Unable To Play With Demo Users

[Hyfrydle]

I tried the demo yesterday and was very impressed so I bought it. I then told a friend about it and he downloaded the demo and we where going to try a multiplayer game. We tried to connect and got a message stating a version mismatch. Is it not possible to play against demo versions with the full version?

This is really annoying as I was hoping to convince my pal to purchase.

[Quitch]

I haven't tried this myself, but did you update the demo to match your version (see top left of main menu screen).

[Hyfrydle]

I wasn't aware it was possible to patch the demo but the versions where both 1.006 I have since installed the latest beta patch so I will just play SP for now.

[x4000]

First off, welcome to the boards Hyfrydle, and thanks for your support!  Glad you like the game.

At this time, it is not possible for a demo version of the game to play multiplayer with a retail version of the game.  I don't know of any other RTS games that support this, so this was not something that it ever occurred to me to add -- but, given your query, it instantly makes sense to me why this would be desirable, given the cooperative nature of this game.

I've added this for my to-do list for the next prerelease (for tomorrow), and will post here when that is in.  When a demo player plays with a retail player, the time restrictions of the demo player will of course have to apply, but that will still let you easily try out the co-op for an hour without having to buy two copies on spec or something.

In the meantime, here's a workaround:  You can revert your copy to temporarily running in demo mode by opening the game, going to Settings, and then copying the Game Data Directory (the textbox near the bottom).  Go to that directory in explorer, and you will see a settings.dat file.  Simply rename that to settings2.dat or something similar, and your game will revert to how it was when you first installed it.  You'll have to redo your settings and set up a new profile, etc, but you'll be in demo mode and can play with your friend in that fashion.  If you later want to go back to the full version, simply restore your settings2.dat file to replace the temporary demo settings.dat file, and you're back where you were. 

This will only be needed until sometime tomorrow, but I just wanted to give you a workaround for the short term, just in case.  Thanks again for your support!

[Hyfrydle]

Thankyou for the quick response I'm very impressed with the support for this game I will try very hard to get my pal to purchase the game. I'm sure after the hour is up he'll want to finish the game.

Also could I make a quick suggestion would it be possible to let the find option in the galaxy map allow selection of just one planets ships instead of all ships as sometimes I just want to send one planets fleet no all ships of that type.

Hope this makes sense and if this is already implemented in some other way I apologise.

Again thanks for making such a great deep thinking strategic RTS it's about time this genre moved forward.

[x4000]

Thankyou for the quick response I'm very impressed with the support for this game I will try very hard to get my pal to purchase the game. I'm sure after the hour is up he'll want to finish the game.

Wonderful, thanks!  Co-op is a blast, so I'm sure you both will have a lot of fun together with that.

Also could I make a quick suggestion would it be possible to let the find option in the galaxy map allow selection of just one planets ships instead of all ships as sometimes I just want to send one planets fleet no all ships of that type.

Actually, you can already do this.  When you go into the find mode, it shows all of the ships on each planet in green.  Just left-click planets that you don't want to select, and they will turn red.  Then you can right-click to give orders like you already were, and it will just send the command to whatever planets you left as green.

Alternately, if you know which planet you want to select all ships of a certain type from, you could just go to the planet, then quickly left-click the ship's icon in the planetary summary (on the right), and then tab back out to the galaxy view and give them whatever orders.  So depending on your specific needs at the time, there are two ways to go about this.

Hope this makes sense and if this is already implemented in some other way I apologise.

No worries, there are so many features that a lot of times people's suggestions are already there (sometimes -- but a lot of times not).  Anyway, I don't expect people to be an expert on 100% all of the features before they make any suggestions or ask any questions.  I'd never get any suggestions if that was a requirement, there's just too much to the game.  Also, when a lot of people ask about something that is already there, then that makes me strongly consider a wiki topic or some sort of better in-game hover tip, since obviously that feature is too obscure at present.  Anyway, so main point is no worries.

Again thanks for making such a great deep thinking strategic RTS it's about time this genre moved forward.

You bet!  Thanks for the praise -- I'm really thrilled to see how well this is being received by a lot of people.

[x4000]

Okay, the latest prerelease now supports having trial players play with retail ones (so long as they are on the same version):  http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,134.0.html

[Hyfrydle]

Just a quick update I started a MP game with my pal who has the demo version yesterday and on the hour he was enjoying it so much he purchased and we played on.

We both really enjoyed taking on the AI who for some reason kept attacking my planets and we really had to work together to take some of the enemy strongholds. Not sure we understand how AI Progress works I think we are now on 196 is this high?

Again thanks for such a clever thought provoking game.

[x4000]

Just a quick update I started a MP game with my pal who has the demo version yesterday and on the hour he was enjoying it so much he purchased and we played on.

We both really enjoyed taking on the AI who for some reason kept attacking my planets and we really had to work together to take some of the enemy strongholds. Not sure we understand how AI Progress works I think we are now on 196 is this high?

Again thanks for such a clever thought provoking game.

Hey there, glad to hear it, and thanks for spreading the word!  Sounds like you might be playing against an Assassin or Bully, which tend to target one player (strongest or weakest, in terms of score).  That could explain the single-minded focus of the AI on your planets.  Or, it might just be a coincidence.

A few releases ago (1.006, I think) the AI Progress scale went up by 10x.  So 196 is not high at all, that's equivalent to 19.6 on the old scale.  Here's a wiki entry about when the AI goes up tech levels, which should be helpful:  http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_AI_Techs

Thanks again for your support, and so glad you are both enjoying it so much!

[Quitch]

In games with a Technologist AI Type, the Tech Level of the AI will be higher right from the start (that is part of the personality of those AI types). Also, when playing against some of the very high level AI types, they generally start with Mark II ships instead of Mark I.

I'd like to see the Wiki expand on this, how is this handled if only one AI is a technologist, do both get the benefit? What is "very high level types"? Types suggests personality but level suggests, well, level.

[x4000]

In games with a Technologist AI Type, the Tech Level of the AI will be higher right from the start (that is part of the personality of those AI types). Also, when playing against some of the very high level AI types, they generally start with Mark II ships instead of Mark I.

I'd like to see the Wiki expand on this, how is this handled if only one AI is a technologist, do both get the benefit? What is "very high level types"? Types suggests personality but level suggests, well, level.

Added to my list to get to for the wiki... but, briefly, I meant "very high level difficulties" there.  If one AI is a technologist, only that one gets the improved waves, I believe, but I'll need to verify (that's the way it should be, anyway).  Good questions!