Guide to on-line play for noobs

[Placebo 29]

You're running 1.96? You have the required ports open in your firewall/router?

Tried using ASE? (google "all seeing eye" if you're not familiar).

[Guba 0]

You can also use this great, web based, query tool. (You can toggle between German and English on top right corner)

[Thomas Ryan 0]

Hi, my name is Thomas Ryan and I'm new to these forums.

I have a question which can hopefully be answered (I'm only 13, so I'm not a computer wiz lol )

Whenever I join a game, I become the one with the highest ping, so I went and deleted all unofficial stuff from my OFP folders and only left ECP. I don't use ECP, go in to regular OFP and start the multiplayer. And my ping is still the highest!

So, if anyone can help me out, I will be eternaly greatful lol !

*Edit: Also, I've successfully installed OFP Watch, but when I went to install Teamspeak 2 it said:

"Error creating registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\teamspeak

RegCreateKeyEx failed; code 5.

Access is denied.

Click Retry to try again, Ignore to proceed anyway, or Abort to cancel installation." And when I tried to Ignore it, it came up again and again. When I tried Retry, it came up again and again, so the only thing I could do was end the installation by pressing Abort. If someone can, please help!

Thanks!

[Guba 0]

Hi Thomas,

Ok ping has little or nothing to do with the addons you have in your OFP folder. Ping is the time it takes for a bit of information to travel from your computer to the server were the game is hosted and back.

If it's is too high it will cause your game to be desynchronized to the rest of players, with all the problems that carries.

Although there are many factors that can influence your ping, the most significant of them are your position relative to the server, your internet connection and the programs that your computer is running. So if you intend to lower your ping (not just for OFP but all games in general) you should, at least, follow these steps:

1. Make sure your have a suitable internet connection.

2. Make sure the server were you want to play is not too far away from you (the further the server is from you the higher your ping will be).

3. Make sure you (or anybody else in your local network) are not running programs that can cause your ping to rise (programs that download or upload data to the internet like p2p or spyware).

In this last point, Enditall & Ad-Aware are two tools that can be of great help.

I also suggest that you use the search function of the forums to look for topics (in the troubleshooting section) that will provably help you to solve this problem and all the ones you might encounter in the future.

About the teamspeak problem could it be that you don't have the necesary rights to install it? A good way to solve this type of problems is to copy and paste the error message in a google search (Because if you've found this problem it's very likely that many people have found it before and posted about it in some forums )

Anyway good luck!

[Thomas Ryan 0]

Hi Guba (never thought after playing the CWC campaign I'd see those two words together meaning a good thing lol j/k )

Anyway, enough with the bad jokes, I'm acctually situated in Qatar which is a small peninsula sticking out of Saudi Arabia. So I'm not sure if there are any servers close to the middle east that wont cause such a high ping. I don't know if it affects it, but my internet connection is 100.0 Mbps.

Thanks for explaining what 'ping' is (never acctually knew what it was )

Thanks again!

P.S: I'm not Qatari in-case you were wondering, I'm Canadian.

P.S.S: I also figured out the Teamspeak problem, I was logged onto my user which had a limited account whereas I could succesfully install it on my Dad's user because it had the administration propperties (D'oh !

[Guba 0]

Quote[/b] ]I'm acctually situated in Qatar

Well I guess that explains it all then . Although you have plenty of bandwith and are not that geographicaly far from Europe (where there's many OFP servers) I fear the network link between is provably quite long... Is it possible that you are behind a satellite connection? If that was the case the packets of information that you would send/receive to/from a server would need to travel a long long way from Earth to the satellite and back, which would make your ping to be quite high .

The only suggestion I can give you is to order by ping the servers list in OFP's ingame server browser and join the ones where your ping is lower. If your ping is high in all of them (above 400ms) I guess it's better that, unless you are admin , stay off player vs player missions (where it's likely the admin will kick you) and go for coop games insted where the fact of having a high ping is not such an important issue.

[Thomas Ryan 0]

Hi Guba!

Thanks man, will do. The problem is that Qatar is a long ways away from where most OFP servers are (eg. U.S, Europe) so that would be why my ping is so high.

I will try your soloution and hopefully it will wok out!

Thanks again Guba !

[SWAT_CDN 0]

Thomas Ryan

First I would try to find out how your internet connection is getting out to the world? Satellite, Fibre, Wire.... I Think you get the idea. (your Dad will probably have answer)

Assuming your ISP (Internet Service Provider) is providing a good connection out to the world, your connection may suffer or not.

By the way what type of connection? Cable, DSL? It helps to know this also.

I would think that any servers originating in Europe or Australia would give you good or atleast better Pings.

It also sounds like you mght be sharing internet connection with the rest of the household? Through a router or Hub?

If so try connecting direct. (Tell everybody you have some important OFP Gaming to do) and connectyour comp direct to modem if this is the case. Might help!!!!

PS: I'm From Toronto and our server is in Virginia, USA. We have people connecting from europe all the time, pings alittle high +/- 100- 120 MS we live with it and have fun.

[JPSelter 0]

Sorry if my question has been discussed before (surely it has) but this thread is very old and I don´t know if it still works: I haven´t been online with OFP for 2 years now and want to play again. In the past I used All-Seeing-Eye but later I heard that it was sold to some company. Is it still available and working? Are there better alternatives? Thanks for any answers

[dixi_lady 0]

I am a BF2 player (USA)and just found about about AA.. very eager to get that in.. dec?

My question is.. OFP..is the multiplayer like the singleplayer demo because I have yet to even see the enemy lol. Is it also true that you can never respawn back into a game? That is my major issue now for not getting OF game. Are there alot of servers for OF?

thanks for any help (c'mon talk me into this game )

[Daniel 0]

OFP does have respawn, you can respawn at base, where you died, or into spare AI soldiers, and the time limit can be set.

[dixi_lady 0]

I just got GOTY and cannot get into a MP game. (yes I got the latest patch). I got into one server and they were chatting in arabic (I dont know how to chat there either) then I was kicked off. The only server that let me in was just bots that were frozen in place. I got all seeing eye and it shows one server in sweden (I am usa) I changed it from LAN to internet before trying.

I dont know what else to do and I cannot get my money back from buying this game

[rjpear 0]

Dixi- I just reinstalled OFP for the first time in a Few YEars... What I found was a Nice Clean install (which you have)..then I installed "OFPWATCH" program from http://www.binarybone.com/ofpwatch.zip

One you run it the program will Auto Scan Your OFP directory and detect what you have ... then if you hit the @@Browser button it will list a few (Like 10 for me) OFP Servers... There are more out there but you have to manually add them (Like the GREAT VS-COOP!!http://www.vetsquad.com/files.cfm ..

What nice here is you can see what Mods You need to play on the server, the program will go and get them for ya and Install them into OFP.. Then when you are good to go you can even Launch the game right from OFP watch to the Server...

Much better than manually researching what was on the server etc..

[dixi_lady 0]

..then I installed "OFPWATCH" program from http://www.binarybone.com/ofpwatch.zip

One you run it the program will Auto Scan Your OFP directory and detect what you have ... then if you hit the @@Browser button it will list a few (Like 10 for me) OFP Servers... There are more out there but you have to manually add them (Like the GREAT VS-COOP!!http://www.vetsquad.com/files.cfm ..

What nice here is you can see what Mods You need to play on the server, the program will go and get them for ya and Install them into OFP.. Then when you are good to go you can even Launch the game right from OFP watch to the Server...

Much better than manually researching what was on the server etc..

I got the program but it only listed 3 servers and there was no one in a game but me. I don't like the looks of the game or the lack of directions.. no mini map/compass onscreen.. the bots look like wooden robots. I just wasted my money on this game.. will stick to joint operations (an old game too) and BF2.

I do thank you for your help tho

[j w 0]

Something's gotta be wrong.

Let's try again, shall we

[dixi_lady 0]

Something's gotta be wrong.

Let's try again, shall we

I don't know what else to do lol

Are you svensk?

[Trapper 0]

OFP multiplayer gaming is much more complex than BF. Well, at least that's what I believe, I've only played the BF2 demo.

You can't play the "real" OFP mp straight out of the box. All the official missions included are at best played of boredom.

Common are custom missions created by users. Getting them is easy, they'll download in game.

There are very different types:

CTF / (Team) Capture the Flag - Some leagues are/were based on such missions.

Deathmatch - also mostly played of boredom

Hold the Flag - Some leagues are/were based on such missions. There are many variations in numbers of flags, vehicles, distances, spawn system, scoring.

COOP / Cooperative missions

CTI / Capture the Island - Realtime strategy in OFP against ai or a human team.

Battlefield missions - Invented by DaX, recreated by many others. They try to use the Battlefield system for OFP. Their long duration of 1 hour is a problem without join in progress. Most of them are named Battlefield or Minibattlefield.

Special missions - hunt a serial murder ect.

A bigger problem are the addons or mods. You'll have to install them before you play missions which require some or you won't be able to play. It's even hard to tell if a mission requires addons. That's the reason why servers are totally addon free or make heavy use of addons.

CTI missions always require a CTI addon.

This complexity and the shrunken community are the reason why it is so hard to play online.

Also many open servers are actually privat partys and the admin will kick strangers/noobs to raise the quality of a game.

[j w 0]

Something's gotta be wrong.

Let's try again, shall we

I don't know what else to do lol

Are you svensk?

Ja, jag är swedish

Do you speak swedish?

[dixi_lady 0]

Jag ar amerikan, du ar svensk.

I can sorta understand reading swedish but can't speak it. I have been really good friends with someone in goteborg for 5 yrs. The swedes invented BF2 so I thank you for that lol.

I did get kicked off a server for no reason, even before I played.. it's just too much of a hassle to try to play this game MP and I don't care about single player games. I will keep on with bf2 and joint ops until armed assault comes out.. am looking forward to that one and assume it will be easier to access online

[jds54 1]

I have "The Eye", when i click the waiting for players tab, i see nothing? I refreashed, but still nothing? Can someone help?

[jds54 1]

Anyone?

[Razor -RS- 0]

I just got GOTY and cannot get into a MP game. (yes I got the latest patch). I got into one server and they were chatting in arabic (I dont know how to chat there either) then I was kicked off. The only server that let me in was just bots that were frozen in place. I got all seeing eye and it shows one server in sweden (I am usa) I changed it from LAN to internet before trying.

I dont know what else to do and I cannot get my money back from buying this game

You really can not play OFP on a MP server straight out of the box, even if you applied the latest game patch to bring your game up to v1.96.

Here's what I would suggest you do to "get your money's worth" out of OFP:

1. You should obtain a headset/mic and get the teamspeak (for in-game voice communication) client v2.0.36.60 at http://www.goteamspeak.com/index.php?page=downloads

Even if you don't have a headset/mic - you can use the teamspeak client to listen to the other players to know what is happening on the map.

2. OFP Watch is a great program to monitor OFP server playing status on OFP servers you already know you like to play on. It is not a good program for finding servers to play on. The OFP server browser within OFP Multiplayer option will list all OFP servers available. You can sort the displayed listing by name, status, ping, etc. You are looking for public servers which do not have a "lock" icon next to the name. For best game play you probably should sort based on the ping column. Most OFP server names describe the type of OFP game played on the server. For exampe: coop, ctf, cti. Some servers play all game types and do not specify game type in their server name.

3. At a minimum you need to obtain the EDITORUPDATE102.PBO addon to stay connected to an MP server. You might have been automatically kicked from an MP server when a map was selected that uses the editorupdate102.pbo update and your OFP game didn't have it. If you do not the the ofp addons required by the map your client will automatically drop/disconnect from the server.

4. If you decide you really like playing on a certain server you should obtain all the addons used on the server to enhance your MP playing experience.

Please feel free to come on to my server, Razor's OFP Coop Server, and any of my squad members, especially Archer and Confused, will be glad to help you get your OFP game up and running.

Razor

[Razor -RS- 0]

I have "The Eye", when i click the waiting for players tab, i see nothing? I refreashed, but still nothing? Can someone help?

Hmmmm... I haven't used ASE in several years. Did you pay your 1 year registration fee? Did you setup your ASE "game browse" and "ping" servers?

As I suggested to dixi_lady you should use the OFP game browser in the Multiplayer option. It will show you all the OFP game servers on-line and available for you to connect.

Just make sure implementation is set to sockets and address is set to internet. You should see all available OFP servers. Then you can click to the column names to sort the list based on the server name, mission, status, players, or ping.

Razor

[Mersu 0]

Well, I have something new to ask of you people. I got my WLAN up and running today Tried to play a certain server FDF WW2. I found the server and got put on hold?! After a while got a message saying that connection to me was lost.

[Razor -RS- 0]

Well, I have something new to ask of you people. I got my WLAN up and running today Tried to play a certain server FDF WW2. I found the server and got put on hold?! After a while got a message saying that connection to me was lost.

Did you set your WLAN gateway/router to maintain a persistent connection?

For example - my linksys router has a configuration option "Connect on demand: Max idle time". When set to "0" the linksys router will maintain the internet connection at all times.

Otherwise, the router will shutdown the internet connection after the number of "idle" minutes specified and reconnect on demand.