CnCNet v2+ suggestions and feature requests

[hifi]

Post your ideas what new would you want to see in CnCNet!

 

I'll gather the best ideas and set possible milestones in this post. You can also VOTE for the feature you'd like to see the most.

 

Well, here is the list of things that I remember:

 

Reasonable stuff that I will implement in the near future

 

* a proxy to workaround port forwarding problems and more than one player behind the same router

 

Stuff that are interesting but no milestone is set

 

* private rooms / password protected lobby

* a launcher, might help configuration and such

* allow LAN games trough the cncnet dll (no need to swap with the lan patch all the time)

 

Things that the community wants (all three players, yaay) but I'm not willing to do yet as it requires a lot of work

 

* automatic ladder, I'll do it if you FIRST play ladder games without this feature so we'll see if there is actual interest and player base for this

* allow more than one player behind the same router (requires major protocol rewrite)

 

[Nyerguds]

...bunnies?

 

Really though. Not a clue what could possibly be added to cncnet. Besides the obvious (good stability, reducing desync chances and such), the dll system doesn't really allow "features", does it?

[hifi]

...bunnies?

 

Really though. Not a clue what could possibly be added to cncnet. Besides the obvious (good stability, reducing desync chances and such), the dll system doesn't really allow "features", does it?

 

Well, like psde did with the Qt launcher, we could always create external tools for pre-game and after game.

 

Stability is as high as it can. The server software is finally stable and secure against certain type of attacks or misconfigurations. The dlls have been stable for quite a long time. The protocol allows some expansion without breaking compatibility.

 

Some things come to mind that has been thought before:

 

* launcher instead of dlls

 

A very crude and simple "launcher.exe" already exists in the tree and ehy has used it with his Red Alert installers)

 

* automatic ladder

 

Requires a lot of work from the protocol side to determine the winner, requires heavy modifications to the cncnet protocol and server to actually save the results.

 

Wchat version would've worked better in this as it actually sends the game results back to the wchat client but only allows 1on1 so it would require a new ladder-only client.

 

* private rooms / "password" protected lobby

 

This is quite easy. Configuration would not be that simple for the player as the dll can only read a configuration like cncnet.ini so it would be very manual without a launcher.

 

* remove the port forwarding requirement

 

Would require special proxy servers for operation. They will add more latency but it might be barely noticeable with the new netcode fix by Myg.

 

Configuration will again be a bit problematic as you would need to change the cncnet server in cncnet.ini to point to a proxy. Again a launcher might help.

 

* allow LAN games trough the cncnet dll

 

This requires configuration, again, so it's almost as much work to switch between cncnet and lan than just using the lan patch dll when you want lan games.

 

* allow more than one player behind the same router

 

Requires major changes to the cncnet dll. A workaround would be to use the proxy service which will be implemented sooner.

 

I might look into the proxy thing, it does not require any changes to the server or client code and will allow more people to play.

 

Note: added the things I forgot

[pichorra]

Yeah, this could be intersteating...

A westwood chat way could be ways ways better since C&C95 have a crap of lobby, A lot of instability when minimizing/maxmizing and we could Integrate it with CnCNet IRC... Just awesome!

 

[edit]

 

Hmm... a System where could transfer maps from the Host to the Players wihout needing to Link it into the chat, prevent a lot of headhache!

[HerrKhosse]

Hey there, I love what you're doing with CNCNet

My suggestion in short would be:

- replace the current built-in lobbies with something useful and tie them together with chat channels, like direct links to open games inside IRC and an built in IRC Client in a CNCNet Launcher or something like that .

- Add a way to synchronize maps, if you want to play with 4 people and someone is missing the map or has the wrong version of it, everybody is just fiddling around

- Provide a map preview in game lobbies, so people can actually see what maps they are going to play

- pack a complete CNC95 Edition

- Auto Downloader/Launcher, which verifies files, checks ports and provide support for chat channels/lobbies

 

I'm impressed with UPnP and I think you guys are on the right tracks, its just currently not THAT easy if you really think about it, most users would be completely overwhelmed with the complexity as it's now, you have to download this DLL put it there, here are the map packs (which I only got through IRC) etc. etc. , probably providing a plattform for maps would be most important, like uploading maps to a DB and when you connect to a game it checks the map against it somethin like StarCraft 2 has (probably quite ressource intensive).

 

Keep up the impressive work!

 

PS: I don't think ladders are the way to go currently, there are, imho, way more important things to do

[Nyerguds]

I don't really see how the inbuilt game lobbies could be "replaced" by an external program. It's not like you can remove them. After all, for meeting up with more than 2 players you'll always need the game channels, even if hifi would manage to hook the system up to the wchat launch system somehow.

 

As for "packing a a complete CNC95 Edition", I think that'll probably work the other way around; 1.06c revision 2 will have cncnet support built into its setup tool.

[HerrKhosse]

if I remember correctly, they were pretty much gone in Westwood Chat, you join a lobby (in westwood chat), set the settings (in westwood chat) then press start, it maximizes CnC again and starts everything up with the players. The thing is that chatting inside the game is incredible akward, of course you still need some sort of lobies, but taking the GUI out of the game is what I think would be important, because it didnt age well enough. I pretty much thought about taking the whole lobbie/seting up a game system out of the game, thats pretty much exactly what they've done with westwood chat ages ago, so they to must have thought that it would be helpful

 

About packaging: What I meant, is a big link on the CNCNET Page which just lets people download the full-to-play game in one installer, I love your work, but I think that the installer isn't that user friendly, in particular, it asks you about stuff which is great if you know CNC and know what you're doing, but if I'm a newcomer and I hear "alternate grenade sound effects", I'm not interested to worry if I should check that or not, IMHO, it would help alot if there is simply a CNCNET "standard" installation (with CNCNET written all over it), which doesn't "overwhelm" newcomers with different options, but instead let them play as fast as they can without worrying about anything.

 

Obviously, these are just suggestion which I thought would help from my experience with it.

[Nyerguds]

All of these options are gone in the 1.06c revision 2 installer; they're all in the setup tool now. The only thing the installer will ask is the language, and probably the resolution.

 

These odd options were mostly added because of people nitpicking about not liking some hidden/removed stuff I reactivated. Original C&C has no grenade throw sound, but the game does contain one internally. So I enabled it. So people whined about it. So I made an option to remove it, to make the game as it was originally. I later got a similar complaint about the blooper reel credits music I added as score theme after finishing the last campaign mission.

 

My advice: if you don't want to be bothered by those options, simply leave them on their defaults. And you might want to stay away from the "sound" tab in the setup tool of the next version... there's a reason it's called "tabForWhinyBitches" internally in the programming XD

 

 

The new setup tool has loads of useful options too though, including switching between LAN and CnCNet on the "multiplayer" tab of the setup tool. So, no more messing with dll files; it's just changing a radio button option

[Chimas]

I like the grenade throw sound ...

[pichorra]

I like the grenade throw sound ...

 

and i hate it

[Ferret]

I love it.

[Nyerguds]

Well, for those who don't like it, I refer you to the Tab For Whiny Bitches Sound Options tab

[Graion Dilach]

Hi, guys, I'd like to ask for something related to CnCNet but not to the dll... output RA2(YR) players on the serverstatus.

 

Or update the site, mentioning that RA2 works as well. It's unmentoned in the whole page. _{And until OmegaBolt didn't tell me it works, I didn't want to use this...}

[Tore]

RA2 is unofficially supported.....

[Ferret]

RA2 is unofficially supported.....

 

Meaning that it works with CnCNet, but we're not going to help you with it.

 

Also, we've (being the community) have been discussing making a CnCNet tournament and I would be able to help in some manner setting it up. It's been roughly discussed a lot in the chat and we're now really considering it. What are people's thoughts on that really, mainly Tore and hifi since they're the bosses here. I'm sure they've been wanting to but it has never happened, and I want to get down to business.

[Graion Dilach]

Until it works, no problem. Tunngle got messed up itself a month ago or so, until you don't do this same, I'm happy, like and keep telling "ignore that setup said for TS, RA1, it's the same for RA2 as well".

 

Especially because you're even faster than them when it worked.

 

And in response, I likely try to participate in that tournament... until it's not TS.

[hifi]

Especially because you're even faster than them when it worked.

 

Of course, we have less overhead.

[uNdeAd]

my evil enemy the port forwarding get rid of it!!!