Probably some mods are preventing me from hosting a modded server.

[Mikado]

I am able to host vanilla and with a few mods, but whenever I add all of the mods I want to use, same thing happens always. Spawn location shows up, I choose, then I make a character, but after the character creation the game is black screen forever. I dont even see the "This is how you died" stuff. All I can do is pressing "ESC" button, then the game kicks me to the main menu.
To find out if I was doing something wrong, I wanted my friend's server settings, who hosted a lot of times without any issues. There is 3 files in total. The ones in the directory "this pc\system disk\user\zomboid\server
After changing my settings with my friend's, I tried hosting but same thing happened again.
So he can host but I cannot with the exact same settings and mods.
I tried reinstalling the game, reinstalling all workshop data/unsubscribing from all mods/deleting all files in "this pc\system disk\user\zomboid" folder for a fresh start, but nothing helped so far.
Here are some files that may come in handy if you want to help me.
https://easyupload.io/m/boflnn
Thank you.

[Beard]

Are you able to join the friends server with the exact same mods in that case? Not whether he can host but if you can join his server.

[Mikado]

Yes, I am able to join their server with the same mods. Never had any issue with joining, but when I try to host with same settings and mods, the problem occurs.

[Beard]

I would probably recommend wiping your settings in that case and rehosting again.
Go to "C:\Users\YourUserName\Zomboid" and delete everything there except the "Saves" folder, then rehost.

[Mikado]

I tried your suggestion, but unfortunately it did not work.
I also tried disabling mods one by one to find out which one causes the issue, but I do not have any idea anymore. It seems like there is more than one causing the issue together. It is so confusing...

[Mikado]

For example Authentic Z, Undead Survivor, Spongie's clothing and hair mods, True music-Mixtape music. When I disabled these and some of the other mods I was able to host once. But when I tried to enable some of the mods and saw that it stopped working again, I disabled all of them and tried without them again. But this time it did not work...

[Mikado]

This is what I found in the coop-console:
------------------------------------------------
LOG : General , 1662986841793> 55,495,236> Set host user:Mikado
LOG : General , 1662986845297> 55,498,740> 1662986845297> znet: Client connecting
LOG : General , 1662986845297> 55,498,740> 1662986845297> znet: OnClientInitiateConnection
LOG : General , 1662986845299> 55,498,742> 1662986845299> znet: Sending server information
LOG : General , 1662986845394> 55,498,837> 1662986845394> znet: Client has begun authentication
LOG : General , 1662986845395> 55,498,838> 1662986845395> znet: got token from the client
LOG : General , 1662986845411> 55,498,854> 1662986845411> znet: BeginAuthSession() ok
LOG : General , 1662986845795> 55,499,238> 1662986845795> znet: OnValidateAuthTicketResponse response=0 SteamID=76561198162252827
LOG : General , 1662986845796> 55,499,239> 1662986845796> znet: Auth succeeded
LOG : General , 1662986846801> 55,500,244> command entered via server console (System.in): "ping@pong"
LOG : General , 1662986847878> 55,501,321> 1662986847878> znet: New connection
LOG : General , 1662986848063> 55,501,506> 1662986848063> znet: Java_zombie_core_raknet_RakNetPeerInterface_GetClientSteamID
DEBUG: Voice , 1662986848166> 55,501,609> VoiceManager.VoiceConnectAccept > uuid=410000c9ff9cf25
LOG : General , 1662986849200> 55,502,643> 1662986849200> znet: Java_zombie_core_raknet_RakNetPeerInterface_getIPFromGUID
LOG : General , 1662986849290> 55,502,733> 1662986849290> znet: Java_zombie_core_raknet_RakNetPeerInterface_GetClientSteamID
LOG : General , 1662986849291> 55,502,735> 1662986849291> znet: Java_zombie_core_raknet_RakNetPeerInterface_GetClientOwnerSteamID
LOG : General , 1662986849295> 55,502,738> 76561198162252827 isCoopHost=true
LOG : Network , 1662986849430> 55,502,873> Connected new client Mikado ID # 0 and assigned DL port 16262
LOG : General , 1662986906983> 55,560,426> Coop master is not responding, terminating
LOG : Multiplayer , 1662986906984> 55,560,427> java.base/java.lang.Thread.getStackTrace(Unknown Source)
LOG : Multiplayer , 1662986906985> 55,560,428> zombie.debug.DebugLogStream.printStackTrace(DebugLogStream.java:159)
LOG : Multiplayer , 1662986906985> 55,560,428> zombie.debug.DebugLogStream.printStackTrace(DebugLogStream.java:146)
LOG : Multiplayer , 1662986906985> 55,560,428> zombie.network.ServerMap.QueueQuit(ServerMap.java:91)
LOG : Multiplayer , 1662986906985> 55,560,429> zombie.network.GameServer.main(GameServer.java:1053)
LOG : General , 1662986907237> 55,560,681> SaveAll took 154.9276 ms
LOG : General , 1662986907246> 55,560,689> reanimate: saved 0 zombies
LOG : General , 1662986907268> 55,560,711> Saving GlobalModData
LOG : General , 1662986907277> 55,560,720> Saving finish
LOG : General , 1662986907278> 55,560,721> Saving took 195.603 ms
LOG : General , 1662986913636> 55,567,079> waiting for UdpEngine thread termination
LOG : General , 1662986913647> 55,567,090> 1662986913647> znet: Java_zombie_core_raknet_RakNetPeerInterface_Shutdown
LOG : General , 1662986913647> 55,567,090> 1662986913647> znet: Shutting down Steam Game Server
LOG : General , 1662986915132> 55,568,576> 1662986915132> znet: Java_zombie_core_znet_SteamUtils_n_1Shutdown

[Mikado]

"Coop master is not responding, terminating", what does it mean I wonder?

[Beard]

It would generally mean that your client failed to load in, meaning the server gets shut down. So you would have to look in the console.txt file instead of the coop one. Though from what I looked in the one you sent there wasnt much to go on so there isnt much I could suggest. Tried hosting a dedicated server instead?

[Mikado]

I tried hosting a dedicated server, but I could not connect to it. I think I was doing something wrong. I probably used the wrong ip to connect or my ports are closed. I will look into it later.

[way2co0l_2003]

Originally posted by Beard:

I would probably recommend wiping your settings in that case and rehosting again.
Go to "C:\Users\YourUserName\Zomboid" and delete everything there except the "Saves" folder, then rehost.

Tried this method and it seemed to work at first. I had to rebuild my modlist, my server settings and then character but at every stage I tested to see if it would load, it did... Right up until I created my character and was ready to play and now nothing is working again, even if I try to going back to generic unedited character with no occupation or traits like I did before and was working. This is what's annoying me so much. I can't pinpoint what the actual issue is. It works, but then it doesn't, and then you can't get what worked before to work again. I have no idea what to do at this point sadly. :/

[Mikado]

Originally posted by way2co0l_2003:

Originally posted by Beard:

I would probably recommend wiping your settings in that case and rehosting again.
Go to "C:\Users\YourUserName\Zomboid" and delete everything there except the "Saves" folder, then rehost.

Tried this method and it seemed to work at first. I had to rebuild my modlist, my server settings and then character but at every stage I tested to see if it would load, it did... Right up until I created my character and was ready to play and now nothing is working again, even if I try to going back to generic unedited character with no occupation or traits like I did before and was working. This is what's annoying me so much. I can't pinpoint what the actual issue is. It works, but then it doesn't, and then you can't get what worked before to work again. I have no idea what to do at this point sadly. :/

You also got the same problem?

[way2co0l_2003]

Originally posted by Mikado:

Originally posted by way2co0l_2003:

Tried this method and it seemed to work at first. I had to rebuild my modlist, my server settings and then character but at every stage I tested to see if it would load, it did... Right up until I created my character and was ready to play and now nothing is working again, even if I try to going back to generic unedited character with no occupation or traits like I did before and was working. This is what's annoying me so much. I can't pinpoint what the actual issue is. It works, but then it doesn't, and then you can't get what worked before to work again. I have no idea what to do at this point sadly. :/

You also got the same problem?

Yes. I'd never tried hosting a server before but tried for the first time a few weeks ago and ran into this issue. My friend was able to host everything just fine. My attempts have been.... confusing. At first I thought it was an issue with mod compatibility, but it doesn't appear to matter which mods are removed. There are times it'll work with a certain modlist, and then a second attempt, immediately after, without changing anything, simply because I wanted to confirm it worked will fail, and then every subsequent attempt after will fail. Removing mod after mod after mod to get it to work again, and then it'll stop again and I just can't pinpoint what the exact issue is and it's frustrating.

[Mikado]

Yeah, this is frustrating, confusing and sad at the same time. This is such a good game but sadly I cant host a modded server, nor find out what the real issue is. I really want to find out the issue, but I cant think of anything and I am quite puzzled... What could be a problem that even deleting and reinstalling all data cannot solve? If it was because of some corrupted/missing files or something else in the game files/mod files, then it should have been fixed. And as you said, this seems like a flexible issue because it just sometimes works with the exact same settings and mods, but sometimes it does not...

[Mikado]

I think this problem is over my head, so at least I want to let developers and people know about it. How/where can I report this issue? Do they have a discord server for Project Zomboid? Can I report it there? Or is there a place in-game for reporting bugs?

[Beard]

Right here:
https://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php?/topic/43261-read-here-first-bug-reporting-guideformatting

Though generally bug reports containing several mods dont fly too well, since as mentioned the issue would be likely caused by mods not loading correctly, specific mod issues or specific issues with your PC and how it loads those mods. All of which are hard if not impossible to diagnose.
Which is why I don't really have an answer as to "why it works for others but not me", since the answer would just be "mods are weird and can cause a heap of issues"