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Topic: Any hats up? How can we join?


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Author: bbKing (arsnova30 [at] hotmail [dot] com)
Date: 18-Oct-16, 21:49:52
Like NOVA said you can make your hat the way you like it best and indeed around this time of year people will check the forum.

And to improve your chances of people willing to play, it has to be presented in an easy way so that they won't be put off by complicated and/or technical workarounds.

A simpel ROM2-package with just the multiplayer part of the game, suited for win7 and win10.

Then you have to decide whether you want to run the hat through own router or via Hamachi.

I will join sure and help out if needed.
 
Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM)
Date: 18-Oct-16, 02:58:42
There just might be a half dozen or so.

We've done a fair number of X-Mas Reunion HATs in the past as a once-a-year (or once every other year) several week long event right around the end of December to reunite some of the old players for nostalgia (and really a lot of social chatting too). Granted we're still about 2 months away from that time, but it's never too soon to begin planning, preparing, or announcing such a thing. Right now is probably about when people who would be interested might start checking here to see if a reunion HAT is gonna happen this year or not.

And as far as I know, nobody is planning to host a reunion HAT this year. And we're coming up on 3 years since the last one.... So you might just BE that guy if you time your HAT right and advertise it accordingly.

Many years ago we would get upwards of 25 or so people to join the reunion HATs. For the last couple that has dwindled down to more like 8-10 people. But still....that's not bad considering the age of this game and the advancing ages of the players themselves. BBKing could tell you how many players we actually had during the last X-Mas HAT 2013.

For that X-Mas 2013 reunion HAT we had the whole system prepared and fully play-tested by about a month in advance of it actually launching. And it took about a full month to pull the whole thing together with three of us contributing to it in our free time. Use that as a sort of one test case gauge if you wish for just how much time you can expect it will take to organize a HAT from start to launch. And all the files we used are still hosted out there on the internet and available for download. So feel free to re-use any of that if it will help you.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/au4hgjum274j374/hwSrQhwO_-/ROM2

Here was BB's official announcement of the thing back in December 2013 (he also sent out loads of emails inviting people to the HAT):

http://www.phantasia.nl/rom2/index.php?page=topic&id=599
 
Author: Nicke (nicke [dot] hagglund [at] gmail [dot] com)
Date: 17-Oct-16, 21:54:17
Actually my nick back then was Taran, i played as mage. My brother was a knight by the name Cuendillar. Ill contact you for help when its time to make it happen, i need to get myself a servercomputer first, i cant run it on my maincomputer. it drains to much power to keep it on 24/7. Do you think there are others who might be interessted to join in?
 
Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM)
Date: 17-Oct-16, 20:31:13
Your English looks pretty good to me.

Aha....I do seem to recall a Nicke nickname way back when. I take it you are that person?

There's nothing wrong with however you prefer to play the game. That's the beauty of hosting your own HAT. You get to create the exact gaming environment that you prefer. That is the solitary reason for all the HATs I've hosted in the past.

I wouldn't say I could cut down level 5 monsters like butter with access merely to store-bought equipment, but so long as the monster groups are fairly limited in size (read one-on-one or at least no more than two opponents), none of these monsters are really very difficult. You just have to go into the fights well prepared and stocked up with plenty of whatever the specific Achiles heel is for each monster type.

If you do put such a HAT up....I'd certainly be interested in taking the challenge and seeing what I could do there. In other words....count me in as a player if your HAT goes live and public.

Good luck.
-NOVA
 
Author: Nicke (nicke [dot] hagglund [at] gmail [dot] com)
Date: 17-Oct-16, 19:50:20
Thank you for ur long and informative reply Nova! Im going to try reply as good as i can with my very poor english...

Me and my two friends have been playing this game since the release back in -99. I have also played with you Nova, in the early -2000, i remember you playing rom2 with my two older brothers too! How ever, we have always played offline, in multiplayer mode, creating a character and using nothing but the weapons and armory the stores and quest can offer. Nothing else. We play at full speed too. Im not sure if this is differen from how you guys play Rom2 but i guess its different in some ways. We never used the quest items some monsters drops on quest maps because we actually got our hands on better stuff through inn's /uppgrades. Im not sure a hat with this gamestyle would be interessting for other players, but a gamestyle in this way won't let you cut down level 5 monsters so easy. And you do need help to do it. Im not sure how much of a noob i am since i can't slay levels 5 monsters, if you can do it in 24 hours with items from the original maps im sure ive missed something? :D

If there is people interessted in playing with the same concept as the all original multiplayer style i might open a hat. And if i do im sure ive got atleast a total of 6 guys who would like to dust of the old rom2 cd and join!

Sorry for my poor english!
 
Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM)
Date: 16-Oct-16, 23:15:01
In principle, getting a HAT running is VERY simple. At it's core, a HAT merely consists of two elements:

1) The HAT engine program (which is both the central server organizer and also the player account manager)

2) At least one map server connected to that central HAT server (and which does not even need to be hosted from the same computer as the central HAT program....the map server(s) could be hosted from the opposite side of the Earth even).


Some additional logistical complications can come into play if you are behind a router simply because the old ROM2 software did not anticipate such a thing. Direct connectability between the HAT, the map servers, and the clients (players) is thus assumed by the original HAT software and traffic re-routing around or through such barriers is not built into that software. If you will not host from behind a router, then this poses absolutely no problem for you. But even if you will be behind a router, there are at least four ways around this:

A) using some sort of VPN to tunnel traffic through the router

B) Using Exlend's newer version of the HAT program which does account for rerouting of traffic through your router

C) NOGA56 came up with a clever Cheat Engine driven bypass. I don't know how it works, he would have to explain it to you. But it does work. BBKing used it for his Xmas reunion HAT several years ago.

D) host the HAT ahead of your router (somehow)


But that's all simple logistics still. The harder part of running a HAT (IMHO) is not the mere mechanical logistics of getting the servers and clients running and communicating with each other but rather the design of the player experience itself. In other words, what symbiotic sets of maps will you run such that the player experience most closely matches what you envision for them. This has proven to be a hard concept for me to convey to people over the years (maybe just because I am a poor communicator) but imagine if you will a set of maps running on your HAT such that the players have reached the END (i.e. their is nothing left for them to achieve or do) after playing for just 24 hours. At this point, other than deleting and repeating all those same experiences again, or just considering the whole thing as a social exercise of interacting with the other players online, your players are essentially done with your HAT and it lasted only 24 hours (which would suck real bad if you spent 6 months preparing it). So, you have to carefully plan out the player experience accommodating a potentially vast array of player skill levels from complete noob to true ROM2 veteran. That also makes it very difficult so that you do not make it too difficult for the noobs else they simply give up after 30 minutes nor so easy that the veteran has reached the end of your HAT in 3 hours.

I could wax on for hours belaboring my point here, but I'll just stop there. Hopefully a kernel of my point is clear enough in all that to grasp.

Also, there are a wide range of subtle variances you could also incorporate into your HAT depending upon how much work/effort you are willing to put into it and what sort of experience you want for the players. For instance, do you want to keep all the hackers and cheaters out of your HAT? Do you want to adjust some of the standard game elements (such as perhaps changing the in-game item prices, or even the magic item effects). You CAN do all of these things and more, but they take a commitment of perhaps more effort and time than you might wish to devote if you intend to have a short-lived and essentially nostalgia HAT intended for just a few players (even close friends). It just matters what you want, who you intend to play, and how much effort/time you want to commit to it all.


If you do decide to try hosting your own HAT, I'd be happy to assist in any way you deem appropriate/beneficial. Such would probably be better organized not by trading forum posts back and forth but rather through more direct live chat (such as via Facebook or some other IM service). As I say, if you wish to go this route, just ask and I'd be glad to do whatever I can to assist.

Good luck and happy gaming.
-NOVA
 
Author: Nicke (nicke [dot] hagglund [at] gmail [dot] com)
Date: 16-Oct-16, 21:41:01
Hosting my own hat would be alot of fun, but the problem is to keep it up 24/7. Is it alot of work to get a hat up and running?

Btw, are any of you guys having trouble with rage of mages randomly crashing?
 
Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM)
Date: 16-Oct-16, 19:31:23
To my knowledge, there are NO English speaking HATs running anymore. In fact, the only currently running HAT that I know of at all is a highly modified one which requires a special modified client in order to play and is (I believe) hosted in Russia called:

Allods2.eu

They have a running web site where you can learn the details and download everything you need:

http://www.allods2.eu/en/about/


The other alternative of course is to just host your OWN HAT. If you opt for this route, I would urge you to consider opening it up to the general public AND announcing it here on this forum in case anybody else might want to join you too.

Good luck,
NOVA
 
Author: Nicke (nicke [dot] hagglund [at] gmail [dot] com)
Date: 16-Oct-16, 16:08:41
Hello, me and some friends are about to start playing rom2 again, is there any hats up and running? If so, how can we make accounts and join in? It's been a long time since we played online, really looking forward to it!
 
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