Still can't host a game

[Ebon Jackal]

I've read answers on this topic already and none of the solutions I've seen seem to work all that well for me.

I've been trying to host a game for my friends to join but they cannot connect to me or I to theirs. I've read the hosting guide that has been posted in response to this question before, but all of this jargon about configuring ports and such has me confused. :( Yes, I'm ashamed to admit, it's a bit over my head.

Is there any real simple fix?

[Muzer]

OK, there are basically three main ways to host in WA (others have come and gone along the years but have never been particularly popular, so I'll talk about these three exclusively):

Firstly is the "correct" traditional way. This gives you the most flexibility as you are then able to have full control over all WA's features and host a game in every possible way (not just through WormNET but Direct IP as well). This is the hardest to get working, though, on modern network setups, requiring you to port forward in your router and possibly unblock WA from your firewall, too, probably requiring administrator access to both router and computer. This is presumably the way that you have tried and failed to do, but if you feel you might be able to do it, it's probably worth it trying to get this working for the power and eventual ease-of-use (once it's all working) you'll have. Check the hosting guide here if you want to give it another go: http://worms2d.info/Hosting - the Routers section is the main one, possibly Software Firewalls too, and Checking your connectivity is useful for testing without having to rely on people actually joining your game.

Now, if you definitely can't get that working, I'll describe the two other methods for hosting.

The "next one up", if you like, from normal hosting is using WormNAT2. This is quite easy to set up compared to "proper" hosting (though you do need to be reasonable at file management), but gives you nearly all the features (the main thing missing is the ability to host Direct IP games). It also has a "nag screen" whenever you start WA which is a bit irritating but understandable (you're putting all your WA traffic through this guy's server so he has the warning up to make sure people only use it if they can't get anything else to work). See the page here: http://worms2d.info/WormNAT2 - WormNAT2 comes with Wormkit, you just need to extract all the files out of the WormNAT2 folder in the WormKitModules folder into your main WA folder (Steam\steamapps\common\Worms Armageddon). Finally, you'd also need to install WormKitDS (because the normal WormKit doesn't work on the Steam version) which can be downloaded here: http://worms2d.info/WormKitDS (on the right).

And finally, the easiest to set up but the most of a pain to actually use - HostingBuddy. This requires no set up at all, but is a bot that sits in WormNET hosting games for people who can't do it themselves. Any game that has the hoster listed as HostingBuddy will be one of these, so as you can see there are quite a few usually in WormNET. You have to send this bot commands to tell it which sort of game you want, etc., and you can't edit scheme options yourself through the WA menus - you have to give HostingBuddy more commands once you're in your game. It does have a few nice features though to make doing this less of a pain - the ability to specify a game type is a nice timesaver of course, and you can also load maps from WMDB and schemes from WSDB. A nice overview of the various commands and how to send them is located here: http://worms2d.info/HostingBuddy

[Ebon Jackal]

Dude, that Hosting Buddy really did the trick! Thank you so much!

Honestly, it kinda reminds me of my time spent in MUDs. Not really sure that's a pain so much as a bunch of steps some people would find unnessecary, but there you have it.

[m3m3nt0]

HostingBuddy is awesome! I use it all the time.

[nana]

since when is it complicated like that to host a game? i cant remember that it was like this a few years ago. or i just cant remember :D

[NogardDerNaerok]

That may have been during the times when routers hadn't yet penetrated into every household on the planet. Good times, happy times. Sniff.

[Sandwich Breath]

hosting buddy isn't very comfortable, but works well!