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| Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (PC) Internet Play FAQ |
| Written by Icy Guy (IcyGuy900@aol.com)                 |
| Version 0.2                                            |
| Size: 54 KB                                            |
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Table of Contents

1. Intro

2. Copyright Info

3. Revision History

4. Setting Up/How to Use
-Setting Up/Things to Bear in Mind
-How to Use

5. Buildings/Units Guide
-GDI
-NOD

6. Recommended Strategies

7. Dealing with the Battlefield

8. Etiquette Guide

9. Vocabulary

10. Some Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

11. A Little Bit About Me in Tiberian Sun

12. Outro/Contact Info

13. Credits/Special Thanks


1. Intro

Welcome to my FAQ for Online Play for Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun!
In here, I'm going to go in-depth on the Internet play aspect of the game, so you can hopefully have as much fun as I do playing.  Note that this FAQ was written assuming that you know how to play already, but you probably do if you're reading this.  Enjoy!


2. Copyright Info

This document Copyright 2002 by Icy Guy.  You may not engage in an unauthorized distribution of this FAQ or put it on your site and claim it as your own.  You may put it on your site as long as the following conditions are satisfied:  you give me the URL so I can check the site out, you credit me fully, you ask me, and this _must_ remain unchanged.  However, you CAN print out a copy for your private, personal use.

This FAQ can appear on the following sites without asking me: >http://www.gamefaqs.com< >http://www.cheatcc.com< >http://sages.ign.com< >http://www.CheatCodes.com< >http://www.neoseeker.com<

Why those sites?  I send this directly to GameFAQs, and I like going to Cheat
Code Central.
This list will probably expand over time.  I added GameSages because I felt like it.  CheatCodes.com and Neoseeker were added because they asked if they could use my FAQs.

Command & Conquer and anything related to it is a copyright of Electronic
Arts and/or Westwood Studios.


3. Revision History

Version 0.2- Finished on 5/11/02 (9,200 words, 42,289 characters, 19 pages).
-Added a bit (mainly, "wtf" to the Vocabulary and how to play with 8 players).

Version 0.1- Finished on 4/29/02 (9,107 words, 41,839 characters, 19 pages).
-Started it and added everything.


4. Setting Up/How to Use

- Setting Up/Things to Bear in Mind

Online play is a very fun thing, but it can also be a nightmare if you don't know what you're doing or meet the system requirements.  Here are the system requirements for online play:

-28.8 kbps modem (or faster)
-TCP/IP Internet Connection (or Local Area Network running IPX)
-An ISP (Internet Service Provider)

Those are the minimum requirements.  If you want it in plain English, here it is: get an average speed or faster modem and an ISP (almost any will work).  Personally, I use AOL on a 28.8 or 56K (not sure which).  The Local
Area Network (LAN) bit only applies if you plan on playing on one.  With that settled, another issue should be brought up: your computer.  It's not going to be any good if the other players are running these Pentium 4 1.5 GHz monsters and you're running this Pentium 180 MHz dinosaur (no offense there).
The computers should generally be in the same performance area for good loading times.  Any group of computers running at 500 MHz or faster with
Pentium 2 or better (I'm running a Pentium 3 800 MHz comp, so don't complain about me making the loading screen lag.) will generally do good enough.  This makes for good performance at the pre-game loading screen.  However, if you're using a bad modem, your comp's other specs are going to look downright bad.  Follow the requirements and you'll be safe.  Those who are behind firewalls (e.g. the free version of Juno, I think) should be sure to have a really fast connection.  (A broadband connection will do wonders here.)

This brings me to another point: games with more than 4 players (see the
"Contact Info" section on how to do this) tend to "lag" (experience slowdown) big time.  For this reason, I *_HIGHLY_* recommend that you have a 56K modem or better.

Before each match, look to the right of each person's name.  All but your own will have a red, yellow, or green bar.  What do these stand for?
The other players' pings.  The ping is how fast your computer can bounce your signal off their computer and vice-versa, allowing for online play.
Generally, the lower the ping, the better the connection.  (A little mnemonic for this: "If it's green, don't be mean; if it's yellow, then be mellow; if it's red, watch your head.")  Of course, don't just go back out of the game if you see a player or two with a red ping.  No.  Count slowly to 5.  If it doesn't improve by then, then play it by ear.  When the host tells people to accept (happens most of the time, it seems), check the pings.  If they're still as bad, back out.  While on the subject, it may be wise to ask people,
"What's my ping?"  You're liable to get more than one response to this question.  The more people that answer, the better, because then you can get an idea of your performance, as well as theirs.

If you're the host, don't go and kick people just because of their pings that you see at first.  The pings may change over a few seconds, and it's not worth booting someone from your game.

-How to Use

First things first.  Connect to your ISP and minimize your browser.  (If you have a connection which has you double-click an icon to connect and then open Internet Explorer/Netscape, just don't open the browser.)  If you're an
AOL user, I'd advise one (or any combination) of three things: (1) create another screen name exclusively for online play (You can probably figure out what to do by going to Keyword: Parental Controls.  Just remember that you didn't hear how to do this here, OK?  If you can't keep to that, then ask a parent or guardian to do it for you.), (2) go to your Buddy List Privacy
Preferences (People>Buddy List>Setting/Setup/Preferences/whatever>Privacy
Preferences>Block All/Block All AOL and AOL Instant Messenger Users) and temporarily block everyone, or (3) set yourself to "Away" status (on 7.0,
People>Buddy List>Away>one of the messages there) and come back after you're done playing.  (#1 is the choice I use.)  If you're an AOL Instant
Messenger/ICQ/Yahoo! Messenger/MSN Messenger (or any combination of them) user, just merely close the application.  Now minimize your browser (close it if you don't need to have it open to have a connection like AOL).  Open your computer's disk tray and put the GDI or Nod disk (doesn't matter which you use) in the tray and close the tray.  If you have Autorun enabled, you'll see a big box pop up in about 4-14 seconds, depending in your computer's speed.
Select "Play" from the box and wait.  When the Westwood animation starts, just hit Escape (the button on your keyboard's high upper-left, if you didn't know) to skip to the title screen.  Wait for the options to come up, and then click "Internet."  "Fetching Server List" should appear in a few seconds, followed by a box with a list of servers and drop-down menus for you nickname, and location, along with buttons labeled "OK," "Cancel," and "New
Account."  There's a text field for your password below you nickname.  If you already have a Westwood Online account for this game, just select your nickname from the drop-down menu and type in your password.  Otherwise, you need a new account.  To do this, click "New Account" and follow the on-screen directions.  _REMEMBER TO WRITE DOWN YOUR PASSWORD AND KEEP IT IN A SAFE
PLACE!_  (Putting it in a text file and then giving the file the "Hidden" attribute is a good idea, although I won't tell how to do this or how to make them show up, in case you have a sibling who will use your name and pass to make you look bad or if you're really paranoid.)  After you've typed in your nickname and password, choose a server from the box on the right.  For me, the choices that show up are "US Server," "Pacific Server," "UK Server," and, for some odd reason, "US Server" again.  These may vary depending on your location.  Select the server that's closest to where you live for the best connection, which will probably be the server highlighted by default.

Once you've logged in, a box will pop up, saying "Connecting to Westwood
Online."  After it has connected to the server, you will then see two boxes in succession: "Requesting Channel List" and then "Joining Lobby."  Then a chat lobby will show up, most likely GDI Barracks.  The big window on the left is the text box, which has all the text typed by whoever is currently in the lobby.  The upper-right box displays the current games and refreshes itself about once a minute.  (However, you can click the refresh button above it to refresh manually.  A good idea, because you can get more current info, allowing you to see if there's new games, if a game has closed, or if a number of players in a game has changed.  The box in the bottom right is the list of users who are currently in that lobby.  To get out of a channel, scroll to the top of the box with the games in it (which will be referred to as the "game list") and double-click "..\Back" to go to a list of chat channels, which contain the lobbies.  Double-click one to enter.  As for the user lists, the number of users is displayed above it.  The top two entries (as of this writing) are reserved the two bots that moderate the rooms,
SunBot and HelpBot.  You can tell they are moderating because they have a lightning bolt next to their names.  As you scan the user list, you may wonder what those letters to the right of their names mean.  Those letters (or letters, numbers, or combinations of) are the call signs of their
BattleClans, which will be discussed in a moment.  Hover your cursor over them to see the full name of the BattleClan.

There is a variety of buttons on the bottom of the screen.  (Note that a lot of the names require you to hover the cursor over the button to see the name.)  "Exit" is self-explanatory.  "Find Game" lets you find certain games, which meet the criteria that you enter here.  "View Tournament Ladder" lets you view the rankings of people who have played in tournament games.  "Visit the BattleClan Web Page" opens your browser (or maximizes AOL or similar, if applicable) and takes you to the site for BattleClans.  You can get info about a BattleClan, create one, or join one.  To be in a BattleClan, you have to pick an allegiance (GDI or Nod) and stick with it- nothing else than what you pick.  (Note that you'll need your password, and, last time I checked, a
BattleClan password for the creator of the BattleClan.)  "Find/Page User" lets you find or page whomever you want, provided you know their full nickname and that they're online.  "Options" lets you set various options, including a language filter that "symbols" out (e.g. "!@#$") offensive words.  (Note that the bots will probably pick it up and kick the user from the lobby.)  "Ignore User" lets you ignore a specific user's messages in the text window, but personally, I never use this, because you should take note of what others say.  "Help" takes you to a site for just that: help.  The other two buttons are used when you are in a lobby and not viewing a channel.
They are "Join" and "New Game."  Click once on the desired game in the game list and click "Join" to join it.  "New Game" lets you start a new game.  You can select number of players (from 2-4), whether or not it will be a
Tournament or BattleClan game, and whether or not it has a password.  Click
"OK" to start it.

To use a lobby, type in your desired message in the box below the text box and press "Enter" (or "Return").  A little icon on one side of it (looks like a smile face) can be used to call attention to your message.  Type you message and then click that to send your message in a different font color.

To page someone, click the "Find/Page" button and type their nickname in the top box and your message in the box below it.  Click "Page."  Note that any incoming pages to you when you are not in this window (playing a game, in a lobby) will show up in white.

Joining a Game:

Scroll up and down the game list until you find the game that looks the best.  Note that games with more than 4 players (yes, you heard me right: more than 4 players) usually take a while (my longest was a 3-hour 8-player game), unless you have Short Game turned on, and even then, they may not be all that short.  The list contains the following information (from left to right): the type of game (Tournament= trophy; BattleClan= gray and blue flag; normal= green and yellow symbol), creator of the game (their nickname), average ping (red, green, and yellow again), and number of players (in format "number of players joined so far/number of possible players").  A grayed-out game means that it has closed.  To join a game, click once on the game you