Checklist for Multiplayer Fun in the Sky 1.3

[MadJeff]

I've had several people ask me lately about MP in EECH, so I thought it would be prudent to repost SpawnBob's excellent "Guide to MP". This post was originally posted in the SimHQ EECH forum, and I do NOT in any way take credit for this excellent work. :D

 

Checklist for Multiplayer Fun in the Sky 1.3

The Steps to Getting a MP game

 

Stuff to get

 

1.) Get at least 1 other person , Multiplayer is more fun with more than 1 person.

2.) ICQ, Register (www.icq.com)

3.) Voice comm's software (optional)

4.) some ICQ Numbers http://ch-central.frugalsworld.com/main.htm and check out http://www.microteck.com/odfp/ (Official Database for Pilots )

5.) Make sure you have the lastest EECH patch installed.

6.) Flexman's GSS 1.82 (IP Phonebook/CommandLine/IRC Client)

 

The process

 

1.) The Server gives their IP number to everyone wanting to play.

2.) The Server must make sure their Multiplayer Service provider in EECH is TCP/IP and the IP number field is blank.

(Note patching usually reset's this so check , sometimes GSS can reset this as well )

3.) The Client must make sure their service provider in Mulitplayer options is TCP/IP and the IP number is correct.(note GSS util will automatically put the IP into EECH ).

 

IMPORTANT : All Machines should run EECH with the Same Patch Version.

 

4.) The Server runs a Skirmish/Campaign or a saved game.You do not need to run a dedicated server just play off the machine you are serving from.

5.) The Clients should see the game appear in the Campaign/Skirmish list.It will be something like "Spawnbob's Yemen Skirmish No1".

6.) The Client selects the Game and a Players list box will come up to the right , The side of the already join players will be indicated by the colour of their name.

7.) Press OK and the Game will connect. ( It will say connecting (number) the number will go up to anything from 100 to 350 depending on Campaig/Skirmish.

8.) The client selects their side and presses OK then an Engage button will appear press that and your in.

 

If you start a game from within GSS you can host the Game the game in the IRC Client, people can join/unjoin that game.

Once the Host clicks on Engage in the main GSS Screen , EECH will automatically run for all clients who had joined that game. So verify that everyone has the CD in the drive and are ready.

You will still have to choose the Skirmish/Campaign but the IP details will be set up automatically.

 

What is EECH Multiplayer Like

 

Basically Multiplayer runs exactly the same as in Single Player.

The only difference is that other Humans are flying as well in the same Campaign/Skirmish. If they have entered a Flight you will see them on the Map screen as long as they are on your side.

By clicking on a player on the map screen their flight will come up and you can join the flight that way.

There is no need for humans to fly in the same flight.

 

If you press ALT F7 it will cycle through all the Online Players in Flight. If you press ALT F10 with them in external view you can even view their missiles in Flight.

When a person selects a flight it becomes Locked by them , until they press Confirm in the Bottom right hand Corner noone will be able to join that Flight.

 

Online players have the freedom to join any suitable allied flight's , or all join the same one, Helo's permitting. Players can quit an all Human flight and the AI will take over the helicopter, leaving them free to join another flight. This is all seamless it cause no problems and no delays.

To choose what side you fly for , choose in the normal manner by picking either the Comanche or Hokum at the start.

Once a EECH MP game is up on a good connection , it will 95% of the time be up for the duration. I have personally flown for 3hrs and the game ended normally.

 

Your are not restricted to waiting for the other person(s) to be ready for a flight , you can choose one and take off and they can join it 10 minutes into the flight, as long as that flight hasnt finished the mission.

You will also have access to Request Target List's from Human Wingman , so you can fire from concealment.

Any text chat message's either in the Chat window in the Map screen or thru TAB 4 will appear on screen/CHAT messages and in the log. You can via the CHAT window target message to everyone, RED / Blue force or individual pilots.

 

There is no restiction with EEAH/EECH intergration except people without cant fly EEAH Campaigns or Helo's but they can connect to a EECH/EEAH installtion and fly normally. SO one person is in a Comanche and the other in a Apache or Havoc.

 

TIPS

 

#1 Take into consideration if the other person has Apache Havoc installed it someone doesnt try and leave the Comanches/Hokums while you take the Apaches/Havoc if you do have EEAH. Also this applies to the choice of Campaign if someone doesnt have EEAH installed only pick one of the skirmishs or EECH campaigns.

 

#2 if say there are 2 of you in a flight but 4 Helicopters overall what you can do is give the Position Hold command to the AI Controlled Helo at a position just off the main target that is beyond the enemy's weapons range. IF you get shot down you can take over these waiting helicopters and continue the mission, they will have full stores , undamaged etc. Note only the Flight leader can give this command.

Also a Human player should be Flight leader ( not necessary but advised ) they will then have more control over the AI Wingman.

 

#3 If you find as Wingman , with a Human Flight Leader that your autopilot is putting you up in the sky and not following closly with your Flight Leader. Tell the Flight Leader to do a Rejoin Formation command, this will tell your autopilot to bring you down to his height and follow him more closly.

 

#4 Human Players within a Flight can edit the Waypoints, these changes will be reflected to all Human players.

 

#5 Sometimes you get a call "Enemy Helo 1km" ( or something like that ) , but you know there are no such helicopters about . This is indicating your Human WIngman and it can be distracting. This is due to your wingman activating their Air to Air Radar with no filter. So have courtesy to switch filter "Enemy" on your air radar during your preflight checks as to not to confuse or distruct other human players on your side.

" CEP}I{AHT "

 

 

Ok so if you EECH and Internet Access ( which if your reading this you do ) then you have no excuse not to play EECH online.

It's not an exclusive club where we all **** hot pilots ( well im not for starters) and speak in technical jargon ( usually it goes " damm im dead again ", or " theres one of those flying things to the south, nope it's south west, oh damm i dont know it's somewhere near you" ).

 

Dont worry about your connection either , mine is pants and i have managed to get tons of low lag games, even modem to modem. So get ICQ get some numbers when you see them online just say "do u wanna play CH " and usually thats it.

 

 

Some Recent Additions to this post

 

Potential Problems

 

The hardest thing about EECH is getting a good stable game i would say from previous attempts, i am about 75% successful.

But once in one of those Game's you will usually have a perfect game.

Some of the problems are outside our control but you can ensure a greater success.

 

 

Roger Wilco might be the cause for some instabilities in EECH MP , use Battlefield Communicator or Teamsound if avalible

 

Try to keep Flying, Changing Waypoints, Entering 3D World etc to a minium until all clients connect

 

Server should turn down his details settings in EECH to achieve max FPS and Free up some spare CPU power

 

Close all Virus Checkers, Document Index scans, ICQ, Napster, Gozilla/Getright when joining

 

Make sure you have plenty of room on your EECH parition for those screenshots

 

Add /Cig:1 for smoother MP visual of Human Control Helicopters

 

Ensure everyone has the Same EECH patch (1.4.5x) version.

 

Ensure everyone has the same Voice comms software version.

 

Ping your MP buudy(s) , in reality you want about 300ms or less, games are possible above that without a hitch (see Saint19 post which was 500ms ) but as a rule thats the target.

 

Sometimes a connection between 2 players is just bad no matter the hardware , as is the fault of the Gateways inbetween the 2. There is not much you can do about this except maybe choose another ISP or play at another time of the day.

 

Try to ensure your system is troublefree, i.e plenty of HD space , current Video Drivers, large enough swapfile etc.

 

If possible stagger connections to the Server , if more than 2 people. This is where voice comms is a must . The server can tell everyone when someone has join and tell the next in line to connect.

 

If you had a previous MP EECH game where the EECH server quit before you as client , reset your machine. The server should always be last to quit to avoid this problem.

 

The most common message you will get is "SESSION : Client Cannot Enumurate ** " this might be reduced if the server doesnt strain their system till the clients are in. So stay in the MAP , with no 3D window, dont pause the campaign ( inc altering sound Volume which pauses the campaign )

 

Be patient.

 

Q & A

 

Is EECH Multiplayer the same as EECH Singleplayer or is it dumbed down

 

No dumbing down for MP, EECH MP is exactly the same as SP.

The Campaigns/Skirmishes run exactly the same so you see Troop Movement's, Insertions, Airbase attacks etc. The campaign will still be going on in the background while your in the Campaign Map.

 

Can Custom Campaigns be flown in MP

 

Should see no reason why they wouldnt work as long as everyone has the campaign installed properly and EEAH ( if needed ).

Here is a custom Cuba Camapign/Skirmish

Cuban Custom Campaign/Skirmish

 

How easy is it to Fly on Opposing Sides

 

Very easy , when you connect you have the option to select your side. When you get the Players List just before connecting , the colour of their name will indicate the side they are on.

Dont feel compelled to Fly for all the Same side try Coop Games and Try Head to Head , remember it's not like Death Match effectively it's your Forces v their Forces.

So Target's beome more important to protect and to attack , there is nothing like losing your Aircraft Carrier to a Human Player , knowing that that Aircraft Carrier had 6 of your Comanche's on it

 

Ok everyone has Had EECH for months, there going to be really good at it and laugh at how bad i am

 

Ive had the Game several months now with quite a bit of MP hours behind me and i still get shamed by newcomers. There isnt a Elite bunch of EECH pilots who only fly with each other.

Every Pilot ive met will take the time to show newcomers the ropes , how to get connected , setting up voice comms etc.

Before EECH i had never flown a sim online , so feel welcome and the more people that Buy EECH and fly it online the better

 

I Cant find a Game, a IP number , a ICQ contact help

 

Go to the top of the post and check out Ch-Central Frugels World and Offical Database for Pilots. Check the posts here for upcoming games . Go onto the #EECH channel via GSS ( u can use MIRC if you want , i think it needs to be an EFNet server ).

Post in this forum if you want a game

 

Flying seems harder in EECH , why is that i always end up crashing

 

The FM and AI are the same , but flying MP can feel harder due to the fact you concentrating on other things , like Chat , Pretending to be an ACE pilot and trying fancy stunts. After a while you get used to the enviroment and your flying with be on a Par with you Single Player exploits.

 

Sometimes when im viewing my Human buddies in External View they appear to fly underground , then suddenly they appear 5000ft above the ground are they cheating

 

No this will happen on slow connections sometimes. But it only affects external view in reality they are flying as normal and are not aware of this . They recieve no effect from it and it most probaly happens to them when viewing you.

This i think doesnt effect viewing that player from your cockpit either. This only happens rarely and with slow connections and there is no side effects

 

My flares/ Chaff are slow

 

Lag wont affect the FM but it will affect certain systems such as Weapons, Counter Measures, Autopilot and Gears.

On an average game this should be around 0.2/0.4 seconds this is not enough to make a negative difference . If it does affect gameplay you might need to connect again , close down other comms software, choose a smaller campaign, use a faster host

 

sometimes when i am just about to take off, my Helicopter goes crazy, my rotor engages , disengages and blows up

 

Possible 2 cause's , you where hit by an incoming Shell , Weapon while on the Deck. The other is on a very bad connection this can happen sometimes ( v rare )

 

What kind of Game can i expect off my 28.8k / 56k modem

 

I have a 28.8k modem and i have been a Client most of the time with Voice comms in Games upto 3 people. I have even served Games with 1 other person and Voice comms.

I have even connected to a Game running the Caspian Gold campaign with the server using a 56k modem.

 

As long as the connection between the computers is ok and not hampered by any external issues such as poor ISP etc. Then you can expect to get into 3 people games running skirmishes and even campaigns.

 

Of course what is important as well is the other clients connection's and the Host connection and Computer Spec. If the Host has Cable/ADSL and a good spec computer P500+ then you should not experience any real problems.

Note a lot of these games have been cross Alantic and with Europe.

 

What kind of Game can i expect off my Cable modem /ADSL /ISDN Connection

 

If your a Client then giving everything else ( good Spec computer, no issues ) you should very easy find good games. With this speed of connection you will easily be able to host EECH Sessions.

 

Is there any benefit to running a dedicated server

 

Not really , control/information is more limited in Dedicated server mode , the only thing that it does is offload some of the CPU work to the 2nd computer. Also you cant save the Campaign.

 

Ok we have a MP game up but's it the Taiwan Campaign and there is no way we can finish it tonight , do we have to lose it

 

No thats the great thing you can save it and complete it at a later date. Now this is where it gets very cool you can save that MP game and finish it in Singleplayer or vice versa take a Singleplayer saved game and use that for a MP session later on.

All MP modifications of the campaign will be brought over into the Singleplayer game, so your buddy sunk your carrier, that carrier will remain sunk in the Singleplayer contiuation.

 

Also there is no restriction to who joins it or what side. So you start a SinglePlayer game on BLUE side , you then have a MP session on it with 2 people using RED side, then u finish it in Singple Player from BLUE.

 

Usually if you get these problems the connection is too slow , but on the whole you should find it easy to get EECH games where these things do not occur.

 

What is GSS 1.83

 

GSS is programmed by Richard "Flexman" Hawley same guy who did the Strat guides.

Basically this is what it does

 

 

[*]command Line Editor

 

[*]Shortcut Switches for common settings

 

[*]Quick EECH Launch and Multiplayer Launch

 

[*]Dedicated Server set up

 

[*]Easy Pilot/Copilot Face Replacement

 

[*]Replace EECH sounds

 

[*]Multiple IP Phonebook

 

[*]Intergrated IRC Client for IRC EECH Channel

 

[*]Ability to Ping and Get IP of other people in IRC Channel

 

[*]Ability to setup and join games in IRC client (Combat Net)

 

[*]Whacky About box , if u can find it

 

Sometimes the EECH Channel in IRC might be empty or just full of bots, but a lot of times there quite a few fellow pilots and is a good place to get an EECH MP game.

 

Flexman's Ground Support system 1.83

 

Basically it makes MP games much easier to use and replacing sounds etc.

 

In short to Host i need what EECH Settings

 

Under Multiplayer , Options . Connection type must be TCP/IP for Net games and IP field must be blank. Start a normal Skirmish/ Campaign as normal and people will be able to join it.

 

In short to be a Client i need what EECH settings

 

Under Options, Multiplayer , connection must be TCP/IP and IP field must be the host IP.

Either go to the skirmish or Campaign screen and you should see the Hosts Game up there.

 

Is there Cheating in EECH MP

 

There is the option to have the Cheats enabled in MP (Ctrl R) but noone ever use's them even in Single Player.

The EECH MP community is smaller than other services such as Novalogic etc so we all know the pilots, chat to them in IRC , read there posts etc.

 

Most games tend to be COOP games, even though thats just cause we dont need humans shooting at us, it hard enough to stay airborne anyway.

So you will find that your Wingman / Flight Leader will there trying to help you out, not get one over on you. Mission success is much more achievable by flying as a Team.

 

There would be little to gain from cheating as the fun is in managing the campaign , selecting the right targets, bringing those Helo's back in 1 piece and getting the best attack on the Enemy.

 

In not saying it isnt possible but no one would be likely to bother as there isnt anything to Gain.

 

EECH Multiplayer Reports

 

Here are some EECH Multiplayer Reports and Test's posted by other and me on www.combatsim.com note i tried to find as many as i could, sorry if i missed any good ones.

 

Also check out www.simhq.com and read about KC23, Dusty Rhodes,MotherSuperior and Clutch and their exploits ( they use a dedicated AWACS guy , Helo's Forum and EECH Forum, change show topics to all)

 

Also check out Gecko6's excellent site for MP tactics and procedures

 

Also excuse some of my dreadful spelling in some of the posts.

Some of these posts are based on previous patches , esp the earlier ones which refer to commandline switches which are not needed now.

 

I should of doen this straight away but this Guide is a result of a lot of MP Games with various pilots. It not complete so send in your tips etc, all credit given.

 

Credit

CEP}I{AHT

Weasel

Enforcer

Flexman

LionPride

Inspector

Gecko 6

Blaze

Loadtoad

Saint19

and various other pilots who ive flown with .

[195th_Moses]

Great post Jeff,

 

Was looking for this kind of info for the game. Thanks again for making me a moderator.

[Werewolf]

Remember to edit that howto once 1.6.1 is released. I mean taking out the ICQ stuff, because you don't need that anymore :D

[actualizator]

I still cant play it...

I opened all ports.. etc..

I see server in multiplayer .But when i click on it nothing happens. Mouse stops moving for 10 seconds.. as if computer is thinking ... And thatas it i dont get screen on righthand side with campaign description and theres no "ok"at the bottom... fny idea how to fix it???