"So You Want to GM" Part 2: How to Run STHS on Mac, for Stubborn Idiots Without a PC

[Gustav 6,428]

A long time ago, in the galaxy far, far away known as the Archived Media Spots section of the forum, I wrote an article called "So You Want to GM...," which detailed how exactly your friendly neighborhood Gustav came to be supreme dictator of a VHLM team (not in a biographical sense, but in more of a "here's what to do" sense). Anyway, I'm somewhat well-known in the GM community these days as "that guy who sends broken lines from a Mac" (and, as the simmers know, occasionally the client file instead of actual lines). That's somewhat significant as the STHS Client is NOT meant to be run outside of Windows, so doing it outside of Windows is a challenge. So, I'm writing this article to show you the long and difficult process which is getting it to work on Mac, with no guarantee of good results.

 

Note: recently, I bought Parallels for my computer for multiple reasons, both league-related and otherwise, one of which is STHS compatibility. If you're willing to spend the money on Parallels, this is easily your best option. But if you don't have the money to spare on it, or if you don't think it's worth it, I'll show you the long way. This will teach you a perfectly valid way to run it for free--it requires a reasonable short-term memory and a lot of getting used to, but it works.

 

Another note: please don't accuse me of being a Mac fanboy, as I'm not one. The only reason why I've got this computer is for the music programs. Otherwise I'd be using a PC like all you common folk.

 

 

STEP 1: DOWNLOAD WINE 

Go here: http://winebottler.kronenberg.org and click the "download" icon with the green arrow (or, if you're on an old computer, you might need the one with the gray arrow. You'll want the green one if you're running anything higher than OS X Capitan). Hit "download" and wait.

 

1A: Make sure you don't get anything sketchy. When you hit "download," you will be taken to a screen with ads. You may have something pop up that says you need to download something to continue. You may have something pop up which implies in some way that you should be clicking a link, or that you have a virus of some sort, or whatever. CLICK NOTHING EXCEPT THE YELLOW "SKIP AD" BUTTON IN THE TOP RIGHT (which should appear after a short amount of time). The file you want to download is a perfectly good version of what you're actually looking for, but the site may lead you to download something which is not what you're looking for and which you do not want on your computer (I can tell you this from experience, though that's a story for another time). Anyway, make sure you download WineBottler and only WineBottler. 

 

1B: What to do after you've successfully avoided sketchy downloads and gotten Wine... Click the .dmg file to open it. You should see something like this:

 

 

Click and drag both Wine and WineBottler to the Applications folder. I'm not sure if you need to do this with WineBottler for STHS, but it's what I did and it works so I won't tell you to do otherwise.

 

 

STEP 2: CLIENT SETUP

Go here: http://sths.simont.info/Download_En.php and download the client you see in the first set of links. It doesn't matter which one you download, whether it's Windows or Mac, because it's the same file either way. I prefer the Mac one, as it comes in its own folder with a text file that gives instructions that don't work and then basically just says "yeah figure it out yourself idiot." Having the client file in its own folder is actually very important, and I'll explain why in the next part.

 

2A: Get the client to acknowledge that anything other than itself exists. I don't know how to explain this part other than by saying that, when you click "open," there's a drop-down menu at the top which should look something like this when you open it up:

 

 

See those blue folders? If you do this wrong, opening up STHS will, through some stroke of pure idiocy, absolutely not recognize that there are any other files on your computer. You'll see the three white things marked C, H, and Z, and sure, you can click on the Z and find the user folder and find your username and click the downloads folder, but once you get in there nothing will happen--even though you've got a compatible file in there. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THIS IS THE CASE OR WHAT CAUSES IT, But I can tell you how exactly to place your client so that you will see those blue folders in there, and so the client will show you a client file if you've downloaded one.

If you've downloaded the "Mac and Linux client" (literally the same thing as the Windows one, but in a folder), it will be in your downloads folder. Open Finder, find the folder with the client sitting in Downloads (if for some reason it isn't in Downloads, put it in there) and drag it onto the sidebar.

 

My STHS folder. Note how I've dragged it out to the sidebar rather than leaving it in Downloads or putting it on my desktop or something. THIS IS IMPORTANT. Pictured in my STHS folder: the pointless text file that came with the client, the client itself, a completed lines file, Buff Beav pic (optional), and a folder containing the sim engine itself (unrelated to this article, don't worry about it).

 

If you've downloaded the Windows client (and, again, there is no difference), it will again be sitting in Downloads (and, again, if it is not in Downloads, put it in Downloads). Once it's in Downloads, create a folder, name it whatever you want, and stick the client in there. Take the folder and drag it out to the sidebar in Finder--same process as above with the "Mac" client.

 

Now, all you've done at this point is set up the client so that you should (to the best of my knowledge) be able to open up and run it. You still have to learn how to actually run it; having fun yet?

 

 

STEP 3: ACTUALLY RUNNING THE CLIENT

 

 

First, you'll need a client file from the index. Go to the subforum where all the current season's games are listed, and at the top you'll see the index pinned. Open up the index and go to "Main" --> "STHS Client League File." The file should download automatically, and you should see it in your Downloads folder. Leave it there for now.

 

Go into your STHS folder and right-click on the client. Go Open With --> Wine.

 

What it should look like. Ignore all the other stuff--Parallels is the superior program that I've spent money on, File Explorer is a part of that, and I've tried PlayOnMac with this and it does not work (or, more accurately, it uses Wine, so there's no difference--but with PlayOnMac, I can't find a way around that stupid "you have nothing in your downloads folder" thing I mentioned earlier). Anyway, click Wine.

 

Once you've clicked Wine, you may get some sort of error message saying that some setting has to be changed so that you can allow the client to be run with Wine. I don't remember what it was specifically, but I can tell you that I got past it by just looking it up. If you get something like this, look it up and you should be able to get past it.

 

Anyway, before (or after, I don't know) this error pops up, you should get this window:

 

 

ALWAYS choose the first option. If you choose the second, it will actually make the client into a nice app for you--but then you'll also get the stupid "you don't have anything downloaded" thing that's (as far as I know) impossible to work around. Run it directly every time without exception.

 

 

When you finally get it opened up, click File, then Open. You should see this picture. Look familiar?

 

 

If you see this picture, you have done it right and you've avoided that stupid bullshit thing where it won't recognize that there are any other files in your computer. If it doesn't look like this (if you don't see all the blue folders right away) you haven't done it right and you will be hit with that stupid bullshit thing. Get rid of the client you have downloaded, download another one, and follow all the steps again. If you do everything exactly as I've told you to do, and you get this, I've explained it wrong and I don't know what to tell you. I got it to work through pure trial and error; maybe you will too eventually.

 

Anyway...

 

Click Downloads.

 

 

The stuff in everyone's Downloads folder is different, but note the presence of the STHS folder I mentioned earlier in this one. I do not know this for sure, but I believe that having the client folder in your Downloads folder forces the client to look through everything else in your Downloads folder--in this case, the client file you've just downloaded. Double click that.

 

 

You should see this. Double click your team.

 

 

Now you should see this. The "Roster" tab is where you'll assign captain status to players, as well as determine which players are actually on your roster (due to roster limits, you should never have a surplus. But, if for some reason a player isn't on your roster, you should check this tab each time you do lines). I'll skip that one because it's fairly self-explanatory. Now, click "Lines." Here's where the Mac idiocy sets in...

 

 

When you click Lines, this will happen. Just click OK. You will be able to move on without issue, so I have no idea why this pops up.

 

 

Now, here's where the real Mac idiocy sets in. Guess what: these lines are COMPLETE. There is a player sitting in every one of those white bars in the above image. The Mac client doesn't show who's where; you just have to remember it (which is near impossible at first, but after a few seasons I've gotten used to it enough that I'm pretty good at it). You can figure it out, one player at a time, by clicking on one player and looking at the space on the bottom--from this image, we can see that in these lines I've got Ola Vikingstad on the second line, the second power-play line, as well as second in line in the penalty shot chain of succession. I can also see what Vikingstad's ratings are, through the row on the bottom. 

 

Hit "Wipe Lines" first, unless you're only making minor changes. Redoing lines entirely without clearing them out with this system is a nightmare and too much to keep track of.

 

With forwards, the positions in here are not labeled, but they are, from top to bottom:

Center

Left Wing

Right Wing

...on each line. Place a player in a position by clicking the player, then clicking the corresponding slot (single clicks will do; double clicking isn't necessary).

 

When you're done, hit "Copy All Lines." THIS IS IMPORTANT. Hit "Exit," then on this screen again...

 

 

...hit "Save to File." Save it as your team name (i.e. "don't change the name it gives you") to make the simmers' lives easier. When you've saved it, it should appear nicely in your STHS folder, right back where you started.

 

Send the file you just made (NOT the file you downloaded from the index) to the simmers. Delete both the lines file and the client file, so the next time you do lines both of these files will appear under the same name (the simmers will hate you forever if your line file isn't) and your folders won't be cluttered.

 

 

Anyway, those are the basics (laughs and cries simultaneously). Will this work? I don't even know. It's what I'm pretty sure works, and it's what I'm pretty sure I did, and I can tell you that it's at the very least very close. I'm afraid to touch the setup I have now, as I did somehow get it to work and that's a miracle. If this works, then great, glad to help! If it doesn't, then...well, I tried.

 

I don't even know if anyone will use this, but if anyone does, good luck.

 

 

2,082 words, I'll claim for 4 weeks if I end up having to but I don't think I will...you'll see what I mean soon enough.

[Gustav 6,428]

Using my doubles week from the charity fundraiser on this article. Well done VHL.

[Nykonax 1,564]

why censor your name when we all know its gustav

[Beaviss 4,957]

TLDR: Get a Windows PC.

[eaglesfan036 4,603]

Apple products are way over priced

 

who tf spends $1000 on a non gaming laptop

[Gustav 6,428]

9 hours ago, Nykonax said:

why censor your name when we all know its gustav

The thing is it actually isn't 

 

(It's not Mattias either)

[Nykonax 1,564]

26 minutes ago, GustavMattias said:

The thing is it actually isn't 

 

(It's not Mattias either)

wtf scam

[diamond_ace 3,112]

11 hours ago, GustavMattias said:

STEP 1: DOWNLOAD WINE 

 

Um, yes

[Gustav 6,428]

Claim for week 2 of 4.

[Gustav 6,428]

Claim for week 3 of 4.