How to join a multiplayer game

Most multiplayer Dominions 6 is played on hosted servers: someone creates a game, a group of players each claim a nation, and everyone sends in orders on their own time. This guide is for a player who has finished a solo game and wants to join one. It covers what the game’s manual says about multiplayer, and it says plainly where the manual says nothing.

The manual is thin here. Its multiplayer chapter is short, and it sends readers who want private servers or play by email to the manual of the previous game. That manual is not one we cite, so this page does not describe those setups. Plain text below states what the Dominions 6 manual says. The shaded blocks labelled Opinion are community habits and one player’s advice, not rules of the game.

How the game plays online

The manual lists the ways to play with other people: several players on one computer (hotseat), online play on a private server or the official one, and play by email. A game with only one human player and computer opponents is a solo game, and the manual says its multiplayer chapter can be skipped (Dominions 6 manual, Playing a multiplayer game).

All players’ orders are resolved simultaneously when the turn is hosted, and the manual says this is why the game works well in multiplayer: everyone does their turn when they like, and when everyone has finished, a new turn is generated. How the host works through the orders once it runs is on Turn order.

Finding and joining a game

For online play the manual points you to the game lobby on the official server, reached from the main menu by choosing Network and then Enter Game Lobby. In the lobby you can either open a game for others or join one that someone else opened. The manual expects this to be easy for anyone who has already created a solo game, and it names the lobby as its preferred route into multiplayer.

The manual does not describe the lobby screens, how games are listed or how a game is found. It does not say how many players a game can hold. The launch-option list does show that a host can open a game and have it created after a set number of minutes, or once a set number of players have joined, and can close a nation or give it to a computer player. Those are host settings, and what a particular game uses is shown in the lobby.

Claiming a nation and choosing a pretender

Joining a game means choosing one of its open nations and then designing your pretender, as in a solo game (New player guide, Start Here, step two). The one thing the manual insists on is a password for your pretender in online games: with none, any other player could view or alter your turns. It repeats the warning under cheat prevention.

Two other settings affect the game you join. Score graphs, if they are on, show everyone who has the most provinces and the biggest army. The manual says this makes a very different game from one where players must scout, because the main aim becomes not to lead in any major category while not falling far behind, and that diplomacy matters more when the numbers are hidden (Start Here, step five). And the manual describes cheat prevention as protecting against players other than the host: the host has full access and can rewind turns without anyone noticing, so the host has to be trusted.

Playing your turn

Each turn begins as in a solo game, with the messages: what happened, the battles, the events (Start Here, step six). You then give orders. The manual says that in network play the End Turn button stores your orders in a file in the game folder, or sends them to the server when the game is online. You can still go back into the turn and change your orders, or clear them and start over. Playing solo, the button runs the host at once. Playing with others, it only submits your orders.

The manual does not describe the turn files, what the server does with an uploaded turn, how to confirm that one arrived, or how a later upload replaces an earlier one beyond the words above. It does not say how long a turn is kept on the server.

Timers and stalled turns

The manual’s launch-option list is the only place it names the timing rules, and it is meant for hosts. It lists these controls:

• A host time or an interval. A host can set the turn to be hosted on a chosen weekday and hour, or at an interval of a number of minutes or hours, and can set the hours left before the first host.
• A pause day. The timer can be stopped on a chosen weekday.
• Quick hosting. By default the turn is hosted as soon as all players have finished, without waiting for the timer. A host can turn that off.
• Stalled players. Quick hosting can be set to disregard players who have stalled for a number of turns in a row.
• A warning sound. A client can be given a warning sound when fewer than a set number of seconds remain.

The manual gives no default interval and does not say what happens to a player’s orders if the timer runs out first, beyond the fact that the turn is then hosted. It does not say how a late player’s turn is counted. The Start Here guide says that hosted games commonly run a turn a day (Start Here, step five), and that is a habit of hosts, not a rule of the game. The manual does not mention a mode called Blitz, and our wiki has not tested one.

Dropped players and AI control

The manual’s treatment is short. If a player drops out and has put a password on the pretender, a master password lets the host hand that nation to the computer so the game can go on. The manual warns that the master password also opens everything about a player’s position. For big games where some players are likely to vanish, it suggests either setting one or letting a third party keep every player’s password, to be used only for someone who cannot be reached.

Two launch options bear on this. One sets the AI level for human players who quit, with a default of 2, and another disables the ability to become AI controlled. A host can also disallow turns being downloaded or uploaded with the master password.

The manual does not say how a player is judged to have dropped, whether a returning player can take a nation back, how strong the replacement is in play beyond its level number, or what the lobby offers to players who find themselves taken over.

Etiquette

The manual states no rules of conduct, so everything in this section is a community norm, and norms differ between tables.

What this page does not cover

• It does not name any server, community or hosting service. If you want one, ask the people you play with.
• It does not describe hosting your own game, private servers, play by email or the turn files those use.
• It does not describe the lobby screens, which the manual does not describe either.
• It gives no figures from our own testing.

For the first-game side of things, see the New player guide and the Start Here steps.