Page 1 of 1

Drakan: Order of the Flame permanent multiplayer server

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 8:21 pm
by Mechanist
Good news, everyone! :mrgreen:

:!: We now have our own permanent Drakan:OOTF multiplayer server. :!:

Server Community Patch version: build 153.01 (release date: 16/09/2018).

Prerequisites for a successful connection:
  • Make sure you're running the same version of the Drakan Community Patch (click here to download) as the server, listed above.
  • On multi-GPU systems, make sure to disable CrossFire/SLI (as applicable) for Drakan.exe - the game can't use multiple GPUs anyway, and CF/SLI are known to cause it to crash in some cases.
  • Make sure that Drakan.exe isn't blocked from accessing the Internet by your firewall! Both TCP and UDP connectivity is required.
How to connect:
  • In the game menu, click "Multiplayer", and select the correct connection type. For most people nowadays, that'd be "T1/LAN".
  • Remember to also choose the player and dragon skin color. It's quite confusing to play, when all players are using the same colors :roll:
  • Since my server is set up to register with the master server(s), it should appear automatically in the in-game server list.
  • Clicking the "Refresh" button should help, if the server doesn't appear in the list by itself.
  • If that doesn't work for whatever reason, you can always add it manually: the IP is 193.93.90.104, port 38013. Remember to refresh, too.
  • Double-click the server name to connect, or select it and click the "Connect" button.

Re: Drakan: Order of the Flame permanent multiplayer server

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 9:40 pm
by Arokhs Twin
That's great news. For others reading this I run a semi permanent server (Arokh's Lair) on IP 212.169.37.181 which is set to register with the master server so should show up in your game browser. The original gamespy master server is defunct but there is a replacement. Please check your drakan.cfg file and ensure you look for the set MasterServerList line and change it to:-

set MasterServerList "master.333networks.com:27900,master.errorist.tk:27900,master.newbiesplayground.net:27900,gsm.qtracker.com:27900,master.qtracker.com:27900"

You can also add the IP manually; it is fixed and will not change.

I'm gonna be updating the main site with all this info but I won't get chance for a while yet.

Re: Drakan: Order of the Flame permanent multiplayer server

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 9:49 pm
by Mechanist
Arokhs Twin wrote:Please check your drakan.cfg file
Note that this is not referring to the Drakan.cfg file present in the installation directory!
In the recent AiO patch versions, the default location of Drakan.cfg is in (My Documents)\My Games\Drakan.
There's also a second copy of it inside the game folder, but it is unused by default.

Also note that at least in the Gold Pack, the list of master servers is already set up correctly right from the start :)

Re: Drakan: Order of the Flame permanent multiplayer server

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 10:30 pm
by Arokhs Twin
Good to know & yeah I should have mentioned which file to edit.

Re: Drakan: Order of the Flame permanent multiplayer server

Posted: Sat May 19, 2018 12:59 pm
by Mechanist
OK, since another build of the AiO patch got released today, I've updated the server as well.
I also put the relevant information in the OP, too, so that there can be no doubt as to which version the server is currently running.

Re: Drakan: Order of the Flame permanent multiplayer server

Posted: Sat May 19, 2018 1:49 pm
by UCyborg
OK, since another build of the AiO patch got released today, I've updated the server as well.

Should be the last one for a while. I've ran out of ideas of what/how to improve things further. I might try adding uPnP support during the summer months..if I'll feel like digging into it and find my way around the libminiupnpc library. It would allow Drakan to setup port forwarding on a router for server hosting on its own if uPnP is supported by the router and enabled. For now, it's just an idea.

It's kind of funny that I actually haven't played Drakan for real in years and don't really feel like it. Every time I either go fixing issues present in the original game or sometimes my own stupidities. Maybe I need a longer break from it. Somehow the magic from the days I got the game is gone.

Speaking of stupidities, one thing that isn't clear, if you click Server Info after selecting Arokh's Twin server, the information in the lower part of the window is garbled pretty bad. There's a bunch of words there used in the query string that shouldn't appear there. It can happen if you use server rule file to publish additional information about the server. It only bugged out for my own server after some time. I tried the original binaries from 445 patch, but due to older bugs fixed in AiO Patch, it stops refreshing pretty quickly.

Unless it's the old bug, some small thing might have gone wrong when I turned certains parts of code upside down to improve server's response to query commands coming from other clients and master servers. The server's handling of query commands is still somewhat less fragile than it was before.

Re: Drakan: Order of the Flame permanent multiplayer server

Posted: Sat May 19, 2018 2:43 pm
by Mechanist
UCyborg wrote: Speaking of stupidities, one thing that isn't clear, if you click Server Info after selecting Arokh's Twin server, the information in the lower part of the window is garbled pretty bad. There's a bunch of words there used in the query string that shouldn't appear there
Odd, I've never had that happen. Also tried just now with the newest AiO patch, and it seems to work fine as well.

UCyborg wrote: It's kind of funny that I actually haven't played Drakan for real in years and don't really feel like it.
:(

In my case, for all the poking around in the Level editor, as well as various other non-gameplay things I end up doing, I find it a good change of pace to just sit down and actually play it. There's enough content there to keep me amused for a long, long time :)

Re: Drakan: Order of the Flame permanent multiplayer server

Posted: Sat May 19, 2018 5:29 pm
by UCyborg
Odd, I've never had that happen. Also tried just now with the newest AiO patch, and it seems to work fine as well.

They're not shown right now. Previously, you could find the URL of this website, CPU of the server it runs on, that 10t Anniversary Patch is required and some other things.

I guess they were shown previously due to old ServerRules.txt file laying around in the game folder. I forgot about that file, so also made the game read it from Documents\My Games\Drakan folder recently by default. The file is described in the game's ReadMe.

In my case, for all the poking around in the Level editor, as well as various other non-gameplay things I end up doing

It can really pile up over time.

I find it a good change of pace to just sit down and actually play it.

True. I might eventually get back into it.

Re: Drakan: Order of the Flame permanent multiplayer server

Posted: Sat May 19, 2018 5:56 pm
by Mechanist
UCyborg wrote:It can really pile up over time.
Tell me about it. Well over a hundred hours later - or maybe far more than that - and I'm still at the beginning of Wartok Canyons. :wink:

Hmm, I guess I've got an acquired immunity to that kind of effect from my full-time job.
There I've got such a staggering, colossal backlog (over 2 years long :!:, and never, ever decreasing), that it has stopped bothering me a long time ago. I know full well that most of those things will never get done, and I'm perfectly fine with that. 8)

UCyborg wrote:True. I might eventually get back into it.
Would you be interested in playing some multiplayer then, by any chance? :)

There's quite a few people interested already - and 4 of us already played some MP, for a total of around 3-4 hours.
That feels very different from the singleplayer gameplay of course; a lot more like the RTS part in Divinity:DC.

If you visit our Discord channel (I think I PM'd you the link earlier), there's usually at least 1 or 2 people online to play with, most of the time. :)

Re: Drakan: Order of the Flame permanent multiplayer server

Posted: Sun May 20, 2018 2:25 am
by UCyborg
I've got the link. Haven't used Discord before and I'm not really communicative person in general. When there's enough people to blend in, I got no problem with playing multiplayer.

Tell me about it. Well over a hundred hours later - or maybe far more than that - and I'm still at the beginning of Wartok Canyons. :wink

You'll find at least 2 deadly glitches there. ;)

Re: Drakan: Order of the Flame permanent multiplayer server

Posted: Sun May 20, 2018 9:31 am
by Mechanist
Updated the server again.

UCyborg wrote:You'll find at least 2 deadly glitches there. ;)
Game-crashing, or Rynn-shredding ones? :D

Re: Drakan: Order of the Flame permanent multiplayer server

Posted: Sun May 20, 2018 10:00 am
by UCyborg
Game-crashing, or Rynn-shredding ones? :D

The latter.

Re: Drakan: Order of the Flame permanent multiplayer server

Posted: Sun May 20, 2018 10:50 am
by Mechanist
After all the "death water" in Ruined Village (not a glitch, BTW), as well as getting gibbed by walking into a stationary (!) pushable boulder there, I'm not sure if those would surprise me now.

Re: Drakan: Order of the Flame permanent multiplayer server

Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2018 7:45 pm
by Mechanist
All right, my Drakan server is now running on new hardware :D

The most significant change is that it's on a cable connection now, as opposed to wireless - which seems to have totally eliminated the random lag spikes; previously when it was on wireless, I was having intermittent high ping/lag issues when connecting to my own server via LAN, despite it being physically located in the same room!

Other players were being affected just as badly, if not even worse.
Thankfully, that particular problem should be a thing of the past now :)