BrianAG wrote:How does one go about setting up a multiplayer game with ZDoom? Is there anything similar to Legacy Doom, where it's more built-in?
The multiplayer is not built-in, although it is a little more robust than vanilla Doom's handling. You can either find a launcher to setup the command-line stuff for you, or enter the commands manually.
The command to begin a multiplayer game as host is:
zdoom -host X
where X is the total number of players who will be participating (including yourself). In addition to the host command, the server needs to add any other parameters you want to play the game with. e.g:
Begin a 4-player cooperative game starting at MAP01 at skill 4 with turbo-speed monsters:
zdoom -host 4 -warp 01 -skill 4 -fastmonsters
Begin an 8-player deathmatch game on level 20 of FUNDM.WAD, using skill 3 and disabling monsters:
zdoom -host 8 -file FUNDM.WAD -warp 20 -skill 3 -nomonsters -altdeath
(Note that clients will also need to include the "-file FUNDM.WAD" command, but the others may be omitted.)
The clients all need to enter this command:
zdoom -join X
where X is the IP address or identifier of the host machine. The clients also need to specify any files being loaded (WAD/DEH/BEX) in the same order as the host, and all files need to be the same, or there may be errors while playing.
So, assuming the first hosted game above (coop mode) is at IP 202.183.94.7, the other 3 players would only need to type this:
zdoom -join 202.183.94.7
To join the second, the other 7 players would need to type this (assuming the host computer was on the local network under the name "Bob"):
zdoom -join Bob -file FUNDM.WAD
Once everyone has entered the command and started ZDoom, the host computer will synch everyone up and the game will begin.
