Diablo itch, 2 questions about multiplayer (bnet & hamachi)

[dfn]

Hi. It has been a few years since I posted here, or played Diablo. Sure enough, I've got the itch again.

A friend and I have been trying to play Diablo over tcp/ip. We've tried TCP-Com, but it is unreliable. We've tried two different versions of Hamachi (whatever the latest one is, and 1.0.1.1) and failed to connect. Basically, we've gone through every guide we could find online (for hamachi), their wiki pages, searched forums (this one, and some D1/Hellfire mod forums), tried all of the proposed solutions, and nothing worked. The best we could get to is seeing each other's games, for a few seconds, but not being able to join them when we tried. We spent 6+ hours trying to get Hamachi to work, and in addition to all the suggestions found online, we also tried other random things just to see if they would work. No success. We must have rebooted our machines 20 times each.

I've tried installing Hamachi 1.0.1.5 but get an error on install - couldn't find out why it was happening. As mentioned, TCP-Com is unreliable. I tried GIT, but that freezes on startup - I still have to try reinstalling WinPcap to see if it fixes it. Haven't tried Kali because it costs money (anyone tried Kahn??). So my first question is...Does anyone have any tips for connecting with Hamachi, or any other program really? Anything off-beat that we could try? It seems like we've tried everything with Hamachi (I could make a huge list if it would help) and gotten no closer. We really want to connect over TCP/IP so that we could play Hellfire and maybe some mods.

Having said all that...we ended up playing on battle.net - which leads to my second question. While we were playing, we noticed that our spells and arrows would actually hurt us. What I mean is, if I wasn't pvp-hostile, my arrows (which I was shooting at a monster) could actually hit my friend, if he stood in their way. The same thing happened with spells (charged bolt, etc.). We triple-checked that the little PvP swords on our interface were NOT checked. Now the interesting thing is... if my friend died to my arrows, an ear would not drop. However, if either one of us died to a spell, an ear would drop. This, combined with lag, made for a frustrating night, especially in the catacombs. So is this a bug? Is this something added in one of the post-1.07 patches? Has it *always* been like this (my memory could be that bad!)?

I'd appreciate any replies to the above. Would really love to be able to play some mods via TCP/IP, and to know how to "fix" the "friendly fire" problem. Hope this forum is still...lively;)

[weakwarrior]

Having said all that...we ended up playing on battle.net - which leads to my second question. While we were playing, we noticed that our spells and arrows would actually hurt us. What I mean is, if I wasn't pvp-hostile, my arrows (which I was shooting at a monster) could actually hit my friend, if he stood in their way. The same thing happened with spells (charged bolt, etc.). We triple-checked that the little PvP swords on our interface were NOT checked. Now the interesting thing is... if my friend died to my arrows, an ear would not drop. However, if either one of us died to a spell, an ear would drop. This, combined with lag, made for a frustrating night, especially in the catacombs. So is this a bug? Is this something added in one of the post-1.07 patches? Has it *always* been like this (my memory could be that bad!)?

I'd appreciate any replies to the above. Would really love to be able to play some mods via TCP/IP, and to know how to "fix" the "friendly fire" problem. Hope this forum is still...lively;)

Regarding your first point I can´t help you. Even regarding most of your second point I´m pretty useless. However, unlike in diablo 2, in diablo 1 you can (and this has always been the case) hurt each other even in player friendly mode. This makes playing coop with a rogue, and especially with a mage, somewhat difficult. 2 warriors work together pretty nicely, since without the shift key you are unlikely to swing at a target.

[Sekel]

Hi dfn.

I can't help you with Hamachi. If you really read all that stuff you have described, your knowledge about Hamachi is far better than mine.
Small hint though: If guys from modding forum can't help you either, than it is really bad.

As for the "friendly fire bug".
That's not bug. Its game feature. And as you said "it has *always* been like this".
Luckilly, this feature is not included in single player! (just kidding).
But seriously. It gives real meaning to word cooperative. Now you cannot fire your arrows/spells like mad. You have to watch out for your buddy. Make some rules or just observe his playing style and assimilate.
You are absolutelly right that lag makes game very annoying. But good team tactic can pass you over laggy moments with grace. Try to play as a team. Occasional deaths will be rather funny than annoying. You will see.

And the ear thing:
EVERYTIME you are killed by player arrow, spell or any weapon, your ear will drop.
UNLESS you ear is already laying somewhere on that level floor OR UNLESS you are killed in level 16. (In multiplayer, you dont loose any items when you die in level 16, no matter who or what actually kills you).

BTW:
There is a way how to prevent DMG caused by other players. Even such widely accepted program as *censored* can do this. But it is considered as cheating and no debate it is cheating. And for all funny and dramatic moments you can experience with friendly fire and Diablo in general, do not do that.

weakwarrior:
Even with shift key pressed, 2 warriors cannot hit each other with weapon without PA (Player Attack) turned on.

[Nystul]

I used to play Heroes 3 on Kahn, and it worked fine. It would probably be silly to pay for Kali if you are scheduling games with a friend, but if you are looking for a Hellfire community where you could find pickup games that is probably the best bet (although I don't really know... never bought Hellfire in the first place). In any case, you need to have the IPX networking set up on your computer. If you are using Vista or Windows 7 Beta, that might not be an easy task.

Regarding friendly fire in Diablo, it is a lot different from Diablo II or the various other Diablo-clones that came out. If you are in player friendly mode, your melee attacks will never target or hit another player. Your arrows will never target another player, but they can still hit them! Your spells aren't really affected by the switch whatsoever. The other twist is that when in player friendly mode, you cannot be stunned by other players. But you can still be damaged by them.

Getting killed by another player's arrow should cause an ear to drop instead of your gear, regardless of player hostile/friendly switch. Sometimes an arrow will weaken a player and a monster will finish them off, causing the gear to drop.

I always felt that maintaining a clear line of fire was an important tactical aspect of MP Diablo lacking in many similar games, and was disappointed when Diablo II went to a more "carebear" friendly fire system while increasing the overall focus on area of affect spells. Of course, the problem with the Diablo I system is that does nothing to discourage grief play, the PvP system is not balanced in any regard, and the wide availability of cheats always made it a bigger issue.

[dfn]

Thank you for the quick replies!

I guess my memory really is that bad. As I started reading your posts, I had an "Oooooh yeeeaaaaah!" moment, remembering how people used to grief each other by monster killing. Our "tactics" resulted in one person getting a lot more experience than the other. Less dying at least (until lag hits).

We both were using XP at the time, and definitely had IPX set up OK. Tested that, among other things, during those 6+ hours haha.

Can anyone recommend other VPN/virtual IPX over TCP programs to try? So far, we have:
Hamachi (tried 2 different versions, many hours of troubleshooting, no luck)
TCP-Com (unreliable, also very laggy - not sure about new versions, they aren't free)
Kali (would rather not pay)
GIT (will test today or tomorrow by reinstalling WinPcap)
Kahn (haven't tried it yet)

Thanks again!

[Spelunker]

And the ear thing:
EVERYTIME you are killed by player arrow, spell or any weapon, your ear will drop.
UNLESS you ear is already laying somewhere on that level floor OR UNLESS you are killed in level 16. (In multiplayer, you dont loose any items when you die in level 16, no matter who or what actually kills you).

Does the ear even drop if someone is killed by (another one's) Fire Wall, Flame Wave or Ring of Fire (which attack as traps)?

[Model]

as far as i remember and tried it is impossible to play on hamachi via IPX protokol in d1. It is posible to play via UDP protocol in diablo mod's.
I tried Kali and it is very user unfriendly:) and it didn't work out for me

[Galbraith]

Hi,
i suggest to play over VPN, without any programs.
I tried VPN on XP with Hellfire and Diablo and it worked fine (2 players). Worked well.