Revenant multiplayer
Nathan Carter
First of all, our setup:
Two computers and a 10/100 hub. TCP/IP and IPX both working.
Wingate is also installed to share the modem on Machine 1.
Machine 1:
Celeron 300a@450 on a Abit BH6, 128MB.
Diamond Monster 3D (yes, the first one)
Matrox Mystique 4MB
Diamond Monster MX80 sound card
Linksys 10/100 network card
Machine 2:
PII-350 on a Asus P2B, 128MB.
Diamond Stealth II PCI (with the Intel i740 chipset)
SB Awe64 sound card
Linksys 10/100 network card
Lately we've been using the network playing a lot of Darkstone, a little
bit of Baldur's Gate and Diablo. When my friends are over we play Shogo
deathmatch too. FWIW, all these games play perfectly on both systems.
At the mall yesterday, we bought two copies of Revanant on impulse. The
box looked pretty good and the magazine ads looked good too. The box
promised 1-4 players multiplayer.
Okay, so we get it home and get it installed. Install goes pretty well.
I'm kinda disappointed that we can't play on 2 computers with one copy,
but such is life, not a big deal. So, we go to start a new multiplayer
game. I'm expecting to able to play the entire quest cooperatively from
the start. That's what we're used to, with Darkstone, Baldur's Gate,
Diablo, etc.
I get a few hard lockups while trying to figure out the multiplayer
connection screens. After reboot #2 I start to get annoyed, but I keep
pushing it. I fiddle around with the screens a little bit more. The
buttons on the screen don't always respond to the mouse clicks. The "Exit"
button doesn't work at all. I decide that I don't like these menus. Once
I'm in the game it should get better, right?
I manage to get a character created. The multiplayer character creation is
bothersome; you pick a previously existing character then modify it to
your own liking. I choose a revenant (warrior/mage) class and Angela
chooses the archer class (can't remember what they call it).
Okay, so we've got our characters created. Now, where is the "Start new
game" button? There isn't one. You can load a saved game, but you can't
start a new game from scratch. Grunt.
I finally figure out that you have to load one of the "modules." Okay, so
we've got new characters starting from scratch, so we'll pick the easiest
module. After much frustration, I manage to get a game started with the
IPX protocol. The "Loading" screen takes a very, very, very long time.
Okay, now I'm in the game. It looks pretty cool at first. Decent graphics
despit my first-generation Voodoo card. Lighting is mediocre, but I'm
certain a newer video card would make it look better. Resolution is low,
but that's just my card. Overall, very nice to look at. The characters
aren't terribly pointy and polygonal like in Darkstone. The animated
paper-doll on the right is entertaining. Angela just likes him because
he's wearing a fur loincloth. grunt.
I wander around a little bit. Animations are very nice. I especially
like the sheathing and unsheathing of my sword. I dispatch a couple of
purple mongrels, then get killed posthaste by a ninja in a green suit,
because I am naked and he has a sword. My death cry is VERY disturbing.
Angela laughs her head off, much to my dismay. I just got skewered, and
she finds it funny! argh.
She attempts to join the game. She manages to enter the game, but can't
see herself on her screen. I can see her, though. Her character starts
with a bow and no arrows. heh. She plays with the in-game options a
little bit, to no avail. (a sidenote: her character appears to really
enjoy scratching herself in varous places). She quits and fiddles with the
startup options a little bit to try to get her display to work proerly.
After about 20 minutes, she gets it to work in software mode, so we're
good to go.
We run around and fight for a little bit. It's mildly entertaining,
even though we both die repeatedly. I'm beginning to realize that you
can't play the quest in multiplayer... all you get is deathmatches and
some hack-n-slash against random monsters. Also, some annoying bugs start
to show up.. although she renamed her character, she character's
archetype's original name appears on her score sheet. We're not really
getting anywhere, and I tire of hearing my own death cry.
We restart, this time with her machine as the host. I use the same
character as I had before, and she picks a new one. Apparently she edited
one of the existing characters because she starts off with a full outfit
of very spiffy black leather, and a huge double-bladed axe. We run around
and fight a little more. I continue to die repeatedly, especially against
the green ninjas. The lag is very bad, even on our 100MBit network.
Monsters and characters jump around on both our screens, and only about
half of my successful strikes against monsters actually do any damage. I
see the damage information at the bottom left of my screen, and there's
plenty of blood slewing everywhere (hee hee) but the monsters' hitpoints
stay the same. After a few minutes wea realize that neither of us are
getting any experience and none of the items we pick up are going into our
inventories. Ulch.
Anyway, we got tired of it VERY quickly. Simple deathmatching against
monsters, with no quest or plot... just not very fun. She managed to quit
the game without crashing, I had a hard lock when I tried to quit. She had
to reboot anyway before any other programs would run. We played Darkstone
for the rest of the evening. THAT was fun.
Anyway, to sum up my Revenant multiplayer experience:
It appears to be Deathmatch-only, either vs. each other or vs. mobs.
You can't play the quest in multiplayer. The menus to get multiplayer
started are difficult to navigate. Multiplayer documentation in the manual
is skimpy. Very laggy, even on our fast ethernet network.
In a word: refund.
At least one copy is going back to the store. I'll give the single-player
mode a shot tonight. If that's fun, then I might keep one copy. We'll see.
This game DEFINITELY had multiplayer thrown in as an afterthought. Argh. I
would have rather it had no multiplayer at all; at least I would have
saved a couple of hours trying to get it to work. Oh well.
- Mega
/-------------------------------------------------------------------\
|Nathan Carter email: nca...@reality.cse.fau.edu |
|FAU Network Computing Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton |
| "Computers are ruining this country." - Al Bundy |
\-------------------------------------------------------------------/
snowmman
> The box looked pretty good and the magazine ads looked good too. The
> box promised 1-4 players multiplayer.
> Okay, so we get it home and get it installed. Install goes pretty
> well. I'm kinda disappointed that we can't play on 2 computers with
> one copy
I play Revenant multiplayer at home on my 100mbit LAN.
I choose IPX under multiplayer.
I only have one copy of the CD. Install on both.
Start the game on one, then remove the CD and start the game on the
other. Once the game is started you can play without the CD.
(Leave the CD in the 2nd machine)
-snowmman
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David Maerzke
Don't have the game but this worked for Dungeon Keeper 1. I installed the
game on machine 1, then made the CD shareable and installed it on machine 2
through the network. Worked like a champ. No CD swapping required. Many
other games check for the CD on the local CD drive, but it may be worth a
try.
snowmman <normoyle...@sjm.infi.net.invalid> wrote in message
news:0221c012...@usw-ex0102-010.remarq.com...
> > At the mall yesterday, we bought two copies of Revanant on impulse.
> > The box looked pretty good and the magazine ads looked good too. The
> > box promised 1-4 players multiplayer.
> > Okay, so we get it home and get it installed. Install goes pretty
> > well. I'm kinda disappointed that we can't play on 2 computers with