Dude Bladeforce has a plethora of Linux gaming knowledge that we all need to tap into. Ironically I had a similar problem with TimeShift. I started with newer versions of Wine and it refused to launch. I had to go back to Wine 1.3 and it runs perfectly. Who knew?
I know this is a bit old, but I'm not having success in getting it to work right. I installed the Online Multiplayer patch at AvPUnknown.com (alternate master server system), but I can't seem to set the controls. They set in the Shared fine, but the Alien, Predator, and Human controls turn to <unassigned> when I change away from their menu. The controls don't work in-game at all, not even the mouse, and the controls often reset to <unassigned>. Saving and loading profiles doesn't help. I use the wine-1.7, and I fixed any start-up crashes by using "winetricks directmusic", and possibly directx. I tried to run it with wine-1.3.35 but it starts and runs unusably slowly. I managed to just barely try to set 1 control in the menu, but nothing changed. In the profile text file it shows strange assignments, is this correct? (WASD): [Shared] Fire = " @##3@ " AltFire = " @##4@ " Forward = "##17@ @ " Backward = "##31@ @ " Left = "##203@ @ " Right = "##205@ @ " StrafeLeft = "##30@ @ " StrafeRight = "##32@ @ " Strafe = "##37@ @ "
I was able to install this game with PlayOnLinux using wine version 1.4. Unfortunately I can't remember if I added any package using the "install components" tag, but I can tell you that I solved my mouse problem enabling the "mouse override option" in the Miscellaneous tag. I tested the game only in single player mode and it works flawlessly, but I didn't complete the campaign, so it is still possible there are bugs (or crashes) on levels I didn't try. Out of curiosity: are there still players out there on MP for a game so old?
I remember playing the GOG version, but I couldn't install it the regular way because it automatically installs Galaxy which prevents me from playing it in PlayOnLinux. So I installed and then moved the Alient-Vs-Predator game folder to its own virtual drive and it ran fine.
About the number of people playing, see for yourself: http://www.tbbcbase.net/serverlist Hmmm, I keep reading in so many places that it runs fine right off the bat. I have to figure out what's so different.
