How to play Deus Ex Co-op (DXHX)

You're looking to play some Deus Ex on co-op?

So, I'm guessing that maybe a long time ago, you thought about what co-op in Deus Ex would be like, or if it could be possible at all, or stumbled upon this. Yes, there is a co-op mod for Deus Ex that allows you to go through the entire campaign of Deus Ex with your friends!

Downloading HX

Before going in through with your GEP Gun or Prod with your friends, it is recommended that you have a fresh install of your Deus Ex copy in version 1.112fm.

Now, in order to install this mod, you must get into this site

https://builds.hx.hanfling.de




You'll be greeted with a very blank page with very few text on it, but don't worry, just click the "testing" directory and download the latest version of HX, it should save as a .zip file (right now in 12/27/2019 the latest version is 0.9.89.4)





After downloading the file, you're ready to proceed to the next step.

Installing HX

Once you have the HX .zip file, open it with either WinRaR, 7Zip, Winzip, your choice


You'll see that there is only two folders on the .zip file, now, go to your Deus Ex directory, which should be, in the case of a Deus Ex Steam copy, Steam/steamapps/common/Deus Ex

Now, the next thing you're gonna do, is to drag and drop the contents of the HX .zip file to your Deus Ex root folder, it's going to ask to replace files, so just replace them.


Now, once you've done this, head to your system folder in your Deus Ex folder, then inside that folder, find a file called HX.exe (or just HX with the Deus Ex logo on it). This is the launcher for playing Deus Ex Co-op, open it, and if the game main menu starts normally...


Congratulations! Now you're almost ready to play some HX!

Playing HX

So, as you might guess, this is the best part.

Before proceeding, remember that to play HX, you must open HX.exe in your system folder, not DeusEx.exe !!!

Now, with that said, i'm gonna explain you how to play HX with your friends

Playing Online

So, the instructions are very simple, once you open HX, go to Net Game, it should appear one or two servers, if not, it means that the master server is temporarily down.

So, if a server appears, just join, wait for your friends to join, and start playing.


...if not, don't worry, you can still try another trick. So far we got one server that is up 24/7, which you can manually join by going to Net Game, and typing manually the IP on the IP Address part, which is hxdev.pezzztech.xyz , after typing it, just click Connect, and if all goes well, you'll be in, if not, most probably the server is down.


I highly recommend joining the Deus Ex HQ Discord Server, because in there you can keep the track of every HX server online on the master server.

https://discord.gg/jCFJ3A6

Making an HX Server

If you are interested on making a server for HX, i'm gonna explain you how to do it either for LAN or Online games

(NOTE: I never tried hosting an online game by myself, so if you notice some errors on this section of the guide, tell me and i'll correct it)

LAN Server

Making a LAN server is pretty easy actually, you just need to hook all the computers on the same network, either by wifi or ethernet cable, open HX, click LAN Game, Host Game, and here's where you configure all the stuff.

Configuring the server doesn't take that much time with this menu, but in case you feel lost, i'm gonna explain what every option does:

Gametype: I'm assuming this is the only gametype, so i suggest leaving it that way
Map: This is where you choose which mission you want to load up
Difficulty: Of couse, this is where you choose the difficulty, either Easy, Normal, Hard, or DeusEx (Realistic)
Maximum # of Players: This is, of course, where you choose the max amount of people that will be in the server
Friendly Fire: This adjusts the percentage of friendly fire damage
Skill Point Penalty: Reduces amount of Skill Points received
JC Denton Mode: Makes every player have a JC Denton skin
Additional Skill Points: Sets an additional number of Skill Points a player has
Augmentations: This setting loads up augmentations depending on which mission you are (Ex: If you are gonna load the Hong Kong mission, you might as well load the augs for that mission too)
Augmentation Upgrades: Sets the number of augmentation upgrades a player has installed when joining a game
Cheats: Of course, you can turn cheats on and off

Now, i'll cover the last option because i feel that this is the most important option of the whole setup

Server Mode: Lets you either host a Listen Server (Non-Dedicated) or a Dedicated server.

Making a Dedicated server will close the game and add a Deus Ex logo in the System Tray, if you click it, you'll find yourself a console, that controls the entire server, so you can execute commands even without the game open. (Apparently, Dedicated Servers run faster, so that's a plus i guess)

Making a Listen server is actually making a server and at the same time playing inside your server, thing is, if you leave the game or your game crashes, the entire server goes down too.

Online Server

An Online server is actually a little bit more tricky, because you need to open some ports in order to do so, because if you don't open the ports, nobody will be able to see your server. You can check a guide on how to open the ports of your router here [wiki.deusexcoop.com]

The default ports for HX are 7790 and 7792, you must open these in order to make an online server.

Also, make sure to allow HX through firewall, by going to Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Defender Firewall > Allow an app through Firewall (Windows 10)

With all of that said, once you've done that, open HX, click on Net Game, Host Game, configure your server, open it, and if people are able to see your server on the master server, you're done!

Saving your game (EXPERIMENTAL)

So, i know i said before that you can't save your games on HX, but a recent event showed the first and only method so far of saving your game in HX.

NOTE: I am not sure how effective this method is, and i take no responsibility of what happens to your Deus Ex files or HX progress, try at your own risk.

First of all, your server must be a dedicated server, after playing on your server, you have to close it, after doing so, go to your Deus Ex folder, and go to "CoopSave" folder, there will be several files ending with .s01, .s02, .s03, etc. as well as a "save.ini" file, these are your save files.

If you want to backup your progress, you must copy the CoopSave folder and rename it to something else, (for this ocassion, i'll name the copied folder "DXCoop" as an example). After making a backup of the CoopSave folder, you must start your dedicated server again, once the server is running a map, copy and paste the files of the DXCoop folder, and paste them on the CoopSave folder, at this point you must load the map where you were playing, and you're done.

It's also recommended to experiment with this method on a Virtual Machine.

Once more, i cannot confirm if this works well, try at your own risk.

Thanks to Satoshi for explaining this workaround!

End of the line

Well, i hope this guide was of use for whoever is reading this, and i'm hoping that people can find this an actually play some Deus Ex co-op for once, any questions regarding this post ask them on the comments section. If you ever need more help either with HX or something related to Deus Ex Multiplayer, visit the Deus Ex HQ Discord and ask for help on the #tech-support channel.

https://discord.gg/jCFJ3A6

Credits:
Knifeworld - For helping me out on screenshots for this mod, thank you!
Bogie - For giving me some really nice suggestions, and for providing me the base logo, so i could make the HX guide logo, thanks!
Satoshi - For providing a workaround for saving the games in HX.
Hanfling (AKA Han) - For making this mod, seriously, this mod is so pretty good.

Author's note:

Woah, i didn't really expect this guide would become so popular, thanks for sharing this guide all over the internet so people can go and play co-op.

And thanks for the awards, you're all awesome!

Extra (HX Action)

If you are still not convinced yet, check this out.

FAQ

As it says in the title, this is a section that covers up the most frequently asked questions.

Q: Can i play GMDX with this mod?
A: No, gameplay mods don't work with HX.

Q: Can i save my playthrough progress?
A: In theory, you can't, but as it shows in this guide, there is a method for saving you game, which is not purely effective, so you can try, but at your own risk.

Q: I can't see any servers, what can i do?
A: HX is having issues updating the 333networks master server list, the best you can do is to join the DXHQ Discord Server, and search for servers on the #coop channel, since there is not much we can do, besides sharing the main server url for connect and play.

Q: Do the weapons have the same behaviour like DXGOTY? Like, same damage or speed?
A: At the moment, the mod dev stated that he's aiming to restore the stats of the weapons from the original release of the game, not GOTY, so this means that weapons like the Dragon Tooth Sword will behave like if it was the original release rather than GOTY.

Q: Can i use Kentie's Deus Exe Launcher?
A: No, this mod only works with it's own launcher (hx.exe).

[Kiwi20024]

Работает с русификатором как текста так и звука

[gamerz31w]

I wish Jazz Jackrabbit 3D would have it. Besides for me Deus Ex Online Multiplayer didn’t work properly for me.

[Kenzo The Punished]

DX Enjoyers seeing Deus Ex Co Op Mod: Yes... y e s!

[Bacon]

Damn this is cool

[Majestic Pariah]

time was 1999, found a cool looking GOTY in a Comp USA bin in las vegas and Deus Ex turned out to be the best game EVER made!!!. First game to implement smarter NPC AI by adding responses from silenced bullet casings hitting the floor below because of shell casings falling through grated floors alerting NPC's. 2022 still kicking and with online co-op mod and there were a few other mods back in the day also. one was a hotel [hotel carone i believe] and the other mod was kinda incomplete back in the day. ima try the new revision... see how it fares. thanks for this co-op info. havent played Deus GOTY in many years. This'll be interesting.

[CAPTAIN COMMANDO]

-shot manderly
-got thrown into majestic 12
-got autoshotties
-now majestic 11

[Narkoman]

make a split screen mod?

[hanfling]

wineconsole hcc server

[BOT Shark]

Awesome. Thanks. VM snapshots are an interesting solution, but I have my own linux server running in a datacenter. I just need to research on how to go ahead and actually run the deus ex server on it.

[Lacey]

Yes, when you leave and return to a dedicated server that was not closed, your items, progress and such, will be resumed.

When you get to the trigger of a mapchange, you'll go to the next map in chronological order, this means;

If i trigger a mapchange to the bar in Hell's Kitchen, i'll go to the map where the bar is, and if i trigger the map change to go back to Hell's Kitchen, i'll go back to the map of Hell's Kitchen.

And yes, the flags carry over through the maps.

One suggestion i heard for a workaround regarding saving the game is to use a virtual machine and freeze it when you decide to "close" the server, i have no experience using Virtual Machines, so take my word of this with a grain of salt.