How are Dedicated Servers?

[_D_]

Was thinking about renting a server for a few friends to play rather than everyone having to wait until the one with the save files was online. We've been playing multiplayer and there's a few bugs here and there but overall it is playable, how does the dedicated server compare?

Do they have a lot of issues? Better or worse than standard MP?

Thank you.

[sendjes]

Try the searchfeature.

[_D_]

Originally posted by sendjes:

Try the searchfeature.

I did try this before posting. Nothing came up about the stability and/or play-ability of the dedicated servers as of update 5.

[phillip_lynx]

My dedicated Server on Nitrado runs fine with almost no issues.
Some graphical issues and (i do not know if fixed by now) do not use mass dismantle or the rebar gun.

[Kimchi]

I find that the physics are especially janky while playing in a dedicated server.
I, myself run one on my own machine to keep things running while I am off doing stuff irl or playing another game.

A couple of notable things I have encountered while playing in a dedicated server:
1. Got launched super high up in the air after colliding with a tick-whale-penguin creature while driving my explorer. Landed on a cliff with a bunch of poison gas pillars.
2. Again while riding my explorer around desert dunes, my ride flipped, and when I tried to get off to flip it back, I suddenly clipped through the ground and got teleported to the middle of the map and died. Had to reload an auto-save cause my death crate was unrecoverable.

With those said, I'd recommend against exploration while in a dedicated server, or maybe just explore on foot.

[_D_]

Originally posted by Philosopickle:

I find that the physics are especially janky while playing in a dedicated server.
I, myself run one on my own machine to keep things running while I am off doing stuff irl or playing another game.

A couple of notable things I have encountered while playing in a dedicated server:
1. Got launched super high up in the air after colliding with a tick-whale-penguin creature while driving my explorer. Landed on a cliff with a bunch of poison gas pillars.
2. Again while riding my explorer around desert dunes, my ride flipped, and when I tried to get off to flip it back, I suddenly clipped through the ground and got teleported to the middle of the map and died. Had to reload an auto-save cause my death crate was unrecoverable.

With those said, I'd recommend against exploration while in a dedicated server, or maybe just explore on foot.

Sort of similar to Multiplayer, had a few incidents similar (not this bad) but with tractors flipping up in the air or wigging out.

Maybe I'll hold up a bit longer. Thanks for the input.

[cywizz]

The dedicated server, as they said, are very much still in early days and experimental.
However, it performed well in early game for us and is quite stable.
It does become a bit laggy later on and sync issues become more evident.

Our server has now been up for around 800 hours and the save process takes 20 seconds with a save file size of around 4mb.
Within that 20 seconds weird things can happen and you will have to stop what you are doing if you see stuff are not responsive because things like belt clipping, etc will likely need to be redone if you don't wait.

It is a pain sometimes, but I am sure this will get optimised as time goes on. Even with these issues, it is way better than the old non dedicated connection.

[rustyshakelford2]

I've logged 60 hours on my dedicated server since release and have had minimal issues. Sometimes items are weirdly offset from belts, especially when I first log in. Lag is minimal most of the time and nailgun PVP is a blast. It's a very enjoyable experience overall.

[GobboKirk]

Pretty good experience so far here as well.
Some render issues like slugs that are already picked up sometimes show from afar.
Belts have some weird visual issues at times, but nothing that really matters apart from visuals.
I however just love that the factory is now running while I am offline, that in itself is worth every issue tbh.

[Squiggly John]

Feels just as buggy as normal multiplayer to me honestly. Multiplayer in this game has always been kind of unstable, doesn't seem any less stable than peer-to-peer for me.

[Exile «Foxy» (Ryder17z)]

It's pretty good i would say, but painting and building might not work for a few seconds plus exiting a vehicle or walking sometimes has ridicolus rubber-banding

[Pfeiltante]

Running three dedicated server instances on a Windows Server 2019 root server. My son is playing with his friends and my daughter is playing at the same time with her friends and then there is me playing the family instance :D
Mainly i did this because the instances are always running, if you disable the pause option.

I have never seen or heard of crashes or hard bugs. Automatic saving causes insignificant lags for us. Runs really stable.

Yesterday there was the update 0.5.1.7 and everyone updated their client not in mind that the server has to be updated too. I have to figure out how to automaticly start/stop the service and update the game if an update is available. There will be a way. I don't know how rented servers handle updates in time.

Maybe it is only me but on the dedicated server i can't use programmable splitters (configuration is confused).

[Exile «Foxy» (Ryder17z)]

Originally posted by Pfeiltante:

Maybe it is only me but on the dedicated server i can't use programmable splitters (configuration is confused).

if you mean that the settings sometimes do not save, that happens locally too sometimes.

[Pfeiltante]

Originally posted by Hexile «Foxy» (Ryder17z):

Originally posted by Pfeiltante:

Maybe it is only me but on the dedicated server i can't use programmable splitters (configuration is confused).

if you mean that the settings sometimes do not save, that happens locally too sometimes.

Okay. Thanks for letting me know. I didn't try it on local game. They are never saving correctly for me on the server. Everything on the right and left side will be saved in the center. Tried that a few times with different configurations and spending about three hours on it. But if that is not a server only problem i apologize for the impracticality on this subject.

[Exile «Foxy» (Ryder17z)]

Originally posted by Pfeiltante:

Originally posted by Hexile «Foxy» (Ryder17z):

if you mean that the settings sometimes do not save, that happens locally too sometimes.

Okay. Thanks for letting me know. I didn't try it on local game.

It's possible that the issue is more common on the dedicated servers. I have not tried building them on a server yet

[_D_]

Originally posted by Pfeiltante:

Originally posted by Hexile «Foxy» (Ryder17z):

if you mean that the settings sometimes do not save, that happens locally too sometimes.

Okay. Thanks for letting me know. I didn't try it on local game. They are never saving correctly for me on the server. Everything on the right and left side will be saved in the center. Tried that a few times with different configurations and spending about three hours on it. But if that is not a server only problem i apologize for the impracticality on this subject.

THank you for the information. This is exactly what I was hoping for, some real world experience running dedicated servers. Good to know they are pretty stable.

On a side note since it's run on a server who acts as the host pioneer? Like does everyone get their own HUB or how does that work?

Thanks!