Dedicated servers (Experimental)

[WaaghMan]

This thread explains how to set up a dedicated server, so you can leave it running and allow other people to join and work on the farm.

Requirements:

• A computer with Steam installed, and capable of running the game.
  
• A Steam account owning the game.

Process:

• Download and start the game, and create/set up a farm the usual way.
  
• Set up permissions for the farm. Ideally someone else (be it specific people, be it via Friends) should have "Full" access, but it's not really required.
  
• Close the game and add the following launch parameters to the game:
  

  -dedicated -batchmode -nographics -slot 0

• "-slot 0" is an internal identifier of the farm. Yours may vary, please check out the save file location (steam folder/userdata/<your_id>/673950/remote/farms ) and check the number of the save file, that's the slot.
  
• If you want to have the log file in a more accessible path, you can add the following launch parameter and set your target log file path:
  

  -logFile d:\log.txt

• Start the game. If it's working, you won't experience much, as the game starts running in the background. You can check the process manager to ensure the game is running (it won't show up on the process list, you need to go to Details).
  
• The game should be available to join now. Just join via the Steam interface or via the Find Farms section.
  
• If you want to close the server, just kill the process or close Steam (the server should be closed automatically).

FAQ:

• Why do I require an Steam account owning the game?
  The game uses the Steam lobby system, so it can't be used in anonymous mode (which is the usual way for dedicated server versions of games). As for owning the game, that's because currently you're using the same binary as the game itself. We may end up releasing a separate, free, dedicated-server-only binary, but not for now.

[Sharky]

Sounds good. I might give it a shot and open up a public server where everybody can build - would be an interesting experiment

[LuxCruentis]

But the person who do this cannot enter in his own farm? Because i tried this but i cannot join the game, I just have it on the background with nothing to do. Is there any way to host the dedicated server in your pc and play it at the same time?

[Paradigm]

@LuxCruentis: I noticed. When running the game on another computer with steam I cannot play any other games at all because steam tells me I am already playing a game.

So it is not really a dedicated server, you're basically just running a headless game. This means it works when you are away from home and others can then join/use your farm. However if/when you want to play any game from your library at all you will need to shutdown the server.

I would really like an anonymous dedicated server binary, however I can imagine that this does not have the dev highest priorities, nor should it. It would be very nice though.

Nonetheless keep up the good work Devs :-)

[WaaghMan]

Yes, you can't play the game as server and as client with the same account.

[BryanChung]

Първоначално публикувано от WaaghMan:

Yes, you can't play the game as server and as client with the same account.

Ah oh no. But that's a good step forward. I got the dedicated server to work but I cannot play other games while leaving the server running. Hopefully it won't be like that moving forward!

[Zaggeh]

It's a cool idea, but without the ability to connect to and play on the server using the same PC/account that I'm hosting the server from, I'm probably not going to use it.

[GuiltyWorm]

In general. Users often run dedicated server on VPS or any host that has no built-in graphic (OR not support display).

Rely on client that needs graphic driver to run is not good practice. Doesn't Steam game servers more appropriate for this kind of job?

[Erick]

The system could be simpler, putting access to friends to load your map from a list, this way the game would only load when someone played. If no one wanted to enter, the map would only be offline.

[Paradigm]

@Kami, I am not sure what you mean that the system could be simpeler. I really like the idea of not wasting resources unless someone plays, however keep in mind that your farm runs on a server which is hosted locally on your machine itself.

So if you do not host a dedicated server or have your machine running the map is not available, it is not stored in an accessible cloud except for the Steam Cloud which is private.

I am not saying that you are wrong, but mainly I do not fully grasp the point you are trying to make.

[shadoom]

i was wondering, is this written in c# and runs with mono on linux?

[StoliOnTheRocks]

Is there anyway to set some one as a "mod" so they could change the server farms overall permissions? I Like the idea of the server and I am trying it out now, just afraid there's times I may want to revoke public building/planting to fix stuff and would rather not have to mess with the server computer.

[Ingram]

I just set this up, seems to work well - thanks.

[ItsMeSkeptic]

It does work- although it doesn't seem to save the stuff your friends are doing? I logged in right after and did the exact same thing (and quest) :S

When would you have dedicated servers?

[Ingram]

I'm using it to co-op work on a farm with someone easier... not experiencing any issues with saving though.

[Nocturnalist]

So I'm guessing we can't use SteamCMD to use this?