Play with Sykes?

[lloyd]

Thanks. I'll give it a try the next time I'm in multiplayer. It does nothing in a single player game, right?

[Sykes]

Correct. You can just host a multiplayer game by yourself to try it out. If you ever want to know something else, hit F1 in game to see a list of handy shortcuts, including the ones I just shared with you. Always remember to use "UDP via tracker". That's the most supported and functional way to play, and you might even see some other people online occasionally

[lloyd]

Ha ha, I just started a multiplayer game and tried the taunts keys - cool! Thanks for the help! Maybe sometime we could play multiplayer...

[Sykes]

I would love to, but I just havn't had the free time to fix my D2X-XL copy. I'd have to reinstall D2, and D2X-XL and get it all set up and customized, and that's just time I don't have. My current copy of D2X-XL crashes a whole lot because I did something stupid to it, but it was so long ago I forgot what I did. Perhaps in the near future, though.

[lloyd]

OK. Sometime you might want to try the Linux version. I have precompiled packages for version 1.14.117, and it works extremely well, no crashes at all. Also, the Ubuntu/Debian package system makes update to a more recent version extremely easy. Note that Linux does not need antivirus programs and other stuff that slows your computer down, and it is so stable that it never need reinstalling. I recommend Debian Lenny.

When you are ready for a multiplayer game, just post here, and I'll get an emailed notice, since I watch this thread.

[karx11erx]

Note that Linux does not need antivirus programs and other stuff that slows your computer down, and it is so stable that it never need reinstalling.

Whaaaaat?

Well, at least for OpenSUSE this is not 100% true.

[lloyd]

Well, true for me, anyway, on Debian.

[karx11erx]

But debian doesn't seem to like OpenMotif.

[Sykes]

Eh, just thought I'd throw in one more comment in here saying that I DO have D2X-XL running, and better than ever, too. I'll be in the Steam chat room 24/7 (though sometimes I'm away from my computer of course) so drop in there sometime if you'd like to play, or if you need any help with D2X-XL. Playing online is so much easier now that I can host.

[lloyd]

Sorry to have to ask, but what's the steam chat room?

[karx11erx]

Steam is Valve Software's download platform. It also contains game community facilities, like the abilities to declare Steam members friends and create user groups. User groups have their own chat room and voice chat. I don't know though whether Steam will run on Linux. I doubt it.

[Sykes]

www.steampowered.com

Steam is a multipurpose gaming tool created by Valve (the company behind Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, etc.) It allows you to digitally purchase games from many popular companies and play them on any computer you want. Not only that, you can also play games you haven't purchased through Steam (like D2X-XL) through it, and it has a built in instant messaging system. You can add friends and chat with them, or join a group (like the D2X-XL group) and meet people through there. Every group has a chat room that members can talk with each other in, and that's what we use.

It's completely free to create an account and use Steam for D2X-XL. There are some features that are locked until you purchase a game (to prevent bots from making accounts and spamming), but nothing that big. You can't invite people to chat rooms, or add friends (they have to add YOU), but again that's not a big deal. Most of the people who hang in the chat room haven't bought a game.

Once you get Steam, it should be pretty easy to search for and find the D2X-XL group (search for Descent 2). If you can't find it, give me your account name and I can add you as a friend and walk you through it. (Giving you my Steam name won't help much, because users without purchased games can't add friends)

EDIT: Diedel ninja'd me I didn't notice you have Linux. I don't think Steam runs on Linux, but there are Linux programs that allow you to run Windows software. I know Pigmyrhino is using Linux. He runs Windows programs on something called "bootcamp" I think.

[karx11erx]

If he uses bootcamp he's probably an OS X user. There is e.g. WINE for Linux though which should be able to run Steam.

[lloyd]

Thanks a lot for the info on Steam, guys. I run Linux, but I recently installed (in addition to Wine) a program called "Sun Virtual Box", which lets me run Windows XP inside a window right in Linux. It goes way past wine - this is a full Windows installation inside a virtual file system in Linux, with access to Internet and devices connected to my Linux computer. The only flaw is that it won't run opengl...

Anyway, I should be able to install Steam inside my "Virtual Box" XP installation.

[PGMYRHNO]

i am not running linux, i am running Windows Vista! lol i would have run Windows 7, but i started bootcamp a week b4 it came out