Multiplayer Tool - Play scenarios up to 31 players!

Here's the first release of the GUI version of the multiplayer tool discussed earlier on this thread. It enables hotseat and play-by-email games of up to 31 players, even on custom scenarios. It can also be useful for testing purposes, or as a trainer tool to see how things look from the perspective of a different civ.

As a showcase of the capability, there is an ongoing PBEM game using El Justo's highly acclaimed Age of Imperialism scenario.



Instructions:

1. Start a single-player game in Conquests. You may also load a save file.
2. Run mp-gui.exe.
3. Choose Hotseat or Play by e-mail.
4. Select the civs that you want to be human-controlled by checking the boxes next to their names.
5. Press Save Changes to apply the new settings to the game.

Tips:

- If you ever load a different game, press Refresh to update the screen with the correct selections.
- If you exit C3C and re-open it later, close and restart the multiplayer tool too.
- Try not to hand over control of the civ currently being played to the AI. You'll suddenly see the AI moving all your units and popping up lots of annoying screens. If you want to switch to playing a different civ in the game, set that one to human-controlled first, wait until it's the new civ's turn, then set your old civ to AI.
- Yes, it is possible to play as the barbarians. Won't be very fun though, since you can't build anything or take over any cities. This can be very useful for testing scenarios, however.
- No passwords will be set by default, including the admin password. To set an admin password, load the game in C3C, then run the admin password tool included below.

DOWNLOAD

GUI tool, v1.0 release (2012-03-16)
Console MP tool (2012-01-10)
Console PBEM tool (2012-10-10)
Admin password tool (2012-05-30)

Moderator Action: Mirror download added below - Blake00
https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...enarios-up-to-31-players.456432/post-16482646

[reserved for future use]

I have just tested hotseat on a ongoing mod debug-game with 31 civs, and the tool works like a charm! Great work and great tool. Thank you very much!
It will be of great help when testing mods. When controlling ALL civs - even barbarians - Civ3 can now truly be labelled "God game". No-one can refuse to obey me! I control everything!! Need to ... take....medication.......Quick!

Very nice work, thanks alot!

Already used he beginning form a lot.

I will be downloading this. Thanks a ton, Sima!

Wooooow, man!

Hey Sima,

I don't know if this is a glitch with Hotseat play, or with your tool. I googled it and couldn't find information anywhere.

I was playing an 8 player game that I started as a single player game, and used an older version of your tool (the latest console version) to make it a hotseat game where I controlled all 8 players (including Barbarians). Player 5 (Greece) gained a Military Leader while not on their turn, and it cannot be used to make an army or rush an improvement. When I look at the military adviser screen, it doesn't show any available leader. Any ideas?

@NiteKat: Please post a save, preferably one before and after the leader. I'll see if I can take a look at it when I get a chance (which might not be for a while, but I'd like to have it available by then).

I love the tool, thank you again! Hotseat games are now really challenging.

Maybe you're the right person to talk to about another one of the oldest and meanest MP problems in Civ. It sometimes happens that one player takes some more time to load the next turn, and after a minute, a 60-sec countdown appears. In the end, the player gets kicked automatically. There is no option to disable it manually, so if you happen to find the entry it would help to just increase the limit (for example, to 360 sec). Maybe you can take a look into it, since you're a pro?

Ares de Borg said:

I love the tool, thank you again! Hotseat games are now really challenging.

Maybe you're the right person to talk to about another one of the oldest and meanest MP problems in Civ. It sometimes happens that one player takes some more time to load the next turn, and after a minute, a 60-sec countdown appears. In the end, the player gets kicked automatically. There is no option to disable it manually, so if you happen to find the entry it would help to just increase the limit (for example, to 360 sec). Maybe you can take a look into it, since you're a pro?

Click to expand...

I've not been involved in MP very much, so I'm sorry to say that I've never seen this happen. Have you still gotten this to happen after using my tool as described?

Sima Qian said:

@NiteKat: Please post a save, preferably one before and after the leader. I'll see if I can take a look at it when I get a chance (which might not be for a while, but I'd like to have it available by then).

Click to expand...

Sima, unfortunately I do not have a save from before the leader was made. What I might do, is try to set up a test map. The map I was playing had modified rules, but I didn't change anything about leaders (except maybe make them a wheeled unit).

I might try to set up a test map that just has two huge stacks of units that I can battle until a leader pops, and see if I can reproduce the error. As a heads up, what is the usual process for uploading save games for this forum?

NiteKat said:

As a heads up, what is the usual process for uploading save games for this forum?

Click to expand...

When you write a reply, press the Go Advanced button, and in the Additional Options box below your post you can attach files.

Does this work in Civ 3 complete

Rendrag said:

Does this work in Civ 3 complete

Click to expand...

It should, but only for the Conquests part of it. It won't work in Vanilla or PTW.

Why don't you download it and find out? Won't take more than a couple of minutes.

Some people have expressed an interest in being able to set an admin password on multiplayer games created with this tool. I've added that as a separate download here.

Does that tool make each individual regular password work too?

Yes. What happened before was that since the admin password was blank, pressing enter whenever you got a password prompt gave you access anyway. If you set an actual password for admin, you will have to enter a real password (either the admin's or the player's password) in order to play the next turn.

If you already started a game with no passwords, you should let people enter the blank admin password in order change their passwords first, then change the admin password with the tool.

Ok good to know. Scrolled down and realized this thread only has one page on it. Crazy I thought it'd get way more attention this is a great tool.

Setting admin password at turn 1 does not work, haven't tested if it works at all so can't comment further.