play online
Getting online can be somewhat tricky to the uninitiated. Follow these steps to learn how to host, and join, online games in Knight Club!
Hosting A Game
So you want to host a game, and have you friends join you for a beat down. Hosting is pretty easy but you will have to open a port on your router, modem, and sometimes both in order to host a game. How do you open a port? It depends on your router or modem.
Your best bet is to check out www.portforward.com and find your equipment. This site has step by step walkthroughs for hundreds of pieces of equipment. Our default port, 25565, is the same port used by an extremely popular game about mining and crafting. That is the port we would recommend you forward. This port was chosen because it is very common, and pretty likely that people already have this port forwarded if they have played the aforementioned mining and crafting simulator.
Here is a screenshot of my router settings, with the 25565 port forwarded. The IP address is the local IP address of my computer on my home network. Make sure you use the IP address of your computer when forwarding.
Once you have opened the port, you should be all set to host! Once you are at the host menu you will be asked for two things; the port, and a password. You can leave the password blank if you'd like. Once both fields are filled out just hit ENTER and you will be taken to the online lobby. Now you are ready for people to join your lobby.
The host screen, where you put in your port and password.
In the online lobby, waiting for players to join.
Now that your game is hosted, you will need to give your public IP address, port, and password to the players that would like to join your game. To get your public IP you can use a site like www.whatismyip.com.
Once all of your players have joined the game and you are ready to go, hit the START button on screen to be taken to the character select lobby.
Latency
As the host, you have the ability to manually adjust the latency in the match. This is useful of the latency in the lobby is fluctuating, and lets you lock the latency in at a maximum value. Most of the time you do not have to set this yourself unless you really feel like you need to.
The latency values to the right of the players shows your latency to the player / the latency delay in the match.
Joining a game
Joining a hosted game is much easier than hosting. You do not have to open any ports! Only the host has to have their ports opened. All you need is the public IP address, port, and password of the host game to get connected. You will have to get this information from the host. Enter all of that information on the Join page and, if all things are set up correctly by the host, you will be connected!
FAQ
How do I know if a port is open?
You can use various port checker sites to see if your port is open. Portforward.com actually has a tool that I would highly recommend using to check if your port is open. Keep in mind that you must be hosting a game at the time to see the port as open. Otherwise it will show as closed.
My ports are forwarded on my router, but the port still shows closed and people can't connect to me!
If you have a router AND a modem, you may need to forward ports on your modem as well. Portforward.com is a great resource for this as well.
My ports are open but my friends can't connect!
Unfortunately, sometimes the internet just doesn't do what we want it to do. There may be any number of other network related issues preventing connection. As long as your ports are confirmed to be open, and you are giving players the correct IP, port, and password, everything on the Knight Club side of things is correct. Make sure you are using a static IP on your computer, or at the very least, that your ports are forwarded to your current IP.