Multiplayer for MMMerge [beta 30.09.2024/1]

[vladimir-maestro]

There' s no convenient way to do it. Multiplayer uses standart MM monsters with disabled AI to mimic remote player actions. Each monster have set of frames assigned, which we can change on the fly via script (i.e. Map.Monsters[0].Frames[0-8]). But there's no adequate method of adding new unique sets of frames in runtime, because all of them are predifined in "SFT.txt" from "Data\Tables" folder, which lists sprites from sprites.lod and palettes from bitmaps.lod. Game.SFTBin cannot be extended in runtime.
What can possibly be done:
1. Append bunch of placeholder lines to SFT.bin
2. Create addtional sprites.lod archive with frames and bitmaps.lod with palettes for these frames, load these as custom lods in runtime (same as additional UI is loaded)
3. Alter placeholder lines of Game.SFTBin via script to represent loaded archives
4. Apply new frames by "Map.Monsters[0]:SetCustomFrames" method, which accepts 9 arguments - strings - group names from SFTBin.

There're still problems with method of selection unique names for new palettes, frames and archives, to avoid overlapping with existing ones. Also LoadFrames method will reload original frames every call, so it should be hooked somehow.
Sending these lods to remote players and initializing them there also should be implemented.
I won't be able to do all of that in nearest future.

at last! i get it!
actions almost the same as i did for Augmentation: added new mob into SFT, edit it in monlist. + palette. it worked! thanks!

[Malekitsu]

at last! i get it!
actions almost the same as i did for Augmentation: added new mob into SFT, edit it in monlist. + palette. it worked! thanks!

Looks amazing! Can we have it?

[vladimir-maestro]

Looks amazing! Can we have it?

well it was done for some kind of project and won't work correct above merge mod for now. i hope someday i'll return to this idea but not now, sorry

[Kristallen]

Can someone please help me, we did The Hive and just one of us got the scroll Ritual of the void, so now im stuck down with the demon queen and with no scroll or Town Portal, so i cant leave, any suggestion on how i do it?

[Rodril]

Can someone please help me, we did The Hive and just one of us got the scroll Ritual of the void, so now im stuck down with the demon queen and with no scroll or Town Portal, so i cant leave, any suggestion on how i do it?

Hello. There's few ways to fix such situation:
1. Invite Player back to handover you the scroll.
2. Load save prior entering the Hive and retrieve quest item from oracle in Castle Ironfist area via "Lost it" topic.
3. Use console: open it with ctrl+f1, type "Mouse.Item.Number = 2164" (without quotes) and press ctrl+enter to execute it. The scroll will be attached to mouse cursor.

[Rhiyo]

If I update to the latest version of Multiplayer, will it break my game? I tried but when I played connects I can't see them move now. We both updated.

[Rodril]

If I update to the latest version of Multiplayer, will it break my game? I tried but when I played connects I can't see them move now. We both updated.

Hello. Could you add more details: weren't you able to see other player at all? Was he teleporting around, instead of having animated walk, or just was standing still all the time?
It should not break anything. You can reapply stable version on top, to roll update back. Ingame you can see version of multiplayer in use in bottom left corner of multiplayer settings screen.

[rickon11]

Hello,
Me and my sister are trying to play multiplayer but we have problems. We both have Merge with patch 16.1.2024 and multiplayer Stable 23.7.2023. We both have windows 11, running the game with compatibility for windows XP and as administrator. I am host and she client. Problems are following:

When we are connecting together (through internet) we cannot copy our id, it just doesnt work, so we need to dictate it.

After a while playing game randomly crashes with "access violation error" (something like this). Last time this happend I was interacting with fountain to heal myself and she ran in front of me, and it crashed. This would not be that much of a problem because I had save, but then I load save and she tries to connect again, it crashes for me again.
This happens everytime I load save and she tries to join, either me or she crashes.

Because of this the game is basically unplayable for us, which is real shame.

Does anyone have any advices to help us with these issues? Would very much appreciate i

[Rodril]

When we are connecting together (through internet) we cannot copy our id, it just doesnt work, so we need to dictate it.

Hello. Is your game installed in Program files folder? I've seen reports of this error, but could not reproduce it myself so far.

After a while playing game randomly crashes with "access violation error" (something like this).

Is it console popup? If so, send me error text, please, if not - send me your savegame file. Also, try latest version, it received patch recently, saves are compatible.

[rickon11]

Hello. Yes we both have it installed in program files. I have now tried different folder but I still cannot copy the code.
We were playing with the latest version, but it was because of this problem that we switched to the stable one, in hope it will help.
Here you have save file, screenshot of the error and Errorlog:
I can easily replicate this error when I go to multiplayer menu and click "paste". Since I cannot copy the code it will open console to input the code manually. When I close this console without using ctrl+enter this error pops up. In Errorlog you can see errors for multiple modules.
Thank you

[Rodril]

Here you have save file, screenshot of the error and Errorlog: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ScLfzC ... drive_link

I can not access this drive content, check permissions, please. It should be "for everyone who have the link", otherwise you could accept permission request I've sent.

[rickon11]

Sorry, my mistake. It should work now.

[Rodril]

I can easily replicate this error when I go to multiplayer menu and click "paste". Since I cannot copy the code it will open console to input the code manually. When I close this console without using ctrl+enter this error pops up.

Apply latest version, please. I've added "Show" button next to "Copy", it will copy session code to debug console, so you'll be able to copy it manually, instead of typing, in case if system permits access to clipboard.
I could not reproduce the error yet, though I want to try something out, to see what can be the cause:
Put this file into your "ExeMods\MMExtension" folder, replacing existing: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UpkwrD ... sp=sharing (if game won't work at all, ensure you have Microsoft VCredist 2015+ x86 installed)
Check if error persists, if so, delete ExeMods folder and put this one instead: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hy2GGF ... sp=sharing
If error won't go either, tell me.

[rickon11]

I have applied latest version and tried to use "Show" and then copy the id, but everytime I immediately get error. Mostly "Exception EAccessViolation in module nvd3dum.dl" or module "AcGenral.DLL". I was not able to try connection yet.

Anyway what I did try was istalling everyting on my notebook with windows 10. Here I can copy without problem and no matter what I do in console, I dont get these errors. So it looks a lot better here. My sister doesnt have this option to play on something with windows 10 unfortunetly. So we will try it again with me playing on windows 10. I will come back with results.

[rickon11]

Hello, I have status update.
We both installed Magic outside of Program files. We are both using newest versions of merge and mutiplayer. We switched to LAN from internet. I have windows 10 she windwos 11. We were able to play fairly without problems now. I believe that main problem was me with windows 11. I work in IT so I know what pain can windows update be. So thank you so much for help, for now it seems good.

Only other issue that we have is that I cannot drop gold. When I right click and click on "Drop gold" mouse cursor moves back to the middle of the screen. One time I was able to open the interface to drop gold, but I dont know how I did it.
Also mouse cursor is constantly in the middle of the screen. Not sure if this is correct?

[Rodril]

Also mouse cursor is constantly in the middle of the screen. Not sure if this is correct?

You can toggle it with middle mouse button or caps lock. Mouselook is part of Grayface's MMPatch, hotkey is configurable via mm8.ini. Good to hear, there's workaround for the issue.

[Rhiyo]

Hi, I've updated to the latest mmerge and MP beta. However - when my co op companion joins their stats jump up massively for no reason that I can find.

[Rodril]

Hi, I've updated to the latest mmerge and MP beta. However - when my co op companion joins their stats jump up massively for no reason that I can find.

Thanks for report. I see the issue, multiplayer saves did not take into account skill limits removal from latest mmerge patch. Error happens, when you load multiplayer save maden prior to latest patch. I do not know how to implement fix at the moment, but you can fix the issue via debug console, player, who have skills messed up, have to press ctrl+f1 to open console, paste code and press ctrl+enter to execute it:

Code: Select all

local function oldSplitSkill(val)
	if not val then
		return
	end
	local n = val % 0x40
	local mast
	if val >= 0x100 then
		mast = 4
	elseif val >= 0x80 then
		mast = 3
	elseif val >= 0x40 then
		mast = 2
	elseif val >= 1 then
		mast = 1
	else
		mast = 0
	end
	return n, mast
end

for _, Player in Party do
	for i, v in Player.Skills do
		Player.Skills[i] = JoinSkill(oldSplitSkill(v))
	end
end

Once executed, close console, skills should be fine.

[N7Kopper]

First post here! I've been enjoying MMMerge so far (will post on that thread too to say thanks!) and installed and tested your multiplayer plugin just because simply HAVING multiplayer in a game like this is pretty amazing to me. (Maybe some of those guys on the SBI Detected Discord might want to play...) There is one concern I have though: not for me, but for other people.

My concern is that the aggressive party autosaving for clients - even if it is a small file - could disproportionately contribute to the wear-and-tear of SSDs and similar storage devices. Don't worry, this isn't me bugging you to make changes to your mod - but anyone reading this might want to be mindful. If it concerns you, dear reader - like it concerned me - I would advise doing what I did and creating a tiny RAM disk (if you have a hard disk... just run the game off it! It's old and small!) to hold MultiplayerAutosaves.bin, and then symbolically linking it back to MMMerge's save folder. Just remember to put the file somewhere else before you shut down if you want to keep it. Bear in mind that I haven't tested to see if symlinking these files to a location that doesn't exist would crash multiplayer - it doesn't break singleplayer! - but if it does, I consider that a feature

Of course, if it doesn't worry you, don't do anything and just play the game.

When we are connecting together (through internet) we cannot copy our id, it just doesnt work, so we need to dictate it.

Hello. Is your game installed in Program files folder? I've seen reports of this error, but could not reproduce it myself so far.

It's a little-known fact that the reason why installing old games in the Program Files/Program Files (x86) folder is so problematic for many Windows users is that the system disk's Program Files directories and any Program Files directory with a Microsoft Store program installed have altered permissions.

They deny the Users group the right to Write and Modify files in the folder and its subfolders - and THAT causes the issues. I run games in Program Files with no issues because I go into the game folder's Security tab and alter the permissions to allow Users to write and modify. Moving the game from Program Files usually fixes these issues because the permissions are inherited, and the game simply inherits the permissions from the new parent directory. In fact, in testing the multiplayer I actually forgot to do this on the other machine (I didn't use localhost because testing firewall settings is just as important!) and the game wouldn't boot, so I know 100% that it's the issue. Didn't have to do it with my primary machine, because the D drive isn't the system disk and it's (x86) doesn't have any Store programs.

[furion001]

Hey! Just thought I'd pop in here to ask for help with something,

I am attempting to add an entirely new monster with it's sole purpose to be a puppet.

Through much trouble and hardship, I was able to make it spawn as an enemy. Everything seems to be functioning correctly except for it not appearing correctly in the right-click examine popup. (Just shows a black box along with the stats, Might be a SFT issue, sprites are 320x320).

However, No matter what I do I can't seem to get the multiplayer menu to recognize the monster and add it to the appearance tab, even with Free Selection on, which was the whole point for their existence lol.

Thought I'd ask for help here since its related to multiplayer.

Files modified:
* MonList.txt - Added 3 entries and gave them IDs 652-654, given them A B C variants, they all use the same SFT entries.
* Bolster - monsters.txt - Added Entries, stopped some errors.
* SFT.txt - Added entries for the sprites 23422-23455, added sprites to mmmerge.sprites.lod and added a pal to mmmerge.bitmaps.lod
* Monster Kinds.txt - Added 3 entries to be thorough
* MonPortraits.txt - Added entry just to be thorough, but doesn't seem to do much.
* mmmerge.T.lod/Hostile.txt - Same as above
* mmmerge.T.lod/MONSTERS.txt - IDs 653-655, Gave them stats and names (pretty much just copied Wererats to make it simple.)
* mmmerge.T.lod/MapStats.txt - Tinkered with Smugglers Cove to spawn the monster and make sure it functions, Regular Wererats spawn like normal when file is reverted, they even spawn with the new monster when using a different spawntype.

Let me know if I'd forgotten anything else, these were the only things I could really think that affected monsters outside of scripting, which I've pretty much no experience with. (Though I can read and understand a little bit of it, I'm useless around anything assembly.)