NetMECCG/DeckMETW Frequently Asked Questions ---------------------------------- Here is the list of Frequently Asked Questions about NetMECCG. I'll expand it as I get time. Last updated on 11/08/97. List of answers that you'll find in this FAQ (questions marked with a "*" were added or changed since the last FAQ): - Is there a Mac/Unix version? - Does NetMECCG work with Windows NT? - Does NetMECCG work with America Online (AOL)? - Do the 16-bit and 32-bit version of NetMECCG work together? - My NetMECCG screen looks all messed up! * I just installed DeckMETW, but when I run it I get an error about the Borland Database Engine. - How do I find another player to play METW with, using NetMECCG? - OK, now I've found someone that I want to play METW with, using NetMECCG. How do we connect? - Do I have to make a long-distance call to play with my friend in another area-code/country? - How does the 16-bit version of NetMECCG look for the card sounds and card images? - Where can I get scans of all the individual cards? - Can two players play "hotseat" on the same computer? - Can two players play "head to head" with two local networked computers? - There's no "In Play" list! - How do I play cards on my opponents characters? - How does NetMECCG handle [cardname]? - How does NetMECCG handle cards which allow more regions to be played? - How does NetMECCG handle cards which are played on a site card? - How does NetMECCG handle cards which send you back to your site of origin? - How does NetMECCG handle "Long Dark Reach"? * How does NetMECCG handle "Aware of Their Ways"? ---------------------------------------- Q. Is there a Mac/Unix version? A. There are seperate port efforts going on right now to write a Macintosh native version and a JAVA version. These ports are not being done by me, though I am providing my source code and knowledge of the code to the effort. I wouldn't expect these ports to be finished until the end of 1997 at the earliest. ---------------------------------------- Q. Does NetMECCG work with Windows NT? A. As far as I know: yes. NetMECCG is a fully Win95 compliant 32-bit Windows app. I don't do anything out of the ordinary in it. It should work with WinNT. If you discover otherwise, let me know. ---------------------------------------- Q. Does NetMECCG work with America Online (AOL)? A. Yes, but only with AOL version 3.0 for Windows 95. (Note that this is a different from just AOL version 3.0) Older versions won't work, as AOL worked things differently than what most Internet programs are used to. ---------------------------------------- Q. Do the 16-bit and 32-bit version of NetMECCG work together? A. Yes. Both players do not have to have the same version; the 16-bit and 32-bit versions can talk to each other. ---------------------------------------- Q. My NetMECCG screen looks all messed up! A. Make sure that you are running in at least 800x600 resolution. NetMECCG is not designed to run on anything smaller---there's too much information to have to try to squeeze on the screen. To change your resolution under Win95: 1) Right click on the desktop, pick "Properties" - OR - select Display in the Control Panel. both actions bring up the Display settings. Once you're there: 2) Select the "Settings" tab. On the Settings screen there is a slider for "Desktop area". Make sure that it says at least 800x600. That should fix it. ---------------------------------------- Q. I just installed DeckMETW, but when I run it I get an error about the Borland Database Engine. A. It's one of two things (normally the first): 1) DeckMETW needs to be in the same directory as NetMECCG. They share alot of files, and DeckMETW won't run (as you've found) unless they're together. 2) Make sure that NetMECCG and DeckMETW are either both 16-bit or both 32-bit. ---------------------------------------- Q. How do I find another player to play METW with, using NetMECCG? A. Chris Cable has started to maintain a list of NetMECCG users on his MECCG home page . It's a list of interested/available players --- essentially a "personals" ad of your prefences for playing times, skill level, etc. Interested players could read Chris' page, and contact prospective opponents via email. You could also register your name, so that other players can contact you. Another method is to meet other players on a chat channel. Penni Simoneau has arranged for a Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel to be set up. You'll need an IRC program, which you can download from . Once you've got this running, logon to Undernet and join the channel #metw. ---------------------------------------- Q. OK, now I've found someone that I want to play METW with, using NetMECCG. How do we connect? A. First, arrange ahead of time for one of you to be the server, and the other the client. Except for the act of actually connecting, it doesn't matter which is which---once connected, the two copies of NetMECCG act identically. This decision only determines who will choose "Wait for Connection" from the Network menu, and who will choose "Connect to Server". Next, for the client to connect the server, the client needs to know the server's "IP address". This is the name, or set of numbers, which identifies a computer on the Internet. What does it look like? Well, the IP address is several words seperated by periods (for the name version) or 4 numbers seperated by periods (for the number version). For example, the IP address for Iron Crown's web site is www.ironcrown.com, or 208.139.146.153. For machines which are always connected to the Internet (like www.ironcrown.com), this number doesn't change. However, if you connect to the Internet through your modem to an Internet Service Provider, this number will change each time that you connect. So, if you're the server, how do you find your IP address? Well, under Windows 95, you use a program called WinIPcfg, which is located in your Windows folder. If you double click on the WinIPcfg icon while you are connected to your Internet provider, you will bring up a small window with some information on it. First, make sure that "PPP Adapter" or "SLIP/PPP", etc., is selected from the dropdown list (or "AOL Adapter" if you use AOL). If so, you'll see you're IP address *for this time*---as I said, this number will probably change everytime that you connect to the Internet. Well, now the server knows his IP address---how does he tell the client so that the client can connect to him? I have a few suggestions: 1) The worst, but most straightfoward way, is simply to email the information to him. 2) A better way would agree to meet on an IRC channel, and exchange information there. 3) Use KALI. KALI is a program that allows non-Internet-but-network-ready games like Doom, Quake, Warcraft II, etc. to play over the Internet. NetMECCG is already Internet ready, so you don't need KALI to use NetMECCG, however, KALI has a nice chatroom feature where players can meet up that you could use to exchange information, arrange games, etc. Additionally, KALI tells you your IP address when you connect to a KALI server, sparing you the agony of using WinIPcfg. KALI is available from http://www.kali.net. Unless you register it, KALI will only work for 15 minutes each time you start it up---however, this should be plenty of time to arrange the METW game using NetMECCG (Like I said, KALI doesn't have to be running to use NetMECCG). If you don't like having to re-run KALI every 15 minutes while you are chatting, registering KALI is only $20 and well worth it. 4) Use ICQ. ICQ is an "Internet pager" that allows two people to contact each other without having to know each other's IP addresses. You could contact each other using ICQ to exchange IP addresses for NetMECCG. A free beta version of ICQ is available at http://www.mirabilis.com. At this point, the server selects "Wait for Connection" from under the Network menu in NetMECCG (then press OK on the dialog box that comes up. Once the server is waiting for connection, the client selects "Connect to Server" (also under Network menu), and enters the server's IP address for the "address" field (and then also selects "OK"). If all goes well, you should connect, and be able to start playing METW. That's all there is to it! :-) ---------------------------------------- Q. Do I have to make a long-distance call to play with my friend in another area-code/country? A. Nope. Each player makes the local phone call to their Internet Service Provider. The Internet provides the "long-distance" part of the communication. You pay only for the local call, and your Internet time. ---------------------------------------- Q. How does the 16-bit version of NetMECCG look for the card sounds and card images? A. For sounds and images, the 32-bit version uses the whole card name, exactly as it appears on the card (spaces and everything). The only alteration is that the quotes are removed from cards such as from Tom, Two-headed Troll, etc. The 16-bit version is a little different, however, due to the limitation of 8.3 filenames. The quotes are removed, but so are all of the spaces. The filename is then chopped to 8 characters (if it's longer). As you might imagine, this would cause quite a few cards to map to the same name; for example, "Magic Ring of [insert ring name]" all become MAGICRIN. To get around this problem, there is a file in the 16-bit NetMECCG directory called LFNto83.MAP. From the filename, you can probably guess that it maps long filenames to 8.3 filenames. This file contains a list of all of the "problem" cards (different cards which map to the same 8.3 name) and alternate short names for each. Each card is listed in normal capitalization, followed on the next line by it's short name in ALL CAPS. So, how do you figure out what a card's short name is? First, check LFNto83.MAP to see if the card's name is explicitly specified. If not, remove all the quotes and spaces and chop the name off at 8 characters. Here are some examples: Frodo -> FRODO.WAV and FRODO.BMP The One Ring -> THEONERI.WAV and THEONERI.BMP Fair Travels in Border-lands -> FAIRTRAV.WAV and FAIRTRAV.BMP Fair Travels in Dark-domains -> FAIRTR00.WAV and FAIRTR00.BMP Fair Travels in Free-domains -> FAIRTR01.WAV and FAIRTR01.BMP The first three are all converted using the mapping rule. The last two come from LFNto83.MAP. ---------------------------------------- Q. Where can I get scans of all the individual cards? A. Good question. I originally intended to make scans of all the cards available for use with NetMECCG, but Iron Crown specially asked me *not* to distribute any card art or card flavor text. I'm grateful enough to have been granted permission to distribute NetMECCG---I'm not going to abuse their generousity by ignoring this request. There are a few card scans on Iron Crown's web page (http://www.ironcrown.com). They're mostly located in the promos section, but there are some other scans here and there on their site. Other than that, you'll have to do the work yourself, and scan in your own cards. My own card scans are 115x160, 8-bit color Windows bitmaps. The scans turned out really well when I scanned at 300dpi, 24-bit color, and then converted them. However, this takes a long time to do, so most of my cards are scanned 9 at a time, 48dpi (which gives the 115x160), and 8-bit color. These scans are okay, but not anywhere near as nice as first ones. ---------------------------------------- Q. Can two players play "hotseat" on the same computer? A. Yes. You simply need to run NetMECCG twice on the same computer. One copy of NetMECCG will be for one player, and the other copy is for the other player. You can even change the names seperately to keep things straight. "Connecting" works the same intra-computer as inter-computer---one copy of NetMECCG needs to "wait for connection", and the other "connects to server". For the IP address, use "localhost" (no quotes, though). ---------------------------------------- Q. Can two players play "head to head" with two local networked computers? A. Yes, the Win95 version of NetMECCG only needs TCP/IP to communicate. The TCP/IP can be either over Dial-up Networking, or a local TCP/IP network---it doesn't matter. If you're running on a local TCP/IP network, each machine has probably already been assigned a permanent IP address. If you're setting up your own mini-network (for example, if a friend is visited with their computer, and you want to play NetMECCG "head to head"), just make up IP addresses for each computer. In either case, you can find/specify the IP address by: 1) Right click on Network Neighborhood, pick "Properties" - OR - select Network in the Control Panel. both actions bring up the Network settings. Once you're there: 2) select TCP/IP. Hopefully, there's two entries---one for the Dial-up Networking, and one for your network card (if not, you have to install it). Pick the one pointing to your network card, and press the Properties button. One of the tabs on this dialog is "IP Address". You can specify an address here, instead of having it obtained automatically. Note! You may have to change this back before you can use DUN again---I seem to remember that Win95 didn't always keep the settings different between DUN and a network card. "Connecting" works the same locally as over the Internet---one copy of NetMECCG needs to "wait for connection", and the other "connects to server". For the IP address, use the local IP address that you specified/found. ---------------------------------------- Q. There's no "In Play" list! A. Actually, there is. It's in the same list as all of the Companies, above "Company 1". It's tricky to find, since "Company 1" is the starting position of the list. ---------------------------------------- Q. How do I play cards on my opponents characters? A. Some cards, like corruption cards, need to be played on the *opponent's* characters. To do so, put the card from in your Hand (or where ever it's located) into your Opponent's In Play. Tell your opponent where the card should be played, and they will move the card from their In Play to the appropriate location. This method, while not the fastest, allows any card to be transferred between players. To indicated who the card is played on, indent it under the character (the same as a follower or possessed item would be shown). ---------------------------------------- Q. How does NetMECCG handle [cardname]? A. [as I find cards which are difficult to use in NetMECCG, I'll expand this section -Mike] NetMECCG was designed to be as flexible as possible, so I included very few "card specific" actions in it. Therefore, there are some card actions which are not handled specifically by NetMECCG. In the worst case, use the "Add card" feature to add a text phrase to the card lists. For example, lets take a fictional card "Genocide", a permanent-event which destroys all creature cards of a given type chosen by the player when he played the card. So, you put this permanent-event in your In Play, then "add card" of the type you chose (e.g. "Drakes") and indent it under "Genocide". I think that this should allow you to work around just about any situation. ---------------------------------------- Q. How does NetMECCG handle cards which allow more regions to be played? A. Cards like Cram, Twice-baked Cakes, Waybread, Strange Rations, etc. allow more than four regions to be used by a company for it's movement/hazard phase. Unfortunately, there is no more room for me to squeeze additional region entries onto the screen (if I want to keep NetMECCG able to run on 800x600). Therefore, I suggest one of the following: 1) just mention it in the chat box 2) put the troublesome card in the moving company as a reminder, and explicitly Add (the "A" button) the additional region card(s) to the moving company under that card. Do what's best for the situation. Choice #1 is the fastest, while choice #2 is a little more descriptive, and gives the players a region card to click on. ---------------------------------------- Q. How does NetMECCG handle cards which are played on a site card? A. Cards like River, Known to an Ounce, Siege, Troll-purse, etc. are played on site cards. However, NetMECCG doesn't use actual site cards. Therefore, I suggest putting the card in question In Play, and explicitly Add (the "A" button) the name of the site card under it as a reminder. ---------------------------------------- Q. How does NetMECCG handle cards which send you back to your site of origin? A. Cards like Long Winter, Foul Fumes, Fell Turtle, etc. are cards which return a company to its site of origin. There's no "return to site of origin" function in NetMECCG (yet!), so simply reset the site path with the Move button. If your original starting site was tapped, and therefore discarded when you moved, you can "(un)discard" it by right-clicking on the destination site in the site path beside the company. ---------------------------------------- Q. How does NetMECCG handle "Long Dark Reach"? A. Use "View->Restricted Cards". First, have your opponent view the top 7 cards of your Play Deck so that he/she can see what you have. Next, view the top 7 cards of your *own* Play Deck. Pick the card you want, and put it In Play by right-clicking on it. There is a check box for "shuffle shown cards"---make sure that is checked before you leave the window, and you cards will be shuffled and placed back on top of your Play Deck. ---------------------------------------- Q. How does NetMECCG handle "Aware of Their Ways"? A. Use "View->Restricted Cards". View 4 random cards from your Opponent's Discard Pile so that you can see what they have. When you've selected the card to place Out of Play, right click on the card and pick "Name Card for Opponent". The card name will be shown in the message window. Your opponent can now go to their Discard pile, and move the named card Out of Play.