LAN Co-Op

[CAPT Morgan]

My wife and I are trying to play coop together with 2 computers side by side on the same network. Unfortunately our internet is kind of spotty and drops every 20 to 30 minutes. Has anyone figured out how to play and get the game to connect locally? We are having trouble finding information or a guide on how.

[KondaBuddy (Live)]

I would recommend you pay like 7.00usd a month or something close to that and rent a Nintrado server. Much easier to figure out, I had the same issue in Ark trying to do what ur doing

[loserman(FAT)]

After some trying I haven't found a way to get a local/friends coop game to work strictly over LAN. The invite code system needs to go through the server listing system WAN side.

However, I run a dedicated server on my LAN, and can confirm that it can be connected to directly with the LAN IP. So running a local dedicated server is probably the best option for this. Renting a server would just run into the issues with internet reliability.

Instructions: https://soulmask.fandom.com/wiki/Private_Server

If you have an extra machine that could run this, that would be ideal. The machine itself doesn't need to be a gaming capable machine, just 16GB of RAM and a semi-recent quad core or better CPU. A laptop or older machine would work fine. Just follow the instructions from the wiki, and then from your games when going to Online Game, choose the Direct Connection button at the bottom and put in the LAN IP for the hosting machine.

If not, then one of your machines could host the server, you would probably want at least 24GB of RAM as the dedicated server will need 8-10GB, plus the client game needing an additional 8GB or so. You'll want to set the -MULTIHOME <LAN IP> flag, and also set -Port=<Not 8777> so that the server port doesn't collide with the local client. Again, you'll use the Direct Connect option to connect to the server.

[CAPT Morgan]

After messing around with a few things we found that creating a new game with allow other players checked then online unchecked we were able to create a game that was invisible on the server list but then invite through the steam message app. This seems to have worked so far for us. Posting reply in case anyone else comes across this same issue.

[ColdCell]

direct connect via LAN IP is possible, i have setup a dedicated server on a rig in the same LAN with me and my wife's PC.