I have made multiplayer games before (not using blitz) and a huge issue that I ran into is IPs. What I set up was much like counterstike where you go to join a game, you join a game using a central server. the server sends down the IP of the host and the joining player then connects directly to them.
Now, problem is that I have two IPs I have to deal with. A local computer's IP addy, and a internet IP. For example you have a household with 3 computers, all connected to one router. The router has an IP like 87.34.123.321 and then each of the 3 computers has their own local IP within the router like 192.168.100.2. Ok so I know both these IP...however when I tell blitz to connect to another computers IP, I obviously have to use the internet IP. Problem is, when the router gets the packet, it doesnt know where to send it, so it ignores it. I can't tell the packet to go to two different IP addresses....so how do I get past this?
The soultion i came up with was opening up a port on the router then having the packet forwarded to the correct IP address....however this was so hard for players to understand, no one ended up being able to get it working.
Also, many many professional games are able to not have players go through extreme lengths to host and join over the internet....so why then is this such a headache? isnt there just a way to say "I want to connect to this computer" without having to disable ports, bake a cake and learn to fly?
Now, problem is that I have two IPs I have to deal with. A local computer's IP addy, and a internet IP. For example you have a household with 3 computers, all connected to one router. The router has an IP like 87.34.123.321 and then each of the 3 computers has their own local IP within the router like 192.168.100.2. Ok so I know both these IP...however when I tell blitz to connect to another computers IP, I obviously have to use the internet IP. Problem is, when the router gets the packet, it doesnt know where to send it, so it ignores it. I can't tell the packet to go to two different IP addresses....so how do I get past this?
The soultion i came up with was opening up a port on the router then having the packet forwarded to the correct IP address....however this was so hard for players to understand, no one ended up being able to get it working.
Also, many many professional games are able to not have players go through extreme lengths to host and join over the internet....so why then is this such a headache? isnt there just a way to say "I want to connect to this computer" without having to disable ports, bake a cake and learn to fly?