Yes, it is possible to play without the CD. To do this, go into your Nerf System file, located in (defult) My Computer/C:/Program Files/Atari/Nerf/System. Look for the .ini file called Nerf (it looks like a notepad with a gear on it). Open that up. Then go into the edit bar at the top, and select Find. Type in CDPath in the box, then press enter or click on the button to find it. It should come up with some highlighted text at the bottom of the first paragraph that say "CDPath=D:" (or whatever your CD drive is named). Change it so that the CDPath is going to your Nerf folder, so it should look like "CDPath=C:/Program Files/Atari/Nerf" (without the quotes). Then try playing the game without the CD!
(Ok, your going to have to bare with me, I don't have the game installed, so I'm doing this all from memory.) Go into your System folder (located in My Computer/C:/Program Files/Atari/Nerf/System) and open the nerf.ini file. Scroll down a little more than half way until you come to a line that says something like bMultiplayerbots=False. Change that to say bMultiplayerbots=True . Then, just a couple lines below that, look to where it says something like number of bots. Change that to as many bots as you want. I believe that 16 is the maximum that you can put in.
This will optimize how fast your computer will send a receive information with the server while you are playing NAB. Go into your nerf.ini file which is located in My Computer/C:/Program Files/Atari/Nerf/System and scroll down about 1/8 of the way. Look for a line under [Engine.Player] that says ConfiguredInternetSpeed=10000. This is where you set the number of packets that you want to send back and forth to the server. Packets are basically bits of information. The higher the number, the more packets you send and receive. So you want to make it a really big number, right? WRONG! 10000 is a good number if you have a cable/dsl or higher connection. If you are using a modem with a speed of 28 or 56k, try changing the internetspeed number lower, to around 2000. Try changing the number up or down, and see what gives you better ping.
Why is a lower number better if you have a slower connection? Think of it this way. 10000 people are trying to get into a store, but this store has very, very big doors. The doors are like your cable/dsl/t1+ modem. They can move a lot of people/packets at once. But if you have a slower modem, its like the doors being only big enough for 2000 or so people at once. But if you only sent 2000 people into the store at one time, there wouldnt be any problems getting in, while if you were trying to cram 10000 people into a space where only 2000 would fit, there would be serious problems.
For all of you that are unfimiliar with framerates, a framerate is simply how many frames you get in one second. A frame is a still picture, that when put next to a lot of other still pictures, creates a moving picture (such as you shooting someone with a tripple strike). For example, a movie has 20 frames per second. The Frames Per Second is also refured to as FPS. If you have an older computer, or a 4mb video card on your computer, you are not going to get very good framerates. If this is the case, you must change several things in your game. You must make your resolution very low. You can change this in the options tab. If you have a computer with a higher level video card, you can turn up the resolution very high (1280x1040 is a good resolution to run NAB at). You can play around with it until you get very steady framerates in a heavy fight. How do you find out your framerates? In game, press the ` button (located next to the number 1). Type in "stat fps" without the quotes. A number will be displayed in a corner of your screan, displaying how many frames you are getting. Try to keep the framerates above 25 in a heavy fight. This will keep your game always running smooth.
A computer is like your body. If you keep it in shape and feed it the right things, it will be quite an athlete of a machine. First of all, Spyware, which are small programs that send information to the creator, is everywhere on the internet. To get rid of it, I suggest that you use AdAware, which is a free program that will scan your computer, and get rid of all the spyware. What does this mean? It means that your computer will spend less energy sending information to other people, and more energy on the games. It will also increase your internet speed, as your bandwidth wont be clogged with spyware. My next tip, which is VERY IMPORTANT, but usually overlooked, is a virus protection program. I use Norton Anti-Virus, which has always served me very well. It is able to detect and clean a virus before it can infect my computer. I have had computers that get viruses on them, and it is not pretty. Basically, a virus keeps computers from functioning correctly. It is very important to spend the time and money on a virus protection program to keep it up to date with all the newest viruses.
MORE TO COME LATER!