Tunngle for HWLG Multiplayer gaming network/lobby

[mitra]

Personally I think the problem is not voice or not voice chat or chat, lobby or not lobby, all of this don't do difference on the main problem: find players for play. The game is particular, is not a TW where you can enter and play, you must organize the match much before , also with a potential lobby. If some of you played a Scourge of war (a game with similar target of LG) know that the game lobby don't resolved the problem of organize a match (also because of the connection problems which permit only to some players to host).

So the solutions are two: organized leagues, but this is valid only for players who want partecipate, or a system, at example on this website, similar a prenotation board where players can indicate the day\s-hours where they are free for play a free matchs (with settings  and type of game), other players could read this and prenote their place for the match if they are also free that day\hour: so all people will know days before when and with who they will play, with what map and army, and no people will lost time waiting all the evening for players in lobby or in xfire. After you can use xfire, tunngle, steam, it doesn't matter (the system are not mutually exclusives, xfire work also with tunngle open).

I also suggest to create a better interface for PBEM challanges: the old Combat Mission is still played after 10 years because of PBEM system. A scoreboard will be also a big incentive for the h2h games.
  

[Alfiere]

Totally agree.
Especially for PBEM,i prefer 1x1 and the PBEM is my favorite.
But also MP, if  1x1 work well ,could begin to get interested also if is little long,especially for training.

[Gunner24]

MP is working very well, except for the odd strange artillery movements....I also agree with Mitra, for those that don't want to be part of an organised "group" of some sort....over at NBC we don't have too much trouble arranging games - via the forum and e-mails.

Those that don't want to get involved with organised groups, for whatever reason, could make more use of this forum to arrange things.

[AJ]

....over at NBC we don't have too much trouble arranging games - via the forum and e-mails.

Gunners right here. I have just finished work and I am connecting via a "Boingo Hotspot" in the Ferry queue.  I logged into NBC and arranged a Campaign MP battle for Sunday.  I think that if you really want to fight a lot of MP battles most people will find opponents and the best way to do that is through a Clan/Club. If nobody is on our Forum I just email our active MP members.

I have to say I never sit in Xfire waiting for a battle. NBC fights an MP battle nearly everyday at 2000 hrs GMT, we have often arranged a battle and 1 or 2 guys just pop in to fight because they know we are usually there.

[mitra]

I disagree Brookes: the effect of don't follow officially and centrally the multiplayer organization, is that the bigger part of players leaves the game or the multiplayer side of this, not join the clans. See Field of GLory at example: a turn based game with little graphic appeal, became a great success because of his smart and immediate system of challenge online. We must also take in count that players have also different ideas about how play the game in term of settings (personally a like only the ful grognards level) and rules, and clan at contrary have the tendency to create a own standard for internal matchs and tournements: perfectly legitimate but not all players agree with these one.

Naturally actually JMM is too much busy with the game, for follow this side, but I think will be necessary in the next future follow this aspect, for the sake of game

[Gunner24]

is that the bigger part of players leaves the game or the multiplayer side of this

I'm not so sure, if people really want to play MP they will find somewhere they are happy with to play it....if they leave the game it is more likey to be for other reasons.

A central MP "offical" HW lobby is the best solution, we all know that, but we don't have one, so......on we go as best we can for now.

[mitra]

I'm not so sure, if people really want to play MP they will find somewhere they are happy with to play it....if they leave the game it is more likey to be for other reasons.

People want play but the bigger part no so much to work for this; they want it easy and sure (I insert myself in this list)

A central MP "offical" HW lobby is the best solution, we all know that, but we don't have one, so......on we go as best we can for now.

Lobby is not sufficient, th world is full of game with empty lobbies. I'm thinking more on the immediate to a specific forum zone on this portal which can work as boards for match organization (not separated for language) (both PBEM and MP); and also  web scoreboards for report result

[Gunner24]

Lobby is not sufficient, th world is full of game with empty lobbies.

In that case your right, a lobby would not help much if no one bothers to go there, so why do "we" want one ?.

In my opinion, if people are not very interested in MP, it makes no difference what you offer them, if they are interested they will find peoeple to play against.

NBC members play PBEM and MP almost every day, but we would like to see others play as well.  Many people are against joining organised groups, for many different reasons, which is ok, I refused to do that for over two years in ntw2, and strugged to get games.....these people have to contact each other (HW has a forum for that here) if they exclude themselves from all the groups of "interested" people trying very hard to get MP games played.

[Cavalier]

Lobbies can work very well IF people take a few minutes to set them up correctly. Lobbies like Steam and XFire can be set to startup when you turn your PC on. It just runs unobtrusively in the background using negligible resources.

The big thing is that others can see whether you are online and message you. Yo get an audible chime to let you know you have a message and you can easily chat to set up a game now or later.

I use this exact method very successfully with 4 other people (including NapLrd and harryInk). The secret is to all use the same lobby so that it has plenty of people in it.

[AJ]

I use this exact method very successfully with 4 other people (including NapLrd and harryInk). The secret is to all use the same lobby so that it has plenty of people in it.

You've nailed it mate. Right now there are 25 Gronards registered on Xfire, more by far, than any other Lobby/Chat room and probably the majority of active MP players.

[Gunner24]

Very good points Cavalier.......that is the way forward.

[Gunner24]

Gunner is the only one  who have problem with it while installing

Good news for me..................I got it working - at last !!!.

Here is what I had to do - I checked the tunngle home page and it has been all re-vamped, with better "support" instructions, so I downloaded and installed it again......same problem, the tunngle adapter would not go to the top of the list of networks, in the network connections, and it has to be at the top.

I then did a manual install of the adapter, even though the adapter was already installed.......after doing that I find I have two tunngle adapters installed and the second (manual) one somehow pushed the first one to the top of the network list, which was impossible to do before, so now I have two and it WORKS with the first installed one, with the manual installed one sitting there doing nothing.

Now, does anyone use this for HW ?.  I installed it for ntw3.

There is so much talk about how hard to is to arrange MP games, I could be 100% wrong, I often am, but I think it is not so hard as being claimed.

Here's how to do it - Check the NBC site (or any other site where HWLG is being played MP) and check the results section, see who is playing MP games, send them a PM or e-mail asking them if they want a game - like : would you like to play a MP game at 8pm on Weds, with the GermanRiver map and a 150ceh army.  Send them your doctrine and OOB, they reply, yes or no, if yes, game on, if no try again for a different date/time/person.  The games won't arrange themselves - it does need a certain amount of effert.