Dark Souls II Seamless Co-op
============================

Install
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1. Close Dark Souls II completely.
2. Copy ds2sc_launcher.exe AND the SeamlessCoop folder into your Dark Souls II
   "Game" folder, the one containing DarkSoulsII.exe. It is usually:
   ...\steamapps\common\Dark Souls II Scholar of the First Sin\Game
3. Launch with ds2sc_launcher.exe, NOT through Steam directly.

Only the launcher goes loose in the game folder; everything else stays inside
SeamlessCoop, so the mod is easy to remove later - delete those two things and
the game is completely stock again.

Everyone plays with the same files. There is no separate host download and no
server to run.

Playing together
----------------
Everyone who wants to play together must set the same password. This copy ships
with none, so before you play, open SeamlessCoop\ds2sc.ini, find [PASSWORD] and
put the same word on both our machines:

    cooppassword = whatever-we-agree-on

The mod will refuse to host or join until that is filled in. It only has to
match between us - it is never sent anywhere in plain text, and it is not a
Steam or FromSoftware password, just a shared word that decides who can find
whom.

Once in game, rest at any bonfire. Alongside Travel, Burn and the rest you will
see the co-op options:

    Create co-op session     - one player picks this
    Join co-op session       - everyone else picks this
    Disband co-op session    - shown only while you are in a session

Two things to get right while this is still being tested:

  - be in Human form, not Hollow
  - be in the same area as each other before you try

You do not need a White Soapstone, and neither of you has to place or find a
summon sign. The mod does all of that behind the scenes.

Up to 6 players.

The same actions are also on hotkeys, which work anywhere and are handy if you
are not near a bonfire:

    F5   create a session
    F6   join a friend's session
    F7   leave the session
    F8   self-test (checks your session is visible and the network works)

Your saves are safe
-------------------
The mod writes to DS2SOFS0000.co2 instead of the vanilla DS2SOFS0000.sl2, so
your normal characters are never opened or modified. Expect empty character
slots the first time you play - that is correct.

The mod also never talks to FromSoftware's servers. It redirects the game's
login to a small server running inside the mod on your own machine, and
everything between players goes over Steam's peer-to-peer networking, so there
is nothing for FromSoftware to see and a softban is not possible while you play
with it.

What works right now
--------------------
This is an early test build, and the two of us connecting is the thing it is
meant to test. Expect this much to work:

  - finding each other by password, with no SteamIDs exchanged
  - the bonfire menu, and the whole join handshake behind it
  - enemy and boss health scaling with the size of the session
  - up to 6 players in a session

These are written but have never been seen working, because none of them can
even switch on until two people are actually connected - that is exactly what
this test is for:

  - fog gates and area boundaries no longer sending everyone home
  - killing a boss not ending the session
  - dying not ending the session
  - world progression carrying over, so a boss killed together is a boss
    killed in your own save too

Not in yet, so do not be surprised:

  - seeing each other move around. Phantom position sync is the next piece of
    work, so even a successful join will not look like much yet.
  - enemy and boss damage scaling (the health settings do work)
  - respawning or spectating after death

If the join does nothing at all, that is useful too - send back
SeamlessCoop\ds2sc.log and it will say exactly how far it got.

Please send the log back either way
-----------------------------------
Win or lose, SeamlessCoop\ds2sc.log from BOTH of us is the most useful thing
that can come out of this. This build writes extra diagnostics that only ever
appear when two people are really connected, and they settle several questions
at once that cannot be answered alone.

Checking it worked
------------------
Open SeamlessCoop\ds2sc.log after launching. You should see:

    Steam networking ready - local SteamID64 is ...

After creating a session the host sees:

    co-op session created - friends using the same password can now join

After joining, everyone else sees:

    joined the co-op session
    co-op link established with ... (round trip N ms)
