EVEN REALIZING IT

Epic historical battles here we come.

Ban storm, I don't want to hear him fapping.

[dreijer]

1) Our game requires that the VPN network adapter be prioritized after the network adapter with which the user is connected to the Internet. Therefore, to be safe universally, I have all my players make certain the VPN we use is placed after both the LAN adapter as well as the WiFi adapter (if applicable). The latest version of Hamachi thankfully does this by default and so we do not have the issue of reprioritizing today. Unfortunately (for our particular game), Evolve by default gets top priority. As such, testing confirmed that indeed we cannot make multiplayer gameplay with that default setting. After reprioritizing we were able to play as usual. For the record, this is an issue with Rome: Total War.

I'm very curious to find out why that's the case. Hamachi had broken broadcast traffic support, but Evolve doesn't. Do you know if there's a demo of Rome: Total War I can get my hands on to try this out?

2) The issue is not with outsiders, but from within the community itself. I recommend our players require a password for networked computer access as well as to turn off public folder and file sharing. This does not hinder our gameplay as we have been doing this for a while now. This is only so that we make certain the only way players are using our system is for the game and not for sneaking into other people's shared folders and files.

Correct, which is also why we also added the party firewall to prevent the most common protocols in case you're playing with complete strangers that you don't trust.

[-Stormrage-]

You mentioned the guy who told you about the discovery but not the discoverer ?

Hellhound1 Add his name somewhere in there

[Arjos]

So far with more than 1v1s, some weird partial connection appear :S

And with the same people nonetheless, a minute you can play and then it's all "connecting"...

[Ludens]

I'm very curious to find out why that's the case. Hamachi had broken broadcast traffic support, but Evolve doesn't. Do you know if there's a demo of Rome: Total War I can get my hands on to try this out?

The demo has been removed from the official site, but you can still find it on FilePlanet. However, IIRC it did not allow for MP battles, so I am not sure how much use it is.

[-Stormrage-]

Ban storm, I don't want to hear him fapping.

lol, good one, clever jokes are always appreciated.

[antisocialmunky]

The demo has been removed from the official site, but you can still find it on FilePlanet. However, IIRC it did not allow for MP battles, so I am not sure how much use it is.

It bounced through other players IIRC, which was okay unless bounced through someone outside the western world at which point it just became just as bad.

[dreijer]

Alright, I got my hands on a retail copy of the game and I figured out why you need to move the adapters around. Some games bind themselves to only a single network adapter when they start up, so when you have multiple adapters installed (like Evolve, Hamachi, VMware, etc.) then the game just picks whatever adapter the OS decides is the default.

Fortunately, Evolve knows how to fix this automatically, but it needs to be told to apply the fix (since we don't want to just blindly apply it to all games). I've updated the Evolve games database with support for Rome: Total war, which means you shouldn't have to change the adapter priorities anymore. Evolve will now also track the time you spend playing the game (and list it on your profile) as well as let you use the in-game overlay while you play. The updated games database should sync within 4 hours, but you can force it by restarting the Evolve Service in Windows (Start -> Run and type "services.msc" then hit OK and find Evolve Service in the list).

So far with more than 1v1s, some weird partial connection appear :S

And with the same people nonetheless, a minute you can play and then it's all "connecting"...

If you're up for it, can you invite me to the party so I can take a closer look? You can find me in the #evolve group chat.

[vartan]

Alright, I got my hands on a retail copy of the game and I figured out why you need to move the adapters around. Some games bind themselves to only a single network adapter when they start up, so when you have multiple adapters installed (like Evolve, Hamachi, VMware, etc.) then the game just picks whatever adapter the OS decides is the default.

Fortunately, Evolve knows how to fix this automatically, but it needs to be told to apply the fix (since we don't want to just blindly apply it to all games). I've updated the Evolve games database with support for Rome: Total war, which means you shouldn't have to change the adapter priorities anymore. Evolve will now also track the time you spend playing the game (and list it on your profile) as well as let you use the in-game overlay while you play. The updated games database should sync within 4 hours, but you can force it by restarting the Evolve Service in Windows (Start -> Run and type "services.msc" then hit OK and find Evolve Service in the list).



If you're up for it, can you invite me to the party so I can take a closer look? You can find me in the #evolve group chat.

Thank you. I should have told you about the way RTW binds itself to the adapters, but y'all figured that one out. I'm glad to hear it. We meet at the group chat under the group name 'EB Online' (w/o the quotes) so if you may, please try the party system with over 2 players. Battles larger than 1v1 are, to put it lightly, crucial :)

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

I joined but how do I join the group?

[lmt96]

I joined but how do I join the group?

https://www.evolvehq.com/groups/502-eb-online go to this page then click Join the group (iirc)

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

Nvm, I figured it out. Thanks LMT.

[(HG)Iliturgitano]

joined and added to friends list, my nick is "Iliturgitano", but you can call me just Ilitur

[antisocialmunky]

gitano sounds better.

[Vega]

One noob question how to create a party for eb? I figured out how its working :D im just curious nothing else

[vartan]

One noob question how to create a party for eb? I figured out how its working :D im just curious nothing else

Parties are temporary and are made as necessary, and dissolved automatically after use. I believe a simple right click will show you the way when it comes to making a party and inviting people.