Multiplayer?

[maximax]

I just got started on LA a couple of days ago. Love it. I'm now looking to try out multiplayer. I own that it's 8 on a Sunday am (UK) but the GameSmith lobby's kinda quiet Can any more experienced players gimme some guidance around hooking up for multiplayer games. In fact any comments, observations, info for mp nebies would be appreciated. Ta

[Redpossum]

I just got started on LA a couple of days ago. Love it. I'm now looking to try out multiplayer. I own that it's 8 on a Sunday am (UK) but the GameSmith lobby's kinda quiet Can any more experienced players gimme some guidance around hooking up for multiplayer games. In fact any comments, observations, info for mp nebies would be appreciated. Ta

Hello, Maxi! And welcome to the lunatic asylum, err, I mean community!

I don't know what Gamesmith is, but most of us, when we play LA MP, use Xfire.

Now, painful truth time. This is a very small community, (although we make up for it with dedication!), and there often are no players online.

Best I can suggest is install Xfire, add your name to the Xfire names thread, then talk to people here and try to setup a rough time to meet on Xfire. The community seems to be roughly 65% european, so the time zones thing shouldn't be too big an obstacle.

Sum1Won is more or less the resident champion here at LA MP, although he has been beaten. I honestly haven't played an MP game since the patch, although I was OK when I was in practice.

Anyhow, don't be discouraged, just be aware that it is a small group, and setting up a game can take some work. OTOH, if you have the patience, you can always just wait in the game lobby to see who comes online. I would bring a book, though

(Warning! Shameless plug ahead)

When you've finished both campaigns in the stock game, you may wish to try my Britannicus campaign, which you can read about and download here.

My mod can also be downloaded from Slitherine as part of their mod pack, but if you go this route, be aware that they didn't include the readme.txt file, so you should check the thread linked above anyhow

[IainMcNeil]

Gamesmith is the Mac multiplayer lobby from Freeverse. Unfortunately you wont be able to play PC vs MAC.

[Redpossum]

AAAARRRGGGHH!

Iain, please say you're joking

How on earth was that allowed to come to pass? Sorry, but this is a very bad thing. I mean, as few of us as there are that play the game MP, and we are split into two non-compatible groups?

Iain, no offense, but that generates some serious vacuum

Does this mean my Britannicus mod is not compatible with the Mac version either?

/me cries

[IainMcNeil]

Unfortuantely it's not really something we can control. Technically the games are compatible, but the problem is the PC lobby is on Gamespy, and the MAC one on Gamesmith. Think of it as 2 separate meeting rooms in different continents. If you were in the same lobby it could be made to work from PC to MAC, but we never even tried as we knew it was not going to be possible.

The Britanicus will probably work. The data is all the same, but we don't know exactly how teh MAC version was implemented, but it would have made their job more difficult if they had changed the system from the one we originally developed.

The problem is that we are not MAC developers and don't even have a MAC to test it out on, so have no control over the MAC development process. Having said that we still feel it is better to get the game on to MAC this way than not at all!

[Redpossum]

Unfortuantely it's not really something we can control. Technically the games are compatible, but the problem is the PC lobby is on Gamespy, and the MAC one on Gamesmith. Think of it as 2 separate meeting rooms in different continents. If you were in the same lobby it could be made to work from PC to MAC, but we never even tried as we knew it was not going to be possible.

The Britanicus will probably work. The data is all the same, but we don't know exactly how teh MAC version was implemented, but it would have made their job more difficult if they had changed the system from the one we originally developed.

The problem is that we are not MAC developers and don't even have a MAC to test it out on, so have no control over the MAC development process. Having said that we still feel it is better to get the game on to MAC this way than not at all!

Understood, Iain, understood. And yes, of course it was better to get it on the mac this way than not at all. After all, SP play is at least 90% of the game, and MP the other 10% at best. Better to have gamed solo, than never to have gamed at all.

Apologies for my perhaps overblown initial response here.

[IainMcNeil]

No problem - we like to see people get animated about our games!