Simple Questions

[0bsidi0n]

Hello,
I'm setting up my first MP game with some pals, and we're curious about a couple things:

1) Can we start the game online, save it, then continue by PBEM?

2) When playing PBEM, does the game show you everything that happened after your last action?

3) Can online games be saved and continued later?

I know I could figure this out with some experimentation... but we lack the knowhow to experiment with each other at this point (hehe). Thank you!

[Robert]

I'm not sure about 1 and 2 (haven't played PBEM)
But for 3) : yes.

[snoopy369]

I would suggest PTBS instead of PBEM if you are going to go between RT games and slowmode games. In theory the game should allow you to go between modes fine, but i'm not sure that PBEM will pick up again after a MP game.

PTBS is persistent turn based server, and it allows you to have the game be available to connect to over the course of the day. You set it up, or load it, from the second EXE in the program files directory - "Civ4 Beyond the Sword Pitboss" (Pitboss = PTBS) or equivalent for Warlords and regular civ4. I suggest setting it up initially in Pitboss and then going over to regular MP from there.

The only thing you need for Pitboss is a computer that is online most of the time or 24/7 preferably. You can play it through gamespy or directip, whichever is your preference. Set the turn time to say 24 hours, check "simultaneous turns" if that's how you normally play MP, and you're good to go. When you want to pick up as normal MP, you can either just play PTBS like normal [the timer only forces the MAXIMUM time to 24 hours, so if you're all online at once you can play turns at whatever pace you want] or you can save the game and load it in normal MP.

For a PBEM, I believe you do not see the happenstance between turns, you only see the results. Combat is related in the combat log (in the logs button near the top left of the screen).

[0bsidi0n]

Hi Snoopy,
I've followed your directions as far as I can tell, but my friend still times out, and when I host the game with pitboss running, the pitboss screen shows my civ as unclaimed.

I think I'm missing something very obvious

Are there separate patches for pitboss? I decided to stick with BTS 3.02 (as did my pal) due to civilopedia linking, could that be the problem? How do you determine your network address?

Thanks for all the help!

[snoopy369]

No, the patch is the same.

I suggest you try to connect in a normal MP game first. Once you do that it's just a matter of making sure ptbs is on the firewall list and a few extra ports are forwarded for safety.

www.whatismyip.com determines your (External) ip address (the ip your friend MUST use). If you're on a router you'll want to connect to yourself at 192.168.x.x (often 192.168.1.100 or 192.168.0.100 but it varies); you can determine that by typing

ipconfig

at the command prompt (run cmd.exe)

that will give you your local IP. If you're connected directly to the internet (no router or cable modem), your external and local IP will be the same.

I'd worry a bit about firewall issues as well, if you aren't used to doing this. If you have a firewall, make sure Civ4/BtS and the PTBS application are both on your firewall exception list. In addition, if you're on a router, make sure your router forwards the appropriate port to your machine (not just unblocking); this requires you to set up a 'permanent' (Static) IP address for your local machine, which is done in the router control menu, and my suggestion is forward ports 2056-2060 to your machine as PTBS will sometimes take a different one than 2056.

[0bsidi0n]

These seem like good steps: I'm able to log into my games. Does he have to forward his ports as well?

[snoopy369]

Presumably, yes. Your ability to log into your own games is not necessarily relevant to your port forwarding (connecting to 192.168.x.x will not go through the router, I don't believe) but he should do the same thing as well.

[0bsidi0n]

I'll give it a shot snoopy... thanks for sticking with me. Once I've got this figured out I can post a summary for others in my position. I'll keep you posted on our status.

[0bsidi0n]

Success! Here are instructions for others looking for the path:

1) Read Snoopy's document on the MP techniques

2) I set up a static IP following directions here:

http://www.portforward.com/networking/staticip.htm

3) I forwarded ports 2056-2060 with UDP protocol from these directions:

http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm

Simply select your model number and get a feel for the process from other program instructions. It is very simple: the entire process took 10 minutes. Coordinating testing with my pal was the limiting factor .

www.portforward.com has always been an excellent resource for me. Thank you very much Snoopy!