Online Multiplayer Campaign: Medieval II Kingdoms (Setup Guide)

[Armatus]

Medieval II Kingdoms | Online Campaign Setup

This guide is the updated specifically for Medieval II kingdoms. This guide will help you learn how to set up and play a campaign game over the internet with your friends via email. Be sure you have access to an Email account and have no problem sending and receiving attachments.

Contents

Setting up the configuration for your Online Campaign

Using the TWC forum Upload Tool for Online Campaigning

How to Play an Online Multiplayer Campaign via Foldershare (by elGreco)

How to set yourself as an Administrator (Credits to TosaInu & Privateerkev of totalwar.org)




1) Locate the medieval2.preference and open it with notepad.


2) Verify the values of the following settings (if not there add them.)



[hotseat]
turns = 0
scroll = 0
autoresolve_battles = 0
disable_console = 0
disable_papal_elections = 1
save_prefs = 1
update_ai_camera = 1
validate_diplomacy = 1



IV Save the config file.


V. Open the config file properties (right click on it and choose properties) then check read only. (* Note: if you do not do this the config file will be over written on every new hotseat game.) You are now configured to play.

The factions are selected by the starting player. If you are starting the campaign for all players your faction MUST be the first line in the faction selection list. For example: If two players have chosen the following countries: Teutons, and Norway, then the Teutonic player would start the game like this: launch the Teutonic campaign, Click Multiplayer, Hotseat mode (see image)





Now select Teutons, and then Norway (see image).





Before you start be sure to choose your settings, I usually go with the following (as in the image above.)


Advice: Off

Difficulty: Medium or Hard

Battle Difficultly: Hard or Very Hard (Since we will be fighting each other's AI armies)

Manage All Cities: Unchecked

Show CPU Moves: Unchecked

No Battle time limit: Checked

Disable Console Checked

Use Passwords Checked


Now click START and you will see the following screen (see image)





Create a password for yourself and begin your turn. Once you are finished managing your kingdom and making your moves click END TURN now you will see a new password create pop up for the next player in line. Press ESC and then SAVE your game then ESC again and choose QUIT game.

As the first player to complete a turn it is now your responsibility to email your multiplayer campaign.sav (or whatever you named your campaign file) located in the Medieval II > Medieval > Mods > (the appropriate campaign folder) in this case Teutonic to the next player in line. When the next player receives the saved campaign file they must place it in their saves folder of the appropriate campaign and load the campaign. Once loaded rinse and repeat.

If you're still having questions, it's best to test this out for yourself so that you can see how the game works by playing a few turns of each faction. Once you familiarize yourself with how turns play out for each player, to spare you some confusion either delete your play test saved game or save and rename it as test before you begin the campaign you'll be sharing.

Any questions feel free to post them, I'll try to answer as best I can or point you in th right direction.

Using the TWC forum Upload Tool for Online Campaigning

For this next section I will assume you have basic understanding of how to use Winzip and have no trouble zipping or extracting files.

Once you've gathered enough players together the First thing to do is start the campaign as instructed above, take your turn and when you are ready to pass to the second player you'll want to start a new topic in the multiplayer sub-forum under the following area:


Total War Center Forums > Medieval II: Total War > Medieval II: Total War General Discussion > Multiplayer


Here you can inform others about the particular campaign you will be playing and lay down any unofficial rules you would like everyone to agree to. Name the topic something reflective of the campaign you are playing for example: You could call it 'Online Campaign Game' and maybe add a date or your name to it so it stands out from others. Next let's over the upload tool. Before using the upload tool you will want to get Winzip so you can easily transfer the campaign.sav file to TWC as a campaign.zip file. Get Winzip here http://www.winzip.com/


So to pass your first turn you will want to do the following:


Start the campaign as per instructions above, complete your turn, zip your campaign.sav file located in the Medieval II > saves folder.


- Click Add reply to the Topic you made.

- Make sure your Thread Subscription is set to Instant email notification. (This will ensure you keep up with the game as each player completes their turn and uploads it to the forum.)


- Click the Manage Attachments button below your reply.


- Click Browse under upload a file from your computer.


- Browse to the location of where you zipped the campaign.sav (now the campaign.zip file which would be by default in the Medieval II > saves folder.)


- Click Upload to transfer the campaign.zip file to your reply.


- Click Submit Reply and it is now the next players turn

It may sound like a lot of work but once you get the hang of it it will be fair smooth for everyone and probably even a little easier than relying on email to pass your turns. So if you have any questions on any of this just ask!

Alternatively see the following tutorial if you are interesting in using Foldershare to play an Online Multiplayer Campaign:

How to Play an Online Multiplayer Campaign via Foldershare by elGreco

Foldershare required version: FolderShare v2.5.10

Hi folks! This is a guide i have made to play real-time multiplayer campaign game with a couple of programs I've found.

Download the guide:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/attac...8&d=1186183642

Also you should download this nice program, so you don't have to use speakers or minimize the game:
http://www.download.com/DirectoryMon...l?tag=lst-0-10

The program is called Directory Monitor. You simply extract the zip file in any location, open the program, select the directory with the saves and you are done!
When a file changes in that location an alert will start. That means that the player has played his turn and saved the game.
I attach a picture of what it should look like:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/attac...9&d=1186784129

One thing you must pay attention is that you must have the autosave disabled.
This can be done by editing the multiplayer.cfg file .
Otherwise you will hear one more ring for each player.

*SEE ABOVE for editing the config file.

With the above you can play real-time multiplayer campaign over the net pretty good!

PS: I plan to create a program on my own. In my program you will be able to enter the number of file changes before the alert.
With this one if there are many players it will be pretty tough to count yourself the number of alerts.

Download elGreco's guide here

How to set yourself as an Administrator

Credit for these instructions go to Tosa & Privateerkev from totalwar.org

Setting the Admin

Originally Posted on the .Org http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...00&postcount=1 http://forums.totalwar.org/wiki/index.php/Hotseat Sometimes online campaigns can be plagued with issues like people dropping from your game or forgetting their passwords. To avoid hang ups like these that can slow down or even ruin the game you will need to set yourself as an Administrator. Being an Admin allows you to change player passwords and even resign factions. 1. Go to the Medieval II root directory. 2. Find medieval2.preference.cfg 3. Right click on it and select properties. 4. If you have the attribute Read Only selected from the earlier instructions then De-select it now so that you will be able to make these necessary changes (you can always go back and reselect later.) 5. Click Apply & Close the Window. 6. Now open your medieval2.preference.cfg with notepad. 7. Locate: [hotseat] 8. Below the hotseat entry add admin_password = your_password (your_password is where you will type whatever admin password you would like to have such as "ABC123" for example. 9. Save & Close the CFG file. 10. Right click on the CFG file again and select properties to re-enable the Read-Only attribute. (as noted in step 5) 13. Start your hotseat game as according to the instructions in this guide. 14. Go into the first player's login screen. 15. Check to see if the console window opens by pressing: ~ 16. Type in the console window "logon your_password" (the password you entered in the config file) then and hit enter. 17. If you receive an error message make sure the ` is not in the field like it is when I first open the console. 18. If you do not receive an error type "logoff" and hit enter. Save and the game. You will then have admin access to your hotseat game. Just enter in your admin password at any player login screen. Even with console disabled, you can still access the console in there. To reset someone's password: Load the campaign sav and open the console by pressing ~ now login with your admin password and then type: clear_password <faction_label> The password will then be removed and the player can now load their turn and set a new one. If a player drops, and you can't find a replacement, you can set their faction as AI controlled: It also allows to change control to the AI (so 1 inactive player? => set faction to AI control and move on). Type control <factionlabel> To preset passwords: There are also functions to set the passwords. To do this type: set_password <faction_label> <password> The console also allows cheats so to be fair it is best to decide on what cheats will be allowed before the game has begun. To do otherwise is to cheat and no one wants to play with a cheater. Helpful Information: M2TW faction labels Faction labels including non playable are : Crusades egypt turks antioch jerusalem byzantium slave venice mongols Americas spain aztecs chichimeca tlaxcalans tarascans apachean mayans slave england Britannia france norway scotland england ireland wales Teutonic teutonic_order lithuania hre denmark poland novgorod slave venice M2TW sicily milan denmark egypt scotland aztecs turks france hre england portugal poland byzantium moors russia spain hungary papal_states slave

[Armatus]

Just an FYI to all who may have read this already, I've corrected outdated details. Big Thanks to goes out to Lusted for his advice. I've added info on creating player passwords which replaces the old 'work around' of the M2 campaign how to.

[Boz]

With this guide I can play vs. my brother with different factions in the same computer without internet?

[Armatus]

Hotseat is on the same computer is pretty much the same as over the internet minus the part about passing your turns via email or the forum.

[KozaK101]

Could you please explain more about the config file bit? why do you have to save it?

also the bit about changing preferences...must the turns and scroll be added in? in my preferences the section is called [multiplayer] and each line starts with "hotseat_" . is there something wrong?

ps. sry if im not ment to post in this thread

[Armatus]

It sounds like you're using the setting for Medieval II rather than for Kingdoms. Are you sure you're in the right thread?

Here's the set up for Medieval II http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=135739

You're more than welcome to ask questions here that's why this thread is open, let me know if you're playing M2 or M2K first.

[Teutonic Joe]

how do I and another human player use diplomats between eachother? Cause i cant seem to get it to work

[Armatus]

You use them as normal, but you won't get a response until the human player has had a change to accept your deal and vice versa.

[Teutonic Joe]

but how
when i hit the check mark to leave the diplomatic screen, the diplomat acts if nothing happened. Also my friend doesnt seem to see it.
How do i get it to work?
i thought maybe if i ended the turn with the diplomatic screen still up would work but it covers the button to end turn and enter wont work...

[Armatus]

You won't get an acknowledgment after making or responding to the offer just click the check mark to leave. First let me make sure you that you are both playing this over the internet. Because if you just playing hotseat on the same computer you need different diplomacy settings.

I can find them, but I will be quite busy the next few days so don't expect a fast response. But I will respond.

[Teutonic Joe]

we are doing it over emails so it should be over the interent

[Armatus]

Ok then if you doing it over the internet via email you won't get a response when answering diplomacy, but if he's having a problem try sending your friend a copy of your CFG file and have them swap it out with theirs otherwise verify they are using the same settings as in this guide.

[Armatus]

Hello everyone, as with the M2 online campaign set up guide I have also refined this one for Kingdoms. I also plan to add an update soon with the additional information that has been requested in the forums. I'll keep you informed here when I do.

Until then any questions feel free to post them here.

Thanks

[Ham the Pharoah]

When I choose Egypt first then Turks, then start the game, the Settings Screen doesn't show up and it always chooses Turks although I click on Egypt first.

[Armatus]

Hi for your question I have just updated a section on administering passwords. See the main post on that.

[Ham the Pharoah]

Thanks

[Thompson45cal.]

Excellent info...... educating myself........ tis painful

[Himmelsfeuer]

As we can spot the sails from empire:tw on the horizon, a colleague and I just got excited again to play M2TW. Hotseat! That would be fun.

Following the instructions in this great guide, I just initialised a brand new britannia game and wanted to play via email (aka internet).

What a suprise: The game started unfortunatly without the prompt for the email password right in the UI. 1st turn. That's definitely no fun. Tried every hint and tip across this and other boards. Cannot get the game running and asking for turn password.

Now for the specs:

M2TW version: 1.03 (Gemarn)
Kingdoms Update: 1.05 (German)

Mods installed and in use:

Ultimate AI 1.6
Real Combat Britannia and Real Combat Teutonica.

This are the current additions to my preference.cgf file, which is located in the main game directory and read only:

[hotseat]
turns = 0
scroll = 0
autoresolve_battles = 0
disable_console = 1
disable_papal_elections = 1
save_prefs = 1
update_ai_camera = 1
validate_diplomacy = 1

Yes. The setting for using passwords is checked, if I launch the game.

And. Still no turn screen with the password prompt.

Anyone?

[Armatus]

I'll try to check on this in more detail this weekend, however I will say I have no idea as to whether it may or may not have a problem relating to the mods you have installed. My suggestion is to try these settings with your clean install of M2. I'm not sure if you are launching those mods to play or just saying you have them installed to other directories.

[Himmelsfeuer]

Yes. The mod is installed (real combat 1.3) in the britannia mod folder. I try to launch a "clean" game. Thank you in advance.

Greetings Himmelsfeuer