How can I host 2 diff multiplayer servers at the same time

[Dark Divinity]

So this is a bit of a unique situation that has never popped up before for me. I did a lot of digging over the last week or do and can't find a single person that has been asking about this.

So I have a group of about 8 friends that all play games together, and I have by far the best machine and internet speeds, so I always host the MP session so that nobody lags out due to host connection.

Recently there has been a schism in the group in the form of half the people getting bored with 7 days and moving to ark, but the other half wanting to stay on 7 days. Since I host and they join me, the server is my machine and only active when I'm playing. Someone came up with the idea of running both games so that whoever wants can join whichever game suits them, and that way nobody is just...not able to play because I want to play one or the other.

The issue is that I can boot up one game, people join, and I can boot the other game...but then nobody can join the other. I've tried hosting a dozen diff games and seeing if people can join a second game (not even the ones we're playing necessarily) and it seems to be a Steam issue.

My computer can easily handle the double load, especially if I knock the setting on my idle game down to "potato" but Steam refuses to let me double host. Is there a way around this without actually buying a server or using the Steam CMD? Buying a server is out of the question because even the cheapest servers are God awful expensive for what they provide, and Steam CMD never seems to work properly.

I know this was a long post, but hopefully someone has a definitive answer

[Cathulhu]

Would help knowing which game you are actually talking about.
Or at least posting in the discussion hub of the game.

[Dark Divinity]

First of all, you clearly didn't even read it because I did list exactly which games I was playing; 7 Days and Ark.

That shouldn't matter anyway. I suspect this has nothing to do with which games I try hosting because, as I said, no combo of any games I attempted to double host worked. I suspect this may be a built in measure by Steam, but I don't know to what end they would do that.

[Jessie]

Ensure the ports are different per game, and forwarded correctly (sometimes the game will do it for you, but if you want it to be reliable it's best to set it up explicitly)
im assuming you are currently loading up the game and starting the server from inside it - if you want to run multiple games it would be better to run it off dedicated server modes.

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/7_Days_to_Die_Dedicated_Server
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=454319195

as a side note:
"servers" are just computers, you can use any old desktop (or even laptop) computer as a server.

[Dark Divinity]

Ohhhhh dang I didn't even think of ports! I never have to forward them, so they never cross my mind. Excellent, thanks for the tip. I will update!