This article, written by the head of the i-Beta team, will help you make effective connections in the latest release of Falcon 4.0. "Sleepdoc" welcomes your input and response. You can mail him at the link above.

Before you can connect in multiplayer Falcon 4.0, you must learn the definition of a few simple terms:

Connection-Host:

(Also called the C-Host). The connection host is the person who allows other players on the Internet to connect to his machine.

In order to be a connection-host, you tell others that you are hosting a game. Then you give your friends your IP. When you go into the comms window you simply select the appropriate comms speed for your modem (33.6 is a great choice no matter what modem you have) and then you select "internet". You will notice that when you select "Internet", a placeholder for an IP address comes up in the comms window.

DO NOT enter anything. Simply press connect. This makes you the C-host. We like to say that C-Host "connects to himself. In LAN play, you don't use IP addresses, so this concept doesn't exist. All players simply select LAN and presses connect.

Connection-Guest:

(Also called the C-Guest). The connection guests are the guys and gals who connect to the connection host. They do so by selecting 33.6 in the comms window (or whatever, I recommend 33.6 for now till you learn more sophisticated techniques) and then pick "internet". Now enter your C-host's IP address and press "connect" and you will be connected to the C-Host in the chat lobby. You can see the chat lobby by simply pressing the "comms" selection again.

Mission-Host:

(Also called the M-host). The M-host is the guy who will actually start a mission (either DF, TE or Campaign) for which all others will join. We highly recommend in Internet play that the C-host also be the M-host. We also recommend that the C-host / M-host be the person who has the fastest Internet connection.

If all players have 56 k modems (for example) then you should probably just pick the person with the fastest computer. But if, for example, one person has isdn or cable modem, then they should be chosen to be the C-host and the M-host. By the way. The reason it is best for a player to be both the C-host and the m-host, is because if any one ever leaves the game for any reason, they can re-find the game by simply re-connecting to the original IP. Also, the game simply does not work in multiplayer if the M-host leaves. Guests can leave, but if the M-host leaves, the M-guests will lose their game.

The M-host controls many things for all the players like the ATC and the bubble management (what the hell is that you ask ? …. Don't worry…just play and have fun.). so the M-host is the center of everything. Without him, you have no remaining game. So it makes sense for simple convention to always let the C-Host also be the M-host, and to always make sure that the M-host / C-host person is the person with the fastest connection to the Internet (or the fastest computer if all players have simple and equivalent phone modems )

Mission-Guest

The Mission-Guest is the person or persons who join the Mission host's game. On the Internet, You can expect 4 player TE mission and 2-4 player campaign games to be stable in version 1.07us. DF-will also support up to 4 players, although we are familiar with certain regeneration bugs in DF-Match play, and those will be addressed in 1.08.

So? How do I get a nice 4 player TE mission up and running for my friends over the Internet?

1. Choose one player to be the C-host and the M-host. If it is a TE mission you intend to play, make sure he has a copy of the TE mission. You can send him the TE mission via email if he needs to get it from another player, or transfer the file to you via file transfer programs like icq. Make sure he places that file in his falcon4/campagn/saved subdirectory. Remember to choose the person with the fastest connection to the internet to be the M-host/ C-host.

A word of caution. It is stressful enough to the game to play with voice comms software running. Please close all other programs like icq and kali before you start.

2. Have the C-host get set up by selecting 33.6 and connecting to himself (don't enter any ip .... remember?) and make sure that all the other players have the C-host/M-host's IP address.

3. Once all players have connected to the C-host at 33.6, they can all chat in the "chat lobby" to get organized. We also highly recommend using Roger Wilco for voice comms in F4. It works fairly well, and it is free. grab yourself a copy, and get yourself a cheap mic/headphone combo. It makes online play so much better and works fairly well with F4.

4. Once in the chat lobby, the C-host must now become the M-host. He does so by simply picking a custom mission from the "saved" tab of his TE section, or starts a campaign from the campaign section, or picks a dogfight style of play from the "dogfight" section.

5. Once the M-host has started his game (lets use TE to complete this example), then all the other players in the Chat lobby will see 2 things. First, they will see a message that say that their M-host has left the chat lobby. Some will mistakenly believe that the M-host has lost his connection. He has not. He has left the chat lobby and entered the "game lobby" of the TE mission he has started.

So, second, if players look at the TE online tab, they will see a game listed. I highly recommend you make the habit of clicking on the "plus sign" next to the game to see the names of the players in the game before you join. This way you will know how many players are in the game. More than 4 players in TE and more than 2-4 players in Campaign is simply not recommended for Internet play. We aren't saying it won't work. It can. But the strain can limit the overall performance of the game for the players.

6. Now for a very important concept. Its called "the preload data". When you finally click on the M-hosts game in the "online" tab of TE (or Dogfight or campaign), you must wait for some "preload data" to be fed from the hosts machine to your before you can enter the game. This data can be seen as graphics and words appearing on the right side of your screen after you select his game.

You select a game by clicking on it, which makes the game name green. When the game name turns green, you will (within a couple of seconds depending on how busy the host machine is) receive the preload data. Once you get this data, you will be able to "commit to join" the game by pressing the animated airplane "join" icon in the bottom right hand corner.

7. Once you commit to "join" the game after having requested and received the games "preload" data, the first thing you will see is this window called the ROE, or rules of engagement window. This article is not the place to explain every nuance of this window, but suffice it to say that you can see what levels of game play the host is allowing players to use, and you can also pick, within those host chosen limits, the options you wish to fly with. If you have asked for more than the host will allow in his game, then your selection will turn red.

Ultimately, you will have to comply within the host-selected limits for the game, and press "ok" (or comply, if you have settings not allowed).

8. Once you press "ok" in the ROE screen, the host begins to download to you all the data you need to enter his game. This phase is crucial, and it helps if you know what you are seeing and what to expect. In campaign, expect the entry time to take as long as 1-3 minutes. Depending on the size of a TE mission, you can expect entry to last anywhere from 15-90 seconds. Dogfight entry only takes a few seconds. Clearly, the difference is the amount of data that must be transferred to get you into each of these games.

9. The entry sequence is very predictable and reproducible, and so it may help for you to know what to expect. Once you press "ok" or "comply" in the ROE screen the download window appears. If you watch the window closely during the download, you will see 3 different statements pass by. The first will say "waiting for data". That message usually only lasts about 15 seconds.

The second statement will read "receiving objects". In campaign, this is the longest lasting part, so don't get discouraged too easily. In campaign especially, this "receiving objects" window can last 1-2 minutes or more depending on how busy the host is doing other things at the time. Be patient. Finally, the words will change to receiving units. This part will last as long as one minute in campaign and only a few seconds in TE.

As a rule, if the "receiving units" lasts any longer than a minute or 2, it may be prudent to cancel out and try to rejoin. This happens rarely, but will happen if the host has a poor connection, or simply is overwhelmed by his activity in the game. If you should have to re-request the preload data after canceling out of this window, players must remember to not simply "re-commit". They must first "deselect" the game, and then "reselect" the game in the online tab (deselection makes the game name white, and reselection makes it green again). This ensures that you get fresh "preload" data. You can then re-commit (icon bottom right) and go through the ROE window again (by pressing "ok" or "comply"), and then receive the download gain. Failing the download the first time is uncommon, but should it happen, it is actually quite simple to restart the process of joining as outlined here.

10. When you successfully pass through the data download, you will go from the window saying "receiving units" to suddenly bouncing into the game. You can open the chat window by simply pressing "comms" on arrival and chat to other players already in the game. You cannot chat back to players still n the lobby though. This is why a voice program like Roger Wilco is a huge help in coordinating games among players.

11. Once in the game, and through the use of Falcon 4.0s chat and third party voice software like Roger Wilco, you must choose a flight to enter and aircraft. You and your buddies can move waypoints now and all the other players will get the updates. Loadout changes also work in multiplayer properly. You can change your loadouts and the loadouts of others if you so choose.

Also, no longer does F4 limit what point in a flight that you can join. You can even choose to enter a plane that is in the middle of a fight, or on the last 300 feet of its landing. The original game restricted entry into flights at potentially sensitive points in their mission.

This no longer exists. So if your friend is already flying in a flight, and you wish to join, you may wish to use chat to communicate to him and ask him if it is a good time to enter the flight. Dynamic reentry into games and flights is a premier feature of multiplayer Falcon 4.0, but with this ability comes responsibility on players parts and the need for courtesy and coordination with other players.

12. When you finally fly and eventually die (the new AI can be very tough indeed, you will return to the game interface and view your debrief. Once debrief is reviewed, you can simply click on another plane, and fly another mission. You can reenter the plane that was previously your wingman, or you can go to an entirely other flight. The choice is yours. You will find the fact that you can die and renter, finish missions and renter, etc, to be a very enjoyable feature of Falcon 4.0 that gives multiplayer gaming a nice flow (so long as your M-host wants to leave his game up that long!)

General rules:1. Choose a host with the fastest connection to the Internet (for advanced users… it is optimal to choose a host with the highest OUTBOUND bandwidth.)

2. No matter what standard phone modem you have (56k, 33.6k or 28.8k) we have found that selecting 33.6 in the comms window for your speed setting works the best.

3. Entering IP's in the phone book requires the tab key to move along. "."'s won't work. Dumb. We know. But we thought you would be better served if we fixed more pressing issues first. Never got to this little one.

4. We find 33.6 (settings in the comms windows) for all players in a 4 player game (of any type) to be the best, no matter what modem they have. If a single player in the game has a regular modem, then cable guys would thrash his inbound bandwidth if they chose something higher, so everyone must keep their settings to accommodate the slowest guy. If all 4 players have 2-way fast cable, then it might make sense to set 128k isdn for all players. Otherwise, it does not.

There is room, however, for advanced users to experiment. Sometimes the host can set for 56k single isdn while the players select 33.6, and that may give better performance. Players who consider themselves adventurous and experimental by nature should try certain combinations in which the host (especially if he has isdn or Cable) chooses a setting higher than 56k baud, and the guests each choose 33.6 or 56k.

Here is a hint for advanced users too. 33.6 actually puts out more data than 56k or 28.8 because 33.6 modems typically have higher outbound data rates than 56k modems. This is why 33.6 is often the more usable selection for players despite which modem they have. We are squeezing a ton of stuff through those modems, and people who like to experiment may find better settings for themselves and their friends if they experiment a little, but 33.6 for all players in a 4 player internet game is a good first approach.

5. All players should keep their bubble settings low (3 or less). Even if a single player has a large bubble, he makes the M-host process that bubble for him, which steals game performance from other players, and ultimately may hurt the game play of everyone. Try the lowest setting for all players, and then slowly increase player bubbles until you see a performance hit that you don't like. Then back off your bubble settings a bit. Starting with all player at a bubble of 2 or 3 is a good starting point

6. If you use labels, you need to understand them. Near labels. (shf-L) only show you things in your bubble. Far labels (ctl-L) will label things, which are called "campaign entities", which are outside your bubble. The location of campaign entities is managed far less accurately than things in your bubble. So if you use far labels, and you see labels in the distance "warping" well…that's because they aren't being kept up with in so much detail.

So this is actually normal behavior for the game. After all, if a battalion of tanks 50 miles away from you moves 5 miles to the east, why do you need to be updated every 10 feet? You don't. You can't afford to waste your available multiplayer bandwidth in that puny little 56-k modem you have on what some far away tank battalion is doing every second. You need that bandwidth to be applied to Mig-29s that are flying 20 miles away from you and suddenly turning towards you.

Get it? Things in your bubble are what concern the multiplayer world the most… and what concern you the most. So the lions share of bandwidth is given to those "Sim entities". "Sim entities" get the lions share of bandwidth and regular updates on your screen. And when they get even closer, they get even more regular updates so as to make the world close to you appear very alive, and things far from you may appear less so.

If you use labels, you need to understand them. People will often say "I saw a MiG29 four ship suddenly dissapear .. that's a bug!". Nope. It's not. Those MiGs left your bubble and became "campaign entities". If you turn on your "far labels", you would see a single "MiG 29" label. You would no longer see the 4 separate labels however, because the game deals with things that leave your bubble as single entities. So a 4 ship becomes a single blip on your radar. But outside 40 miles, you couldn't tell a single blip from a 4 ship flying tight formation anyway.

F22 in Falcon 4 v.1.07

So the illusion holds. Once the campaign entity enters your bubble, it breaks into 4 separate ships, and eventually, you may see it as such on your radar, and you will see 4 labels. So if you use labels, and see things "appear and disappear", then turn on your far labels, and see what is really going on. Or become a "hardcore" and turn off labels and play it like they do in the real world.

7. Unlike the games of old, Messing with your modem settings can only hurt you. Especially error control. Leave the defaults of your modem alone. People might want to experiment with turning off compression (the data in the game is already compressed, so compression may add unnecessary latency, without any needed benefit ….. But we have never tested it with compression off, so beware).

We do know, however, that f4's timing and synchronization code is very sensitive to people who have messed with too many modem settings. And you will quickly know when someone in your game has done this evil thing. Because you will see craziness on the taxiway, with planes zipping all around at high speed running into each-other, etc. If you see this symptom, someone with a standard modem is messing with his or her modem defaults. Leave your defaults alone. Error control is the most common one, which will cause this symptom. Leave error control on (which is the most common default)