Multiplayer, Publicserver

[Jan Mars]

Dear Stationeers devs,

I hope this message finds you well. I recently had the opportunity to play Stationeers and wanted to share my feedback with you.

Firstly, I must say that the singleplayer mode of the game is truly exceptional. The attention to detail and immersive gameplay mechanics made for a truly enjoyable experience. I particularly appreciated the level of complexity in the systems, which allowed me to experiment and problem-solve in creative ways.

However, I did notice that the multiplayer mode could use some improvements. Specifically, I found the chat system via console to be lacking and sometimes difficult to use effectively. Additionally, I noticed that there was a lack of protection for player-built structures, which made it difficult to maintain progress in the face of malicious actors. (Hooligans and Vandals)

Overall, I think that Stationeers is a fantastic game that offers a lot of potential for exploration and creativity. I would love to see improvements made to the multiplayer mode, particularly with regards to the chat system and player structure protection.

Thank you for creating such an engaging and entertaining game. I look forward to seeing what updates and improvements you make in the future.

Best regards,
Jan Mars

[JeanDeaux]

Welcome aboard, your views are aligned with many others who have posted here. Those playing multi-player manage their Hooligan threats by simply locking their games to the public and simply inviting their friends to play. There are security codes you could use now to lock doors, but nothing prevents anyone from tearing a wall apart.

Enjoy the game!

[Myst]

OH Multiplayer is actually working again?????????

[Jan Mars]

Yes, multiplayer works. (I've had a small public server running for over 2 months.) But as I see it, it's more of a coop game. For a real multiplayer the game needs update. As you read above, devs don't want to comment on the subject. When I started this discussion, I was hoping for a brief insight into whether such an update would be possible at all.
The game has potential for real multiplayer :-) we just need open chat option and structure prevention, something like claim block. (communication via console is not very effective and the fact that the game allows strangers to manipulate your projects is not so good).
Stationeers Server means a lot more work for an admin than games like: Space Engineers, Empyrion or something.
But, so far we're having a lot of fun with the server and we've met a lot of cool new players.

Best regards,
Jan Mars

[Rocket]

Round based play is something we have wanted to do, given the games inspiration from SS13. We realized though we needed to overcome a number of hurdles before we could look at round based play, particularly performance in terms of size of bases as well as multiplayer.

The old multiplayer system was heavily coupled with Unity (the game engine) making it difficult for player avatars to be separated from the players connection. Additionally, the game suffered performance issues in medium or large bases especially with more than three players.

With the new multiplayer system and our further performance improvements there are many less obstacles in the way of what is needed to run public servers and the like.

That unfortunately doesn’t mean we will be rushing straight to these features. We have been methodically going through core features and redoing them with a consistent vision of how we see the game, given what is possible.

Certainly I can see us in the future providing some of what is needed to support this.

[Myst]

See that sucks... cause me and my group of 3 bought it back in the day CAUSE it was drop in drop out host multiplayer/coop... now that its annoying "server settings" that yeah we CAN do... its just annoying to set up.

We had fun just wanted to wait til more was added and here we are with more added yet not the method we had hoped to play... now all sorta wanting a refund. (I remember we only stopped cause doors were not working as intended back in the day)

[Jan Mars]

@ Myst:
All game options work very well. If you need the settings.xml file, I can give it to you. I remember starting the server for the first time wasn't easy :-)
Once you've done that, the server is running and rocking :-) If you want a server without a PW, it's advisable to backup (every 10 minutes: hooligans and vandals will come sooner or later hehehe)
People do not know that for a backup to start I need 1 minute . :-) It's just a shame about the construction sites that were built in parallel. That's the point, as an admin, I very often have to keep an eye on the entire playing field, which is very time-consuming.
But it is worthwhile in any case! Very cool people are coming, real stationeers, everyone has their own great automation solutions. Among other things, we have players who build their bases really nicely, not just "shoe boxes".

All we have to do is wait and be patient. Mr. Rocket has shared some very good news with us. :-)

Nice greetings
Jan Mars