Hosting Servers For Star Wars: Battlefront

A guide for server hosts on setting up and configuring servers for Multiplayer.

Introduction

I am creating this guide to hopefully help people make their servers better by informing them of little known and mostly forgotten configurations as well as give an overview of Multiplayer servers for Star Wars: Battlefront.

Basic Overview of Server Creation

There are multiple ways to create and run a server for Star Wars: Battlefront, on the current patch 1.3.5 (4). Dedicated server software was created for the other patches but is no longer supported.

The two main ways are to host a server through the in-game menu, with the option of making it dedicated. There is another way which is to run the battlefront executable with command line arguments. The executable has the server code built into it. Thanks to Dark_Phantom for figuring out this works with the latest patch.

Creating a Server With the In-Game Menu

Run the game and navigate to the main menu.
Click on the Multiplayer tab.
Choose your connection type: LAN or Galaxy Multiplayer.
Click Create.
On the left you have the option for the server title, the map/era selection and password.
On the right you have the current map selection and the order.
Along the bottom you back, the server settings and the launch.
The server options should self-explanatory.

There are some additional options such as the server tick rate and the hosting bandwidth in
the Options<Online Options accessible from the main menu.

There are additional configurations you can add through command line arguments.
To use those open up the Steam Library and navigate to the game.
Right click on properties.
Under the General Tab go to Set Launch Options and type them in.

Here's a list of all the arguments in the executable.
/profile /ai /ainotext /lang /loadspam /record /playback /notvalues /ShowAllSessions /ShowAllServers /nointro /firstperson /nonames /bandwidth /latency /loss /nodrag /autonet /playercount /playerlimit /gamename /lan /norender /nowait /nosound /nostartupmusic /fixedrate /team /skill /soundwarning /noai /crashed /adminpw /throttle /netplayers /sideselect /bots /heroes /randomize /nomovies /tps /noframelock /noaim /noteamdamage /difficulty /gameslice /resolution /win /fixedfunction /password -password +password /playername /audiomixbuffer /audionoenhance /audiosamplerate /audiomaxchannels /logfinalscore /spawn

I'm not sure how many of these will work with servers created through the in-game menu but I do know /tps and /adminpw do. /tps should override whatever you selected in the Online Options so you can go above the 60 limit. Although I will caution that going too high can cause problems with the game's physics and may make the server unstable. /adminpw allows you to set up a server with the remote admin controls.

Remote Admin Controls

Here's all the information regarding the 1.3 beta patch from 2005 taken straight from the readme.

Remote Admin

Remote admin commands can be typed in game through the chat
system. Use global chat (ctrl-t) and start each command
with /admin. The first admin command must be /login unless
you are on the host. The admin password is set from the
command line with the /adminpw <password> option.

“/login <password>” – login as admin

“/waitlate” | “/nowaitlate” – turn on and off waiting for
late moves from clients

“/dropmap” – drop the specified map from the rotation or
the current map if no map is specified

“/addmap” – add a map to the rotation

“/nextmap” – skip to the specified map at the end of the
current game

“/players” – list the players in game

“/boot <player number>” – boot the specified player

“/endgame” – end the current game

“/say” – send an admin message to all players

“/maps” – list the maps in rotation

“/shutdown” – shutdown the server

“/bandwidth <kbps>” – set the hosting bandwidth

“/adminpw <password>” – change the admin password

Here's three more commands that are in the executable but not in the readme:

/restart - restarts the current map

/whatmap - tells you what map you're currently playing

/mapnext - tells you what map is next

Sample Dialog:
/admin /login yoda
-> logged in
/admin /players
-> 0 – ‘Drone’
-> 1 – ‘Lindsey’
-> 2 – ‘Duurrp’
-> 3 - ‘KonKushn’
-> 4 – ‘Stryker’
-> 5 – ‘Darth Sinical’
/admin /boot 0
-> booted

In addition to in game admin there is a “Terminal”
application for controlling servers. It is very minimal
but functional. All of the commands above can be entered
from the terminal but you must first connect using
the command ‘connect <ip address> | <host name>’.

Sample Dialog:
connect swbf005
-> hello
/admin /login yoda
-> logged in
/admin /maps
-> hot1i
/admin /addmap rhn2c
-> map added
/admin /endgame
-> game ended

Here are the mission names to use with /addmap

Maps endings:
a - Alliance (GCW)
i - Imperial (GCW)
r - Republic (CW)
c - CIS (CW)
1 - usually out in the open
2 - usually in a city

bes1a - Bespin: Platforms GCW
bes1r - Bespin: Platforms CW
bes2a - Bespin: Cloud City GCW
bes2r - Bespin: Cloud City CW
end1a - Endor: Bunker
geo1r - Geonosis: Spire
hot1i - Hoth: Echo Base
kam1c - Kamino: Tipoca City
kas1c - Kashyyyk: Islands CW
kas1i - Kashyyyk: Islands GCW
kas2c - Kashyyyk: Docks CW
kas2i - Kashyyyk: Docks GCW
nab1c - Naboo: Plains CW
nab1i - Naboo: Plains GCW
nab2a - Naboo: Theed GCW
nab2c - Naboo: Theed CW
rhn1i - Rhen Var: Harbor GCW
rhn1r - Rhen Var: Harbor CW
rhn2a - Rhen Var: Citadel GCW
rhn2c - Rhen Var: Citadel CW
tat1i - Tatooine: Dune Sea GCW
tat1r - Tatooine: Dune Sea CW
tat2i - Tatooine: Mos Eisley GCW
tat2r - Tatooine: Mos Eisley CW
yav1c - Yavin IV: Temple CW
yav1i - Yavin IV: Temple GCW
yav2i - Yavin IV: Arena GCW
yav2r - Yavin IV: Arena CW

The addon maps for Jabba’s palace
tat3c - Tatooine: Jabba's Palace CW
tat3a - Tatooine: Jabba's Palace GCW

Running a Dedicated Server Without the GUI

A dedicated server can be run through the executable with a batch file.
Simply create a txt file in the directory the executable in located in.
Change the extension to .bat open it up and put the server information in and save.

Here's an example of a basic Cloud City server:

battlefront.exe /win /norender /noteamdamage /autonet dedicated /resolution 320 240 /nosound /noaim /tps 57 /gamename NoAI NoCP /playerlimit 12 /playercount 0 /bots 0 /difficulty 1 /throttle 3072 /spawn 5 bes2r 100 100 bes2a 100 100

[THW888de]

tps = 30 -40 is better , throttle = 6000 is Speed

[dds]

Hi! About the "Terminal" application, is it an external application that can be launched via PowerShell? Where have I to enter the "connect" command?

[gradyborcherding]

how would i host a server 24/7. If you can contact me on discord "Grady#9836"

[Maldö]

Some1 knows what "/crashed" does? Is this some kind of crash detection / auto-restart?

[PyroFierceDeity]

So you have to buy a second copy in order to get the server running? No way to just launch the game without needing steam like Republic Commando? Not worth it.

[StoneCold]

Luckily they released a hotfix on 2 October 2020 to address the crash issues with multiplayer.

Also, you can't host and play on one machine. I had to buy a 2nd copy of the game for a different account for my dedicated server machine. Small price to pay for such an excellent and timeless classic :D

[Anyder]

Just so you all know, if you wish to host and avoid most crashes coming from a dedicated server, host it with /autonet pc instead of dedicated -- it will not crash when team chatting.

[Stewie G <3]

Thank you for these commands. I need help finding a place to actually host / set up a dedicated server remotely, I feel like running it will be relatively easy once I have it set up.