Installing Openrct2 on Linux and hosting a server

I am making this guide because the official guide is a bit outdated and the second official guide does not have enough informations in my opinion.

Installation

Getting Rct2's data

First you need to obtain the data itself.
It can be done from steam just by installing rct2.

Obtaining Openrct2

Openrct2 can be downloaded from Openrct2's official website[openrct2.org],
downloaded by your package manager (apt, dnf, pacman, flatpak)
or built from source[github.com].

In this guide i will be downloading it with my system package manager, pacman in my case.

sudo pacman -S openrct2

For Debian based distros it should be

sudo apt install openrct2

Configuring Openrct2

Launch openrct2 so it will generate a config file in /home/$USER/.config/OpenRCT2.

If you are launching it for the first time there should be a configuration wizard before your eyes but here is how to edit the config file if there is not.

Open /home/$USER/.config/OpenRCT2/config.ini with a text editor.
Edit

game_path = ""

line so it matches your game path, for example:

game_path = "/mnt/HDD/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/Rollercoaster Tycoon 2"

You can also specify

rct1_path

to where Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 is for additional scenarios, music etc.

Multiplayer - LAN

Configuring the server

Open /home/$USER/.config/OpenRCT2 (again)

Now the most important options are under [network].
Here are some of the most important ones:

default_port

Can be any port (1-65535) that is not occupied by any other running service.

default_password

Password for the server.

advertise

Advertise server to master server (view in server browser), probably won't work without advertise_address or master_server_url.

maxplayers

Max players for the server.

server_name

Server name.

log_chat

Will log chat to /home/$USER/.config/OpenRCT2/chatlogs if set to true.

log_server_actions

Will log server actions to /home/$USER/.config/OpenRCT2/serverlogs if set to true.

Hosting a server

To host first you need a .park file (open openrct2 in singleplayer and save).
To run a server use

openrct2 host {path to .park file}

("openrct2" can be replaced with openrct2-cli to run headless (without gui))
for example:

openrct2-cli host /home/$USER/.config/OpenRCT2/saves/park.park

Additional arguments (all options must be passed at the end of the command line):

Argument	Variable	Description
--headless	N/A	Runs without gui
--port	number	Changes the server port number
--user-data-path	Path to directory containing config.ini	Changes the server configuration data path
--password	password	Sets the server password
--verbose	N/A	Output additional information to the console
--help	N/A	Prints out help for CLI

(remember to allow incoming connection to the game server's port on the server's firewall)

Joining from LAN

The command to join is:

openrct2 join {ip address of the server} --port {server port}

For example my server's ip address is 192.168.0.35 and my port is 43000, the command to join would be:

openrct2 join 192.168.0.35 --port 43000

Multiplayer - WAN

Port Forwarding

(remember to allow incoming connection to the game server's port on the server's firewall)
Find your router/modem's ip addres by one of these three commands

ip route

route -n

netstat -rn

Input the address in a web browser and log in.
(the default login and password may be "admin", there might be a sticker on the router/modem which tells the password)

(if forwarding doesn't work for you or your ISP doesn't let you in the router/modem you could try hamachi instead of port forwarding)

Navigate throught the menus to find "Forwarding" or "Port Forwarding" or anything related
add a new forwarding rule:

Public Port Range

Target IP Address

Target Port Range

Protocol

{port}-{port}

{server ip}

{port}-{port}

Both

make it look something like that.

Example, my server's ip address is 192.168.0.35 and my port is 43000:

Public Port Range

Target IP Address

Target Port Range

Protocol

43000-43000

192.168.0.35

43000-43000

Both

(your server's ip can change if server's ip is dynamic (not static))

Joining from WAN

Get your public ip address and join the game with:

openrct2 join {public ip address} --port {port}

or by adding the server in the server browser.

Multiplayer - Permissions

Setting permissions

By default you will be given the role "Spectator" when you join, to change that view the player list in the openrct2 server's console.

network.players

(this console)

You will see ids of all connected players.
To change their role type in this command

network.players[{player id}].group = {group ip}

Example:

network.players[1].group = 2

Group ids:

Id	Group
0	Admin
1	Spectator
2	User

FAQ

Q: What is Openrct2?
A: OpenRCT2 is an open-source re-implementation of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2.

Q: What does Openrct2 do?
A: Expands rct2 with new features, fixes bugs and raises the game limits.

Q: What is LAN?
A: Local Area Network - basically all devices that are connected to your router/modem.

Q: What is WAN?
A: Wide Area Network - collection of LANs, in this case the Internet.

Q: What do i need to run openrct2?
A: Rct2's game data and openrct2.

Q: Can i use rct2's game data from other source than steam (GOG, retail CD)?
A: Yes.

[Professional Onion]

first you need to enable proton, it is a tool that lets you install and play windows games on linux, the setting should be somewhere like this: steam settings -> steam play -> enable steam play, i also recommend choosing the newest version besides experimental, so i think it would be proton 9.0 something

[johspaman]

One question about "Getting Rct2's data", how do you download it from steam? Because steam is just saying that the game only supports Windows and the install button is grayed out.

[jiman choiboi]

bravo

[Wobyrat]

time to crash some carts with people online