THE resource for strategy and help for Jedi Knight on Kali! |
Articles by Essobie: Kali IPX, Internet Play, 3D vs. Non-3D, Disciple Guide This Page has had |
THE resource for strategy and help for Jedi Knight on Kali! |
Articles by Essobie: Kali IPX, Internet Play, 3D vs. Non-3D, Disciple Guide This Page has had |
KALI IPX One of the biggest things that many players forget when they use Kali is that Kali can do so much of the work FOR them. Right now, there are probably about 50 players on Kali, perhaps 25 are in a JK game, but only about a 1/3 of them are using Kali to its full potential. Why? Because they are using Jedi Knight with TCP/IP protocol. TCP/IP versus IPX Many ask me, "What is the difference in gameplay?" The answer is: practically nothing. I quote an email that has been circulating on Kali for a while now:
So what you have here is no difference in gameplay possible. So now you ask "If there isn't any difference, then why can't we just use both?" The answer to that one is a bit more simple than you can probably imagine. Joining IPX games IP games have a game list listed ONLY on the host's IP address. IPX games are listed on the games list on the Jedi Knight Kali Server. This means that if you want to just "drop into a game" all you have to do is start up Kali, go to the JK server, start up JK, select Join game, IPX protocol, and you get a nice, tidy little list of all the freekies that are playing JK right there in front of you to choose from. Hosting IPX games If you want to host a game, no problem. Just do the same thing, except instead of join, you pick host. Set your settings and drop into the game. If everyone used IPX, you would never have to advertise your game in chat... you would have all the advertisement you'd need for people to join JUST by being on the games list after you host. Trust me. People will join. TCP/IP Games The alternative is to host a game with your IP address by displaying your IP to everyone you want to play with you. Then, you start up JK, host a game of TCP/IP, and drop in. This is the hard part: If someone wants to join, they have to know your IP address. Since you gave it to them in chat, all they have to do is copy the numbers to the clipboard, and paste it in the nifty DirectPlay dialogue box when JK asks for it. Easy huh? Yes and no. If you miss the cut and paste (it happens sometimes) then you have to alt-tab BACK to chat to get it. If it was in a private window that address is GONE, baby! You'll have to sit this one out (unless the host did something stupid... more on that in a bit). Say you get into the game successfully, but after a while, you go weary of everyone beating you down because you wanted to use Deadly Sight and not any of the Neutral Powers... you keep getting blinded by Disciples and such <G>. So you leave the game to make yourself a new character and try to go back. Same thing, if you lost that number on your clipboard, or that IP address isn't in a chat window you can get to anymore, you are out of luck. Unless... Using /away to advertise Unless the host is advertising a game with an /away message. By doing this he accomplishes a number of things that are beneficial to the people that will join his game, but he also does one thing that is pretty detrimental to his clients. People can now look for the IP address in the main chat window, so there won't be any losing the numbers. People can come on the server and instantly see all the IP games going on (maybe... some folks leave their away messages on when they aren't really away, consequently they are saying they have a game up, when in reality, they don't). Downside to staying in chat with this /away message displaying to everyone when they join the server is that your computer (and internet connection) is still concentrating on updating your chat window with ALL the people in Kali Chat. This wouldn't be so bad if you were JOINING a game, since your computer doesn't do Object Management for the game... the HOST'S computer does that. Host Computers Jobs But if you are hosting, your computers responsibilities are greater than you may think. You have to start the game, send notify packets to everyone that is wanting to join the game, send current game info to everyone first joining, keep track of all the doors, objects, and trap triggers on the entire map for EVERYONE in the game, and then of course keep track of your personal damage count when you get hurt and send damage packets to client computers. And then you want to add about 35 lines of chat text a minute to that mix? I don't think that you will be doing your game a favor by taking up that little bit of bandwidth so you can stay in chat... You probably won't see a difference on your end since you will always be able to modify your environment instantly (you being the host and all), but your client's computers will have to wait just a TAD longer to pick up objects, go up an elevator, open a door, or flip a trap's switch. It is already bad enough that you get the advantage of "instant gratification" but now you want to make it worse for them... on purpose? Not to mention when your name is on that list, people think you are THERE. I've never done it so I wouldn't know, but I've been told of horror stories where someone was in a game and in chat at the same time, and someone private messaged them, crashing the game. Gasp! Conclusion Using IPX protocol on Kali is so easy... just start up and go. It is just like the zone, except that Chat is WAY faster, and you don't have a bunch of 12 year olds playing Level 8 games and shouting "NO MORE GRIP! NO MORE GRIP!" Use Kali IPX for Jedi Knight. If everyone did it, this game could be as organized as Descent 2 is (Descent 2 had to put in a port address function so that they could separate IPX games list on Kali Servers... there are THAT many games in progress at one time). See you in chat! -SOB |
