IdontlikeWON.NET v.0.3b (beta version) by Tiho - 09.20.00 Web site (tmp) : http://www.IdontlikeWON.NET Message board (tmp) : http://www.nihilistic.com/mboard/Forum11/HTML/000742.html Email : tihocan@my-deja.com I. WHAT'S NEW ? The main new feature is the ability for the ST to easily send files to the players (see III.C) II. INSTALL II.A. First install Create a new directory somewhere on your hard drive, and unzip the IdontlikeWON.NET03b.zip file here. Then run IdonlikeWON.NET.exe, go to the options tab and enter your Vampire path. II.B. Update from older version Just overwrite the IdontlikeWON.NET.exe file. You can keep your old .ini. III. PROGRAM USE III.A. Joining a game Select an Internet game running, or manually enter an IP address to join. Click the "Join Game" button. Wait for the "Connected" message. Run Vampire, go to Multiplayer / LAN, and connect to the game available. Use the game chat and not the room chat. III.B. Hosting a game Enter a name (you won't need to use the same name in Vampire). Select either to use a new Chronicle (choose the right .nsc file : if you're using a .nsc file not listed for being in a custom directory, just type its name with the .nsc extension) or to load a saved game. You MUST set the same options as what you're going to use in Vampire. Enter a game description if you need to give the players some info. Check the "Immediate game" option. Check the password option if you want (you won't need to enter a password in Vampire). Check the "Publish my game on the Internet server" option to allow other people to see your game. Click the "Launch" button. If your game is public you can check if it appears in the "Join Game" games list by clicking its refresh button. Run Vampire, go to Multiplayer / LAN, and create your game for good. III.C. File transfer To set up the file transfer options click the "File transfer..." button next to the players list. Then you can add files, either by clicking the "add files..." button (you'll be able to select more than one file in the file dialog box), or the "add dir..." button (you'll need to select a file in the directory you want to add). Each file has a check box you can uncheck if you don't want it to be downloaded this time. For each file you can set a suggested destination in the players' Vampire dir, so that the players don't have to install them by themselves. YOU DON'T NEED TO CREATE A ZIP FILE : all files will be zipped before the transfer, and automatically unzipped in the right place after download. In addition, you can send instructions to the players (like "run the game with the '-user mychronicle' switch). III.D. Scheduling a game III.D.1. Hosting a scheduled game Select the options as above, but check the "Scheduled game" option instead of "Immediate game". YOU CAN'T SETUP FILE TRANSFER FOR SCHEDULED GAME ! That's a feature I've forgotten to add, I'm really sorry. I'll try to include it in the next version. Enter the day of the month (if it's September 30th and you set the day to "1", it will understand you mean November 1st :). Enter your local time (it will be converted by the server), and click the "Schedule" button. The game will now appear in the list in the "Scheduled Games" tab. When it'll be time to play, launch the prog at least one minute before the time of your game, and now you can run Vampire and create your game without worrying about nothing else : the prog will watch for the clock and do the job automatically. III.D.2. Joining a scheduled game So far you can only join public scheduled games. Select a scheduled game in the games list, and click the "Schedule" button. The game will then be added to the list in the "Scheduled Games" tab. But you'll need to join MANUALLY when the game is launched : the prog won't do anything automatically this time (this will be added in future versions). IV. KNOWN BUGS This is still a test release, though close to the final one. Bugs are still there. Report them to tihocan@my-deja.com please, this will help me. - when trying to run the .exe you may get the error "Please use a newer java virtual machine" or so. I don't really know how to solve this one, but it's possible. Try to use windows update to see if there is such a java VM update, try to install the latest Internet Explorer, or a Visual J++ demo if you have one. In any case please let me know if you find a solution so that I can include it in this readme file. - if someone creates a game and disconnect from the internet without closing this game it may stay on the server, and you can always try to connect to it, it won't work ;-) - port #4993 to 4996 are used : firewall users should open them (in addition to the port #27960 used by the game itself) - if you try to transfer too many files there can be some transfer errors - when you get some file transfers errors, the prog can become unstable, and it would be wise to quit and start again V. HISTORY 09.20.00 v.0.3b released added a file transfer option to easily send your mods to the players added the ability to delete your games from the games list window added an option to limit the number of players added a copy IP to clipboard button added a lot of bugs ;o] improved GUI 09.03.00 v.0.21b released fixed the bug with the "\" added in the game's description and name fixed the bug with the loading of a scheduled game's description fixed the bug with the saved games fixed a bug that could cause the refresh button not to work properly improved the game's description windows to allow scrolling 09.02.00 v.0.2b released fixed a bug that could cause crashes when refreshing internet games fixed a bug that could cause crashes when closing a game added a schedule game feature added a game description feature added interaction messages between the host and the players improved GUI 08.29.00 v.0.11a released fixed a bug preventing players from joining added a password feature 08.28.00 v.0.1a released VI. Thanks to : Nightwolf who was my first alpha/beta-tester Spock who was my first bug-reporter Tane who's preparing a nice website (when he has some time :) Nihilistic who did a great game WON.NET who gave me an opportunity to learn network programming :) THIS IS A TEST RELEASE, PLEASE DO NOT DISTRIBUTE. IdontlikeWON.NET (c) 2000 Tiho IdontlikeWON.NET has nothing to do with WON.net, Activision or Nihilistic Studios. Please don't contact them for any matters related to IdontlikeWON.NET.