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SACRED 2 ONLINE MULTIPLAYER: HOW-TO, DISCUSSION & DEVELOPMENT


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On 8/30/2021 at 8:12 PM, Steforus said:

Today my entire group of 3 people is having the problem that the game crashes right after the game tries to join the OpenNet Bronze Vanilla Server. There is no error message, just a crash to Desktop after a short moment of displaying full screen art. The 3 weeks before it was working fine. Nothing was changed on the client and it is happening to everyone the same way.

Edit: Problem still existing today, three days after the post above

Many thanks again for these servers. 

The game is crashing again on server join for my entire group as of today. Could someone please restart the public servers? 

This time it is Silver / Vanilla / Campaign / OpenNet

Edited by Steforus
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On 4/17/2021 at 7:46 AM, xrystal said:

get the version from my repo:

  • that is the same binary version I currently use for my lobby
  • has a few bugfixes, but currently needs mysql and you have to build it
  • for building, you'll will either need to install Microsoft Visual Studio or MonoDevelop
  • you can get the mysql dll file here (needs to be copied to binary folder)
  • configuration same way as the previous option, however with additional lines in config files: 
    
    
    db.cfg
    	line1: IP Adress of Database (if on the same computer 127.0.0.1)
    	line2: Database Port (3306 is default for mysql)
    	line3: Database Name (s2lobby is default)
    	line4: Database User (root is default)
    	line5: Database Password
    ip.cfg:
    	line1: Your public WAN Ip (or DDNS domain)
    	line2: Lobby Port (default 6800)
    	line3: Lobby Chat Port (default 6801)

 

Hi Xrystal, Im trying to make work the chat.

I was able to compile and build your version, but the chat when I connect with the client say "Connecting to chanel..."

Thanks!

Edited by GastonHOyarz250
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  • 1 month later...

Thank you so much for this work! If I'm understanding correctly, would all we need to do be that we add the .txt from the first post? I have done that and Open Net is still greyed out. Also the create account button asks for an activation code which I don't have because it's a Steam version. Thanks again!

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7 minutes ago, IronxLungs85 said:

hello all,

 

my friend and I are trying to host/join on open net servers but keep getting error 61? we have the same versions and went through windows defender to add port 7011. We're kind of at a loss... any suggestions?

Hi IronxLungs85! Thanks for getting to us here, and welcome to Darkmatters!

When these servers were created it was exciting to see everyone reverse-engeineer to get the multiplayer going again, and very satisfying.  I think this topic's creator could be afk for a bit, maybe holidays? I will try and message him to see if he's able to help anymore with support for the servers.

Have a great time here with the comunity!

:)

 

gogo

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thank you for the response. I really hope to get it working soon. As one last measure for now we tried a complete reinstall on both systems and mirrored the mod installations so there wasnt any inconsistencies there either. Still had the same issue however. In the meantime is there a known Hamachi guide possibly that would just be suitable for coop and not a dedi? thanks

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Since xrystal is not active anymore, neither here nor in the german forum,
your best bet is to find him on discord, where he is a member of the german
sacred community. His german avatar is called lain, just in case that you
cant find the avatar xrystal.
 

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18 hours ago, Dax said:

Since xrystal is not active anymore, neither here nor in the german forum,
your best bet is to find him on discord, where he is a member of the german
sacred community. His german avatar is called lain, just in case that you
cant find the avatar xrystal.
 

would language be a barrier then? I joined the international discord but didnt see him in there

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No, I dont think so. xrystal is a fluent english speaker, so is zerisius,
the starter of the discord group.
The discord invitation links from zerisius can be found on gog and steam,
on the first page of the forums. He renews them frequently.

The next option would be to contact Alby87 here or on gog. He wrote a
multiplayer tool for Sacred 1 and is using xrystals Sacred domain. I
assume, he can contact xrystal via mail or so.
http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?/topic/59576-sacred-ancaria-connection-play-sacred-1-without-any-vpn-community-server-opened-too/

Conspiracy theory:
Fact is: xrystal bought the domain it back in the day, but nowadays the
rights of the franchise belong to THQ Nordic. Maybe they have send
him a friendly mail to stop right now, or else...

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Hello.

Sorry, for all the confusion. Let me try to at least clear that as far as possible.

To be fully honest: For the most time I actively avoided here, Discord and other similar platforms. I noticed I don't find the time and motivation to do the support I'm actually supposed to do for my own infrastructure. That is on one hand codewise a few much needed improvements to the stability of the lobby, and on the other hand rather ordinary support on questions which are asked either repeatedly or are indeed unique but instead would require quite a bit of time on my side to be answered satisfactorily which kind of frustrates me. I had a lot of fun tinkering and getting the supplied code running in it's current environment, but I wish I could also say it would get much better than that which it probably won't. Turns out once you get a bit older paying the money for some servers becomes way less of an issue than actually putting time into maintaining it and the stuff arround it properly. So you can be sure this will continue to run as it is, but probably support will stay on the same miserable level, too :unsure:.

Even today I was originally here for a rather selfish purpose only, namely looking into the information about Flix's upcoming Purist Fixpack I read about in hope to be able to play that myself during a few finally upcoming days of vaccation in case it has been released until then. Kind of could not postpone any further looking into my own thread at that point so here I am...

Only minor thing I changed on the server side at last is, that now weekly each Tuesday 7 PM EST (like steam) the lobby will do a scheduled restart for both itself and my servers hosted on it, which is a rather unrefined method to tackle hopefully most simple issues with servers sometimes not beeing usable or stuck after a few weeks of continued runtime. I don't like this solution, because there is no warning in-game for servers running active sessions during that time which is the reason I did not setup it that way even after thinking about it a few times already in the past. But I have the feeling especially with me not doing anything, automated "rough" maintanance at a constant time is still better than my random maintanance every now and then or none at all.

Following this, way to late, but for the sake of completeness:

@GastonHOyarz250: I would check the channel table in the sqlite database - might be it's empty because their initialization was not executed for some reason which would be:

INSERT INTO channels (channel_name, channel_subject, channel_creator, creator_id, channel_protected) VALUES ('System', 'System Channel', 'Admin', 0, 1);
INSERT INTO channels (channel_name, channel_subject, channel_creator, creator_id, channel_protected) VALUES ('Lobby', 'Lobby Channel', 'Admin', 0, 1);

Otherwise it could afaik only fail for the port not beeing reachable.

@wade-newb: You can enter anything into the create account formular - server side nothing is validated, so you don't need your key. And yes, the .txt should have been all you needed assuming you have not changed the lobby url from the default in your games config file.

@IronxLungs85 : Error 61 is firewall or portforwarding, since you crossed out it beeing a blocked port on your system, it should be either missing unblocking on your router itself or NAT there not mapping incoming requests properly to your host machine. If the one you want to play with is on windows, he could install "telnet client" from the Windows Features and test with it if your public IP address has Port 7011 open. If it has and still does not work, the port is only open on the router but not forwared to the host of your server.

@Dax Thanks for declaring that "fluent" :wink:

And no, at least until now, the new right owner of the franchise did not complain (I doubt he even knows or cares ;)) and I hope it'll stay like that at least until he himself brings out something offical again.

  • Appreciation 1
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6 hours ago, xrystal said:

..

Long time no see! I feared that cov19 took you after you have, all of a sudden,
stopped posting in both forums.

Speaking of painful experiences, I can quite understand the frustration are
talking about, but why dont you run a loose coorperation with Dimitrius and
Flix?

Also, I have asked myself, how many people have have tried your multiplayer
solution already? Youtube shows only little results, so either the players
did not record the session, or.. well yeah, the interest is rather low.

Btw, have I seen you before? Your choice of words looks familiar to me.
Lets see: A golden retriever is sitting in the office. Does it ring a bell?

  • Appreciation 1
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19 hours ago, Dax said:

Speaking of painful experiences, I can quite understand the frustration are
talking about, but why dont you run a loose coorperation with Dimitrius and
Flix?

I am sure they have their own stuff to do already, considering all the mods they release and update. Also, I got a bit of help a while ago with the default settings of some mods to ease access to the multiplayer by bringing a previously patched out button - that one for opennet - back in ;)

19 hours ago, Dax said:

Also, I have asked myself, how many people have have tried your multiplayer
solution already? Youtube shows only little results, so either the players
did not record the session, or.. well yeah, the interest is rather low.

Had a quick look into the database table for raw numbers, did not really kept track: the account table has currently a bit more than 4k entries. Considering that some people might have created multiple accounts like me for testing, forgot their credentials or had a quick look but found no one to play like Shinryuu mentioned for example the real number of users is obviously way lower than that and there are no statistics kept on how active any of these users are once they created their account. But I do see the list of recent logins or server starts whenever I check the state of the lobby and some names I keep reading, so some do return.

Anyway, I am still happy with that amount. It might be a niche, but whenever I want to play with someone, I can just play my usual previously singleplayer sessions online and see if someone joins me, worked often enough. Many players I met were quite nice and communicative. Also I'm sure quite a few of them don't even know they are using this solution because they just bought and started their game without visiting any forums explaining them there is a 3rd party involved which is oddly satisfying in it's own way. :D

19 hours ago, Dax said:

Btw, have I seen you before? Your choice of words looks familiar to me.
Lets see: A golden retriever is sitting in the office. Does it ring a bell?

Nah, no doggies jumping arround in my workplace currently. But who knows, I was often amazed how small Germany actually is when talking to random people on the internet about places so irrelevant no one should know them; also seems like quite a few live here in the northern part of it...
 

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12 hours ago, xrystal said:

...

Mh, ok. I see. Well, just in case that you are the avatar I think you are,
then know that you have won after all. The project you have participated back
in the day, has not only been defunct lately, but also recieved devastating critics from the community. The head of the staff suffered a total meltdown,
combined with a fit of rage and flushed everything down the toilet.
If you ever had the desire to lite a cigar and to sit back, well, then it is
now the right time to fulfill your wish.

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  • 1 month later...
11 hours ago, GastonHOyarz250 said:

Thanks @xrystal works fine, the Binary I compiled don't use the ip.cfg or the db.cfg for some reason but using the other config files works OK.

I was able to create the Lobby and some Dedicated servers.

Thanks!

 

Good seeing you here on the boards Gaston, and delighted to hear Xrystal's reverse engineering is still pwning the lobby for this old classic...

fans will find a way!

:hugs:

gogo

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@GastonHOyarz250 Nice, I am happy you got it working.

@gogoblender Just to be clear: The reverse engineering goes way over my head, that was other good people incredible work, if you look closer on the first page of the thread ;)

Just a small service announcement: Since Hetzner (a german server hosting company) decided to move the Server I use for the lobby and some gameservers of Sacred 2 physically from one datacenter to another, there will be a scheduled downtime from 1. to 2. march, from Hetzners side round about starting at 22:00 going until to 6:30 (MEZ) and very likely plus some additional time before and after from my side, too, because that is a usual workday for me and if anything goes wrong with it I will not be able to fix it instantly but only after work is done which might drag that by a few more hours on march 2.

edit: the server has been moved and the lobby and gameservers are up again.

Edited by xrystal
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On 2/26/2022 at 1:49 PM, xrystal said:

@GastonHOyarz250 Nice, I am happy you got it working.

@gogoblender Just to be clear: The reverse engineering goes way over my head, that was other good people incredible work, if you look closer on the first page of the thread ;)

Just a small service announcement: Since Hetzner (a german server hosting company) decided to move the Server I use for the lobby and some gameservers of Sacred 2 physically from one datacenter to another, there will be a scheduled downtime from 1. to 2. march, from Hetzners side round about starting at 22:00 going until to 6:30 (MEZ) and very likely plus some additional time before and after from my side, too, because that is a usual workday for me and if anything goes wrong with it I will not be able to fix it instantly but only after work is done which might drag that by a few more hours on march 2.

edit: the server has been moved and the lobby and gameservers are up again.

Xrystal, thanks for being to help with hosting these servers for the Fans! :hugs: I know that these days there's so much on everyone's mind, and youre news of getting the game servers up again for players is a beuatiful light to get good sacred gaming into the hearts of players.

Thank you!!

:dance2:

gogo

ps re the reverse engineering, watches have beautiful faces but every cog is needed for a good action. Support from everyones hearts has kept the gift of community gaming alive, and your topic here is a great HQ for these hearts! :cow:

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  • 2 months later...

Hi ;)

For the first time, a friend and I would like to play Sacred 2 together. We are not on the same network and after reading all this thread, I'm not really sure how it work. I've tried OpenVPN or NeoRouter or Hamachi, but nothing seems to work. Using the lobby emulator, I can't create an account locally too.

Could someone help me a little please ?

Ty ;)

Edited by PolluxTroy0
  • Like! 1
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17 hours ago, PolluxTroy0 said:

Hi ;)

For the first time, a friend and I would like to play Sacred 2 together. We are not on the same network and after reading all this thread, I'm not really sure how it work. I've tried OpenVPN or NeoRouter or Hamachi, but nothing seems to work. Using the lobby emulator, I can't create an account locally too.

Could someone help me a little please ?

Ty ;)

Welcome to the boards PolluxTroy0!

I hope someone is able to help as the game's best memory for me was playing it online with friends, hopefully another current Sacred MP play will have some helpful info to get you into gear as theres a few players around who do meet up using the servers. 

:)

gogo

 

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@gogoblender Thank you !!!

I finally did it. After hours of search and retry and understandings, I managed to be able to run a lobby server and a game server.

But, I don't know if I'm the only one in that case, so I've started to create a GUI app to make it more easy for anyone to create a lobby and a game server.
Do you think it's a good idea, and if I'm able to share it here with everyone ?


The idea is to "package" everything needed to do it the easy way.

Hope it can help.

Capture.PNG

  • Like! 1
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5 hours ago, PolluxTroy0 said:

@gogoblender Thank you !!!

I finally did it. After hours of search and retry and understandings, I managed to be able to run a lobby server and a game server.

But, I don't know if I'm the only one in that case, so I've started to create a GUI app to make it more easy for anyone to create a lobby and a game server.
Do you think it's a good idea, and if I'm able to share it here with everyone ?


The idea is to "package" everything needed to do it the easy way.

Hope it can help.

Capture.PNG

Bravo on the work pollux! I dont think anyone would mind if you were able to make this work easily and to remain stable.  Fellow Maple Syrup Enjoyer, I believe other MP players will be happy

We actually have our own upload sections here for the game downloads

http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?/files/

 

and you can also put your link in your post and even make another topic if you wish

 

:Laie_68:

gogo

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19 hours ago, PolluxTroy0 said:

[...]

@xrystal Can I embed builded binarys of your lobby emulator within my launcher ?

Very nice project! Most of the code wasn't even written by me, but the original author also marked his code as public domain, so that should be no issue, feel free to bundle or alter it any way you like, especially for such useful utilities, everything which makes the usage easier is a wonderful thing :)

  • Appreciation 1
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3 hours ago, xrystal said:

Very nice project! Most of the code wasn't even written by me, but the original author also marked his code as public domain, so that should be no issue, feel free to bundle or alter it any way you like, especially for such useful utilities, everything which makes the usage easier is a wonderful thing :)

moooooooooooooorning! And thanks for making it over Xrystal!

:hugs:

gogo

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  • The title was changed to SACRED 2 ONLINE MULTIPLAYER: HOW-TO, DISCUSSION & DEVELOPMENT

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