KaM Remake -> Multiplayer Matches (now Saturdays)

[ZOLTAN]

As i think you dont need anything Lewing just need to code the functionality i think there are coding interfaces to use
nothing other is required as i think

[Shadaoe]

I personnaly prefer mumble, less latency :p but I'll surely come on any server created for this occasion !

[The Dark Lord]

I'll try to sort out an 8 player map but it's tricky because KaM doesn't have any... The resources need to be well balanced in 8 places. The best idea might be to put two players very close in a place with resources, as none of the maps really have space for 8 places with resources.
Ideas would be welcomed! (or if someone who knows how to use my mission editor wants to do it that would be great, but please let me know)

If I'm correct, KaM Remake does support maps larger than 176x176, right? In that case I don't see a problem.

[GreatWhiteBear]

I have an idea, If like 4players each create their own 1/4th of the map with equal amounts of ore and strategic points.

[Lewin]

I'd be happy to talk on a microphone to people, but the variety of accents might become confusing Also maybe not everyone will be comfortable talking on a microphone, especially if they are not confident with English. I've heard good things about Mumble, I don't know much about Team Speak. Neither of them should use much bandwidth at all. I think you can use them independently to the game, you only need a "KaM Remake addon" if you want positional talking, but that is pointless in KaM because it's not first person.

Just an IRC style channel to use to chat on when it disconnects or something would be fine, that way we can still communicate with everyone outside of the game and without spamming on the forum too much.

Lewin, do you have any clue why the Disconnects occurring?

Well more than half of them are because one person's game crashes due to an "out of memory" issue which I am guessing is because of memory fragmentation, due to the continuous resizing of the replay data due to the extra debugging data being written to it. This should not occur in the next demo.
The other kind of disconnect I've seen is when one client loses the connection to the server. (I've only seen this over the internet) I think the TCP connection between the client and the server is dropped for some random reason. (e.g. maybe your internet connection lost connection for 5 seconds) It seems to occur more frequently on bad internet connections. I am planning an "auto reconnect" feature which will reconnect the disconnected client to the server and continue the game with only a minor pause, but that won't make it into the next demo.

If I'm correct, KaM Remake does support maps larger than 176x176, right? In that case I don't see a problem.

At the moment it only supports 192x192 maps at the most. I'll talk to Krom about increasing this for the next demo. There are problems such as pathfinding taking a long time to calculate a route from one side of the map to the other.
But even so, we'd need a nice map made for us by an experienced map maker as KaM doesn't have any maps larger than 176x176. Would you be interested in making an 8 player multiplayer map for the Remake? You could even just modify one of the originals or one from The New Lands.

[ZOLTAN]

we have large battles and lots of units now cause of playing 6-8 players
right?
and the only way to recognise the armies of the players on the battle field is the color of each of the players
but it would be better or more fun if the name of the palyer would be displayed abouve the head unit of all the troops right?

and this way when you are near to me with your army i immediately see who are you cause of your name is shown above your troops and the name is shown by the color you have
it would be fun to see who is who when 3 or 4 players have a war at the same time
and not to search which color is which
wha about to mention this in the forum to see how other fans think about this?
yes but i have to memories the colors with the players and with 8 players it is very difficult i think
lots of similar colors
and easy to jumble
think of playing 8 players with more similar colors

[GreatWhiteBear]

Hey guys,
ZOLTAN and I were just discussing using a different map today, and we decided on "Land of Hills", the multiplayer map from KaM. I've removed the starting troops and put it in the the Remake map structure, so please download this file and extract it to your "Maps" folder. Here's the link:
http://lewin.hodgman.id.au/kam/Temp/LandOfHills.zip

If you need any help let me know here
See you all in 5 hours!
Lewin.
P.S. Don't forget, the day has been changed to Saturday! (today)

I'd say the 2nd, 5th (and 6th) player have a disadvantage. They are a bit far from coal.
Also the 1st and 4th players have 3 entrances to their base.
Given these statics I'd say that the 3rd player has the best position.

One question, what timezone do you use as standard?

[Lewin]

Hey guys,
I modified Land of the Quick River to have 8 players, each one sharing a location with another player. Teams are: 1+2, 3+4, 5+6, 7+8. (anticlockwise from the bottom left) Here's the link:
http://lewin.hodgman.id.au/kam/Temp/ThreeContinents.zip
I called it Three Continents because "Land of the Quick River" is just the single map name from TPR, in multiplayer it has always been called Three Continents.
Please let me know what you think, hopefully we can play this one some time, I'd love to see a match with 8 players!

@ZOLTAN: I think that is probably a good idea, we just need to see how it looks in-game. I've added it to the features list.

@GreatWhiteBear: I think those a pretty small imbalances, and all maps will have them unless they are completely symmetrical which isn't interesting.

One question, what timezone do you use as standard?

What do you mean by "as standard"?
In the first post of this thread I said the match time is 9pm CET, which is Central European Time.
I live on the east coast of Australia so I'm on AEST timezone.
Lewin.

[GreatWhiteBear]

One question, what timezone do you use as standard?

What do you mean by "as standard"?
In the first post of this thread I said the match time is 9pm CET, which is Central European Time.
I live on the east coast of Australia so I'm on AEST timezone.
Lewin.

WOW, I don't know how I missed that but I did. Thanks!

BTW, who wants to team up with me next week?
Can't really say that I am good but I certainly am not bad!

[ZOLTAN]

@GreatWhiteBear : What is your nick name? i dont know who you are

[GreatWhiteBear]

I will use GreatWhiteBear. I sometimes will shorten it to GWB.
My "teddy bear" is white and fairly big, he is my mascot!
I have used GreatWhiteBear with all my KaM stuff.
I have played KaM very long but wasn't really thinking about it for sometime until I found the Remake. My little brother played KaM more often and is better but prefers other games.

How long do these games mostly take and how often are there breaks?
See, I need to stop at 6.
I am Dutch.

[The Dark Lord]

But even so, we'd need a nice map made for us by an experienced map maker as KaM doesn't have any maps larger than 176x176. Would you be interested in making an 8 player multiplayer map for the Remake? You could even just modify one of the originals or one from The New Lands.

Yes I could make one, but will KaM Remake support larger maps in future or will 192x192 be the max? (Don't get me wrong, making a map for 8 players on 192x192 is possible, but a little larger would be easier. I won't require 1000x1000 as maximum or anything near that.)

the only way to recognise the armies of the players on the battle field is the color of each of the players
but it would be better or more fun if the name of the palyer would be displayed abouve the head unit of all the troops right?

Personally I think this will be very annoying.

@GreatWhiteBear: I think those a pretty small imbalances, and all maps will have them unless they are completely symmetrical which isn't interesting.

Hmmm... Actually the map I'm working on now (supposed to be played 2v2) is kinda symmetrical... What do you think of it? Is it worth to continue or do you think you won't play it anyway? Please be honest, if you're not honest with me I'd just waste my time if I continue.

[GreatWhiteBear]

It is nice!
Just a bit few coal.
With what editor did you make that one?

[xzaz]

What about a Random map just like in Age Of Empires?
btw I Applied for a channel, it's not going to be Teamspeak or Mumble but Ventrilo 8) Well if we get a channel... When its done I will write instructions on how to configure it so we have voice communication

[Lewin]

How long do these games mostly take and how often are there breaks?
See, I need to stop at 6.

The games have gone for about 2 hours for the past few weeks. We don't take breaks as there is no pause, but you can probably leave your game running for a few minutes without anything terrible happen. (if you tell us you are AFK we can be nice and not attack you)
Do you mean 6am CET the next morning? That means 9 hours! We've never played that long.

Yes I could make one, but will KaM Remake support larger maps in future or will 192x192 be the max? (Don't get me wrong, making a map for 8 players on 192x192 is possible, but a little larger would be easier. I won't require 1000x1000 as maximum or anything near that.)

It will certainly support larger maps in the future, in fact I could probably go and change it right now (we have a constant: MAX_MAP_SIZE = 192) I will discuss it with Krom, my only worry is that the pathfinding will not be able to make routes as long as the map size if it is say 256. We might have to increase the number of nodes used in the A* algorithm, which would be slightly more CPU load. It will be increased at some point hopefully soon, but I can't guarantee it will make it into the next demo.
By the way, you should join us one week to see what it's like

The map looks nice! I think symmetrical like that is okay, when I said I didn't like it I meant if every player has an identical starting area, just so the resources are balanced. How many players is that map intended for?

What about a Random map just like in Age Of Empires?
btw I Applied for a channel, it's not going to be Teamspeak or Mumble but Ventrilo 8)

A random map generator is a feature we'll probably do later on, but it's a lot harder than AOE because KaM maps/tiles are much more complicated. AOE is comparatively quite flat and tile edging is much easier. I think it would still look artificial unless done very well, so we'll see how it goes.
Glad to hear about Ventrilo. It looks good because it supports text chat as well, so people without mics can still type messages. Ideally I'd like a channel that people can "hang out" in when they want a game, and if there are enough people they can go and play one, any time.
Lewin.