Tips for Battlezone 2 Multiplayer
This document was written by Nathan Mates, email
[email protected]. As
this document may be updated over time, please do not copy out its
contents to other websites. A link to
http://www.visi.com/~nathan/bz2/nettips.html is acceptable. Note: this
information is NOT provided as an official source; please refer to the
game manual for that. Please do not call or email Tech Support for
help with anything contained below.
For the official BZ2 discussion boards, please see
http://www.pandemicstudios.com/bzii/, or Activision's website at
http://www.activision.com/.
Version 1.11 . Last Updated: January 8, 2000. [What's new? Scroll down
to the bottom.]
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Ports, Firewalls, IPMasq/NAT/Internet Connection Sharing
Battlezone2's network traffic runs under TCP/IP only. By default, it
uses UDP ports 17770 and 17771. If you have a firewall in place
between your computer and the network, you will have to allow traffic
to freely travel in both directions along those ports. Consult the
documentation for the firewall to allow that to happen.
If you are using some sort of address-translation setup
(IPMasq/NAT/Internet Connection Sharing), and are having troubles
connecting to games, first check firewall settings. Additionally, you
may want to manually forward traffic on the BZ2 ports to the computers
in question. Once again, consult the documentation for your setup.
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In-game chat
While you can chat in Battlezone 2 from the non-pausing escape-screen,
it's faster and easier to simply hit the Enter key, type what you want
to say, and hit Enter again.
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In-game score info
Control+Enter while playing BZ2 Multiplayer (though not with the
Escape screen up) toggles the in-game score info on/off.
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Chat commands
While there's a lot of commands that you can execute with the GUI, at
any of the 3 chatlines (shell, in-game Escape screen, in-game
activated by 'Enter') have a number of commands that can be executed.
Type "/help" (no "s) on a line by itself to see the mini-help, or use
this list of commands.
For commands that have a required parameter, it is marked below in
[]s; an optinal parameter is in {}s.
* /help
Shows mini-help for most chat commands
* /list
Shows a list of players. It will look something like this:
Players in game:
C: (0) GSH [Local] [Server]
The 'C:' up front identifies them as a team commander (if
applicable). Next is a number in parentheses before the
playername; it can be used as a shortcut to that player's name
if you'd rather not type it out, e.g. "/info 0" or "/info GSH"
will do the same thing. Finally, the local player (you) is
identified, as well as the server by optional tags.
* /info [Name/ID#]
Shows info on a particular player. You must follow this command
with either the player name, or the player number identifier.
This command will have output like this:
Info on (0) Name: GSH [Local] [Server]
Ping: 0 Deaths: 0 Kills: 0
Commander of TeamGroup 1
The info presented above should be self-explanatory.
* /pinglist
Shows ping times to all players. The pingtime is the average
round-trip time in milliseconds for packets to get to the
server and back. Thus, a ping of 500 is 1/2 of a second.
* /leave {Explanation}
Leaves the game. If an explanation message is also on that
command line, it will be sent to all first.
* /msg [Name/ID#] [Text]
Sends a private message to the specified player. This is always
sent to just that player, no matter what the Chat with
All|Team|One is set to. Private messages appear on the sender's
chat window as follows:
-> GSH: This is a private message sent to GSH
and on the receiving end as:
GSH ->: This is a private message sent from GSH
* /kick [Name/ID#] {Explanation}
A server-only command; it removes that player from the game
asap. An explanation may be given on the line, but it's not
necessary.
* /nick [NewName]
Changes your in-game name to the new name specified. Spaces are
not allowed in names, and the server may correct your name for
legality and/or uniqueness.
* /lockdown
A server-only command; it prevents anyone from joining. Same
functionality as the 'Joins: Deny' button in the shell and
escape screen.
* /openjoin
A server-only command; it reverses the /lockdown and allows
anyone to join. [Subject to passwords, player limits, etc].
Same functionality as the 'Joins: Deny' button in the shell and
escape screen.
* /chatall
Sets further chat messages to be sent to all players in the
game. Same functionality as the 'Chat with All' interface
buttons.
* /chatteam
Sets further chat messages to be sent to all teammates. If
teamplay is off, this setting acts like 'Chat with All'. Same
functionality as the 'Chat with Team' interface buttons.
* /chatone [Name/ID#]
Sets further chat messages to be sent to the specified player,
without having to use the /msg command above. Same
functionality as the 'Chat with One' interface buttons.
* /chattype
Reports what the current chat type is-- chat with All, Team, or
a single player.
* /commandlist
Shows all commands recognized by the chat system.
* /vehiclelist
Shows what each player has chosen for a vehicle. If DM vehicle
randomizing is on (see below), this option will not show the
current vehicle, but only what they chose in the shell.
* /ip [Name/ID#]
Shows the IP address for a given player other than the local
player. Note: clients can only see the IP address of the
server; they have no ability to see any other clients' info.
Servers can see the IP address of anyone.
* /iplist
Shows the IP addresses of all players in game; once again
clients can only see the IP address of the server; they have no
ability to see any other clients' info. Servers can see the IP
address of anyone.
* /gsoff
Server-only option; stops responding to all Gamespy queries
received. This will effectively prevent anyone from seeing (and
therefore joining) the game. This option may be most useful for
modem-servers who don't want the possibility of extra bandwidth
being used by mid-game Gamespy queries.
* /gson
Server-only option, and the default. Allows BZ2 to respond to
all Gamespy queries received. If /gsoff had previously been
done, this'll allow the game to be visible once again.
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Sync Join
Noted as 'Sync (Off) (On)' in the server's shell interface, this
option allows the server to have all players start playing at the same
time. In deathmatch, such an option is not normally chosen, but for
strategy games, it may be desirable to do this. (Note: selecting
another map will reset this option (and others) to what the map's
defaults are.)
If Sync Join is on, when the server launches, it'll wait for all other
clients to launch as well. When all clients have reported in, the
server will send the gamestate to them, and gameplay will begin.
However, if a client (taking a nap or something) doesn't hit the
'Enter Game' button within 120 seconds, they'll be kicked out.
After the Sync Join is completed, by default, other players may join,
as if Sync Join was off. Use the 'Joins: Allow/Forbid' option to
prevent further joins after a sync join.
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Vehicle Randomizer
In Deathmatch (and similar, such as CTF and Loot) games, the server
has the option of randomizing vehicles. The shell option looks like
this: 'Vehicle [Fixed|Race|Random]'. (Note: selecting another map will
reset this option (and others) to what the map's defaults are.) If the
selection is 'Fixed', a new craft for a player will always be
identical to their vehicle selection within the shell.
If the selection is set to 'Race', then a random vehicle of the same
race as that player's shell selection is chosen. (Of course, that
randomizing is within the list of allowed vehicles by the server.) If
the selection is set to 'Random', a random vehicle of any race allowed
by the server is chosen.
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Chat messages timeout
By default, the in-game chat/messages window (not the escape screen)
erases messages after 5 seconds. However, this is settable from the
game console. While playing, hit Control-` (that's 2-keys, control and
the key with ` and ~ marked on it) to pull up the console. [Chat
messages are printed there as well, so some may just want to see that
for a few seconds.] At the console, type
'network.session.messagesappearforseconds 99' to set it to 99 seconds
(what I prefer). The number can be anywhere from 1 to 9999 seconds;
outside that range and it'll be reset to the default of 5 seconds. Hit
Control-` to hide the console again.
The console does have tab-completion (if you don't know what that is,
you should use unix more) of commands. So, you can hit
'net'[tab]'.ses'[tab]'.mes'[tab] to type that line a little faster.
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Objectives window obscures chat
If you hit 'o' during multiplayer, an empty transparent gray box will
appear on the right side of the screen. [CTF may put an actual
objective in it.] This objectives window will hide the chat window
which appears in the same place. Hit 'o' again to turn it off.
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Non-pausing servers
By default, a BZ2 game will pause when a new client joins. This is
designed to give modem servers a chance to have more bandwidth
available to send the gamestate to new clients without being
overloaded. However, if the game is hosted from a faster (i.e. ISDN,
Cable Modem, DSL, T1, T3, OC-48) network connection, you may want to
turn this off.
Note: this information is provided to you without any guarantees of
support or stability. It is an officially unsupported option, and
should be used at your own risk. [In other words: don't gripe if it
doesn't work for you. You're on your own.] To set this up, as a
server, when you're in the MP shell (i.e. choosing a map/vehicle), go
to the console (see above), and type the following
'network.session.ivar10 1'. [The default setting is 0, i.e. pausing]
That preference will be used until you quit and start another game.
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Playing on a LAN Only
BZ2 supports non-gamespy games among machines connected on a single
subnet. To do this, all machines must have the same first 3 sections
of their IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.*), and a valid subnet mask
(usually 255.255.255.0 for such a class-C network). Next, from the
game servers list window, there's a button in the top-right of that
window marked 'Gamespy'. Press that button and it'll change to 'LAN
Only'. [See command line options below for how to set this by default]
This button must be set the same on all machines you want to play a
game with.
With a server set to LAN Only, it will not broadcast game information
to Gamespy, and thus cannot be seen by a machine outside of your
subnet. That is why a client must also be set to the LAN Only.
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Commandline Options
BZ2 supports several commandline options that Gamespy uses. To enter
them, you'll either have to create a shortcut to bzone.exe, and edit
that shortcut's properties, or add in the options via Start -> Run
under Windows pointed at bzone.exe.
* +name "Player Name"
Sets the initial Multiplayer player name to the value
specified. If there is a space or other character in the name,
it must be enclosed in "s, as above. However, BZ2 will still
ensure the name conforms to limits.
* /lanonly
Sets the initial setting of the Gamespy/LAN Only button to be
LAN Only; omitting this option uses the default of Gamespy. You
may still change this setting in-game, though.
* +host [PortNum]
Starts up BZ2 as a host (i.e. server) of a game, and places you
in the Multiplayer Game Options shell screen. Valid port
numbers to host on are 1024 through 65534; if the portnum
specified is outside that range, the default of 17770 is used.
BZ2 always uses 2 ports that are adjacently numbered; the
number specified is the first.
* +connect [i.p.add.ress:PortNum]
Starts up BZ2 as a client to the game specified by IP address
and port number; the port number should be the second BZ2 port
number, usually 17771. For example, "+connect
192.168.1.4:17771" tries to join the game at 192.168.1.4.
* +password "TopSecretPassword"
For either a client or a server (see above), this commandline
parameter sets the password used when creating or joining that
game.
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Bandwidth considerations
Since BZ2 is a client-server networking model, this optimizes each
client's bandwidth, while pushes it towards the server. For a 4-player
game with server 'S' and clients 'A', 'B', and 'C', the server must
receive A's moves, and send them out to B and C. The server must send
moves SBC to client A, SAC to client B, and SAB to client C. Thus, the
server must send out N-1 moves per frame, where N is the number of
players in the game. On the other hand, the clients only need to send
their own moves towards the server.
If at all possible, host a BZ2 game on the fastest network connections
possible.
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Changing groups, sending units
In strategy, you can combine like units into one group. If you have a
tank on the F1 group, and another tank on F3, you can unify them into
the F1 group by pressing F3, releasing that key, then Control-F1. To
split a group, say the F1 group, hit Control-F1 to open it up and you
can access the individual units within.
What's this mean for networking? In team strategy, you can send units
back and forth between the commander and the wingmen the same way.
Notice how there's icons for your allies, such as F10..F8? Select a
group of units, then Control-F10 will send it to that ally. Not all
units may be transferred-- recycler (vehicles) and constructors can
not. But, you can give scavs to the wingmen in the early game so they
can be escorted out to the scrap pools.
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Resyncs
If you get a 'Checking Gamestate' message (especially as the server),
that means that someone (or multiple someones) are out of sync from
the server. This can be caused by either a bug, or someone trying to
use a cheat program (commonly called a 'trainer'). The cheat codes for
BZ2 Singleplayer won't work in MP, and they'd only desynchronize the
game for everyone. So, if you are thinking of cheating, go away.
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Where's my tank!
When you are ejected from a destroyed tank in BZ2 Deathmatch, you may
be wondering where your next ride will be. As long as you're in the
air, a new ship will not be created for you. This would be a good time
to find a safe spot to land. After you land, or are killed as a pilot,
a new craft will be spawned in somewhere near you. It may be behind
you, so use your radar to find it. If it appears on top of water, and
you feel you can't get to it, remember that you have a jetpack that
can be set off underwater-- and once you enter the tank, it'll refill
the jeypack.
--- snip
--
<*> Nathan Mates
http://www.visi.com/~nathan/ <*>
# What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_?
# Shun wishful thinking, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors
# think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? -R.A. Heinlein
