Multiplayer Server Question.

[MrSinisteR]

Does FS22 require you to buy another copy of the game from the website (not steam) to run a dedicated server or can we just download the server software this time?

Thanks!

[HelpForGamersTV "Dave"]

+1

[Juki-šuki]

Imo not really. If you search up set up of dedicated server in FS19, you'll see you need to have FS downloaded. But there's the EXE file with the CLI server. In theory, you could start it up on Linux via Proton and just start that EXE somehow. Maybe wine would help. Anyway, i think you DON'T need to buy another copy. It would be a real bummer...

EDIT: From what i found, it would be possible over Crossover on Linux.

EDIT 2: Found two topics. One from even older FS17 (https://forum.giants-software.com/viewtopic.php?t=100544) where they claimed you need two copies of the game and also need second windows machine.

And another from FS19 that claims you only need one copy of the game: https://steamcommunity.com/app/787860/discussions/0/1741100729968457354/

EDIT 3: (hopefully the last one) i found a video of hosting FS17 on linux (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB9qMvo1780)

[Gormett]

Yes, contrary to any other game nowadays, you will need to buy a separate license to host a dedicated server. Here are the excuses from the forums:[forum.giants-software.com]

Originally posted by Stegei:

enigmqtik, most games these days don't actually offer you to run dedicated servers on your own at all. So there is not many to compare us with.

As for the initial question, yes you will still have to buy a second copy of the game to run a dedicated server.
The main reason for this is to prevent any pirating for the non-dedicated server too. We can and most probably will never be able to completely prevent pirating in single player, but so far multiplayer does not work with a pirated copy. If we would add a "short cut" option for the dedicated server so that no separate license would be required, this would be way too easy to abuse for a regular game too, since the multiplayer can not really differentiate between a dedicated server and a regular game.

Also self hosted dedicated servers are relatively rare. Most people are using a rented dedicated server, which does not have this issue. So I hope you can understand, that we don't want to risk the eco system for just a few people.

[lnomsim]

Wow, that's some new level of greed here.
Since we want to prevent piracy, you, as someone who respects the rule and did nothing wrong will have to pay twice, because according to us, even if almost every game for the past 20 years came with a dedicated feature included in the base game, nobody uses them anyway.

Personally, with most multiplayer games I play, I use or play on self-hosted dedicated servers.

Are outsourced servers used that much in this franchise?

[Skippy The Magnificent]

So, my question is this (and has anybody else tested this)....

Would it work to have 2 separate machines, both with steam installed (same username on both) and FS22 installed on both. Would steam recognize the server EXE running on PC #2 and treat it as the game running or would it not count it being its not actually the SP game exe that was launched?

As for giants excuse as to "help prevent piracy" is total nonsense. I use an application, called AMP, to help run and maintain hosted games at home, and some of the games I have set up on it are Minecraft, Space Engineers, Valheim (a vanilla version and modded version) just to name a few, and the supported games in its auto-setup interface supports quite a lot of games.

[Tino - StarCitizen]

That's just to milk the cow and to artificially increase sales. Giants still lives in the Middle Ages as far as servers are concerned.