Tonight, Crash of the 209th Deltahawks in California, and myself, sleepdoc
of the 303rd Sidewinders of Denver (one day I will be enough of a veteran to
permit the capitalization of my call sign), worked out the definitive
procedures for making 2 Player TE missions work on the internet with the
public release of Patch 1.04 for Falcon 4.0.
I will present these rules here in an
orderly, non-ambiguous format. Do not skip any step and do all steps in
order. They are not complicated, and will soon become second nature for
those who play TE Internet missions.
The first rule is so important it does not even have a number.
THE FIRST RULE:
Make sure you edit the takeoff times for all your flights to be ATLEAST
(read: No less than) 2 minutes apart. You can use your old TE missions from
any prior version, but edit the takeoff times in your packages and the enemy
packages to be at least 2 minutes apart. In a future patch, I think this will
be automated into the package building part of the TE mission builder, but
for now, it can be done manually with little effort (if you are already a TE
mission builder type person) .I recommend 2 minutes and 30 seconds
separation between the takeoff times of each flight in a package to be safe.
(The fact is that you only need 30 seconds per plane in each flight, but
that's a little more difficult to make into a simple rule. For those who
care, the real rule is this: the programmers allowed 30 seconds for each
aircraft in a flight, so a flight of 2 needs 1 full minute ahead of the next
flight in his package for take off. A flight of 3 needs 90 seconds. A
flight of 4 needs a full 2 minutes advanced takeoff time from the flight
after it. Since the most a flight can have is 4 planes, I figured 2 minutes
and 30 seconds would cover things nicely, and keep people from throwing
tomatoes at me.)
1. One person must decide to HOST THE CONNECTION. He will be referred to as
the C-Host.
2. One person will connect to the C-Host. He will be referred to as the
C-Guest.
The C-guest enters the IP address of the C-host into his comms screen to
connect to the C-host. The C-Host sets up his comms screen by entering
nothing into the IP field, and simply presses connect. Obviously, both the
C-host and the C-guest must have the "Internet" box selected and must have
an appropriate modem connection speed selected.
SELECTING THE APPROPRIATE MODEM SPEED is not a random act. This means
that BOTH PLAYERS must select the SAME modem speed, and it should be
that speed which is equal to the slowest modem speed of the two (for
example, if 1 guy has a cable modem and the the second player has a
33.6 modem, then BOTH players must select "33.6" as their modem speed).
Also, you must be careful to be sure that the C-Host has the
opportunity to connect his machine to the internet first, before the
C-Guest attempts to conncect to the C-Host's IP. Sometimes, not waiting
and connecting to the C-host's IP even before the C-Host is connected
to the internet will work fine, but this is often the cause of a poorly
functioning chat window. So, if the chat window appears to be dropping
some of what you are reading, and the conversation appears to be
missing text that has been written, and you cant figure out why, you
probably violated this rule. This one is not a hard and fast one, but
here is your heads up. Be fore warned.
These last 2 rules (the "connect speed rule" and the
"dysfunctioning chat window" rule), hereto referred to as the
"SU-27-Angie rules" were an addendum to this original article by SU-27
angie and told to me, by her, right after she had a chance to play with
the 1.04 patch. They have tested out to be spot on. Thanks Angie.
Remember. The "C" in C-host and C-guest means "Connection". The importance
of this distinction will become clear in the next rule.
3. Whoever is the Connection-Host (the C-host) MUST NOT BE the Mission host
(hereto referred to as the M-host). For now, just accept it. In other
words, If you host the Connection, then the other guy (your C-guest) must
host the mission (he must be the M-host). The M-host is the guy who goes to
the "saved" tab of the TE window, selects the TE custom mission to be flown
and starts the mission. Therefor, the C-host is the guy who must always go
to the "Online" tab of the TE window, and choose to join the mission that
the M-host (who is also the C-guest) has chosen for play.
(As an aside, if anyone enjoys testing things, please email me with what
you see happen in your missions when you are both the C-host and the M-host.
I want to see if your game behavior is like ours. my email is Sleepdoc.
I don't think I can be any more clear on this. If you Host the connection,
then you CANNOT host the mission. I am plum out of paraphrases !!!
4. Once both players enter the TE user interface, and they have selected the
aircraft they wish to fly, BOTH PLAYERS MUST set their clocks to STOP (the
clock in the upper right hand corner of the screen can be changed to "stop"
mode by popping down the menu which always is initially set to "x1"), Then
both players must wait until the clocks are stopped and synchronized. You may
notice that initially, the sync for a normal internet connection starts at
about 4 to 5 seconds off. ALLOWING THE CLOCKS TO SYNC IN "STOP" MODE IS
CRITICAL.
5. Both players must pull their throttles back to minimal power settings
before pressing the fly button. PULL YOUR THROTTLES BACK.
6. Do not start your clocks again before pressing the fly buttons. Just
press the fly button (the airplanes icon at the bottom right of the screen)
while the clock is stopped. It's ok.....really.
7. As soon as you press the "Fly" button, you will see the thing we like to
call "The big green clock". Make sure that both players decide IN ADVANCE
whether you BOTH are going to be in the taxi mode or you BOTH are going to be in the takeoff mode. DO NOT
have different modes. This is actually not as hard a rule as the others,
but it may cause problems. I recommend taxi.
8. If your TE custom mission followed THE FIRST RULE, and you properly
spaced the takeoff times of flights by at least 2 minutes, get ready to
rumble. Remember the dumbed down AI? They just finished postgraduate
work. Remember the mean ol' ATC lady with "the snakes in her hair"? She
gave up her crack habit. (Actually, she still sometimes thinks that
Gangnueng airbase has a runway 10, and it doesn't, but her rehab program isn't
totally completed yet).
I, for one, am very impressed with the enthusiasm and dedication the Falcon
4 team has put into this patch. It is not perfect, and the product has a
long way to go, but if this patch cycle is any indication of their support,
we can start having a lot more fun now, and we can look forward to even
better things in the near future.
Many people have said many things, both
good and bad about this product. All remarks in the extreme are a marker of
how important this level of simulation is to us. Let's all try to remember
that the people who are working to make this thing what we want are real
people. They want a great product too. If we want to see this high level
of simulation become the product that we all want, then lets try to keep a
cool head through the ongoing patch process, and do our part to give
constructive assistance. These guys listen.
I am not paid to say these things. My only reward
in beta testing is knowing that I am helping to clarify problems that need
fixing in a hobby that I love. I am a guy just like you (let's not forget
Angie, Sally, and LadyWS... hi ladies) who wants a sim greater than the "light"
sims that seem to be dominating the market.
If you want this level of
simulation to exist and prosper, then you have to be patient and do your
part. Enjoy the product. Let the beta testers that you know, know what
still needs fixing. Give the ladies and gentlemen at MPS time to fix it.
But for now, I highly recommend you watch your ass. apparently, the SAM
operators in version 1.04 have a bullseye painted bright red on it. : )
