Do people still play this game online? How?

[XavierHusky]

ive done some digging and so far the only way, supposedly, that you can play this game online is through gameranger, is there any other way?

I should probably mention i havent played this game since i was in my early teens, noticed it was up on steam and immediately got it because of how much I used to play the game. it's pretty much as addicting as it was back then. anyway, ive noticed that theres also been some patches/additions to the game, do i require to get those to play online? where do i go to get those? maybe a video link explaining this process.. I suppose to sum it all up.... can you play this game online and if so, how? any help is appreciated, thanks!

EDIT: If the only way to play this is with friends, would anyone be willing to let a "newbie" play with you guys? lol I can still beat the AI so theres that going for me.. :P but tbh, its kinda frustrating watching the AI build sometimes and overspend their resources. unless its a metal map

[Mossman]

The pinned post should explain everything. Game Ranger is the easier way to play online. For LAN connection or for TCP/IP connection you need to forward the TA ports. In Game Ranger this helps but might work without as well. Game Ranger host port is 16000 UDP, if host opens that it might help hosting.

3.1 (steam is this) and 3.9 can be mixed, although 3.9 is better. Most people online play the mod Escalation. For that you don't need 3.9 as it is a patch in itself.

Many people however install Escalation to a subfolder so they can choose the executable that is launched by Game Ranger, whether 3.9 or Esc.

All in all you should be able to just join GR and be able to online play immediately. This might or might not be the case, but asking people there many are willing to help if you host a room.

[XavierHusky]

Originally posted by BigBarracuda:

The pinned post should explain everything. Game Ranger is the easier way to play online. For LAN connection or for TCP/IP connection you need to forward the TA ports. In Game Ranger this helps but might work without as well. Game Ranger host port is 16000 UDP, if host opens that it might help hosting.

3.1 (steam is this) and 3.9 can be mixed, although 3.9 is better. Most people online play the mod Escalation. For that you don't need 3.9 as it is a patch in itself.

Many people however install Escalation to a subfolder so they can choose the executable that is launched by Game Ranger, whether 3.9 or Esc.

All in all you should be able to just join GR and be able to online play immediately. This might or might not be the case, but asking people there many are willing to help if you host a room.

Thank you for the quick response! I appreciate the info.

So, I tried to install ESC, extracted the files and replaced the original .exe in the escalation folder, like you said. I basically followed what the site says besides the maps step but when i tried starting it up I got an error saying "the code execution cannot proceed because smackw32.DLL was not found." I tried the hotfix on their site, nothing. reinstalled it from scratch again, same error. Not sure what to do...

Edit: I saw a video on youtube mentioning a program called DXWnd that supposed to help with that issue but even with it, same error

Second Edit: I tried doing the 3.9 patch, unfortunately I got nowhere with it. Im getting the same error message. the steam version remains unaffected. I must be missing something..

[Mossman]

you can just download and add the smackw32.dll file, and I'm sure if you Google it, you will find info on it.