Playing online
Zandronum, adjacent to SkullTag, is well known for multiplayer games and in vast majority of players and game modes. After installing Zandronum on to the system, one might be wondering "What do I do now?" in which this article will help guide the user to the right direction.
Configuring the Game Browsers
When installing Zandronum for the first time, it might be possible that the Game Server Browser - being already bundled within the download may not need to be configured. But, however, there could be times that the user must configure the game server browser application, especially when the user is using an external program that was not bundled during the installation. This article will not spend much time and will be vague on how to configure the program to work for basic needs, but it would be best to refer to a dedicated article.
Dedicated Tutorials
When configuring the server browser it is important to pay attention to the following:
- Program
- Where the Zandronum executable exists within the users filesystem. If the program, for example Doomseeker, is either pointing to a non-existing path to the binary or not pointing to any file at all, the program will never be able to start the Zandronum application.
- WAD Files
- As every Doom engine and ports utilizes the IWAD files, it is primitive that the server browser can properly detect all of the IWAD and even PWAD files and will place the newly downloaded files into the right directory.
Connecting to a server with a Game Browser
Once everything is ready, Zandronum is installed and the server browser is configured, it is time to play on a game server! As Zandronum contains an abundance of game servers and is usually has a busy player base, it could be hard to find the right game server to join. When starting off for the first time, it would be best to play in an empty server. For this reason, this will allow the user to get the 'feel' of the game and make an adjustments necessary. Playing in a highly populated game server can sometimes be intimidating and may not even be as enjoyable for the first time. Just like every other game community within the internet, Zandronum does contain bad players and some that have behavioral issues. Thus, it is truly best to start off small and slowly venture on your own way.
Once you have find a server that interests you or just picking a server at pour random, the most usual cases to join the server is by 'double-clicking' on the server information that is provided within the server browser.
Creating a Personal Game Server
Personal game servers are sometimes better for those that want to keep to themselves and play what they want and do as they wish. Personal game servers, merely means that the user is going to host a Zandronum server on their system. Doing this will allow the user to run any IWAD, any PWAD, any setting they wish, and including enforcing passwords within the server. As setting up a personal game server will require much time and understanding of both the Zandronum engine and setting up the virtual world settings, it is best to refer to the dedicated tutorials provided below.
Dedicated Tutorials
Connecting to a Game Server without a Game Browser
Users that know what server they wish to connect too and have the exact same IWAD and PWAD loaded or necessary as the server, the user can connect to the server within the client or by commandline.
- Connect to a server when Zandronum is executed
- connect IPv4:PORT
- Example: connect 192.162.0.2:10667
- Commandline
- -connect IPv4:PORT
- Example: zandronum.exe -file mywad.wad -connect 192.168.0.2:10667