Asynchron play

[Sarge]

I just stumbled upon this game and it looks great. My friends and me every now an then play games "asynchronous". WIth that I mean we have set up a server that runs all the time and everyone joins when it suits them. So mostly we really only play "together" on weekends as we have very different work schedules.
This worked great with Valheim and ECO. So my question is: Does Stationeers support this kind of play? What happens if the server runs several hours without anyone joining?

[skunkmonkey]

The gaming community calls that arrangement a dedicated server, and yes Stationeers allows dedicated servers. It doesn't matter how long between people joining them.

[Rocket]

Yep - there is a dedicated server for either linux or windows.

A guide is available: https://github.com/rocket2guns/StationeersDedicatedServerGuide

Note that it has recently been updated with entirely new netcode. Much better than before, but many guides will be outdated and based on the old system.

There is a setting for "pause when empty".

Note players need to be in an oxygenated (and CO2 scrubbed) sleeper to keep living.

[Bracht]

Can you highlight the "pause when empty function for the servers? ” I can’t seem to find it in the guide you linked

[JeanDeaux]

If there are no players in the game, then the "world" simply pauses automatically. So if you had a mining rocket setup to collect ores and dump them in to bins, it doesn't keep on mining as everyone is logged out and fill your stores while you sleep IRL. Somebody must be connected to the server in order for those game tick's to occur.

[Bracht]

Interesting. Still why would Rocket specifically call out a function for pausing when empty if the DS does it automagically?

I believe that might be the case for the mining rocket but I know for a fact atmospherics in the room with my sleepers continue to run. I've had to log back in and deal with high temps or died in the sleeper from dead station batteries.

I suppose the server could be "advancing" when I log to give the appearance of a sustained simulation but then that wouldn't explain why I can safely log out and suspend the server and avoid that same issue.

[Rocket]

This a setting in the settings.xml file, sorry should have mentioned that. I'll get it added to the guide.

[Bracht]

Thank you Rocket. Do you mind telling me the function i'm looking for in the settings.xml? I checked that file and I didn't see anything that was obvious

[Rocket]

Originally posted by Bracht:

Thank you Rocket. Do you mind telling me the function i'm looking for in the settings.xml? I checked that file and I didn't see anything that was obvious

Im having trouble finding myself! I'll double check, I believe it should be on by default. It is supposed to be toggleable.

We are in the process of migrating a number of things, so I will check this and confirm.

[Bracht]

Thanks for checking i appreciate it.

[Sarge]

Thanks :)

[Siberian]

So after having our early start base utterly wrecked by storms overnight I can say for sure that by default 'Pause when empty' is not enabled by default. I also can't seem to figure out a way to trigger a pause with the chat commands or even how to use it since the guide even says "No server admins yet. I.e selected clients being able to do server commands without needing to ssh into their server or whatever."

I'm guessing it hasn't made the migration yet. Typing 'pause true' into the terminal of the live server results in what I believe is an error flashing by but I can't read it because the console output is bugged. After typing that the server console seems to become unresponsive until I kill it.

So for now we're restarting on the moon since at least there isn't overnight weather there to wreck everything.

[Bracht]

I suspect there may have been confusion. If the server paused the players wouldn’t need cryo/sleep chambers to suspend aging during downtime.

[Siberian]

Originally posted by Bracht:

I suspect there may have been confusion. If the server paused the players wouldn’t need cryo/sleep chambers to suspend aging during downtime.

The feature in an earlier form outlined here - https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/544550/view/1566616051174936861

It's just been lost in this reshuffle because the command is unavailable (rcon which that update refers to also appears to be entirely gone) and the expected replacement - autopause w/o players - isn't either.

You'd still need cyro/sleep to stay safe while your friends are logged in and you are not.