Easy way to play Hexen Co-op LAN (With saving if possible?)

Hey guys, myself and my father would really love to relive the olden day (except I am no longer a toddler.) and play HeXen co-op over a lan connection with the ability to save if possible (Would like to play it over a few nights in between other games without having to iron man the thing.)

We tried Zandronum, but it couldn't survive the PC being turned off during the night due to no save feature, also it would sometimes crash if left alone in another tab for too long.

Any ideas? Thanks.

It appears to be possible with ZDoom: http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=31979

Indeed. There is only a handful of ports that keep the Vanilla netsave functions. Chocolate, PRBoom+, ZDoom (and GZ by extension) and perhaps Eternity (assuming nothing about its rules changed).
Out of them, only Chocolate Hexen and G/ZDoom support Hexen.

gzdoom is my favorite doom sourceport. it's pretty, it's stable, and it's based off of the zdoom family tree, so it's loaded with cool features and boom compatibility and all that good stuff.

if you use either gzdoom or zdoom to play multiplayer though I highly recommend you use their client/server model for netplay rather than the default peer-to-peer model, as desyncs happen fairly easily in peer-to-peer mode and those can botch your whole game. check the net arguments on the zdoom wiki to see how to setup a client/server netgame.

sheridan said:

if you use either gzdoom or zdoom to play multiplayer though I highly recommend you use their client/server model for netplay rather than the default peer-to-peer model, as desyncs happen fairly easily in peer-to-peer mode and those can botch your whole game.

Come again? ZDoom doesn't have a client/server model (no, the packet server model doesn't count, and is only minimally maintained anyway), and there is nothing structurally wrong with the P2P system (tested as of 2.8pre-1197, if you need to know).

I suggest using Zdaemon instead for a comfortable,Easy LAN Play ...

DMGUYDZ64 said:

I suggest using Zdaemon instead for a comfortable,Easy LAN Play ...

It doesn't support Hexen.

Sodaholic said:

It doesn't support Hexen.

According to the wiki,it should partially support it ...
http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/ZDaemon#Features
Well,then how about Doomsday engine ..

DMGUYDZ64 said:

According to the wiki,it should partially support it ...
http://doomwiki.org/wiki/ZDaemon#Features

Not full support = not support. ;)

scifista42 said:

Not full support = not support. ;)

Heh,i was about to say DOOM Legacy,but looks like even this one doesn't support it :P,Well then Doomsday might be the only one with Suitable features ..

DMGUYDZ64 said:

Well,then how about Doomsday engine ..

Doomsday currently doesn't support saves for netgames.

Gez said:

Doomsday currently doesn't support saves for netgames.

Deal with it ;), it is the last one i found ..

I played hexen and its unofficial addon with my friend couple of years ago, if you died you lost your weapons. 1000th post, woohoo!

Waffenak said:

I played hexen and its unofficial addon with my friend couple of years ago, if you died you lost your weapons. 1000th post, woohoo!

Congratulations,btw thanks for wasting some space :P ...

Edward850 said:

Come again? ZDoom doesn't have a client/server model (no, the packet server model doesn't count, and is only minimally maintained anyway), and there is nothing structurally wrong with the P2P system (tested as of 2.8pre-1197, if you need to know).

Strange, I guess I misinterpreted the explanation for the -netmode parameter as given on this page:
http://zdoom.org/wiki/command_line_parameters#Multiplayer_options

master/slave kind of implies one of the computers acts as an authority, preventing desyncs. But I guess I'm wrong.

sheridan said:

master/slave kind of implies one of the computers acts as an authority, preventing desyncs. But I guess I'm wrong.

Yes, there is a central authority; but it's not a client-server mode.

In peer-to-peer mode, each computer talk with all others. In master/slave, there's just one single arbiter that talks to all others, and is talked to by them. So the master centralizes the traffic.

However, it's still just player input that's sent. With full client-server mode, the server centralizes not just the user input, but the entire game. The server tells the client about sector movements, monster actions, etc. in addition to player input. This makes network traffic increase in proportion to map complexity, so this makes things like playing nuts.wad coop more difficult than with ZDoom.

sheridan said:

Strange, I guess I misinterpreted the explanation for the -netmode parameter as given on this page:
http://zdoom.org/wiki/command_line_parameters#Multiplayer_options

master/slave kind of implies one of the computers acts as an authority, preventing desyncs. But I guess I'm wrong.

That information is very out of date and misleading so I have edited it accordingly to prevent further confusion. The more technically up-to-date descriptions are found here, either way. (The fact that you were calling it Master/Slave, despite not a single thing in ZDoom being called that, should have been a warning flag of some very out of date information.)

I don't suppose anyone would be kind enough to write an idiot proof guide on setting something like this up would they? I have always been borderline retarded on using paramaters to launch things.

(thanks very much for the input at any rate guys, I appreciate it.)

The Wiki page and the FAQ.

Gez said:

However, it's still just player input that's sent. With full client-server mode, the server centralizes not just the user input, but the entire game. The server tells the client about sector movements, monster actions, etc. in addition to player input. This makes network traffic increase in proportion to map complexity, so this makes things like playing nuts.wad coop more difficult than with ZDoom.

I understand the difference, I just didn't know which way ZDoom actually worked. My game (for which I wrote the engine + netcode) uses a somewhat more classical client/server model, so the server handles all of the AIs in a level for example. Still, clients often make changes to their own copy of the world as long as it doesn't really interfere with gamestate (so, clients will animate monsters, interpolate and apply prediction on moving objects, control particles, and so forth). Clients also do their own movement (corrected by the server) so online play is lag free.