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-
- The TCP/IP Internet DOOM FAQ
- by Scott Coleman (asre@ni.net)
- and Jay Cotton (jay@calc.vet.uga.edu)
- updated 10/23/95
-
-
- Introduction
-
- The popularity of id Software's DOOM, DOOM II,
- Heretic, and the new sequel Hexen are so immense, it has
- been estimated that DOOM is installed on more PCs than
- OS/2 and Windows NT combined. So many copies of these
- games have been sold that the idGuys can commute to work
- in Ferarris. Interest in these games has been so great
- that they have been hacked, reverse-engineered,
- dissected, and enhanced more than any other games in PC
- history. And now, as more and more people become hooked
- into the Internet, DOOM-engine games are rapidly becoming
- the Killer Apps of the 'net, as well. Although the
- remainder of this document will refer exclusively to
- DOOM, the procedures outlined here will work equally well
- for either DOOM II or Heretic, as well.
-
- DOOM, as released by id, only supports IPX network
- or modem/direct serial link play; TCP/IP networks are not
- supported. As a result, the DOOM documentation doesn't
- include any information about DOOMing across the
- Internet, and obviously DOOMers can't call id for help.
- As a result, the following question is asked at least
- once per week in the DOOM newsgroups: "How do I play DOOM
- over the Internet?" In the pages that follow, we will
- attempt to answer the most frequently asked questions
- about Internet DOOM, including what you need, how to set
- it up, and how to find new fragbait - er, I mean,
- opponents.
-
- DOOM across the Internet is made possible by a
- freeware program called iFrag (formerly called iDOOM).
- iFrag uses the UDP protocol to send DOOM game information
- between multiple machines on the Internet. By some
- strange coincidence, the authors of this document are
- also the creators of iFrag, and we have used the program
- to play Internet DOOM sessions with opponents from as far
- away as Estonia. In writing this FAQ, we hope that
- sharing some of our experience will make it easier for
- you to get connected in your own Internet DOOM sessions.
-
-
- The Frag Tracker
-
- The Frag Tracker is a major new enhancement to the
- Internet DOOMing experience. Based on the premise that
- the ability to play DOOM over the 'net isn't much good
- unless you have other people with whom to play, the Frag
- Tracker serves as a virtual meeting place for Internet
- DOOMers. Frag Tracker support is built right into iFrag -
- its use is completely transparent. People looking for
- games run iFrag in client mode, which automatically
- queries the Frag Tracker for a listing of registered
- games. The type of game (DOOM, DOOM II, or Heretic), the
- names of the players, the game parameters (episode, map,
- skill level, etc.), and other information is displayed on
- the iFrag screen. The player picks a game from this list
- and she is instantly connected to that game. If there are
- no games waiting, or the existing games aren't
- sufficiently interesting, a player can register a new
- iFrag game on the Frag Tracker which others can then
- join.
-
-
- Getting Prepared
-
- Q1: I want to play DOOM over the Internet using
- iFrag. What hardware do I need?
-
- To successfully play DOOM across the Internet, you
- will need the following hardware:
-
- * A machine capable of playing DOOM (D'OHH!)
-
- * If your site is directly connected to the
- Internet, you'll need a network interface card (NIC)
- for your machine. And not just any old NIC, mind you
- - your NIC must be supported by a packet driver if
- you wish to use it to play Internet DOOM. Usually
- this means that your NIC must be an ethernet card,
- although iFrag has been successfully played over
- token ring. We will assume that your PC is already
- equipped with a suitable NIC, although it may
- currently be in use for some other non-TCP/IP
- function (such as a node on a Novell network). As
- long as your NIC is supported by a standard packet
- driver, your machine can be readily converted into
- an iFrag "playstation."
-
- * If you are not directly connected, you'll need a
- 28.8Kbps modem (V.34 or V.FC) as well as an ISP
- (Internet Service Provider) with suitable dialup
- facilities. NOTE: If you have a 14.4Kbps (V.32bis)
- or slower modem, don't waste your time trying to
- play DOOM over it via a SLIP connection. It is,
- quite simply, unplayable. Go invest in a faster
- modem or, better still, an ISDN connection.
-
-
- Q2: OK, I've got all the hardware. What software do
- I need?
-
- In addition to the hardware requirements, some
- software is also required to complete your setup. Before
- you can play, you'll need to pick up the following:
-
- * The latest version of DOOM. At the time of this
- writing, the latest version of DOOM is 1.9, DOOM II
- is 1.9, Heretic is 1.0, and Hexen is in a 4-level
- beta release. It's always best to use the latest
- version of each game because that is what the
- majority of other iFraggers will be using, and
- different versions of each game cannot be used in
- the same network game. Additionally, DOOM versions
- 1.1 and below are incapable of using iFrag.
-
- * A packet driver written specifically for your
- hardware. The Packet Driver is a standardized
- interface that lets iFrag (and therefore DOOM)
- "talk" to your NIC. If you're connecting via modem,
- you'll need a SLIP or PPP packet driver.
-
- * iFrag, the TCP/IP network driver for DOOM.
-
- * Some basic network diagnostic tools, such as a
- PING or TRACEROUTE program. These are not absolutely
- necessary, but can definitely be useful for
- debugging and testing your setup.
-
- Q3: Hold on - I don't have some of this software!
- Where can I get it?
-
- * To obtain iFrag: Log on to tracker.vet.uga.edu via
- anonymous ftp. Change to directory /pub/asre.
- Download the file iFrag22.ZIP. This is version 2.2
- of iFrag, the latest as of this writing.
-
- * Many ethernet cards come with the appropriate
- packet drivers on a utilities diskette packaged with
- the card. If your card does not come with a packet
- driver, there is an excellent collection of freely
- available packet drivers called the Crynwr (nee
- Clarkson) Packet Driver collection. You can obtain
- it via anonymous ftp from oak.oakland.edu. Change to
- the /pub/msdos/pktdrvr subdirectory and download
- PKTD11.ZIP and PKTD11C.ZIP. You need not download
- the files PKTD11A.ZIP and PKTD11B.ZIP; these contain
- source code and example programs for the packet
- drivers - while interesting (especially to
- programmer types), you won't need these in order to
- play iFrag. Modem users should grab the file
- slippr15.zip from this directory. NOTE: Make sure
- that you do NOT get "slipr15d.zip" by mistake!
-
- * If you need basic network diagnostic utilities,
- the WATTCP applications are freely available and
- include a PING program. To get them, anonymous ftp
- to dorm.rutgers.edu, change to the
- /pub/msdos/wattcp/ subdirectory, and download the
- file APPS.ZIP.
-
- Q4: OK, I've got everything, now what do I do to set
- it up?
-
- Setting your computer up to use the TCP/IP protocol
- suite via a packet driver is very straightforward. This
- next section will illustrate the procedure for setting up
- a PC with an SMC ethernet card and the IP address
- 128.192.23.5. Modem+SLIP users can skip ahead to the next
- section, which describes the analogous procedure for
- dialup SLIP users. You'll of course need to substitute
- your own specific information in place of the examples
- given here. All set? OK, let's get started.
-
- Ethernet Setup Procedure
-
- Step 0: START WITH A CLEAN DOS BOOT!!!!! Set up your
- CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to load as few drivers
- as possible. Some definite things to EXclude are memory
- managers (HIMEM, EMM386, QEMM, etc.) and network drivers
- (e.g. LSL, IPXODI). DOOM doesn't need the former, and the
- latter will probably conflict with the packet driver. We
- recommend that you prepare an alternate configuration
- (using the multiple configuration facility built into MS-
- DOS; see your DOS manual for details) specifically for
- Internet DOOM with a CONFIG.SYS portion containing only a
- FILES=20 line, and an AUTOEXEC.BAT portion containing
- only the line "prompt=$p$g". Be sure to include the line
- which loads your mouse driver (if you play DOOM using a
- mouse).
-
- Step 1: Set up the packet driver. If you do not
- already have a suitable packet driver installed on your
- machine, now is the time to install one. Start by
- determining your ethernet card's IRQ setting, it's base
- I/O port setting, and it's memory address setting (if
- any). You should be able to determine this by looking at
- the card itself and consulting the user manual. You'll
- need some if not all of this information, depending upon
- which packet driver you use and/or type of hardware you
- have (for example, some IBM computers with the
- MicroChannel bus can determine the settings on the card
- automatically without you having to supply them on the
- packet driver command line). Unzip the appropriate driver
- from Crynwr Packet Driver collection archive. In our
- example, the packet driver is called SMC_WD.COM. By
- looking at the jumpers on the card and consulting the
- manual, I determined that the card has been set to IRQ 7,
- Base I/O port address 300h, and the base memory address
- is at segment d800h. For this example, I have chosen to
- use interrupt 60h for the packet driver. Packet drivers
- typically operate on an interrupt in the range of 60h to
- 80h inclusive; since nothing else in my sample system
- happens to be using the first available interrupt (INT
- 60h), I chose that. Thus, to load my packet driver, I use
- the command line
-
-
- SMC_WD 0x60 0x7 0x300 0xd800
-
- where 0x60 is the packet driver interrupt, 0x7 is the IRQ
- setting on the card, 0x300 is the I/O port base address,
- and 0xd800 is the memory base address (NOTE: all numbers
- are in C-style HEX notation). Don't worry if you don't
- understand what all this stuff means - as long as you use
- the correct numbers, your packet driver should work.
- NOTE: If your PC is currently part of a Novell network
- (e.g. Netware, Netware Lite, Personal Netware) the
- parameters you need can be found in a file called
- NET.CFG, usually located in your \NOVELL, \NWLITE or
- \NWCLIENT subdirectories (along with all the other
- drivers needed by Novell). Add the proper command line to
- the AUTOEXEC.BAT for your iFrag configuration so that the
- packet driver will be loaded automatically whenever you
- boot using the iFrag partition.
-
- When successfully loaded, the packet driver should
- give a sign on message and report the ethernet address of
- your NIC when you load it. Chances are that if your NIC
- has been functioning properly for other tasks (e.g. as a
- node on a Novell network) then you'll have no problems
- here. If not, or if there are any error or warning
- messages, something is wrong. One possibility is that one
- of the settings on your NIC is in conflict with those of
- another expansion card in your system. No two cards can
- have the same IRQ, I/O port, or memory address settings,
- nor can the memory areas of two cards overlap. Whatever
- the cause, you'll need to find and correct the problem
- before continuing.
-
- Step 2: Set up a new directory where iFrag and all
- its configuration files will be kept. You can name this
- directory anything you like (I suggest c:\iFrag). UnZIP
- the ifrag22.zip file into this new directory, and make it
- the default (chdir to it). We will refer to this
- directory as the "iFrag directory."
-
- Step 3: Set up your WATTCP.CFG file. Your WATTCP.CFG
- file contains important parameters used by the WATTCP
- TCP/IP kernel built into iFrag. These values MUST be
- entered correctly if you wish to make a connection with
- another DOOM PC. In preparation for this, you'll need
- several bits of information. Contact the network
- administrator for your site and find out the IP address
- for your machine, the IP address for your gateway or
- router, the IP address of at least one Domain Name Server
- local to your site, and your netmask value. The three IP
- addresses will each consist of four groups of digits
- separated by periods. In our example, the machine's IP
- address is 128.192.23.5, the gateway is 128.192.23.1, the
- netmask is 255.255.255.0, and the nameserver address is
- 128.192.44.67. NOTE: it is important to use the numeric
- IP addresses, not the actual host names. NOTE: If you
- have other Internet programs currently installed on your
- machine, such as a Gopher client or the Trumpet
- newsreader, you can probably find the information you
- need in the configuration files used for those programs.
- If the application is based on the Waterloo TCP package,
- it will have it's own WATTCP.CFG, in which case you can
- simply copy it over to your iFrag directory. When you
- have collected all this information, use your favorite
- ASCII text editor to edit the WATTCP.CFG file in your
- iFrag directory. Edit or add the lines beginning with
- my_ip=, gateway=, nameserver=, and netmask=. On our
- example machine, the WATTCP.CFG file looks like this:
-
- my_ip=128.192.23.5
- gateway=128.192.23.1
- netmask=255.255.255.0
- nameserver=128.192.44.67
-
- Save the changed file and exit back to DOS.
-
- Some sites run what is called a BOOTP server. If
- yours is such a site, you can put "BOOTP" on the "my_ip="
- line and leave the other lines out. iFrag can contact the
- BOOTP server and determine all the settings it needs to
- communicate with other machines on the Internet. If your
- site is not running a BOOTP server, then your task is a
- little more difficult (but not impossible!)
-
- If you know your machine's IP address, but you can't
- determine the other values, you can often get away with
- some educated guesswork. For instance, the gateway for a
- subnet usually has an IP address ending in .1, as is the
- case with our example. Thus, if your IP address is
- xxx.yyy.zzz.www, try setting your gateway's IP address to
- xxx.yyy.zzz.1. As for the subnet mask, a common value for
- this parameter is 255.255.255.0. In some cases, the
- gateway value can be something like xxx.yyy.1.1 with a
- corresponding netmask value of 255.255.0.0 - if one
- doesn't work, it can't hurt to try the other. Finally, if
- you don't know your nameserver's IP address, you can
- probably get by without it for the purposes of DOOM
- playing. Since you'll be specifying IP addresses for all
- of your opponents' machines, a nameserver lookup won't be
- necessary to resolve their addresses.
-
- Your basic setup is now complete. Please skip ahead
- to the section on testing your TCP/IP setup.
-
-
- SLIP Setup Procedure
-
- This procedure assumes that you are using the
- cslipper SLIP driver mentioned earlier. If you are using
- a different driver, you'll need to change the commands
- which follow accordingly.
-
- Step 0: Obtain Internet access from a service
- provider who allows SLIP/PPP connections on their
- terminal server. A "shell account" (where you log in to a
- remote UNIX host and type commands such as "telnet" and
- "ftp") will NOT work. How to obtain this type of service
- from such a provider is beyond the scope of this
- document.
-
- Step 1: Using your favorite serial communications
- package, dial in to your service provider, log in, and
- issue whatever commands are required to change their
- terminal server to SLIP mode. How this is done varies
- from service provider to service provider and is beyond
- the scope of this document. Check with your service
- provider for more details.
-
- Once you have logged on and enabled SLIP mode, exit
- your telecommunications software WITHOUT HANGING UP -
- this is VERY IMPORTANT! Any telecommunications package
- worth the floppy it comes on will have a "save without
- hangup" command, or will prompt you when you exit to ask
- whether it should hang up or not.
-
- Change to the directory where you have installed
- your packet driver and load it. An example command line
- for CSLIPPER is
-
- CSLIPPER com1 vec=0x60 baud=57600
-
- where com1 is the serial port to which your modem is
- connected, 0x60 is the interrupt vector the packet driver
- should use, and 57600 is the baud rate. The packet driver
- will display a signon message and load itself into
- memory.
-
- Your SLIP packet driver is now loaded and ready for
- testing.
-
- Testing your TCP/IP Setup
-
- Step 1: Reboot your machine and select your new
- iFrag configuration. Next, use your network diagnostic
- programs to test the connection. For example, if you are
- using the WATTCP application suite mentioned earlier,
- unzip the TCPINFO and PING programs from the WATTCP apps
- archive into your iFrag directory. At the DOS prompt,
- type:
-
- TCPINFO
-
- and press the <Enter> key. If your WATTCP.CFG values are
- set up correctly, and if your packet driver and net
- connection are functional, you'll see a couple of screens
- of information about your system, including your ethernet
- address and the parameters you specified in the
- WATTCP.CFG file.
-
- If everything looks OK, the next step is to use the
- PING program to attempt to establish contact with your
- subnet gateway. At the DOS prompt, type
-
- PING <yourgateway's.numeric.ip.address>
-
- and press the <Enter> key. After a brief delay, you
- should see a message telling you that the host is
- responding, as well as the round trip time for PING's
- test packets. If you see the "Timeout" error message,
- then something is wrong with your setup; if your PC is
- unable to reach your gateway, it will be unable to reach
- the rest of the Internet as well, since all network
- packets which are sent to nodes outside of your local
- area network must pass through your gateway. For our
- sample system, we would type:
-
- ping 128.192.23.1
-
- If your gateway PING was successful, try PINGing your
- Domain Name Server (at the IP address you specified in
- WATTCP.CFG) as well as some well-known site on the
- internet (e.g. the Frag Tracker, which is at IP address
- 128.174.134.150). These will test your machine's ability
- to connect with other machines outside of your subnet as
- well as those outside of your site. All of these PINGs
- should result in a "host responding" message with a round
- trip time. If any of these attempts fails, recheck your
- entries in WATTCP.CFG and/or get some help from your
- network administrator. Examples for our test system:
-
- ping 128.192.44.67
-
- and
-
- ping 128.174.134.150
-
-
- Step 2: Set up your iFrag.CFG. Again using your
- preferred ASCII text editor, modify the iFrag.CFG file in
- your iFrag directory so that all entries are correct for
- your system. You will need to specify the paths to your
- game and patch WAD directories, your chosen nickname (the
- name by which other iFrag players will know you), the
- number of lines you want on your video display (25 or
- 50), whether or not you want stealth (no sound) mode,
- etc. As an example, let's suppose Joe Ayedume has chosen
- the nickname FragLord, and that he has installed DOOM,
- DOOM II, and Heretic into their standard directories on
- his hard disk. The iFrag.CFG file for Joe's system will
- look something like this:
-
- ;
- ; Sample iFrag Configuration File
- ;
-
- ; stealth
- nick=FragLord
- realname=Joe Ayedume
- location=Redmond, WA, USA
- password=secret
- tracker=128.174.134.150,6666
- doom=c:\doom
- doom2=c:\doom2
- heretic=c:\heretic
- hexen=c:\hexen
- doompwads=c:\doom\wads
- doom2pwads=c:\doom2\wads
- hereticpwads=c:\heretic\wads
- hexenpwads=c:\hexen\wads
- videolines=50
-
- Edit your iFrag.CFG file to reflect your nickname as
- well as the locations of your games and PWADs. If you
- don't have one of the games installed, just leave the
- corresponding entries blank. Save the changed file back
- to disk.
-
-
- Put Me in, Coach - I'm Ready to Play!
-
- All right! iFrag is now installed and ready for
- carnage! Now all I need are some more players to sink my
- rockets into. From my iFrag directory, I start iFrag by
- typing
-
- iFrag
-
- and pressing the <ENTER> key. The iFrag client-mode
- screen comes up, and iFrag contacts the Internet Frag
- Tracker to see which games are waiting for players at the
- moment. Once iFrag has successfully contacted the Frag
- Tracker and downloaded the list of available games, a
- pop-up dialog box appears on the screen. Using the PgUp
- and PgDn keys, I can view a summary of each available
- game. This game summary includes the type of game (DOOM,
- DOOM II, or Heretic), the nicknames of all the players
- currently in the game, the location of the machine
- hosting the game, a brief description, as well as the
- current game settings (skill, episode, map, etc.). I
- notice that my friend (who is known only as "ArchVile")
- is currently hosting a game of Heretic. Since it's been a
- while since I have turned him into a chicken, I press the
- <ENTER> key to select his game. iFrag immediately
- contacts ArchVile's machine and I join the game.
-
- ArchVile is running iFrag in server mode. This makes
- ArchVile the coordinator for this particular game - he is
- the "boss," and gets to decide which game will be played
- (DOOM, DOOM II, or Heretic as in this case) as well as
- which parameters to set (such as episode, map, skill
- level, which PWADs to use, and so forth). ArchVile also
- decides who may be allowed to join the game and when the
- game will begin. Although the other players in the game
- may voice their opinions, only the server has the ability
- to actually make changes to the game settings. In a sense
- it's just like watching TV - although there may be four
- people watching, only one person can have the remote
- control.
-
- Now that I have successfully joined a game, the
- iFrag chat mode screen appears. This screen is divided
- into several sections: the credits, the output window,
- the status bar, and the input line. At the top of the
- screen is the name of the program, its version number,
- and the copyright notice. The large area beginning with
- the second screen line is the output window. Here is
- where iFrag will display all status messages as well as
- the chat text entered by the other players. Below the
- output window is the status bar, where the current game
- settings are displayed. Below the status bar is the input
- line where all the text I type on my keyboard will
- appear. Finally, the bottom line of the screen lists
- significant contributors to iFrag. During this phase of
- the game setup, all players who have connected thus far
- can type messages to each other using iFrag's built-in
- chat facility. To send a message to the other players in
- the game, I simply type a message on the keyboard. My
- keystrokes appear in the input line at the bottom of the
- screen, and when I press <ENTER>, the text will be echoed
- to the screens of all players (along with my nickname to
- indicate that I sent the message). The server itself will
- also send messages. Messages from the server will begin
- with three asterisks ("***") to distinguish them from
- messages typed by other players.
-
- In addition to sending text messages, iFrag's chat
- facility also understands several commands, each
- beginning with a slash '/' character. Some examples of
- iFrag chat mode commands are /who, /quit, and /help.
-
- When my iFrag client connects to the iFrag server,
- it automatically receives the game parameters which will
- be used during this session. These game settings are
- displayed on the status bar in an abbreviated form to
- ensure that they will all fit within the available space.
-
- The server announces my arrival, and ArchVile greets
- me by typing "re" (short for "re Hi," i.e. "Hi again"). I
- reply with a "re" of my own. Gazing down at my status
- bar, I notice that he has selected E1M8 as the default
- episode and map for our game. I remind him that we've
- been playing that one a lot lately, and suggest that we
- play something else. "How about hl9.wad?" he asks,
- referring to the PWAD (user-written level) which is a
- Heretic DEATHMATCH level based on the famous DOOM
- "Ledges" PWAD. I agree, and he issues the commands and
- "/map 1" and "/pwads hl9.wad" to incorporate the new
- level. Our status lines are immediately updated to
- reflect these changes.
-
- Once all players have joined the game and all
- parameters have been set, ArchVile presses the F10 key.
- The iFrag server signals the clients that the game is
- beginning, the chat facility is shut down, and iFrag sets
- up the connections which will be used for the actual
- game. Once these network links are established between
- all the machines, the message "Prepare to meet your
- DOOM!" is displayed, and iFrag launches the appropriate
- game. We see the usual Heretic startup information, and
- then there we are, in HL9.WAD, crystal wands charged and
- ready!
-
- After dining heartily on Chicken Flambe' (courtesy
- of a Morph Ovum, a Phoenix Rod, and a Tome of Power), I
- decide to fire up my own game with a little scenario I
- call "Carnage-DOOM." From the DOS prompt, I type
-
- iFrag -server
-
- and press <ENTER>. Since I like this particular scenario
- quite a bit, I created a standard DOOM response file
- called "carnage.rsp" containing the parameters -doom2, -
- warp 1, -deathmatch, -nomonsters, and -skill 5. I use
- iFrag's /load command to load the response file by typing
- /load carnage.rsp, and my status bar is updated with the
- new settings. After a few moments, NoOne, Caitiff, and
- FragMastr join my game. After exchanging a few
- jocularities, I confirm that everyone is ready to begin
- and then I press the F10 key. DOOM II loads, and I grab
- the rocket launcher for the first of many fabulously fun
- frags.
-
- That's all there is to it! Gone are the days of long
- command lines with 4 IP addresses and tons of other
- parameters, setting up games via email, and other
- frustrations. Now getting into a game of Internet DOOM is
- as easy as getting fragged with a BFG-9000!
-
-
-
- iFrag/Frag Tracker Etiquette
-
- The Frag Tracker was intended to provide a pleasant
- meeting place for DOOM players from all over the
- Internet. However, there is an unfortunate human tendency
- to behave both more aggressively and less politely
- towards others over a cyberspace link than one would
- behave face-to-face. In an attempt to help counteract
- this tendency, we urge you to employ the following
- guidelines in your use of the Frag Tracker. These
- guidelines stem from the common courtesies and politeness
- we extend to each other in everyday life. Think of the
- server of an iFrag game as being the host of a small get-
- together. This person has invited you into their home
- (virtual home in the case of iFrag) for a game of DOOM.
- While connected to their iFrag server, behave as you
- would if you were a guest in their home (and as you would
- like others to behave in your own home). Have some
- consideration for the other players and everyone will
- enjoy their gaming even more. On the other hand, severe
- and/or repeated violations of these guidelines may result
- in revocation of Tracker access privileges.
-
- 1. Do NOT use abusive or vulgar language in public.
- Type /freeze or /notrack (or both) if you want a private
- chat. Do not put vulgar or abusive language in your game
- description.
-
- 2. Do NOT falsify information in ifrag.cfg. Anyone
- not reporting their real name, location, or email address
- may have their Tracker access privileges revoked.
-
- 3. Do not kick someone out of your game before first
- asking that person to leave. One exception to this is if
- they don't respond to your "hello" within several seconds
- (in violation of item 7 below); in that case, feel free
- to kick or ban them at will. ;-)
-
- 4. If you are in an iFrag game setup on the tracker
- and you are asked to leave, do so. While the server
- player should be polite in his request, he is under no
- obligation to allow any particular player to join or
- remain in his game. Usually the server player will ask
- another player to leave because that player's packet
- latency, or "ping" time, is high enough that it would
- cause playability of the game to suffer. Don't take it
- personally; just find another game involving machines to
- which you are better connected.
-
- 5. If you decide you do not want to play a game
- after it has been launched, do not press alt-x to get out
- of the game - this will prevent ALL the players from
- loading. It's a simple courtesy to wait for the game to
- begin before leaving; at that point, your departure will
- not prevent the other players from continuing their game.
-
- 6. If the game appears to be hung while loading, be
- sure to wait at least 60 seconds before aborting. Some
- computers are slower than others when loading all the
- doom data at the start of the game. This may be caused by
- something as simple as a fragmented hard drive. In any
- case, aborting too soon is decidedly uncool (just as it
- is in item 5).
-
- 7. It is rude to join a game and then leave without
- saying something. If you join a game, and see that your
- connection is poor, at least say something like "Oops!
- Sorry, I was looking for a better connection than I have
- with you. Later!" Think how you would feel if someone
- walked up to your home, rang your doorbell, then when you
- opened the door they simply looked at you, turned, and
- walked away without saying a word. It's enough to make
- Judith Martin shudder.
-
- 8. If you are serving a game in which you want only
- certain players to join, be sure to put that info in the
- game description (use the "/desc" command).
-
- 9. When enough players have joined a game, give some
- time to be sure that:
- - Everyone has a chance to see and comment on the game
- parameters;
- - Everyone has or has successfully transferred the
- PWAD (if one is selected);
- - All players have a pretty good idea of what their
- ping time is;
- - All discussions related to the pending game are
- concluded.
-
- 10. Make sure you know where you are in the ping
- time "pecking order." If the game lags and you have the
- worst ping, leave the game. Slowing a game down is very
- bad form! There will always be other games for you to
- play; don't be selfish and ruin things for the other
- players.
-
-
- Other Pointers and Tips
-
- First, try not to use the "pause" key. Do NOT use
- the pause key just so you can type a message. Do NOT use
- the pause key if you have to answer the phone; either
- find a hiding place to hole up, or if you are fragged,
- just stay dead (don't hit the spacebar) until your call
- is completed. It's inconsiderate to make everyone else
- wait just because *you* decided to stop playing and take
- a phone call. If someone else has paused the game, do NOT
- release the pause - let the person who paused release it.
- Before releasing pause, the original pauser should first
- check to make sure everyone else is ready to begin
- playing again. People tend to get angry when an
- unexpected pause release causes them to become easy
- fragbait for another player. It's also really annoying to
- play against people who like to pause just when they're
- about to be shot. Argh!
-
- Second, DO type messages. If you notice a sudden
- increase in game speed, another player may have aborted
- or crashed. You might end up playing by yourself if you
- are not alert... Type a message and see if your opponents
- are still in the game. If you can monitor network traffic
- (I have a repeater nearby that gets very busy when I
- play), notice the difference between the amount of
- traffic when connected and disconnected.
-
- Third, Internet games will sometimes self abort with
- error messages. Don't panic, just restart iFrag.
- Sometimes one of the computers will lock up - again, just
- restart. If you get tired of restarting (this doesn't
- happen much), just walk away! It's just a game!
-
- Last, hope for a fast connection. This isn't always
- a problem, but when the connection is slow, the game
- sucks! There's nothing you can do about it. Sometimes the
- game will speed up and slow down throughout the match.
- Such is the Internet. Re-connection will not help. Every
- packet that is sent back and forth picks a new path;
- sometimes it's a fast path, and sometimes not.
-
-
- A Final Thought
-
- Fragging your friends across the Internet with DOOM,
- DOOM II, and Heretic can be VERY addictive. Have fun, but
- don't lose your "real" life just to play a game!
-
-
-