Tunngle for HWLG Multiplayer gaming network/lobby

[Cavalier]

Personally I think voice chat is a must! Setting up a game and trouble shooting any issues become immersurably easier when you can talk to the person/people you are playing with. These things can actually be impossible without voice chat of some kind. Plus voice chat is old technology now, I have been using for about 10 years. Headsets are cheap and any broadband connection will support voice chat. For those who honestly can't get it working then things like Steam and xFire have text chat capability. That is not even mentioning the social side enabled by voice chat. The ability to play a game, drink a beer and chat to your allies and opponents as if you were sitting around a table.

What we need is one meeting place. A place where you can go, find opponents and set up a game. My biggest problem at the moment is finding people to play with. Everyone seems to be scattered over multiple groups with multiple websites and using multiple lobbies. That is bad for all of us.

This constantly moving from one place to another is killing us. I am far from convinced that going to a new location in beta is a good idea. Tunngle may be a good idea for the future and a lobby managed by JMM would be fantastic.

xFire gets my vote for the moment.

[AnkLrd]

While Tunngle has networks for a lot of games, 230 just for strategy alone, you can only use one at a time.  For example, you can't be logged into HWLG waiting for someone to show up to play while at the same time chatting with an old friend in NTW, or looking for opponents in both games at the same time.

All games use different ports, but the port you set in Tunngle is global, and requires a restart of Tunngle to change it.  This is another thing that locks you into one game at a time.

Tunngle is low featured for a chat client.  For example, while you can change the "skin" to get a different look, you cannot change the font size or style, which may be important if it's too small for you to read. Other than a sound cue, there's no indication that someone has joined or left the chat.  There are no special markers for people currently playing a game and unavailable for chat. 

Hook the details you told above ll be fixed when beta is complete I think also there is a messenger on top right corner of the tunngle box where you can see your friends on/off and in which server they are playing.

I don’t use voice chat but written only because I use my comp at work and when I am at home I be with fam members, also as a foreigner I can understand some written English with dictionary help but I cant understand vocal English so me using voice chat is not logical.

What we need is one meeting place. A place where you can go, find opponents and set up a game. My biggest problem at the moment is finding people to play with. Everyone seems to be scattered over multiple groups with multiple websites and using multiple lobbies. That is bad for all of us.

This constantly moving from one place to another is killing us. I am far from convinced that going to a new location in beta is a good idea. Tunngle may be a good idea for the future and a lobby managed by JMM would be fantastic.

xFire gets my vote for the moment.

I agree.
JMM, How about deciding on a program and putting its link here on the forum announcement section and to main page for multiplayer gaming till you create your own?

[gazfun]

I agree.
JMM, How about deciding on a program and putting its link here on the forum announcement section and to main page for multiplayer gaming till you create your own?

Well I think thats what needs to be done, for JMM to show us the way here, and then we are all more likely to go that way

[Cavalier]

Agreed, as a collective it appears that different groups are too tied to their preferred application and the only one that is probably in a position to make a decision that the majority will listen to is JMM.

[AnkLrd]

Is possible this afternoon or evening, me and Berthier will be in tunngle for a multi match grognards level with the new patch; who want join is welcome

i look to the histwar network at 12:30-13:00 gmt some work days for a MP game, maybe we ll meet one day. 

[Hook]

It won't matter what program JMM recommends.  You can see from the preceding messages that there will still be some people who can't live without voice chat, and some who can't use it.

And then there's multiple language support.  Mibbit at least had the capability, right now, to do translation in real time.  Tunngle says they'll have it at some point in the future.

JMM doesn't have the time to test each solution thoroughly, and new possible solutions come up frequently.  It's going to be up to the community itself to try out each of these and select ONE that EVERYONE can use.  Yes, this means you'll have to give up some features you want, especially including the pleasure of not having to jump to another service when everyone else does.  Until everyone is willing to do this, the community will remain fragmented.  And unfortunately, that means no voice chat.

Hook

[Gunner24]

What is the "fix file" you mentioned?  Got a link?

Not to hand, it was on the Tunngle forums somewhere, it gave a "health warning" before using it, so that put me off.

Voice chat / no voice chat : I had always been against using voice chat, for several different reasons, but I have found it to be vital in helping people get involved with HWLG MP, and in bug finding/helping with bug reporting to JMM.

xfire has voice chat, and it has type chat, for those that don't want to use voice, or can not use it.....my mic cost £7, the type chat is as good as anywhere else.  In the time we have been using it there has only been a problem for about two days while something was being upgraded, apart from that it has been faultless. As far as I know xfire has no installation problems and no "pc" work involved, you download it and use it.

I agree in full that if JMM "recommend" a place top meet, most would use it, but if that happened to be Tunngle, then I would be excluded - as I find it totaly impossible to get working.

I don't expect JMM to "recommend" any system, why should he ?.......untill we get a "special" HW lobby we have to carry on as now.

My one and only objection to Tunngle is that it does not work !....I'm not sure what the objection to xfire could be.  

[Hook]

Gunner, I'm not saying that voice chat isn't useful.  But the only thing I can do in voice chat that I can't do in text chat is sing.  This is a feature, not a bug.  Be thankful.

With widespread use of voice chat, you'll be excluding the sizable French community (for example) that isn't extremely fluent in English.  Just like most of us here would be excluded from a French community using voice chat.  Even in the same language there can be problems with regional accents being hard to understand.

Hook

[Gunner24]

I'm not concerned if two French guys play against me, and someone else, and they talk in French, as long as they don't expect me to understand them and reply !!!!.  They can chat in French, we can chat in English.....we use F9 for in game plans anyway, the chat is just that, chit chat, ha.

I don't think voice chat excludes anyone, it is there to be used, or NOT, as each persons wants. 

There is the type chat if wanted. 

One or two NBC members don't like to use voice chat, for their own reasons, that does not stop them taking part in MP games after meeting up in xfire.

[Cavalier]

Our problem is that we as a multiplayer community are fragmented.

The quality of the lobby options that already exist is actually not our problem. There are a number of these that are fine so what it comes down to is selecting one and everyone getting on it. The characteristics I see as important are:

- The ability to see who is online
- The ability to chat using text
- A main lobby to meet and set up a game
- The ability to create a sub-lobby to go to once you have decided to play
- The ability to setup a Voice communications channel

Multiple systems (including xFire) allow all of these.

[Cavalier]

Gunner, I'm not saying that voice chat isn't useful.  But the only thing I can do in voice chat that I can't do in text chat is sing.  This is a feature, not a bug.  Be thankful.

With widespread use of voice chat, you'll be excluding the sizable French community (for example) that isn't extremely fluent in English.  Just like most of us here would be excluded from a French community using voice chat.  Even in the same language there can be problems with regional accents being hard to understand.

Hook

IMO this is simply not true. The ability to use voice chat makes setting up a game, trouble shooting problems and explaining game mechanics to less experioenced players far easier than trying to do so over text. Modern voice communication software provides excellent voice qualityso understanding most people that can speak the same language generally does not present a problem.

Almost all voice communications systems provide the ability to use text chat as well and you always have the Les Grog ingame text chat capability. Using a system that provides the ability to establish voice chat does not prevent those without voice chat from joining you.

[AnkLrd]

yeeeees yes i guess the problem with MP is people/clans hesitate to have battle with others who are not in the same group or team.
I am sure people have time because they fight among their selves but when it comes to strangers they halt. To a degree i understand that, we all take Histwar battles serious so no one want to be on the field till they are completely ready. Maybe we dont even need xfire or tunngle (course its a +) battles can be arranged everywhere, the problem is people not sparing time for that and time zones maybe. anyway this is still the begining, more battles ll be held soon i hope.
there are 2 challenges now i see on nwg league that are accepted but couldnt be arranged ...

[Gunner24]

yeeeees yes i guess the problem with MP is people/clans hesitate to have battle with others who are not in the same group or team.

Yup.

no one want to be on the field till they are completely ready.

I'm not sure about this, LG has been released how long ?.....well over 6 months, if people are not ready now - they never will be.

A HW "official" lobby would help a lot, no doubt at all, but I think most of us would still be surprised at how few MP games would be arranged, if people want to play MP now they can, but most prefer not to - for whatever reason.

Don't forget the large Napoleonic gaming Community around the TW games, most of them don't even have HWLG, let alone play MP - who can believe that ?, but it's true !!!!.

[AJ]

it may help if JMM can redesign the in game chat box. I know he's working on a new UI, maybe he can look at this then?

[Hook]

it may help if JMM can redesign the in game chat box. I know he's working on a new UI, maybe he can look at this then?

That would be nice.  The current in-game chat isn't sufficient for what most people want to use it for.  I've never played a multiplayer game where we didn't also have an IRC chat going at the same time.

Hook