Duck and Cover

I've posted this same topic over at NMA, in hopes of some answers; figured I'd try my luck here, as well.

Alright, so a few friends and I have been attempting to run Fallout Tactics' multiplayer mode,... Unfortunately, we've run into a few problems. To begin with, I'll note that we are using the 3 CD version of the game,.... And installed the 3 CD patch and the 1.27 patch in that order. We've both opened the correct ports, and have no firewalls/anti-viruses running.

Now, our problems are as follows: One of my buddies (running Windows Vista Home Premium, 32-bit) has an issue that prevents him from chatting in multiplayer. Now, we solved this once by having him delete his keys.cfg. However, after he restarted the game, the problem was back again, yet no keys.cfg existed. So, he's ingame and can't chat at all, using any of the bound keys. I even sent him a copy of my own keys.cfg, and he still can't chat.

Our other issue is, whenever playing Tactics, our internet connection just seems to drop. Specifically for me, whenever I attempt to join a server, my connection just cuts out. Our other buddy's connection cuts out while he's already on the server. This wouldn't be much of an issue, if it didn't drop and not return for about five or ten minutes. When the connection is dropped, all our 'net dependent applications cease functioning. Our IM clients lose connection, as do our web browsers. Resetting the connection doesn't work, either, until about 5-10 minutes later.

This is an annoyingly persistent issue, and I'd love to find a fix for these problems. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

hahaha... riiight.

As I stated, any help would be appreciated.

This is DAC, help my ass.

I would get rid of vista if i were you. that might help. Old game, new OS. I think you should actually run FoT in 98.

PS, let me officially tell you to fuck off and die for going to NMA, no offense or anything, just my DAC member duty to ward off any intruders who happen upon our quiet little hovel.

PPS, you are a dick hole for asking NMA first.

But seriously : vista. Also FoT uses THE MOST SHIT ENGINE EVER CONCEIVED BY MANKIND, that might have something to do with it. I swear it uses swap files that contain swap files to hold smaller swap files full of nuls.

Oh and tell your friend Vista is craptastic, just like his dad is in bed.

Love Manwitha(VERY)largepenis.

to be of some help, I'd almost advise going with hamachi and creating a virtual lan game. What network are you going through and using? gamespy? also do you all have broadband? if you have comcast, you might need to talk to them and upgrade your modem. That shit used to happen to me all the time whenever i was doing anything intensive online, found out the reason why is my modem was way out of date.

RFASF might be able to answer your post, but i think he only really pays attention to the tactics board itself.

I have heard of hamachi being used to host titan quest servers i should actually take a look. too bad immortal throne is still a bit of a rip off.

NMA suck. Assholes. i think i actually still might have an account there. now i have to hitmyself.

if possible, using another PC w/ a different OS would help - I haven't heard most anything good about Vista - and even XP I had to tweak a little bit to get FoT to run - what Caleb said about hamachi - hard to find any other way to get it to work. If it makes you feel any better, it took me and a friend about a month off-and-on to get FoT working multiplayer.

Great concept - shit execution. Good luck!

It was executed like that dude who's neck they had to chop 5 times.

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for the helpful responses, I'm not sure what he can do about the OS situation, though.

As far as NMA goes, I don't exactly understand the hate that's brewed between them and DAC. Though I've been playing Fallout since 1998, I rarely frequent the forums. If I do, it's mostly just to check news articles. So, I apologize for,... I'm not sure what, exactly. However, I have no hard feelings for any part of the Fallout community, as I've found myself resenting Fallout 3 just as much as the next guy.

Once again, thanks for the help. I'll continue working on finding a solution. I'm sure, as you all have stated, it's something to do with Vista. I'll talk to my buddy, and see what he can come up with.

something to know about o/s networking(at least what i've found) newer o/s computers can see older computers, but the old ones can't see the new o/s(this also works for compromising security). What I would advise is having the person who has xp host, and the person who has vista connect, and hopefully that will work out any problems.

You may also want to check on vogons.zetafleet.com though fot may be too new to be on there...

fot shouldn't be too much of a problem - getting a build engine game('97) to network is a bitch, but there are ways to do it. hope this helps.

Well, I'm using XP, and I've been the one hosting. My buddy gets ingame fine, however his only problem is that his chat keys aren't working at all. He can't chat no matter what. We cured this once, by deleting the keys.cfg. It worked for one game. However, when he restarted his game, the issue was once again present.

We're both using broadband, yet our other problem seems to be that when playing FoT's multiplayer, our connection just drops entirely, and doesn't return, leaving us without an internet connection for a bit. Both issues are very annoying.

I so wouldn't play it online (or not online) even if I still had it here. Fuck FOT. :humvees:

What are you using to connect? As to the chat keys, perhaps he should redefine the keys? also make sure to disable firewalls etc.

also - do you both use the same ISP? do they boot you for torrenting at all?

We're using direct IP connect. It's worked fine, so far. Also, redefining the keys doesn't help. In fact, the entire keys.cfg can be deleted, and it won't make a difference. All firewalls and anti-viruses are disabled.

No, we have different ISP's. I don't think he gets booted for torrenting. I'm not sure if he's torrented before. As for me, I've torrented a few things, but I've never been disconnected or anything like that for it.

Ah ok, that rules out the modem problem. You might consider posting in the fallout tactics section about the keys.cfg problem, requiem for a starfury would be your best bet. Does his chat key work in single player?(can't remember if thats an option)

I'm not sure that you can chat in single-player, and if you can, I don't know how.

At any rate, he can't chat when he hosts a server, either. But, I will post the problem in the Tactics section. Thanks for the advice.

i'v noticed in vista running some apps in administrator mode helps. ie press to talk in vent problem is solved by doing this. my theory is vista ignores key strokes for some apps if there not run in administration mode. as far as not being able to type in multi mode. so yeah try having you freind running fot under admin mode i'm betting it fix the chat key problem.