NETKEEN: Multiplayer Keen Game

Here is where to post about the latest Commander Keen fangame or modification you've finished, a new website you've made, or another Keen-related creation.
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Eros
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Post by Eros »

ooh, what about "rooms" to play in? you can see what i mean by quickly downloading Gang Garrison 2, and joining the lobby. there, you can find multiple different rooms to play in, each with a servername and a playercount.

there are multiple classes, and maybe NetKeen can mimic that.
for example;

mort: shots stop other shots, but move 25% slower
keen: shoots at faster rate
lindsey: pogos higher (MAGIC!)
spot: moves slower, shorter hitbox

and maybe... (i don't know if these are in, they're just guesses.)

vorticon elite: jumps higher
shikadi: faster pole climbing
oracle janitor: shoots twice for every shot (consumes 2 ammo)
krodacian: shots deal double damage
fleex: jumps farther and falls slower, larger hitbox
imposter commander keen: runs faster

anyway, these are just ideas using famous characters
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TerminILL
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Post by TerminILL »

The way the IPX networking is setup already necessitates "rooms", since you must connect to the other players in the setup manually. A lobby listing these "rooms" would be unfeasible, however.

As for "classes", these work in a Team Fortress/Gang Garrison environment since those games are built on team play. The idea is to have a well balanced team by using a mixture of those. NetKeen can only support up to four players at once, and the player "characters" are only to provide some differentiation between players.
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Eros
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Post by Eros »

huh, i forgot about the whole "max 4 players" thing. anyway, it would be pretty cool with these extra characters...
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Ceilick
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Post by Ceilick »

Here's a step by step process to playing multiplayer games:

The Dosbox manual reads, "You need to enable IPX networking in the configuration file of DOSBox."

Run "Dosbox options.bat" from the dosbox installation folder. This will bring up a txt file. Scroll down to the bottom where you'll probably see "ipx=false". Change this to "ipx=true".

"With regard to actually setting up a network, one system needs to be the server. To set this up, type "IPXNET STARTSERVER" (without the quotes) in a DOSBox session"

Since you will need to access netkeen with dosbox, it's usually best drag and drop one of the files from the netkeen game folder (egagraph.ck5, for example) onto your dosbox.exe so you can avoiding mounting within dosbox. Then type "ipxnet startserver" for a lan game, or for an internet game, "ipxnet startserver" followed by the port number. We've generally used UDP port 3140. So this would be "ipxnet startserver 3140".

If you've done this correctly, dosbox will read "Ipx Tunneling Server started".

Anyone who wishes to join the game will need to do the same, but instead of typing "ipxnet startserver", they will type "ipxnet connect" followed by the ip of the server and, if it is an online game, the port number. This might look like "ipxnet connect xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 3140". To find your ip, go here: http://www.whatismyip.com/ If you are hosting a lan game, open a command prompt and type ipconfig. Ipv4 address should be the one you want to use.

If done correctly, the player trying to connect to the server will receive a message that dosbox is successfully tunneling.

Note: For internet games, you will need to make sure whatever port you are using is forwarded with your router or whatever. Several people haven't been able to host games over the internet for port forwarding reasons, so you playing online may be problematic.

Once the server is started and 1 or more players has joined, both the host and other players must type "netkeen -nodes X" where 'X' is the number of players. For a 2 player game this would be "netkeen -nodes 2".

Note: By default this will start up netkeen with Keen 5 set up. If you wish to play the keen 4 levels, you will need to type "netkeen -nodes X -ext ck4"

Netkeen should start up after this. The player who started the server will get to choose the map and various settings for the matches. Once these are determined, "host netgame" should be selected. The other player/s should then select "join netgame". It may take few moments to load for everyone.
Gridlock
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Post by Gridlock »

Sorry to be a total noob, but where is this Dosbox installation folder? Is there a certain version of Dosbox needed? I'm using version 0.72.

Edit: Nevermind. Turns out I WAS using an old version that didn't have the batch file. Thanks for these detailed instructions.
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BlueGasMask
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Post by BlueGasMask »

Not to sound like a total idiot but is there any way that this (or a clone of it) could be implemented into CG?

EDIT: I am soooooooooo d/l'n this.

Want me to finish off those old Mort sprites I was gonna make? You may/may not remember those.
Last edited by BlueGasMask on Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:58, edited 1 time in total.
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TerminILL
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Post by TerminILL »

It could never be as good. No offence, CG developers, but it just isn't the same.
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BlueGasMask
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Post by BlueGasMask »

actually, screw the sprites upon looking at my first post i realised that it looks like a gargy recolour.... which it is.

although, i wouldn't mind making some sprites of mort based off the old "debonair mort" pic from the comic.

EDIT:

That is, this one:

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EDIT 2: Okay it sucked so I started doing a Keen style version of me IRL
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DHeadshot
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Post by DHeadshot »

BlueGasMask wrote:Not to sound like a total idiot but is there any way that this (or a clone of it) could be implemented into CG?
If you do that, could you integrate it with MiX?
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Gridlock
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Post by Gridlock »

Ok, I gave this a go yesterday with Lemm and Mink and thought I would post my comments publicly. Overall this is a really neat project, but it does have a few flaws. At the moment, you pretty much have to be on the IRC channel to organize a game, which seems a bit inconvinient to me. We need to find a better method of organizing this so that other people who aren't on the IRC can play as well.

The game became difficult to play for me due to some bad lag. When we tried to set this up with me as the server, we couldn't get it to work. IMO, there needs to be a more convienient way of setting a game up. Also, it would be nice to be able to switch between Keen games without having to restart Netkeen.

I also had a bit of trouble understanding how some of the settings were working during the game, especially level selection. Are all the players suppossed to select one level to play at a time? Is this controlled by one person? The whole thing felt a bit odd while playing.

Despite the flaws, though, this was still a fun and unique experience. I think this will make for a lot of fun in the future. Certain things just need some work.

Also, Lemm, I'm still looking for that level making tool.
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MOM4Evr
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Post by MOM4Evr »

OK, just downloaded this and played by myself for a bit.
-Overall, I'm starting to get a bit more used to the spacebar firing, but it would be nice if you could add two-button firing support. :celtic
-I did notice a lag in a few places, when just playing a local game. I would think this would be a glitch you would want to look into, as I doubt that this helps any when playing over the net...

But other than this, I like the new levels. Keep up the great work, guys (and Lemm especially)!
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Paramultart
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Post by Paramultart »

I would like to take this time to applaud Mink for his amazing towers level, and to rub it in VBB's face that I completely PWNED him on it.
That pit of death is brilliant.

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PS. NETKEEN IS FANTASTIC!
Last edited by Paramultart on Thu Feb 24, 2011 6:12, edited 1 time in total.
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PandoricaShark
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Post by PandoricaShark »

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Someone linked him to this thread in the comments, and said he should play with us, and he was all that'd be cool after GDC.
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Roobar
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Post by Roobar »

:)
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Paramultart
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Post by Paramultart »

Wow! And I thought having him as a neighbor on Ravenwood Fair was awesome. Imagine playing NetKeen with THE Tom Hall! :D
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