Multiplayer Server Question

[LtCommander417]

Is there any way to have a more stable server other than trying to cut down on actions, object clutter, or less Hearthlings?
If I could dedicate more RAM or something when playing the role of Host I would love to.

[YetiChow]

The main issue with connection stability is distance between the players -- sadly, it's just the nature of current internet technology that latency due to connection distance will always be a major hurdle.

Stonehearth does have unusually large amounts of data that need to be sent from the server to all clients (and then back again to the server to keep it up to date); which is why cutting down on the sheer amount of information it needs to send is an effective tip. However, on slow connections there's always going to be a "bottleneck"/traffic-jam effect.

If you're playing with more than 2 people, consider getting the one who is "geographically in the middle" to host -- by having them in the middle, it means that the two "edge" players of the network have shorter ping times (otherwise the player on one end of the chain has to ping all the way to the other end of the distance, rather than both of them pinging to half-way.)

One trick I've found useful for both single and multi-player is to pause the game before you save + quit, so you start with the game paused -- this gives everything a chance to make sure it's synced up before you let the simulation run. I've found it helps avoid lagging and desync when starting up multiplayer. If I know someone will be joining in mid-game I'll ask them to give me a heads' up before they do, so I can pause the game and let them join during the pause, for the same reason.

Aside from that, the only other recommendations are things like "try to make sure you have fast enough internet" and "make sure the host's PC is up to the task" which, let's be honest, anyone would already be doing if they have any say in the matter.

It may be worth looking into a headerless server running on a separate PC to the one that the host is using to play the game, but I doubt this will make a lot of difference -- the server and client are already separated fully in terms of processing use when you play the game anyway.