Online play - Easy Howto (no external software required)

[Lain@X]

1. Launch Sacred 2 and go to Multiplayer > OpenNet
   If there is no OpenNet Button, download this file[darkmatters.org], copy it into your game directory with the same folder structure and restart Sacred 2 before proceeding.
   
2. Create a new account:
   You need to fill out all fields, but may enter whatever you like - but: please do not enter your actual cd-key or real email address, just use fake data instead as it does not matter and I dont want to know those anyway, I just can't prevent the game on your end asking for it and sending it to me ;)
   
3. Enter the lobby with your credentials and select an existing character or create a new one.
   
4. Join any server which matches your game version (see server title and description).
   Joing a non-matching server will crash your game without further notice, so go to a "vanilla" server with an unmodded game and to a "cm160hf" one with the CM Patch installed for example.
   
5. Loot Ancaria :)

Currently preconfigured servers are running for following game versions:

• "Vanilla" default game without any mods (all difficulties, free & campagin)
  
• "CM Patch 1.60hf" modded game (all difficulties, free & campagin)
  
• "Sacred2 Enhanced Edition 3.1" (all difficulties, free & campagin)

For more on this if you are interested why we even have a lobby back online or if you want to host your own servers on the lobby or even your own lobby, read this thread in the community forums[darkmatters.org].

Edit: If you saw this post earlier, you might have noticed, that the list of necassary steps has shortened :)

[JJ]

Thanks for the effort in getting this back online! I'll try to connect later on today and let you know how I made out.

[JJ]

Just connected to a server with the CM patch, looks like it's working great! I'm new to the game in general but have been really enjoying it so far, multiplayer should be a good time.

[Letobrick]

Thanks for the post! I tried following the steps above but I get the following message when trying to ccnnect: "Unable to connect to network (64) Cannot establish connection to our servers. Please check your internet connection and Firewall settings". I did install the community patch as well.

[Lain@X]

Originally posted by Letobrick:

Thanks for the post! I tried following the steps above but I get the following message when trying to ccnnect: "Unable to connect to network (64) Cannot establish connection to our servers. Please check your internet connection and Firewall settings". I did install the community patch as well.

Hey Letobrick, can you say which server you tried to join? And: What port is displayed for your lobby in the login screen? I allowed all ports i know as default ports for sacred (these differ for different regions), but maybe I have missed a specific port to allow in the firewall.

[Letobrick]

Originally posted by Lain@X:

Hey Letobrick, can you say which server you tried to join? And: What port is displayed for your lobby in the login screen? I allowed all ports i know as default ports for sacred (these differ for different regions), but maybe I have missed a specific port to allow in the firewall.

Yes, it had me trying to connect to eu.sacred2.net, port 6800. Thanks for responding.
Edit: I checked my firewall settings, looks good there for sacred 2 being added to the exceptions.

[Lain@X]

Originally posted by Letobrick:

Originally posted by Lain@X:

Hey Letobrick, can you say which server you tried to join? And: What port is displayed for your lobby in the login screen? I allowed all ports i know as default ports for sacred (these differ for different regions), but maybe I have missed a specific port to allow in the firewall.

Yes, it had me trying to connect to eu.sacred2.net, port 6800. Thanks for responding.

In that case the game has not recognized the "OptionsCustom.txt" as it should have. Maybe a typo in the name of the file or in the content of it? If it is detected by the game, it should display "hex41.de" ingame at the login screen instead of eu.sacred2.net.

Edit in response to your Edit: You dont need to change your firewall settings, the error message is actually not true in this case, the only one which has to check his firewall settings is me in this case but for your situation it should work as soon as the textfile is loaded by the game ;) In case there is no spelling mistake, make sure it is in the right folder and you have started the game after you created the file and not the other way round since it only loads this file at game start.

[Letobrick]

Originally posted by Lain@X:

In that case the game has not recognized the "OptionsCustom.txt" as it should have. Maybe a typo in the name of the file or in the content of it? If it is detected by the game, it should display "hex41.de" ingame at the login screen instead of eu.sacred2.net.

Alright, i figured it out, rookie mistake. When i named the file "OptionsCustom.txt", I added the .txt extension so it was actually called "OptionsCustom.txt.txt". Looks all good now, thanks again!

[Roderick]

Is this somewhat exclusive to Sacred 2 and CM 1.6?
I have Sacred 2 Gold installed with CM 1.6, reduce fog mod and S2EE 2.2. Under Mutliplayer there is only a LAN-button and two textfields for login, but nothing else, nothing with "Open Net" on it.

[Quagimus Decimus]

I'll have to check this out I'd love to put some time behind this amazing game with some friends.

[JJ]

Roderick - I also use the CM patch. You need to follow the step in the middle of the instructions specifically to "add" the OpenNet and login options back into the game. I was playing this last night online with no issues.

4. If you want to use the CM-Patch, copy these files[darkmatters.org] into your game directory.

Originally posted by Roderick:

Is this somewhat exclusive to Sacred 2 and CM 1.6?
I have Sacred 2 Gold installed with CM 1.6, reduce fog mod and S2EE 2.2. Under Mutliplayer there is only a LAN-button and two textfields for login, but nothing else, nothing with "Open Net" on it.

[Roderick]

Originally posted by JJ:

Roderick - I also use the CM patch. You need to follow the step in the middle of the instructions specifically to "add" the OpenNet and login options back into the game. I was playing this last night online with no issues.

4. If you want to use the CM-Patch, copy these files[darkmatters.org] into your game directory.

Originally posted by Roderick:

Is this somewhat exclusive to Sacred 2 and CM 1.6?
I have Sacred 2 Gold installed with CM 1.6, reduce fog mod and S2EE 2.2. Under Mutliplayer there is only a LAN-button and two textfields for login, but nothing else, nothing with "Open Net" on it.

Oh, didn't comment here... I got it to work and got a S2EE 2.2 Server running. Not for long, just as a test, but it looks really promising. :)

[JJ]

Was the server named Test? I noticed that one earlier, I was playing a new campaign character on the Silver server

[Roderick]

Originally posted by JJ:

Was the server named Test? I noticed that one earlier, I was playing a new campaign character on the Silver server

Yes, it was that server. Apparently, it is not possible to delete self created servers again... let's see how that will end. ^^'

[HerrDave]

Having some pretty impressive problems hosting

I can host a server no problem, but when my friend tries to join, the Join button is grayed out

On top of that, if I leave and attempt to rejoin, I get the "Unable to connect to network (64) Cannot establish connection to our servers. Please check your internet connection and Firewall settings" pop up.

[Lain@X]

Originally posted by HerrDave:

Having some pretty impressive problems hosting

I can host a server no problem, but when my friend tries to join, the Join button is grayed out

On top of that, if I leave and attempt to rejoin, I get the "Unable to connect to network (64) Cannot establish connection to our servers. Please check your internet connection and Firewall settings" pop up.

For now it is probably easier and less error-prone to just use an existing server instead of hosting your own one - in the list should be one server for every possible difficulty / game mode combination and the world is big enough to be able to play alone if you dont want to play together with others.
Also, if servers are hosted because of a bug, after they are down they are not removed from the list again currently and I have to clean up the serverlist often manually which is not so convenient... ;)