So a friend and I are gonna try BMS multiplayer for the first time. Neither of us have played a Falcon game online, so I was curious, any keymapping, computer programs, or any other pregaming I should know about?

Well first thing if you are behind a router to Forward the required ports for BMS also set your Firewalls..

And get on Team speak so you can talk to each other, or use the built in IVC. You should set up a PTT on your stick or throttle.

I recommend starting with Teamspeak at least until you get everything tested with a full mission. IVC deliberately adds some complexity to voice comms, and is not available while joining the server (unless you use the /k command line parameter). Teamspeak is available as long as you are logged onto the server.

Also, a "falconism" is that the game server should put in 0.0.0.0 as his IP (as opposed to 127.0.0.1). IVC server will use 127.0.0.1, however. You must use IP addresses; dns names don't work.

There is one thing that often gets overlooked when people try setting up Falcon multiplayer. If the BMS guys did something to resolve this (nobody else ever has) please let me know...

No two computers can share the same public IP address, because Falcon works strictly peer-to-peer.

If you have 2 computers inside a firewall (and thus with the same public IP address - your WAN address) there will be problems.

You don't need to tell me it works with some other title - I'm aware of that. It's a falconism. Dealt with it for years.

It's a terrible affliction. No know cure from what I hear...

Whilst I've not tested it personally, I'm told that with BMS it's now possible to run the server and client on the same LAN, and allow clients to connect from the WAN.

Cheers

Nutty

@Nutty

Hmmm, just to complicate it some more

What that really means, server & client on the same pc, or 2 diff. pc's in the same lan, dedicated & client?

But, also, You could do that always > "in the same lan", just different port for server, client > NAT. Wherever WAN ip was single or multiple. (of course, You actually don't need NAT if multiple WAN IP, because it can be defined which pc's in LAN use which WAN ip, but... "I've seen things..." )

also, something, ...hyperlobby ... what was it's name?, they have/had pretty working solution

On the other side always, was/is, router/modem, hw/fw(sw) quality, *limitations*. Some just don't, fullstop.:( ,black hole project...

Cheers

2 different PCs in the same LAN, 1 is server, 1 is client, and clients from the WAN connecting to the server.

Nutty

@Nutty

Wow, that's good info, thanks.
Unfortunately, we, people behind dynamicIP WAN, will still suffer a bit because our main "weapon" to overcome on the fly WAN IP changes, is DNS, (dyndns, freedns, noip), but Falcon still uses IP only for addressing. Ah... well.

and mprmph, offtopic but, never got the chance before, but I always wanted to say this.

It is a honor to meet You, "sir", for creating that marvelous Cougar program editor, and all thingies which come with it, including state of the art manual
Even TM has moved to xml scripting, I still use Fooxy for "communicating" with my kitty, it is irreplaceable.

Cheers
white fang

That's some truly great work if they pulled that off. I might just have to give it some hours after VFAT and check it out.

Only important thing I can see is.. "STOP THE CLOCK!"

Besides that, bring all the beer you can.

I spent hours struggling with my router before I figured out that you have to set your router to "respond to pings" (in the WAN settings, iirc). Yes, I know that is silly, but there's no need for anyone else to make the same mistake.

Also, after every "dogfight" session, you need to back out and start a new session. Otherwise you will spawn out in orbit view, not be able to see each other, etc.

wouldn't it be 127.0.0.1? rather than .0?

Yes.

good catch, thanks. F4 server is still 0.0.0.0 though.

so is there a way to list all active servers that are hosting mp games???