Multiplayer with a frined + bots?

[igurman]

is it possible to play bf2 multiplayer with a friend, and bots? like in singleplayer, just with a human player with me?

[Smiley_ie]

is it possible to play bf2 multiplayer with a friend, and bots? like in singleplayer, just with a human player with me?

I done it a long time ago, If i rember you host a lan game so the two of you can see each other but dont start the game. Then the host exits the lan game and starts a single player game, then the other players game will change to your single player game then he joins.

[Muttmonsta]

Yeah, this 'works' but it's a hell of a process to go through just to get a LAN game up and running. The cynical will say that EA have made BF2 as LAN unfriendly as possible because they get no money from anyone playing on a LAN - it's all in the rented servers for them. I can't find anything (except the above couple of posts) about LAN playing BF2. Why is this, when BF1942 & BFV were both amazing LAN games?????
Does anyone have any information, or can point me in the right direction for information about LAN playing BF2, that makes the experience easier/better??? Thanks in advance....



I done it a long time ago, If i rember you host a lan game so the two of you can see each other but dont start the game. Then the host exits the lan game and starts a single player game, then the other players game will change to your single player game then he joins.

[Karmapolice]

Yeah, this 'works' but it's a hell of a process to go through just to get a LAN game up and running. The cynical will say that EA have made BF2 as LAN unfriendly as possible because they get no money from anyone playing on a LAN - it's all in the rented servers for them. I can't find anything (except the above couple of posts) about LAN playing BF2. Why is this, when BF1942 & BFV were both amazing LAN games?????
Does anyone have any information, or can point me in the right direction for information about LAN playing BF2, that makes the experience easier/better??? Thanks in advance....

I agree, BF2 bots are dumb anyway even in expert difficulty.

[Locherbread]

I too wanted to play multiplayer lan match with friends & add bots to fill up the numbers - Also to give us practice playing as a sqaud "We are all new to bf2 & get whooped rathery frequently online"

Think its rediculous personally that they opted to leave this option out of BF2 when it was avaliable on 1942 & vietnam - Oh well.

[Talus]

Just load up a single player game and have the other person join your IP address.

Use your LAN IP if you're on a LAN, your WAN IP if they are over the internet.

Trust me, it works.

[Locherbread]

Just load up a single player game and have the other person join your IP address.

Use your LAN IP if you're on a LAN, your WAN IP if they are over the internet.

Trust me, it works.

When I attempted the above my mates kept getting the message that the password they entered was incorrect, or words to that extent!!

I just loaded up & started a singleplayer game & my friends tried connecting through "connect to IP"

Guess we are doing something wrong ^ ^

[RAF92_Warhawk]

Just load up a single player game and have the other person join your IP address.

Use your LAN IP if you're on a LAN, your WAN IP if they are over the internet.

Trust me, it works.what he said, I did this a few weeks ago and it worked fine.... no need to host a LAN game.

[Muttmonsta]

I have a feeling this only works if all players are connecting thru the internet (using their BF2 online account)?
When we tried to use the "connect to IP" option it didn't work - clicking on the button did nothing. I'm guessing that until there are servers populating the server list (which can only happen if you use your online account) then you can't use the connect to IP option. Try it and see - connect with your OFFLINE account (if you've created one) then see if the Connect to IP option works.
Cheers.


Just load up a single player game and have the other person join your IP address.

Use your LAN IP if you're on a LAN, your WAN IP if they are over the internet.

Trust me, it works.

[Muttmonsta]

By the way, did some work on this last night/today and can get all LAN players onto 64 player maps with bots, using the process most people know about (where you start a multiplayer - get everyone to 'see' your server but not join it, then you bang out and start a single player and the others click Join Server when you're into the single player game). Run the mod CO-OP 4, or BFSP64 (I haven't tried this mod yet, but since co-op 4 is so HARD - the bots are super deadly - I'm going to give it a go soon) to open up the single player maps to full size.
Once in single player, you can set up a maplist and change maps when you want, without having to go through the whole complicated process every map.
Worked pretty well....

[Talus]

So I'm also guessing that everybody that is trying to connect their own legal copy and unique/legitimate cd key?

[Muttmonsta]

The point was that there wasn't an internet connection for everyone sitting in the same room, otherwise it could be done that way (but why introduce more potential lag etc when everyone's connected via gigabit LAN?)
Have it sorted prety satisfactorily now, so until EA release a version that's more LAN friendly (and why would they at this still lucrative stage?) that's the way we'll do it.
Cheers.


So I'm also guessing that everybody that is trying to connect their own legal copy and unique/legitimate cd key?

[Talus]

I was wondering more about the original poster...

[Jashobeam]

I do a bit of LAN gaming with bots, and haven't noticed a problem when using online vs offline accounts. I can guarantee that if the game host uses an offline profile, other game participants can join and it will work.

As has been mentioned, you can use Join IP from the Join Local page in the browser to join someone else's SP game, or the host can run that server emulator by Medic which will spoof a server entry into the client browser that can be used to join the game.

[Muttmonsta]

AHA - this is what I'm looking for! Where would I find the emulator by Medic?
Thanks in advance.


I do a bit of LAN gaming with bots, and haven't noticed a problem when using online vs offline accounts. I can guarantee that if the game host uses an offline profile, other game participants can join and it will work.

As has been mentioned, you can use Join IP from the Join Local page in the browser to join someone else's SP game, or the host can run that server emulator by Medic which will spoof a server entry into the client browser that can be used to join the game.

[Muttmonsta]

Okay, forget my last - I've found Medic's BF2 COOP emulator. Have not tried it yet. The post also details how to change the number of bots in the game as well.
So, if all this works, we can now have 64 player maps, on a LAN, with bots, WITHOUTH having to use online accounts (which has nothing to do with the legitimacy of the games, but only to do with the impossibility of getting all LAN players to connect to their online accounts at the same time, since all are in the same room), with map rotations. It seems that there's no auto map rotations, but if you set up a maplist in single player, you can manually start another map with a simple command line instruction on the PC that's 'hosting' the game.
Will give Medics emulator a go at the next LAN thrash. Meanwhile, for anyone who's interested - here's the URL to the file:
http://www.mpcforum.com/showthread.php?mode=hybrid&t=97586
I have dug around the history of this type of thread in Total BF2 and it seems heaps of people have been asking for this functionality - with some posters getting massively flamed for even wanting bots in a multiplayer game. Crikey - freedom of choice and all that.... use 'em if you want, leave 'em out if you don't.
Happy hunting - see you online. (I'll be the one lying on the ground getting corpse humped by all the uber-players!)

[Jashobeam]

Mutt, the emulator works a treat, don't worry. BTW your other option is to actually run a dedicated server with bots and a proper map rotation. I've been doing it for ages now, although I admit I've run into a problem trying to get a Special Forces server going. Also, I only ever run 16 player maps (normally with 30 bots) because I'm yet to be convinced that the bots actually work on the larger maps.

[Muttmonsta]

Thanks, I played it last night (but single player - have to wait for LAN session to test properly), and it crashed to desktop, which has been happening for a while. I've read a LOT about this problem with BF2, and many posts say bad RAM can cause it. I d/loaded MEMTEST yesterday and checked - sure enough - bad RAM. Just have to work out how to return under warranty without going thru the whole "you must have damaged it with static, blah blah blah" runaround.
Sorry, bit off topic, but just had to vent.....
Cheers.

Mutt, the emulator works a treat, don't worry. BTW your other option is to actually run a dedicated server with bots and a proper map rotation. I've been doing it for ages now, although I admit I've run into a problem trying to get a Special Forces server going. Also, I only ever run 16 player maps (normally with 30 bots) because I'm yet to be convinced that the bots actually work on the larger maps.

[Jashobeam]

Ironically, after having my gear wired for months I'm suddenly having problems with my setup here.

In my prep for our next LAN (next weekend) I'm getting everything set to use a laptop to run a BF2SF dedicated coop server. No probs, I can run up a ded coop server using either bf2.exe or bf2_w32ded.exe with any map, be it BF2 or SF. However, I have found a problem actually getting the server to appear in the browser of the client. For some reason it wont! No probs I think, I'll use Medics emulator to spoof an entry. Nope, somehow it doesn't work. If I use the emulator without a ded server running the spoof entry does appear, but if I try to run the emulator alongside a running server no go. Oh yeah, if I remove the bots and go for a straight conquest server it appears no worries.

Anyone else struck this problem?

[Locherbread]

Ok not sure if this has been answered, my problem is my mates all stay in various countries, We wanted to all play together filling up the server with bots - Is this possible?!?
Lan parties is obviously out the window, unless my interpretation of lAN is wrong - when I try doing it where I create a local server non of my friends can see it when they enter join local server, when they try connecting to my IP they get a failed to connect error. same happens when they try to join my singlw player game which was another suggestion?!?

I freely admit i'm not the quickest witted person around so would gladly appreciate an idiots guide to co-op with friends & bots ^ ^

We just want a stress free blast knowing 100% certainly the only nobs playing are us lol.

P.s Was there a technical issue with co-op + bots being left out of battefiled 2, Sure it was possible to play this way on bf 1942, though I could be wrong :-)

[Jashobeam]

locherbread, you have two options.
1. Easy to setup but no voip - note your external (public) IP address, and fire up a single player game. Tell your friends your IP, they join your game via the Connect to IP button on the Internet tab in multiplayer.
2. Harder to setup but with voip - get a second computer and run a BF2 dedicated server using the appropriate command line parameters to get a coop game going.

If you have a firewall on your DSL router you need to configure port forwarding so that incoming traffic can be passed through the FW to the machine that is running the server. This is kind of beyond the scope of this thread so if you're stuck do a search for it.

[Locherbread]

locherbread, you have two options.
1. Easy to setup but no voip - note your external (public) IP address, and fire up a single player game. Tell your friends your IP, they join your game via the Connect to IP button on the Internet tab in multiplayer.
2. Harder to setup but with voip - get a second computer and run a BF2 dedicated server using the appropriate command line parameters to get a coop game going.

If you have a firewall on your DSL router you need to configure port forwarding so that incoming traffic can be passed through the FW to the machine that is running the server. This is kind of beyond the scope of this thread so if you're stuck do a search for it.

Ah when I tried playing a single player game I was giving my friends the IP+port number it showed on screen - which is different from my external IP address, guess thats where I was going wrong. I connect to the internet through my partners PC which is the internet host.

[Jashobeam]

I'm a bit hazy on how to configure port forwarding on Windows XP ICS assuming that is what your partner uses on her (his?) machine. I'm fairly confident it can be done however.

[miniluke]

Whenever i start a singleplayer game with this it shows up on my computers LAN game screen but not on the LAN game server screens of the other computers on my LAN. Can you please help?

P.S. How can I find out my external IP address?

[proto]

The way my room mate and I did it, was we hooked our computers up directly through a wire(played on Offline accounts, of course), and I would start a Singleplayer game and send him my computers; IP address. He would then join an Offline Account, hit Multiplayer, click connect by IP, type in the IP, and he'd connect. Easy way. If no one else posted that.

You don't need your external, just your LAN IP. In my case, it would be 192.168.0.1 or something.

[Scinto]

The way my room mate and I did it, was we hooked our computers up directly through a wire(played on Offline accounts, of course), and I would start a Singleplayer game and send him my computers; IP address. He would then join an Offline Account, hit Multiplayer, click connect by IP, type in the IP, and he'd connect. Easy way. If no one else posted that.

You don't need your external, just your LAN IP. In my case, it would be 192.168.0.1 or something.

eh thats to hard :p

Multiplayer > Create Local > select co-op from the drop down list (conquest is selected by default) select your maps/settings start the server, it will show up in the local server window

[miniluke]

thanks for the help

[jdrou]

The way my room mate and I did it, was we hooked our computers up directly through a wire(played on Offline accounts, of course), and I would start a Singleplayer game and send him my computers; IP address. He would then join an Offline Account, hit Multiplayer, click connect by IP, type in the IP, and he'd connect. Easy way. If no one else posted that.

You don't need your external, just your LAN IP. In my case, it would be 192.168.0.1 or something.
So "connect by IP" in "Join Local" does work now? It used to be broken (or nonexistent) so you had to use "Join Internet" meaning you need to have an internet connection so you could use an online account. Post #2 gave the workaround so you could use an offline account (and use the "Join Local" browser to join). And, as Scinto posted, if you are running patch 1.3 or later there is now an official co-op mode making this all unnecessary.

[spartan0708]

Yeah I want to play with my friend but can't ge the server to show up when he tries to "Join local game". I refresh the server and still it doen't show. What should I try???? I am new at this but want to play the game with real people. BOTS ARE GETTING BORING!!!!

Thanks in advance

[jdrou]

Yeah I want to play with my friend but can't ge the server to show up when he tries to "Join local game". I refresh the server and still it doen't show. What should I try???? I am new at this but want to play the game with real people. BOTS ARE GETTING BORING!!!!

Thanks in advance
Are you on the same local network? Are you starting the game using 'create local'? Are you using online accounts or offline? Can you connect by ip?