Multiplayer?

[Exmortis]

I really am digging this game. I know it's not meant to be played Co-Op, it's meant to be a Single Player experience, but there has been mention of it being possible. Anyone know how to manage it, or if possible on the Steam release? After playing many years of Doom Mods online, this is another one I'd really like to try with friends as well.

[Diode]

Starting a Hedon server is just like starting a server for GZDoom, because, well, that's what it is. You can use command line options in windows shortcuts, or a launcher like ZDL or Arachnotron:

https://github.com/qbasicer/qzdl/releases/tag/v3.2.2.2-stable
http://nephrite.uk/arachnotron

ZDL is probably a little easier to configure if you know what you're doing, although Arachnotron does give you more on-screen explanation of its options.

You'll need to tell both to use your hedon exe as the engine/source port, hedon ipk3 as the iwad, and hedon pk3 as an external resource/pwad.
Anyone intending to join your server will need to create a shortcut to their hedon exe with the command line option -join, followed by the server's IP address. Obviously, you will also need to make sure your router/firewall is configured to allow them to connect to your machine.

You can find more on the subject here: https://zdoom.org/wiki/Multiplayer

A few Hedon-specific things to note:
The game was not designed for Multiplayer *at all*, so a number of things are buggy or outright broken. In particular, many scripted events will only effect the first player to trigger them, which mainly screws up the game's key plot points.

Quest items are usually unique, meaning that when one player picks it up, it's gone. For this reason, you'll need to either need to decide which of your players is going to be the quest-item-grabber, or you'll need go into the options menu and bind a key to drop item, allowing you to pass objects to eachother.

Perhaps someone will mod in an item to teleport players to one another. That would allow players to work around most of the problems.

[Zan_HedonDev]

Thanks for posting it, Diode!

[Exmortis]

Thank you kindly, Diode! I really appreciate the detailed explanation, that's extremely helpful. One question about the Unique Items. Would tinkering with the COOP and DMFlags help with that? As in, Shared Keys / Items Respawn, etc?

[Exmortis]

Hey! After messing with the settings for a bit, I configured the flags after both myself and my friend connected, with the proper flags, we can both pick up essential items, keys, and weapons. The trigger events are still activated by the first player who triggers it, which makes sense as it is scripted to activate like so. But we managed to get Health, Armor, Powerups, etc to all be shared. It basically runs like a regular Net Session on Zdaemon/Zandronum, like any other SP Mod played in MP.

[Zan_HedonDev]

Oh, cool, can you explain how you configured it in case more people want to try it out?

[Exmortis]

I used ZDL for my Multiplayer Session, following the instructions posted by Diode. (Thank you again for the information on that, Diode!) After configuring ZDL, both myself and my friend used LogMeInHamachi for a Direct Connection from my machine to my friend.

Host for the ZDL Session will need to configure a Co-Op Session in ZDL. The connecting player needs to connect to the Host IP as a "Single Player" Session. Once both players are connected to the server on ZDL and in game together, the Host should press Esc, go to Options > Gameplay Options, and configure the flags in there according to their preference. The Host should take time to carefully go through the list of Flags and enable/disable the ones they prefer.

Ones I used for Co-Op are: Weapons Stay, Spawn MultiWeapons, Items Respawn, Big Powerups Respawn.

I'm still testing out some Flag settings, so I'm not certain yet whether or not Allow Health, Allow Powerups, and Allow Armor are needed, but I enabled those too.

All Keys remained so we could both grab them, the Pickaxe and other Tools / Essential Items respawned so we could both have them, and the weapons stayed on the ground after one player picked them up so we could both acquire them. Only one player should be doing the events that require collecting resources and such for certain progression. We did encounter, there may be points where both players will have to do this separately in order to progress, but make sure you do them shortly within each player completing them. Meaning, both players should gather all necessary items as requested, and complete the steps together after both players have managed to acquire the needed Items/Keys. My suggestion would be to hang out near the Key Item Spawn after one player has grabbed it, and let it respawn so both can have it before moving on. (Read the Notes/Scrolls left around as much as possible when you find them, they hint at what you should both be keeping an eye out for! Once a Player picks up one of the listed key items that stands out, that should be a good indicator.)

That being said, both players should stick together as much as possible to ensure all scripted and story events trigger for both players, and they are both present for them to happen. Such as, not getting locked out of certain events due to room closures, or the general atmospheric events that occur within Hedon. A player blasting ahead of another will ruin the game, both for the story driven experience of Hedon, and the Network Session.

[EvilHeavy™]

Huh, I expected that the game wouldnt load because of no player 2 spawn.

[Exmortis]

It did work there for a while, however unfortunately I do believe with the latest updates made to Hedon, Multiplayer will no longer work since most of the ZDoom Menu has been removed.

[Blue Jay]

F

[Zan_HedonDev]

Originally posted by Exmortis:

It did work there for a while, however unfortunately I do believe with the latest updates made to Hedon, Multiplayer will no longer work since most of the ZDoom Menu has been removed.

Oh, right, you have to manually the engine - https://steamcommunity.com/app/1072150/discussions/0/5962175849942489566/

[Exmortis]

Originally posted by Zan_HedonDev:

Originally posted by Exmortis:

It did work there for a while, however unfortunately I do believe with the latest updates made to Hedon, Multiplayer will no longer work since most of the ZDoom Menu has been removed.

Oh, right, you have to manually the engine - https://steamcommunity.com/app/1072150/discussions/0/5962175849942489566/

Hey, that's awesome! Thank you for the tip, I had no idea you could do this. This is very helpful!

[Bro Bike]

Coop would be awesome.

[Ritter]

Can someone help with setting up the server?