Update: If you are having trouble with this tutorial you can do the following -
- Try following some of the tips provided by Alien X in the comments section
- Visit the Blink7 page on the newest available patch for network gaming with Age of Mythology: (click here)Â
Important Note -
Try this tutorial first, and if it does not work for you then try AlienX’s suggest listed below in the comments section (thanks to AlienX!)
Background -
Tutorial: Internet Gaming with Age of Empires 3 and Hamachi
Age of Mythology typically defaults to the internal IP address rather than the Hamachi address during network play. This behaviour can prevent players from hosting multi-player games over Hamachi networks. Luckily there is a workaround …
Open Hamachi and record the IP address
Right click on the windows Start button. Click on the Explore menu item. Windows Explorer should open.
Navigate to directory where Age of Mythology was installed. By default, the game installs to the following directory:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Mythology
Right click on the AOM.exe file. Click on the Copy menu item
Minimize all windows. On the desktop, right click and click on the Paste Shortcut menu item. A shortcut named “Age of Mythology” should appear on the desktop.
Right click on the “Age of Mythology” shortcut. Click on the Properties menu item.
Click on the text box beside the “Target” label. Modify the text box contents by adding the following switch:
OverrideAddress=x.x.x.x
Where x.x.x.x represents your Hamachi IP address.
For example, if you installed Age of Mythology in the default directory and your hamachi IP address is 5.5.10.10 then the text beside the Target label should read as follows:
“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Mythology\aom.exe” OverrideAddress=5.5.10.10
Click on the OK button.
Double click on the desktop icon to load Age of Mythology
Click on the Multiplayer button. Click on the Lan / Direct IP button.
Select a user name and click on the OK button
Click on the Host button.
Verify that the IP beside the “Alternate IP” label matches your Hamachi address (note:The IP never matches on this machine, but multiplayer gaming still works when I provide my real IP to other people. The same may be true of you).
You are now ready to host an AOM game using a hamachi address.
Regarding the note above, please share your experiences with this solution so the detail can be conformed re: the last slide.
+directIPConnectivity
I’ll try this on another build of the game and possibly update the tutorial
I’ve followed your guide, and the hamachiwiki guide too, but i still can’t play aom.
the Alternate Ip address it comes up with is my external ip address rather than the hamachi one, despite the override command in the shortcut. no idea how to do this ;(
thanks
AOM will be unhappy if you have multiple network interfaces active in your machine (as in more than one network card - if you don’t know what we’re talking about then don’t worry, it probably doesn’t apply to you.) If you have multiple network cards and you are experiencing trouble, please disable the network interfaces that you’re not using to play the game, and then restart the game and try again.
Obviously we can’t do that because the “network” (and hence the internet) is allowing us to reach hamachi in the first place. Hence we have to hack around with these switches.
The second issue - different routers hide machines differently. The methods described above will work with some routers and not others. Can everyone post what routers they are using?
Example:
“C:\Program Files\Age of Mythology\aomx.exe” hostPort=5.70.41.114 AddressServer=”repeater.aom.eso.com”
P.S. You will need Hamachi for this (thanks blank 7). If you want to play with a friend, make sure that person joins your hamachi server.
Note: It only works for 1 connection; so you can’t connect other computers, but other people can join your address. I can’t seem to get my other computers to connect to the same port. If someone finds out please e-mail me. Thanks.
Bye and thanks.
Bye and thanks.
Any thoughts on what I should do?
I too followed the guide but didnt work. I added the “overrideaddress=x.x.x.x” part but it didnt change the IP which AOM picked up @ runtime. It still remained my local IP 192.168.1.2 :(. If this too is your situation try this method.
Log into hamachi. then go to network connections & DISABLE your local area network connection (right click on local area connection & disable) Do disable every other network connection besides the HAMACHI connection.
Dont do anything to hamachi connection (dont quit or log out or anything… )
Now run Age of mythology and go to multiplay. then click on “host” and see if now your hamachi IP appears on top. ( it sure will appear now
)
Now minimize the game & Re enable your “local area network connection”. Wait till hamachi reconnects & switch back and play your game
You just have to do this once. After that only the hamachi IP will appear in AOM
Hope this helps…
oh & one thing, if you want to change back to your local area network IP in AOM, disable every network connection besides your local area connection and run the game
:)
Cheers,
AlienX
but this is not working for us - we goto the same stage as Chris and then… the games timeout - we can not connect to each other, alltho we can start getting in a game, could anyone help please?
ok now there are 2 timeout countdowns occur when you join a LAN game in AOM. a 15 second timeout & 120 seconds timeout after that.
If you timeout in the first (15 seconds) then there is a problem with you internet connection/Lan connection or a problem with the ports or firewall.
If its in the second countdown (120 seconds timeout) then most probably its because of the wrong IP problem. For this try what I suggested earlier in this page.
Ifs its in the first scenario you can try certain things until you get it right.
First of all please turn off your windows firewall and any other firewall software you are using.
Now if you connect through a router enable “uPnP port forwarding” and restart the router (almost every router has this option so you dont have to worry..) ). Do not try to manually port forward for now (uPnP will do that for you), this exercise is to check whether it works with no security involved.
Now run the game and see if you can play a LAN game.
So if it works now you know that it must’ve be a problem with your firewall or router. Now don’t do anything to your router and make changes to your firewall until it works. Now finally when you are done with the firewall you can go back to configure your router (manually port forward & stuff…).
Hope this helps, plz post back your results
Cheers,
AlienX
Help would be appreciated
Fern
to Fern =>
it doesnt matter where u and your friends live. as long as you all are in the same hamachi network it’s going to be ok. and the type of internet connection doesnt matter too… u have to make sure all of you are in the same network. and your hamachi ip “5.x.x.x” appears in the AOM.
to xerferic =>
)
well disabling the other cards except hamachi network adaptor is to force the game to pick up hamachi ip at runtime. you have to do this only once. when u do it just go to host game to double check if the hamachi ip appears. if so you dont have to do follow this procedure again & again…
(going to host game is a way to check this quickly. coz the ip appears only in host game menu and join game menu, if you cant join u cant see the ip so the best way to check is host game…
if all of these are ok then just follow the ordinary procedure. (one person hosts & others type his hamachi ip @ the join game… )
to Fern =>
it doesnt matter where u and your friends live. as long as you all are in the same hamachi network it’s going to be ok. and the type of internet connection doesnt matter too… u have to make sure all of you are in the same network. and your hamachi ip “5.x.x.x” appears in the AOM.
to xerferic =>
)
well disabling the other cards except hamachi network adaptor is to force the game to pick up hamachi ip at runtime. you have to do this only once. when u do it just go to host game to double check if the hamachi ip appears. if so you dont have to do follow this procedure again & again…
(going to host game is a way to check this quickly. coz the ip appears only in host game menu and join game menu, if you cant join u cant see the ip so the best way to check is host game…
if all of these are ok then just follow the ordinary procedure. (one person hosts & others type his hamachi ip @ the join game… )
Cheers,
AlienX
some other tips,
if you’re playing in a mixed up situation like, you and your friend in the same local area network & other friends join through hamachi, its better if all of you can join play through the same hamachi network. (rather than some people using direct ip & others hamachi.. ). Ive tried it and playing AOM through hamachi wont result in lagging or anything compared to direct method…
once the connection is established only peer to peer data exchanges take place and no data is going through a central hamachi server…
even if you’re all in the same LAN use hamachi if the direct method doesn’t work..
for advanced users if you’re not happy about upnp port forwarding & want only the specific ports to open up in the router due to high security issues read the read me file in AOM. i guess the tcp & udp ports are mentioned @ there…
Later I’ll post the specific details about the ports used in connection establishment & game play which will be useful in trouble shooting multi play issues, right now im having a load of work
Cheers,
AlienX
1) I have my own site now, where all future technical matters will be discussed
http://www.blink7.com
Please visit and request any further tutorials.
2) Alien X: Thank you very much for your tireless contributions to this column. Do you mind if I compile this advice for a future column in the new site? You will be fully credited for your submissions.
Cheers,
Blink7
Thumbs up on the new website.
Yeah sure you can compile it in your new website, or else I can prepare a tutorial with screen caps which can be posted in the website, I wouldn’t mind anything at all :). My only intention is to help for those having problems.
Is there a way to contact you directly in that site “http://www.blink7.com/” coz I tried, but cudnt find a link or anything…
Cheers,
AlienX
AlienX:
Thanks for the compliments. Heck of an oversight though re: contact. I’ll add that to the blog but for now please contact me via admin @ blink7 dot com
(not writing it properly so to avoid spammers)
Definitely any tutorial material you have would be welcome.
Cheers
First of all thanks for the tutorial!
I am having trouble though =S
Me and my friend managed to make the alt ip show on multiplayer mode but once one of us hosts a game, the other one cant see it :S
We enabled exceptions on windows firewall for both aomx.exe and hamachi.exe just in case but it’s still nto working!
Hope to hear from you soon!!
Thanks
Juan Andres : try disabling the firewall(s) first on both ends (u & your friend) and see if its working. Then U can focus on configuring the firewall, If it works without firewall U can enable one side’s firewall keeping the other end disabled & start working on the enabled end until it works. & then do the same thing on other end. Then enable on both ends…
Sometimes game may not appear but U can type the IP address of the other end to join…
filip : “any of those solutions won’t work if both players are behind routers.”
.
I use a router & so are my friends & it works perfectly for me. May be you’re doing something wrong. I didn’t try this with Titan’s though. But you said its working in it so I don’t have to worry about that
I’ll try to create a test hamchi vpn so you might be able to join it & try it again.
Cheers
AlienX
I’m using a Belkin G wireless network card, with a G Mimo router. My firewall is off, and I have disconnected ALL my connections besides Hamachi to try and force the Hamachi address.
Any suggestions? If I wasn’t clear let me know.
two ip’s. My real one adn hamachi’s as an alternative. It was said some posts ago, that when you do this trick with disabling cennections it won’t be needed to do it anymore and there will allways be only hamachi ip instead of my real one. And one thing, did my friend who’s connected with my hamachi network need to do this trick to, even though i’m a host?
Thank you v.v.v.much.. You are the real man.
I am able to play AOM now on Hamachi.
Im very sorry Blink7 I couldnt what you’ve asked me that day. I am somewhat busy now adays. But anywho your new website looks very nice. Keep it up
Janko => dude goin into the the Hostgame window is to check what IP is taken by AOM during runtime :). It is ONLY & ONLY to do that. Its to make sure you’re on the correct path. Because playing through Hamachi requires players to be on the same subnetwork (5.x.x.x) So the Host should have Hamachi IP & so are all the joining people should have Hamachi IP @ runtime. I again recall going into the Hostgame menu is to see the runtime ip picked up on each player. Each player check this & come back to Game selection menu if IP is ok & then join the game
:) 
Easy as that. Dont mess it up 
Cheers,
AlienX
When you disable all connections except Hamachi run AOM quikly as possible, Because if Hamachi times out you
ll get 0.0.0.0 IP.
Reason => When Hamachi times out & log off it has the IP of 0.0.0.0 Since its the only connection alive AOM picks up that IP (0.0.0.0) ( Connection alive is in the network connections in control panel. Even if Hamachi software times out Hamachi adaptor in Control panel is still active & it has the IP of 0.0.0.0 which is taken by AOM )
If you’re not quick enough do this.
run AOM in windowed mode. when it loads up initially switch to desktop & disable the connections except Hamachi & then quickly switch to AOM & go to Hostgame & see
Cheers,
AlienX
We (me and on other) try to play over hamachi, and we have followed your advices, but the closest we have got is that he got a message saying that my version isn’t the right one. But it is! It’s 1.03, just like his. Only thing is that his legal and mine is downloaded… Can that ruin it?
And i swear to God: I have bought the game, but i havent got it yet. (its on its way, by mail…) I couldnt wait a week. Huh
Sorry for my bad English… I’m a norse… Hah.
Cheers.
I’ve read all ur posts and some sound familiar. My friend and I both r connected to eso and can even chat with eachother but we cannot connect to out hosted games. Hamachi doesn’t ring a bell (no vpn). The only odd thing is that my friend cannot connect to any game at all. I can connect to games in the gamelist and even play hosted games with strangers. He cannot. His firewall is temporarily down. TnX
tnks a lot
I got a problem. Me and my friend wanna play. We both got 1.10 patch, and we put that overrrideaddress. When I click host, I get IP: (I guess it’s mine) and Alternative address: hamachi IP. My friend has same, but we don’t see each other’s games. Plz help.
Anyway, great work.
you should wrghit the real IP of your comp in that day were the x.x.x.x between the ” ”
and it will work 100% please commete if it work to you.
when you enter the game after you do it you will see the real ip of you on top.
now you can play like you using a regular modem.
check your real ip hear -> http://whatismyip.com/
["C:\...aom.exe" OverrideAddress="5.123.345.678" directIPConnectivity xres=1680 yres=1050]
Everyone who will be connecting will need to do that to their shortcut. Now, everyone needs to start up hamachi and open their internet connections. Shut off lour local internet so that only hamachi is enabled. Next, open the game from your shortcut and go into the multiplayer section. Minimize the game (Press Alt Tab) and go into your internet connections and enable your internet again. EVERYONE DOES THAT. Now, host a game and have everyone manually connect with the direct ip option in multiplayer. The ip they will use is the HOSTS hamachi ip. Hope that works for you. Please tell me if I need to clarify anything.