Playing online

Playing online

There are several servers that host DCSS online, allowing you to play either by browser (WebTiles) or through SSH/telnet.

There are three main benefits to this, especially if you join the IRC Chatroom.

• Other people can watch you play live, and page you with messages and advice (the often ignored "hit _" that shows up...)
• Even if you repeatedly play a single combo, you'll encounter a more fun and diverse bunch of player ghosts to beat up on.
• You can request replays of any milestone or death you know how to look up. It's great for reviewing where you went wrong, or reliving hilarious moments.

Servers

Play Crawl Online Now North America Servers CAO - Located in Arizona. Hosts all versions from 0.10 to 0.28, and trunk. CBR2 - Located in Ohio. Hosts all versions from 0.26 to 0.28, and trunk. CKO - Located in New York. Hosts 0.18, all versions from 0.21 to 0.28, and trunk. European Servers CDO - Located in Germany. Hosts all versions from 0.10 to 0.28, and trunk (console only). CUE - Located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Hosts all versions from 0.10 to 0.28, and trunk. CXC - Located in France. Hosts all versions from 0.14 to 0.28, and trunk. Asian Servers CWZ - Located in Korea. Hosts all versions from 0.11 to 0.28, and trunk (WebTiles only). LLD - Located in Japan. Hosts all versions from 0.13 to 0.28, and trunk (WebTiles only). Australian Server CPO - Located in Sydney. Hosts all versions from 0.16 to 0.28, and trunk (WebTiles only).

WebTiles

WebTiles is the easier to access and more graphically complex version of DCSS. On most modern browsers, such as Chromium, it is a simple process. All you need to do is visit the server's website (linked above), create an account, and start playing. There's no need to enter any personal information, with email being optional for password recovery.

Console

Console is generally more complex to set up, as you need an SSH client in order to play. Mac and Linux systems will likely have SSH preinstalled, but to properly play console online in Windows, you're going to have to download a program called PuTTY.

A guide to SSH connection can be found here. There is also a list of servers and their SSH keys right above it.

Options

If you find yourself lagging, don't forget to enable SSH compression! Don't forget to set NetHack mode to ensure your keyboard works properly! Note well that this effectively changes what the keypad types, meaning the numrow will produce a different password than the keypad (for logging in to play once connected to CAO). One thing that guide doesn't mention is that you can "Disable Application keypad mode" under Terminal->Features. This allows you to use +-=/ to cycle targets. There's currently no working fix for allowing the numpad 5 to long rest. The only current method to perform a long rest online is by pressing numROW five.

A lot of people like to change their character sets to produce more 'solid' walls, and portals/shops that no longer look like wands/staves. All you need to do this is add the following line to your options "char_set = IBM" and change putty's character set to CP437 under Window->Translation->Received data assumed to be in which character set.

On Gnome and KDE desktops, and other terminals supporting UTF-8, you can use "char_set = unicode" to enable it, resulting in nicer graphics.

You may also want to configure your terminal color palette to match the "official one" of the tiles version. The colors to set are:

    VColour(  0,   0,   0), // BLACK
    VColour(  0,  82, 255), // BLUE
    VColour(100, 185,  70), // GREEN
    VColour(  0, 180, 180), // CYAN
    VColour(255,  48,   0), // RED
    VColour(238,  92, 238), // MAGENTA
    VColour(165,  91,   0), // BROWN
    VColour(162, 162, 162), // LIGHTGREY
    VColour( 82,  82,  82), // DARKGREY
    VColour( 82, 102, 255), // LIGHTBLUE
    VColour( 82, 255,  82), // LIGHTGREEN
    VColour( 82, 255, 255), // LIGHTCYAN
    VColour(255,  82,  82), // LIGHTRED
    VColour(255,  82, 255), // LIGHTMAGENTA
    VColour(255, 255,  82), // YELLOW
    VColour(255, 255, 255)  // WHITE

For PUTTY:

    RGB(  0,   0,   0), // ANSI BLACK
    RGB(  0,  82, 255), // ANSI BLUE
    RGB(100, 185,  70), // ANSI GREEN
    RGB(  0, 180, 180), // ANSI CYAN
    RGB(255,  48,   0), // ANSI RED
    RGB(238,  92, 238), // ANSI MAGENTA
    RGB(165,  91,   0), // ANSI YELLOW
    RGB(162, 162, 162), // ANSI WHITE
    RGB( 82,  82,  82), // ANSI BLACK BOLD
    RGB( 82, 102, 255), // ANSI BLUE BOLD
    RGB( 82, 255,  82), // ANSI GREEN BOLD
    RGB( 82, 255, 255), // ANSI CYAN BOLD
    RGB(255,  82,  82), // ANSI RED BOLD
    RGB(255,  82, 255), // ANSI MAGENTA BOLD
    RGB(255, 255,  82), // ANSI YELLOW BOLD
    RGB(255, 255, 255)  // ANSI WHITE BOLD