Can it be done???? The ultimate Arcanum multiplayer hack???

conor-maccloed · Apr 29, 2005

Rather than scroll through many pages of forum I would rather just ask my question out right. Does anyone out there know of a way to make the main story module accessable in multiplayer. I don't care how hard it is, I just want to know if it can be done. Internet play sux with this game from what I've heard but the network play isn't that bad. It's just the modules aren't big enough and the stories arn't long enough. Rather than investing tremendous amounts of time making a huge mod I would just rather play the main story in multiplayer with some friends. Thank you for you time.

DarkUnderlord · May 2, 2005

Yes it can be done, in theory at least. It'd be a shitload of work and require a large number of changes (fairly certain you can't have a World Map in multiplayer, so you'd have to setup transporters everywhere etc...) but creating a Multiplayer version of the original Arcanum could be possible.

conor-maccloed · May 2, 2005

Would it mostly be editing lines of code and/or hex??? Where would you start? I've looked at world edit and looked at the main story in hex. After about 5 or so min's The undat utility wasn't done loading Arcanum.dat so I'm not certain how it could be done. Are the rules governing who can do quests in multiplayer the same as single player. I havn't looked at dialogue(spelling?) editing yet either. I know I should really look at and make a module first, but I'm really not interested in making a new module just changing the old one. What corse would you advise.

DarkUnderlord · May 3, 2005

Best advice would be to start with what you're end goal is. IE: Don't waste time on a small module first when it's the main module you want to mess is.

BACKUP. BACKUP. BACKUP. A lot of mods have been lost because someone lost a HDD or accidentally over-wrote the wrong file.

Now, racking my brains a bit... Have a read of Amtut if you want the basics. Your best bet would be not to make a small module first but to use small modules as "test cases". IE: I want to do X but loading the full Arcanum module takes half an hour, so I might make a small test module which will only load in 0.2 seconds, work my theory out in that and then try it in the actual Arcanum module.

Hed editing etc.. probably won't be required but the quests (I think?) will have to be re-worked into multiplayer quests (pretty sure they're different like that). Also, from memory, there's no World Map travel allowed so you'll have to replace World Map travel with something like (stealing an idea from Morrowind) a mage in each city that if talked to, will teleport you to another city. For the techies, throw in the odd train here and there, maybe a flying machine, maybe even Chris Beddoes car... you get the idea.

As for actually doing it, find out which .dat file has the module in it. You'll have to undat it all into a subdirecoty in the modules\ dir such as "Arcanum_MP" or whatever. That becomes the mod you work on. I think to make it selectable as a multiplayer mod in the multiplayer menu.. you had to add a simple "multiplayer.txt" text file in the \Arcanum_MP dir with the text "Boo!". I think that's all it needs... If not, start a new module from scratch and see if you can just copy and paste the entire Arcanum maps over into that directory and see how you go.

Master Guru Vlugh · May 3, 2005

it wouldn't involve hex editing shit, just undatting, copying, and pasting, then opening it in WorldEd.

The difference between a multiplayer and a single-player module are the way the maps work. The main campaign has dozens of different maps. You'ld need to put them all on the Arcanum world map. Also, you'ld need to remove the overland travel aspect of the game, that might actually require some hard editing, because multiplayer requires all computers to be running the same in game time. Ever notice you can't sleep in MP? It's because if you could you'ld be running 8 hours ahead of everyone.

In terms of a practicality problem, you'ld need a fucking beast of a bandwidth limit to be able to play that without lag ending your game prematurely. Loading up Vormantown can be a pain in the ass, loading up the entire arcanum module? That'll be a god-damned nightmare.

Dark Elf · May 4, 2005

DarkUnderlord said:

Also, from memory, there's no World Map travel allowed so you'll have to replace World Map travel with something like (stealing an idea from Morrowind) a mage in each city that if talked to, will teleport you to another city. For the techies, throw in the odd train here and there, maybe a flying machine, maybe even Chris Beddoes car... you get the idea.
Click to expand...

Or, perhaps, simply a roadsign you could talk to?

conor-maccloed · May 6, 2005

I thank you all for your help. I will probably be posting more questions later as I run into road blocks. For now, does anyone have a copy of Amtut they could zip up and e-mail me??? If that is okay with you DU. My email is conor-maccloed@cox.net. Thanks again.

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