MAKE IT EASIER TO PLAY MULTIPLAYER

[Cosmic_Screech]

all me and my friend wanna do is play this together but every time we cant connect. we need to be able to just invinte people to our games and not worry about ips and stupid stuff like that

[Limace]

I agree. I wish the dev would do something about it.

[Cosmic_Screech]

i just want to be able to play with my friends without a big mess trying to get them in the game

[Zetty]

What are u? Console casuals?

[Tachrayonic]

I doubt anything like this is going to happen, as the current system is pretty good as it is.
Connecting through ips is a fairly common thing to do, although it is getting easier to implement other methods.

There are only 2 obstacles with playing this game online with friends, knowledge and port forwarding. Port forwarding is telling your router to direct packets for a specific port to your computer. Once you've done that, you just need to know what Ips and ports to use.

[Cosmic_Screech]

but the ips never work

[Tachrayonic]

The Host needs to:
Tell his router to forward packets to his computer's IP (192.168.*.*) Use command prompt to find this.
Get his external Ip for the other person (Not like the Ip above) You can find this by searching 'external ip' online.
Make sure the game is using the same port as the router, and give that port to the other person.

The other person needs to:
Connect to the game using the Ip and Port provided by the host

Make sure your firewalls aren't blocking the game or the ports that the game is using.

[DarlingLionheart]

There are guides for this, it can take as little as 10mins to get going and you don't have to do it again unless you botch your router's settings. It'd be nice if it were easier, but I think it's a limitation of the Gamemaker tool more than the devs not doing it.

[~Vita~]

It may be a common practice to port forward and connect via ip, however it can get janky and convoluted. I myself have tried every method I can uncover to get the multiplayer to work, it just doesn't. And it's a painful, irritating process to attempt to troubleshoot. I agree with you OP, it would be better and easier for everyone involved if they did some sort of Steam join implementation or something. But previously stated, it won't happen unfortunately.

[Draescan]

Not to mention that not all ISPs allow for you to manage your ports. Some of them flatout have policies against it.

[DarlingLionheart]

Originally posted by PsychoMantis:

Not to mention that not all ISPs allow for you to manage your ports. Some of them flatout have policies against it.

This still blows my mind, but I don't know about the specific setup enough to comment on it. Even in college, I had my own router i plugged into the wall; I should have been able to control anything I wanted to, but didn't have a need.

[DarlingLionheart]

From the devs:
"Anonymous asked: I know that RoR is done content-wise, but what would you change in the game overall?

A big thing is making the online smoother without the port forwarding stuff. Dunno how that’d be done."

It seems Gamemaker has a lot of limitations, but they're kinda stuck with it because it's what the guy knows how to do for now. No mod capability, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ networking options.

[Tachrayonic]

Originally posted by Man'sLaughter:

It seems Gamemaker has a lot of limitations...

Having worked wtih Gamemaker before, I know that it's a bit limited in certain aspests. There isn't any really easy way to even create networked games.

I suspect it is possible to implement things like modding and automated networking, but people who know how would likely use a more versatile engine such as Unity.

[DarlingLionheart]

I would cry if Hopoo switched to Unity; I haven't found one yet, 2D or 3D, made in that engine that doesn't feel odd & floaty.

There is also a comment from Hopoo that they'd love to allow modding, but GM keeps most of its files internal so he doesn't know how he could make them available. I assume that means instead of just "turning on" a mod, you'd have to make changes & recompile.

[Durgtok (絵)]

It's not a matter of IF you can play online with friends, of course you can. What he's saying is that there SHOULD be an easier way to play online together, without having to learn how to port forward. Other game devs include this in their games, and I salute them for going to extra mile and not being lazy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Case]

Originally posted by Rill (絵):

It's not a matter of IF you can play online with friends, of course you can. What he's saying is that there SHOULD be an easier way to play online together, without having to learn how to port forward. Other game devs include this in their games, and I salute them for going to extra mile and not being lazy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

It's a two man team in school. If you think it's so easy to set up a P2P solution for them though, write it up and email it to them, I bet they'd even credit you with it.