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Newest Addition to the Page: Using Kali's IPX Protocol (11-1-97)

This section will be devoted to special moves that different DOGs come up with. To start it off, I'll show you a great shortcut in the map, "Canyon Oasis".

What you'll need:

1) Full registered version of JK, blah blah blah... you get the picture.

2) A Multiplayer character with any amount of stars for Speed, and EXACTLY 3 stars for Jump. More on why in a second.

3) The will to get to the Concussion Rifle before your opponent does.

What you do:

1) Go here in Canyon Oasis:

Where I'm pointing is where you want to be, but you don't feel like swimming a quarter mile to get there. Luckily, JK has the equivalent of the Quake "Rocket Jump".

Once here, hit Force Speed, and start halling Jedi Tail in that direction... and when you get here:

... fire off a Force Jump by TAPPING the Force Jump button. Why tapping you say? Well, luckily, I read the manual, so I know that holding down the Force Jump button allows me to jump at differing heights... but just TAPPING it automatically makes you go your MAXIMUM height. And... if you have exactly THREE stars spent on Force Jump....

... and you get a good Force Jump tap, then you will hit the "hole in the wall" perfectly, taking no falling damage... and leaving you to make probably the most fun shot of the game on the poor sap that chose to swim up there:

Happy!

Got any REALLY sick Multiplayer Tricks you'd like us to do a story board of? Send in your idea to Essobie.

Personally, much of what I learned about multiplayer shooters I learned from the Descent and Quake Weenie Sights. It is "required reading" for any would-be "professional" 3D shooter player.

INSIGHT ON INTERNET PLAY

Many people have already noticed this themselves, but it has come to my attention that many people DON'T know it. The host of Jedi Knight games has distinct advantages over the people who join his/her game (hereafter called "joiners").

The reason for this ignorance is less complicated than I figured it was at first. The main reason people don't know is because they don't have faith in the ability of their connection to the internet, or the ability of their computer to host a game. Because of this, they never host a game, and thus, don't know how much easier the game is when you host.

All information herein about Internet games are reported here by experience of game play by Essobie in the game of Jedi Knight. Some understanding of these phenomena are also derived from other games playable on the Internet such as Descent 1 and 2, Quake, Interstate '76, Netmech, Virtual Pool, Duke 3D (I know... I know...), and other games I don't even remember trying on the internet (read that as: they weren't that great)

I have heard a lot about how the host is at a DISadvantage due to the joiners "warping" around the level and whatnot. This may SEEM like a disadvantage but it isn't. You see, when you see someone while you are host, they are REALLY THERE. When you join a game, and you are aiming at someone, what you see is your computer's rendering of where it THINKS that player is.

Advantages of Hosting/Joining:

The host's system keeps track of ALL the objects on the map. These include weapons, powerups, doors, fans, switches, etc. This means that when a host runs to pick something up, or pulls it to him, or push a button on a wall, they get use of it right away. The Joiners, on the other hand, have to wait for the host's computer to update an event on the HOST computer and so send the "event" packet to the join computer. With a solid 33.6 connection to the host over the Internet, Joiners usually have to wait at least 200ms to get something to work, or pick up. Two tenths of a second don't mean much, right? Wrong. The reaction speed needed to do well in this game relies on being able to change what you are doing in LESS than .2 seconds based on what is going on around you.

Not only that, but most of the time 200ms is a TERRIFIC connection. It looks like is more between 300 and 500 on average.

 

If you have any questions on how we do what we do, please check out our feedback section. Any tips that arise out of feedback will be posted here.

You can download our control configurations from here... I suggest at least giving them a once over as many techniques from Quake have been carried over to allow the most used commands to be VERY accessible. The download is also VERY small. Simply unzip the file into your "Controls" directory off of your Jedi Knight directory, and then open it up under Setup, Options, Load Configuration.

To give you a peek at how it works, this image shows where hand position will be (with the other hand on the 3 button mouse, of course), and shows what the different button groups will do.

ITEM MANAGEMENT     HUD TOGGLES     FORCE POWERS

MOVEMENT     SECONDARY FIRE     ACTIVATE     NOT USED

Note that we use the standard "Home Row" keys on the left. There are a few really good reasons for this.

First of all, this is where you are anyway if you wish to type something. That makes in game chat very easy (backspace is chat toggle... tap it, and type away... hit enter and you are back to your controls).

Secondly, most keyboards have notches on either the F and J keys, or the D and K keys. When you get used to feeling these notches, you won't get lost on the keyboard if you DO happen to take your hand away for a second (like when you are bashing yourself in the head from jumping out of the hole in the wall on the RIGHT side and not the left... you know what I mean...).

Thirdly, and I get a lot of this... arrow keys don't have NEAR as many surrounding buttons. ESDF does. Many Quakers use ASDW as their movement keys, but that just leaves a whole column of perfectly good keys to waste since you are too close to the left side (besides... if you are going to take the left side of the keyboard, why not homerow? Don't you type?).

And finally, using the left side of the keyboard gives you the opportunity to do what in the Descent Community is called "chording" (pronounced kording), or, the act of using multiple keypresses for special activities or combination of activities. For instance, with this setup, it is possible to move forward, strafe right, duck, fire secondary, turn right, look up, jump, and force pull ALL at the same time. (controls used: E, F, A, SPACE, Mouse Right, Mouse Back, Mouse Middle Button, and Mouse Right Button, respectively).

Give them a try. There aren't any copyright laws on keyboard configurations, so I welcome you to take these and change them to your liking.

Essobie's Config - Toxy's Config

Fine Print: These configurations can change without notice, and what is on this page may or may not reflect what any DOG might actually be using at any time. It doesn't mean that what you get here is crap... I constantly improve my config to suit my playing style... which constantly changes. I will upload mine [Essobie] when I make drastic changes.

ESSOBIE'S SYSTEM SPECIFICS

MOUSE: Logitech Mouseman 3 Button.

SYSTEM: Intel Pentium 200MMX with 32MB (10ns). 4.3 WD IDE, Pioneer 24X CD-ROM, 17" Princeton Eo70 Monitor.

CONNECTION: 56K Aztech Voice/Fax Modem, but only pays for 33.6 connection.

GRAPHICS:Diamond 2000 Series 4MB card, and a Diamond Monster 3D, with the 3dfx Voodoo chipset.

3dfx is the choice of support for just about every 3d based game coming out on the market in the next year, and Jedi Knight is just one more that supports it. And supports is VERY well. I attribute at least 30% of my game (if not more) to the fact that my movement and framerate is always smooth, and I can see things very far away.

Do yourself a favor and hit someone up for a 3dfx card for Christmas. The big hitters on the market right now are the Canopus Pure3d (add on card like the Monster) and the Intergraph Intense Voodoo (stand alone 2D/3D)... both of which boast more texture ram than the Righteous or the Monster, and they have a spiffy TV output. Mmmmm... TV output.

This is what 3dfx can do for you.

TCP/IP versus IPX

Many ask me, "What is the difference in gameplay?" The answer is: practically nothing. I quote an email that has been circulating on Kali for a while now:

Question from FearNo1

Date sent: Sun, 05 Oct 1997 10:51:30 -0500
From: FearNo1
To: kali-list@kali.net, support@kali.net
Subject: TCP/IP vs IPX

For gaming via the net, is there a definitive advantage to either of the protocols? Does one of them have smaller packets or something? Lately I have heard (with Jedi Knight and TA) that TCP/IP is faster than IPX. Ne truth to that?

Question from FearNo1

From: "Kali Technical Support Team" <support@kali.net>
X-Real-Sender: RICHARD
Organization: Kali, Inc.
To: FearNo1
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 11:17:58 EST
Subject: Re: TCP/IP vs IPX

The actual data size is the same. It's the header info that makes a (very) slight difference. By the time you add in the Kali information, the IPX packet is 5 bytes larger than normal IPX. This still means it's smaller that TCP/IP, but larger than UDP.

What does this mean for your games speed? Nothing. The game would have to be sending over 40 packets a second for the speed difference to be noticeable. There is no game (including JK) that sends that fast.

Thanks,
Richard

So what you have here is no difference in gameplay possible. So now you ask "If there isn't any difference, then why can't we just use both?" The answer to that one is a bit more simple than you can probably imagine.

Joining IPX games

IP games have a game list listed ONLY on the host's IP address. IPX games are listed on the games list on the Jedi Knight Kali Server. This means that if you want to just "drop into a game" all you have to do is start up Kali, go to the JK server, start up JK, select Join game, IPX protocol, and you get a nice, tidy little list of all the freekies that are playing JK right there in front of you to choose from.

Hosting IPX games

If you want to host a game, no problem. Just do the same thing, except instead of join, you pick host. Set your settings and drop into the game. If everyone used IPX, you would never have to advertise your game in chat... you would have all the advertisement you'd need for people to join JUST by being on the games list after you host. Trust me. People will join.

TCP/IP Games

The alternative is to host a game with your IP address by displaying your IP to everyone you want to play with you. Then, you start up JK, host a game of TCP/IP, and drop in. This is the hard part:

If someone wants to join, they have to know your IP address. Since you gave it to them in chat, all they have to do is copy the numbers to the clipboard, and paste it in the nifty DirectPlay dialogue box when JK asks for it. Easy huh? Yes and no.

If you miss the cut and paste (it happens sometimes) then you have to alt-tab BACK to chat to get it. If it was in a private window that address is GONE, baby! You'll have to sit this one out (unless the host did something stupid... more on that in a bit).

Say you get into the game successfully, but after a while, you go weary of everyone beating you down because you wanted to use Deadly Sight and not any of the Neutral Powers... you keep getting blinded by Disciples and such <G>.

So you leave the game to make yourself a new character and try to go back. Same thing, if you lost that number on your clipboard, or that IP address isn't in a chat window you can get to anymore, you are out of luck. Unless...

Using /away to advertise

Unless the host is advertising a game with an /away message. By doing this he accomplishes a number of things that are beneficial to the people that will join his game, but he also does one thing that is pretty detrimental to his clients.

People can now look for the IP address in the main chat window, so there won't be any losing the numbers. People can come on the server and instantly see all the IP games going on (maybe... some folks leave their away messages on when they aren't really away, consequently they are saying they have a game up, when in reality, they don't).

Downside to staying in chat with this /away message displaying to everyone when they join the server is that your computer (and internet connection) is still concentrating on updating your chat window with ALL the people in Kali Chat. This wouldn't be so bad if you were JOINING a game, since your computer doesn't do Object Management for the game... the HOST'S computer does that.

Host Computers Jobs

But if you are hosting, your computers responsibilities are greater than you may think. You have to start the game, send notify packets to everyone that is wanting to join the game, send current game info to everyone first joining, keep track of all the doors, objects, and trap triggers on the entire map for EVERYONE in the game, and then of course keep track of your personal damage count when you get hurt and send damage packets to client computers.

And then you want to add about 35 lines of chat text a minute to that mix? I don't think that you will be doing your game a favor by taking up that little bit of bandwidth so you can stay in chat...

You probably won't see a difference on your end since you will always be able to modify your environment instantly (you being the host and all), but your client's computers will have to wait just a TAD longer to pick up objects, go up an elevator, open a door, or flip a trap's switch. It is already bad enough that you get the advantage of "instant gratification" but now you want to make it worse for them... on purpose?

Not to mention when your name is on that list, people think you are THERE. I've never done it so I wouldn't know, but I've been told of horror stories where someone was in a game and in chat at the same time, and someone private messaged them, crashing the game. Gasp!

Conclusion

Using IPX protocol on Kali is so easy... just start up and go. It is just like the zone, except that Chat is WAY faster, and you don't have a bunch of 12 year olds playing Level 8 games and shouting "NO MORE GRIP! NO MORE GRIP!"

Use Kali IPX for Jedi Knight. If everyone did it, this game could be as organized as Descent 2 is (Descent 2 had to put in a port address function so that they could separate IPX games list on Kali Servers... there are THAT many games in progress at one time).

See you in chat!

-SOB