Not Understanding Dedicated Server

[tripinmidair]

So I've been playing Valheim for a couple years, always having a friend run the server on their end and keeping blissfully unaware of how to do any of it. But after two worlds have been either restarted without asking the group or been lost due to not migrating save files, I'm ready to just figure out my own server and cut out the middle man. Turns out I'm basically a toddler trying to learn calculus (or at least that's how I feel).

I installed the dedicated server tool on Steam and read through the guide for using it. I did the port forwarding, from what I can tell that was successfully done. Now from what the guide says, I should be all good to play? The server is running, I have my world named and password set, and I start up the game.

I'm starting from scratch so I make my character and then go to start the new world. I can see the name of the world I made through the dedicated server there, I click to start server, I type in the password, and start the world? Here's where I must be doing something wrong?

Because every time I start the world with this method, it starts from the morning of day 1. My character has all the gear and inventory from when I last saved, I'm in the place that I had last saved, but none of the world has saved. All buildings are gone. My map isn't reset, it's kept my previous progress. But anything I've built is reset to nothing.

I hope someone can explain it to me like I'm 5 because I just wanna play the game on my own and I'm just not getting what I'm doing wrong.

[tripinmidair]

Please Explain Dedicated Servers

So I've been playing Valheim for a couple years, always having a friend run the server on their end and keeping blissfully unaware of how to do any of it. But after two worlds have been either restarted without asking the group or been lost due to not migrating save files, I'm ready to just figure out my own server and cut out the middle man. Turns out I'm basically a toddler trying to learn calculus (or at least that's how I feel).

I installed the dedicated server tool on Steam and read through the guide for using it. I did the port forwarding, from what I can tell that was successfully done. Now from what the guide says, I should be all good to play? The server is running, I have my world named and password set, and I start up the game.

I'm starting from scratch so I make my character and then go to start the new world. I can see the name of the world I made through the dedicated server there, I click to start server, I type in the password, and start the world? Here's where I must be doing something wrong?

Because every time I start the world with this method, it starts from the morning of day 1. My character has all the gear and inventory from when I last saved, I'm in the place that I had last saved, but none of the world has saved. All buildings are gone. My map isn't reset, it's kept my previous progress. But anything I've built is reset to nothing.

I hope someone can explain it to me like I'm 5 because I just wanna play the game on my own and I'm just not getting what I'm doing wrong.

[MaCarBre]

Originally posted by tripinmidair:

Sounds like you are starting two servers that save into one save file. One server that you are starting is the dedicated server that you nobody is playing at, and the other server you are starting is the in-game server, which gets started when you click start button in the game. When you are done playing on your in-game world, you logout, which saves your world progress in a save file, then you quit dedicated server app, which then overwrites your first save, and since nobody was playing on a Dedicated server, the final save file is a empty world.

Once you launch a dedicated server, you have to connect to in from the join server tab in the game either via IP or join code (if you have crossplay enabled on the server). Don't click on the start button anymore. When you are done playing, close the dedicated server console windows via CTRL + C.

[electricdawn]

The server is saving the world file every 30 minutes or so (not sure). If your session is shorter, the world is never saved, if you kill the server without giving it a chance to save the world. Usually a text console window will pop up when the server is started.

In order to shut down the server in a controlled manner, you need to activate the window by clicking in it and then press Ctrl-C to shut down the server. The world files will then be saved properly.

But since I think your sessions are probably longer than just 30(?) minutes, I'm actually unsure what is happening here. The .fwl file seems to get saved, otherwise your progress on this world wouldn't be saved, but the .db file seems to get discarded.

There are log files available where the world file of the server is stored. I would check them to see if there are errors when saving the world database. Also check the time stamps of the world database (YOURWORLD.db) and the attributes file (YOURWORLD.fwl) if they differ.

The files should be located here:

C:\Users\YOURUSER\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local

Please let us know if you need further help.

[SvegetaX]

I think you're launching the server's file from the front start game section. You need to JOIN your own server by clicking join, search for it by what ever you named it, and start that way.

[tripinmidair]

Originally posted by electricdawn:

The server is saving the world file every 30 minutes or so (not sure). If your session is shorter, the world is never saved, if you kill the server without giving it a chance to save the world. Usually a text console window will pop up when the server is started.

In order to shut down the server in a controlled manner, you need to activate the window by clicking in it and then press Ctrl-C to shut down the server. The world files will then be saved properly.

But since I think your sessions are probably longer than just 30(?) minutes, I'm actually unsure what is happening here. The .fwl file seems to get saved, otherwise your progress on this world wouldn't be saved, but the .db file seems to get discarded.

There are log files available where the world file of the server is stored. I would check them to see if there are errors when saving the world database. Also check the time stamps of the world database (YOURWORLD.db) and the attributes file (YOURWORLD.fwl) if they differ.

The files should be located here:

C:\Users\YOURUSER\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local

Please let us know if you need further help.

Thanks for the explanation! I'll give it a try!

[tripinmidair]

Originally posted by svegetax:

I think you're launching the server's file from the front start game section. You need to JOIN your own server by clicking join, search for it by what ever you named it, and start that way.

Thanks! I'll try this out!

[tripinmidair]

Originally posted by MaCarBre:

Originally posted by tripinmidair:

Sounds like you are starting two servers that save into one save file. One server that you are starting is the dedicated server that you nobody is playing at, and the other server you are starting is the in-game server, which gets started when you click start button in the game. Done when you are done playing on your in-game world, you logout, which has your world progress in a save file, then you quit dedicated server app, which then overwrites your save, and since nobody was playing on it, it's a empty world.

Once you launch a dedicated server, you have to connect to in from the join server tab in the game either via IP or join code (if you have crossplay enabled on the server). Don't click on the start button anymore. When you are done playing, close the dedicated server console windows via CTRL + C.

I do remember reading about the ctrl+C but hadn't noticed when I should do that. Thanks for the explanation, I'll try all this out!

[Paronk]

Originally posted by tripinmidair:

Originally posted by MaCarBre:

Sounds like you are starting two servers that save into one save file. One server that you are starting is the dedicated server that you nobody is playing at, and the other server you are starting is the in-game server, which gets started when you click start button in the game. Done when you are done playing on your in-game world, you logout, which has your world progress in a save file, then you quit dedicated server app, which then overwrites your save, and since nobody was playing on it, it's a empty world.

Once you launch a dedicated server, you have to connect to in from the join server tab in the game either via IP or join code (if you have crossplay enabled on the server). Don't click on the start button anymore. When you are done playing, close the dedicated server console windows via CTRL + C.

I do remember reading about the ctrl+C but hadn't noticed when I should do that. Thanks for the explanation, I'll try all this out!

Did any of this work for you? It seems I'm having the same issues.

[MaCarBre]

Originally posted by Paronk:

Originally posted by tripinmidair:

I do remember reading about the ctrl+C but hadn't noticed when I should do that. Thanks for the explanation, I'll try all this out!

Did any of this work for you? It seems I'm having the same issues.

The OP was clearly starting two servers here, one dedicated server, and one in-game hosting server, which were both meddling with the same save file at the same time. Are you also running dedicated server on the same PC you intend to play with? Once you start your dedicated server, and after you launch Valhiem, how exactly are you joining your dedicated server?