Manual:Multiplayer

General

UFO:AI supports multiplayer in different scenarios. You can play 1on1, 2on2 and so on. Even cooperative games are possible. But you have to be aware, that not all maps are coop playable - or maybe only with a specific team. Some smaller maps will have the spawn points of the aliens near the spawnpoints of multiplayer team 1 or 2 - so no real coop gameplay comes up here.

Lobby and IRC

We have a multiplayer lobby implemented (IRC) since version 2.1 of UFO:AI. Use it to talk to others that might want to play a game. Make sure, that you changed your nickname in the options menu before you connect - otherwise you will be unnamned.

If you find that no-one is around to play when you visit the channel, then try using a different IRC client. Set your client to alert you when someone uses words like multiplayer, multi, MP, play, game etc. For example, in Chatzilla this is done by using preferences/global/lists/Stalk words.

Setting up a dedicated server

See the dedicated server article.

networking

First check your machine can listen on port 27910.

set your firewall software to allow incoming TCP connections on port 27910.
if your computer sits behind a router, then you have to tell that too. your router connects to your internet service provider (ISP), which will assign the internet protocol (IP) address which you appear to have to the rest of the internet. on the inside of your local area network (LAN), you have a different IP address, which is assigned by your router. When your router gets an incoming connection, it will not know which computer on your LAN to send it to, unless you tell it. It uses the port number (27910) to identify it, then if you have set the correct rule, it will forward it to your PC (port forwarding), by IP address. If there are several computers on your LAN, it be useful to set your router to always assign the computer you want to use as a server the same IP address (it can do this by using your computer's network card's physical or MAC address). Then your port forwarding rule will always go to the right IP address.
to reiterate: your LAN IP is not the same as the IP the outside world would have to use to connect to your server. To find out how your computer appears to the rest of the world you could use a site like this. http://whatismyip.com/. If you are using IRC, the /whois command will often tell you the IP of a user (including yourself).

Starting the server

Then you can start the server in two ways - from within the game (server is a client) or as a dedicated server with only a command prompt to enter commands in.

From within the game
- Enter the multiplayer menu
- Assemble a team
- Hit the create button to create the server
- Select the map and the options to play with from the menu (see Multiplayer cvars)
- Hit the start button
- Your team will enter the map's battlescape. You should now wait for an opponent to join your game.
As a dedicated server
- Select the gametype (type gametypelist to get a list of all defined gametypes and their cvars)
- Type maplist to get a list of all available maps in base/maps
- Choose a map and type map [mapname]

Connecting to server

Assemble a team
If the server was made public it should be displayed in the server list automatically - if not, check your firewall settings
Even if the server is not shown up (and your firewall settings are ok) you two more chances to connect to this server
- Open the console and type connect [ip]
- Select Internet in multiplayer menu and use the box at the bottom to specify the ip to connect to
Clicking on a server in the list should display details about the game. At this point you can join the game by clicking the Connect button displayed on the left-hand-side.
Once connected you will enter the map in battlescape mode. You may have to wait for your opponent to finish his turn.
Note: just like in any mission, you will not see your opponents until you bump into them on the map. You can use the talk button to chat to your opponent however.

Links

Multiplayer cvars