Noob lobby questions

[Neutrino]

I've just completed the Supreme Commander campaign so I've installed Forged Alliance and the FAF lobby with the intent of playing the Forged Alliance campaign before trying a bit of multiplayer action. Having seen the FAF lobby for the first time I have a few questions.

The docs for the FAF lobby states that it's not just a lobby but also provides an improved version of the game, and also that FAF doesn't update the base Forged Alliance install, it instead runs alongside it.

So after installing FAF and checking what's been installed I can see that my base Forged Alliance install hasn't been modified, but looking in the FAF install I don't see a new Forged Alliance launcher either. The documentation states that to start a FAF game in the lobby go to 'Find Games' select a game type on the left and you'll see open games on the right. When I go to 'Find Games' in the lobby only the top game type on the left (Forged Alliance Forever) is enabled, all the mod games below it are disabled.

With the standard Forged Alliance Forever game mode selected I see various game choices on the right, and it appears as if I'm already entered into several of them as they show a "with me" tag. This confuses me somewhat as at this point I haven't actually selected anything. I also don't see any way to launch a single player skirmish against the AI, nor any way to start a campaign.

So I have a few questions:

In "Find Games" should all the mod game types be disabled? Do I have to install those mods first manually? If I want to play vs AI do I need to install mods like Sorian AI before they are available too?

Why does the open games pane show several games with a "with me" tag when I haven't selected to join a game yet?

If FAF enhances the game how do I launch a single player FAF skirmish against the AI? I'm guessing I have to click "Create Custom Game" and take it from there but it would be useful to have an idea of which options I need to look out for.

Is it possible to play the Forged Alliance campaign with whatever game improvements FAF brings?

P.S. I can't post a thread in the FAF Tech Support forum, and yes I have read all the links under "You won't be able to open a thread if you don't read all this" and searched the forum too.

[Nombringer]

So I have a few questions:

In "Find Games" should all the mod game types be disabled? Do I have to install those mods first manually? If I want to play vs AI do I need to install mods like Sorian AI before they are available too?

The mods that the game is hosted with are shown at the bottom of each lobby.

eg. "Nombringers game.
{Map picture}
RK's explosions V7"

Mods are downloaded and installed automatically if you join a lobby with then enabled. I believe Sorian is installed by default

If you want to find a mod or custom map to install, go to the vaults tab on the bottom right.

Why does the open games pane show several games with a "with me" tag when I haven't selected to join a game yet?

The lobby is showing an estimate of the balance "with you" for more on the balance system and trueskill, have a look at the wiki

If FAF enhances the game how do I launch a single player FAF skirmish against the AI? I'm guessing I have to click "Create Custom Game" and take it from there but it would be useful to have an idea of which options I need to look out for.

Find games -------> Double click "Forged Alliance Forever" You will open to a lobby where you can then add in Ai just like you would do in the base game.

Is it possible to play the Forged Alliance campaign with whatever game improvements FAF brings?

You can play it coop by hosting a game in the coop campaign tab (This is still a WIP I believe so there may still be a few bugs)

Or alternatively you can launch the game from ProgramaData:FAforever:Bin:Forged Alliance.exe then just go to the campaign where you normally would.

P.S. I can't post a thread in the FAF Tech Support forum, and yes I have read all the links under "You won't be able to open a thread if you don't read all this" and searched the forum too.

Did you read this carefully?

"In order to post, you need to apply to this user group :
memberlist.php?mode=group&g=16

In order to do that :
- Go to your UCP (user Control Panel) : ucp.php?i=176
- Select "Tech support users".
- Click "submit" (check that "Join selected" is active).

The new thread button is now available."

You are not in the "Tech Support Users" group as far as I can see?

[Neutrino]

Thanks Nombringer for answering all my questions.

Did you read this carefully?

"In order to post, you need to apply to this user group :
memberlist.php?mode=group&g=16

Thanks, I must confess that once I'd reached the point where it was asking me whether I'd disabled my anti-virus and which OS I was using it didn't seem that pertinant to my query so I skimmed the rest. That'll teach me to ignore Ze_Pilot!

[Neutrino]

I've started playing a few skirmishes against the AI and have a few more questions.

The online replay vault only shows replays for the current day. Is there some filter setting I have to apply to see older replays?

While watching a replay how can you see how long the replay is or fast forward or rewind to a specific part of the replay?

Is there a synopsis of the FAF changes over vanilla FA? Looking through the patch notes where the same thing is tweaked in multiple patches it's quite difficult to work out what the cumulative effect is.

There seems to be a major change related to the introduction of factory tech headquarters yet I see no mention of this in the patch notes. Is there a post somewhere that describes how this currently works? In some of the casts I've watched something called 'engie mod' was mentioned a lot, is that something I need to know about?

[speed2]

Online replay Vault shows only last X replays, you have all your replays stored in Local Archive (ReplaysTab).

Lenght of the replay and other stats can be see here http://fafafaf.bitbucket.org
its only possible to fast forward in replay (+ - keys on numpad to adjust speed, * to reset)

changelog https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dPt ... e9So/edit#
(watch out, its long )

about engi mod http://www.faforever.com/2013/04/simpli ... IXI3snJDR8

I wanted to write it down of wiki, correct old things that are there so it doesnt need to be answered several times on forum, but I have to wait for someone to fix registration on wiki...

[Neutrino]

Thanks Speed.

[Neutrino]

Is there any way to launch a FAF practise skirmish outside of the lobby? I thought I could run the ForgedAlliance.exe file from ProgramData\FAForever\bin to do this but it turns out that launching the game in this way does not activate key FAF modifications (like the engie mode stuff) and instead runs a vanilla style Forged Alliance mode.

Is there a command line option I can use to execute a FAF style skirmish independently of the lobby?

If you want to know why I might want to do this it's simply because it seems like a bit of a waste of server resources to connect via the lobby just to run a local practise session.

Also when hosting a game through the lobby the radio buttons for 'Friends' and 'Hidden' are greyed out. It seems odd that I should need to create a public hosted game just to solo practise against an AI, so I'm wondering whether I've missed something.

[D4E_Omit]

Is there any way to launch a FAF practise skirmish outside of the lobby? I thought I could run the ForgedAlliance.exe file from ProgramData\FAForever\bin to do this but it turns out that launching the game in this way does not activate key FAF modifications (like the engie mode stuff) and instead runs a vanilla style Forged Alliance mode.

Is there a command line option I can use to execute a FAF style skirmish independently of the lobby?

If you want to know why I might want to do this it's simply because it seems like a bit of a waste of server resources to connect via the lobby just to run a local practise session.

Also when hosting a game through the lobby the radio buttons for 'Friends' and 'Hidden' are greyed out. It seems odd that I should need to create a public hosted game just to solo practise against an AI, so I'm wondering whether I've missed something.

The server doesn't use any resources when you're just playing with AI, because it doesn't have to do the proxy work etc.

Also if you want to hide from your friends so bad you can type a command like (I think) /stealth or something in the chat and people won't see you online.

[Deering]

The exe in ProgramData\FAForever\bin does launch with faf enhancements. Also running the campaign from this exe may include a few bugs. One is at the end of the 2nd mission you can't actually finish it.

Don't worry about a waste of server resources. We want to see that you are using faf. People on here is what keeps it alive. If everyone ran it offline it would look dead.

The friends and hidden buttons were never implemented (not sure why/why not) you can currently just put a password on it.