Author: Armatus Original Thread: Online Multiplayer Campaign: Medieval II (Setup Guide) Online Multiplayer Campaign: Medieval II (Setup Guide) Greetings fellow campaigners, This is the updated version of the Medieval II Online Multiplayer campaign guide. This guide will help you and your friends easily learn how to set up and play a Multiplayer campaign with Medieval II patched to 1.3 over the internet via email or by utilizing a web forum like TWC. If you're planning to play by email be sure you have access to an Email account that has no problem sending and receiving attachments. Contents Setting up the game configuration Using the TWC Forum Upload Tool for Online Campaigning How to Play an Online Multiplayer Campaign via Foldershare by [user]elGreco[/user] How to set yourself as Administrator 1) Locate the installation folder of Medieval II on your hard drive. 2) Locate the medieval2.preference and open it with notepad. 3) Verify the values of the following settings (if not there added them.) [misc] unlock_campaign = true [multiplayer] playable = true [hotseat] autoresolve_battles = 0 disable_console = 1 disable_papal_elections = 1 save_prefs = 1 update_ai_camera = 0 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 campaign 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 three players have chosen the following countries: Germany, Sicily and Byzantium then the first player would be Germany and would start the game like this: Launch Medieval II, Click Singleplayer, Click Grand Campaign Spoiler Alert, click show to read: Spoiler Alert, click show to read: Spoiler Alert, click show to read: Now select Germany, and then Sicily and finally Byzantium (the faction for each player is highlighted when selected - see image below.) Spoiler Alert, click show to read: Before you start be sure to choose your settings, I usually go with the following (as in the image above.) Advice Level: Optional Difficulty: Very Hard Battle Difficultly: 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 Now Click START and you will see the following screen (see image) Spoiler Alert, click show to read: Create a password for yourself and begin your turn. Once you are finished 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 > saves 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. 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 for how to play an Online Campaign via Foldershare: How to Play an Online Multiplayer Campaign via Foldershare by: [user]elGreco[/user] 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 of totalwar.org References for this section: 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
Last edited by Viking Prince; July 19, 2009 at 01:18 PM.
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