Multiplayer

Network games are played over TCP, on the local network or across the internet, with up to eight players, people and computer players mixed. Every machine runs the whole game and only the players' orders travel, so every player needs the same version of OpenAoK. How that works is explained in Lockstep multiplayer.

Hosting and joining

The main menu's Multiplayer creates a game or joins one. Its connection list has TCP/IP and the local network:

• On the local network, games are found by themselves: the hosts on the same network answer and are listed.
• Over TCP/IP, Show Games asks for the host's address. The games you have joined by address are kept under Recent Games.

A host answers anyone looking for games on UDP port 27015. To be joined from outside its network, the host's router has to let that port and the game's port through.

The lobby

The host's lobby has eight rows. Each is open to a person, closed, a computer player or a person's, with a civilisation, a player number, a team, a ready check and a ping. A person who joins takes the first open row and changes only their own row; the host sets the game and the other rows. Chat in the lobby reaches everyone.

The host starts once everyone is ready and there are two players or more.

From the command line

Without the lobby, a host waits for a number of people and starts when they are all in:

./OpenAoK --host 27016 --players 2      # on the host
./OpenAoK --join 192.168.1.10:27016     # on the other machine

Each client gets its seat and the game's setup from the host.

If a game goes out of step

Every turn, each machine sends a digest of its world with its orders. If two machines ever disagree, the game is out of sync: every machine stops with the game's desync message. That should not happen between machines on the same version; if it does, please report it with how the game was set up.