Direct Serial Connect

[Revlot]

My friend and I play several different games, and we went through the trouble to get a direct serial connect cable for some of the games, and discovered that the cable leaves us connected when the microwave knocks us off tcp/ip. We already have the cable, sure would be nice if FreeOrion did a direct connect serial connection.

[Dilvish]

sounds like you want something for Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). Here is one for Linux.

[Revlot]

Thank you for your reply.

The idea is for win7 users, and others, to have a choice when connecting to a multiplayer game. tcp/ip is great, its faster than a serial connection. But a dedicated wire is sometimes preferable due to its stability. I simply suggest a choice for how to connect to a game. Perhaps the game automatically uses the serial cable - however it does not ask for me to set my port, so I doubt it.

I am an arm-chair-user, not technically minded at all. Just the target base for the game giving some feed-back.

And perhaps in a multiplayer game, after all other players have made their turn, that the one person left making their turn - has their turn-button turn red to let them know that everybody else has already made their turns.

[AndrewW]

Thank you for your reply.

The idea is for win7 users, and others, to have a choice when connecting to a multiplayer game. tcp/ip is great, its faster than a serial connection. But a dedicated wire is sometimes preferable due to its stability. I simply suggest a choice for how to connect to a game. Perhaps the game automatically uses the serial cable - however it does not ask for me to set my port, so I doubt it.

You can run tcp/ip over a wired connection...

I've established a ppp link over a null-modem connection before, used it for sharing a dial-up internet connection once upon a time before I went with ethernet.

[Chriss]

What's a direct serial connect? Via Serial Port? Could you please post a link?

[Dilvish]

Perhaps the game automatically uses the serial cable - however it does not ask for me to set my port, so I doubt it.

I believe you are correct about this.

Thank you for your reply....The idea is for win7 users, and others, to have a choice when connecting to a multiplayer game. tcp/ip is great, its faster than a serial connection. But a dedicated wire is sometimes preferable due to its stability.

Sure, I didn't question why you might want to use a serial connection.

I am an arm-chair-user, not technically minded at all. Just the target base for the game giving some feed-back. I simply suggest a choice for how to connect to a game.

It seems like there are solutions out there for you that are reasonable even for an arm-chair user, though you may have to stretch yourself slightly. You're the only one who to my knowledge who has asked for this feature, and it seems like there are other ready-made solutions, so it's not likely anyone here will put time into coding something special for FO. Win7 already has the necessary software built-in, here some instructions for configuring it. The one thing that I would suggest probably doing different than those instructions is that at the end of it where it says to configure TCPIP for the connection with "Obtain IP address automatically" and "Obtain DNS server addresses automatically". I suspect that you and your friend will need to instead check "Manually specify IP address" (or whatever the similar wording is that win7 uses); one of you could use "192.168.0.29" and the other "192.168.0.30". Trying to think about any other potential glitches, it might be that you could also need to go into the control panel and temporarily disable your normal network connections, just leaving this one the only active one. I am pretty optimistic that this overall approach should work for you.

And perhaps in a multiplayer game, after all other players have made their turn, that the one person left making their turn - has their turn-button turn red to let them know that everybody else has already made their turns.

Hmm, that does sound like a good idea.

[Revlot]

What's a direct serial connect? Via Serial Port? Could you please post a link?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_modem

"a null modem connection was a common way of playing multiplayer games between two machines"

[adrian_broher]

To be honest: I'm not entirely sure if this is a troll thread.

connected when the microwave knocks us of

When the microwave is the cause of all trouble why don't use ethernet cable instead of ???

tcp/ip

What has this network layer to do with it?

[Revlot]

When the microwave is the cause of all trouble why don't use ethernet cable instead of ???

As I stated, we are NOT uber-geeks. Our knowledge of computer systems is mostly limited to getting games to play. My microwave oven DOES knock our tcp/ip connection offline - so to pause for dinner we must save and exit any game we might be playing that is limited to that connection type. The direct connect cable is immune to the microwave being used - so we prefer to play games using that protocol whenever possible. We do not have an ethernet cable. We have a wireless internet connection. I do not own the house I am living in - so I am unable to make modifications such as laying ethernet cable. (I hope that I am right in recalling that ethernet cable is the way that we used to connect to the internet before we went wireless.)

In my experience, other games provide a choice of ways to connect to a multiplayer game, so I naturally asked if that might be possible for this game as well.

I feel that I have a real-world play-issue, and I have given feedback on it.

[adrian_broher]

> As I stated, we are NOT uber-geeks.
I'm not trying to ridicule you here.

But you're asking for supporting a way of data exchange between computers, that is outdated for at least 20 years and you can't use a standard, that was standardized before I was born (I'm 30 now).

> My microwave oven DOES knock our tcp/ip connection offline - so to pause for dinner we must save and exit any game we might be playing that is limited to that connection type.
FYI: Wireless LAN and microwave ovens tend to send at the same frequency (around 2.4GHz). Which is why your network connection breaks down.

> We do not have an ethernet cable. We have a wireless internet connection. I do not own the house I am living in - so I am unable to make modifications such as laying ethernet cable.
The only modification needed would be replacing the null modem cable with said ethernet cable. There is no need to break through walls or something like that. If your PC is more recent than 15 years it most probably has a built-in ethernet card. Nowadays it's way harder to find a PC with a serial connector (it already was hard 10 years ago).

> In my experience, other games provide a choice of ways to connect to a multiplayer game, so I naturally asked if that might be possible for this game as well.
I can't recall any game that allows null modem and is more recent than 20 years (KKND and Red Alert 1 for example).

Also I don't think that playing over null modem is fun at all given the amount of data which the game does exchange every turn.

[Revlot]

But you're asking for supporting a way of data exchange between computers, that is outdated for at least 20 years and you can't use a standard, that was standardized before I was born (I'm 30 now).

And there you have dated me. We are both over 45 and prefer to play games from 'our day' instead of the newer 'twitchy' games that the younger crowd plays. The reason that FreeOrion appeals to us so much is because we played MOO1 and MOO2 and were completely disenchanted with MOO3. We are very excited that FreeOrion exists and would hope that it continues to improve. I feel that there are more than a few 'older gamers' like myself who are very interested in playing newer games like FreeOrion instead of the twitchy games, and are limited in their hardware choices.

Yes, we use older tech to play older games. HOMM3, Alien Crossfire, and Diablo - to name a few.

I understand that is is unlikely for you to consider implementing an outdated communications mode just for an elderly player's benefit. However, for all I knew there may have been a dozen voices instantly clamoring for the inclusion. I had no way of knowing unless I offered my personal playing experience for others to be informed about.

[MatGB]

I have very fond memories of lugging entire PC setups, including CRT monitors, to a friends house to play Starcraft and similar via Null Modem, but that was 20 years ago (I'm 40, FWIW). These days, a standard ethernet cable should do the job, if you've got a null modem linkup, then an ethernet linkup should be both easy to acheive and far better (read: faster) for any game that supports it.

I can definitely see why you'd want to avoid using wireless to play a game like this, I've tried it with my stepdaughter and it's a bit iffy at best, but ethernet should work fine (and I'll try it when she's back from her Dad's).

the only problem I can see is if you've laid the null modem cable to different rooms and putting an ethernet cable in the same place would be a lot of work, but if it was doable it still is, and the speed increase would be substantial.

[Revlot]

I have very fond memories of lugging entire PC setups, including CRT monitors, to a friends house to play Starcraft and similar via Null Modem, but that was 20 years ago (I'm 40, FWIW). These days, a standard ethernet cable should do the job, if you've got a null modem linkup, then an ethernet linkup should be both easy to acheive and far better (read: faster) for any game that supports it.

I can definitely see why you'd want to avoid using wireless to play a game like this, it's a bit iffy at best, but ethernet should work fine.

I will explore an ethernet option. I have trepidation of a complex solution - such as denying either machine access to the internet due to constricting all traffic through a dedicated cable that excludes an internet connection, as we value being able to surf the net while waiting for the other to finish a lengthy turn. It would be reassuring if there were an easy procedure posted somewhere of a variety of methods capable of being deployed to facilitate connecting multiplayer games. It would be ideal for the game itself to diagnose the available connection methods and offer an in-game choice to the players - perhaps with some hover-balloon-help to describe each method being offered.

[Dilvish]

It would be ideal for the game itself to diagnose the available connection methods and offer an in-game choice to the players - perhaps with some hover-balloon-help to describe each method being offered.

Remember, this is all being brought to you by a small handful of volunteer programmers. Any feature we prioritize inherently pushes back other features. We have identified a number of solutions that should work for you, so I really don't understand why you would keep pushing on this if you really considered our position along with your own.

To follow up on Adrian's suggestion re Ethernet, and to try to make this really simple, here are instructions for doing this with Ethernet, and here is where you can buy a crossover ethernet cable (same kind of thing as your serial null modem cable, but for ethernet).

[MatGB]

It would be reassuring if there were an easy procedure posted somewhere of a variety of methods capable of being deployed to facilitate connecting multiplayer games.

I keep meaning to try and write up a bit more on setting up an internet game for the Wiki.

But, everything in the Wiki and in game documentation is written by a volunteer—a lot of the stuff I wrote or edited was partially as a memory aide for me soon after I'd figured out how to do it myself. I suspect the reason that there's nothing written up about how to play a game by direct cable of any type is that none of those that write documentation have ever actually done it (I plan to, I suspect I'm unusual in living in the same house as another person who plays).

Ergo, yes, it would be great if someone could write up a how-to on getting the game to work via a direct link, if you do get it working, please do write something up, even if it's just a barebones bullet point list it'd be a good start for the Wiki and can then be expanded by others.

And if it doesn't work, I do think direct connection via LAN or WiFi is something we need to ensure the game supports, even though making sure the code does so is way over my head I'd be happy to assist in testing stuff over time.