[Doompants]

Hi there. I'm considering adding Freespace 2 to the list for an upcoming LAN party, and FS2Open sounds intriguing, but I see reference to some existing 'multiplayer bugs'. So just a couple quick questions from people who have tried it out.

- First off.. FS2 supports 12 players, correct? I've seen reference to both 8 and 12 players, but we are going to have 10 people, so if it only does 8, that's a problem.
- that said, are the FS2Open multiplayer bugs severe enough to be concerned?
- If so, does the vanilla FS2 have solid 12-persn LAN play that we can fall back on?

Thanks in advance. Would love to devote some time to this classic.

[karajorma]

- 8 player Team vs Team mode, 12 player Coop or dogfight(Kill everyone you see). So basically you wouldn't be able to play TvT with 10 players but the other two modes would be fine.

-The biggest problem with multiplayer is basically that it seems to have an issue with updating everyone other than the server. Over the internet this is a problem but I suspect it would be much less of an issue at a LAN party.

- Vanilla FS2 should work perfectly well as a fallback plan.

[jr2]

You guys should grab the BSG/Diaspora Total Conversion & give that a spin too (I'm assuming that works the same as mentioned above, it uses the same engine).  Just be sure to also grab & install the patches.

[karajorma]

It does work the same in Diaspora.

[Doompants]

Great answers, thank you both. We are indeed having a team v team competition unfortunately, but I may still put the 12 person dogfights forward as something we can use as a warm up/while everyone sets up.

[karajorma]

Technically you could probably make a dogfight mission into a TvT one with some creative mission design. I've never tried it but the only real obstacle would be whether or not the IFF code would throw a fit if you start changing the team the players are on.

Well that and the fact you'd need to learn how to make missions with FRED. Probably not worth it for a single LAN party but if people like the game and want to do it regularly, give me a shout and I might be able to whip something up.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Tried it, can't be done with current code as everyone is basically set to traitor.

[karajorma]

I know, but what happens if you reset that using SEXPs?

Might be worth fiddling with the code actually even if it's not currently possible.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

I think anything that is a fighter that isn't a player ship or traitor get's self destructed and at one time (probably still there)  you couldn't set iff on player ships as it just got changed back at respawn.