What would you do if offline was released Tomorrow? Wait a minute...

The textbox for an IP is pretty much a given. But direct IP to a friend won't work unless they have port forwarding set up, which can be tricky. A VPN makes that unnecessary, and it can be easier for people to download a vpn client than fiddle with their routers.

Your master server idea will no doubt eventually be in as well. But it's odd that you are advocating it, since it is DRM.

I agree with that part actually. Though if that textbox is missing it doesn't mean Uber is against that kind of connection. They just may not be completely finished with the full server release, because they were pushed so hard by people to give them offline play.

I am sane person i know Uber needs to make money, so they need some kind (even weak) protection from pirates.
I advocate master server over "only LAN private servers forever". Which i did not know its temp solution only.

It's not about piracy or DRM. It's purely about network architecture. The concept of "LAN only" doesn't make sense; a LAN as we know it doesn't exist to computers outside of academic definitions. IP addressess are either routable or not, regardless of their geographic location or presence on the same subnet.

@cola_colin Colin & @raevn: I give you two a like each, you do need them to stop that senceless discussion!

@radongog Bribery will get you everywhere

I would just grab a beer and wait till tomorrow lol

do the same as ever ... sandboxing and occasionaly be blown up by the ai this time on my lap though ....

Just host a virtual lan server via hamachi?

hamachi is a VPN tool

Oh ^^;

people don't want to use a vpn if possible.
I'll look into if it is possible to make a server on a public ip and gather those IPs so PA Stats can add them to the server browser of people using PA Stats.

Well for now, if possible, we could go the modding route to host non vpn servers. But it definitely sounds like they're planning on it when they feel more satisfied with it's state.

Am I saying they are not going to do that? I am just doing the usual "let's mod stuff in we'll get anyway down the road"

No no, didn't mean anything by it. Sorry for the making it seem like I did, haha.

From my experience with other games that not always have well written code for connecting: sometimes server browser refuses find any servers when giving IP directly does. Also alternative method (besides discovering server) sometimes helps finding out who on lan party has messed up settings. Generally 2 different methods of connecting are always better than one, its easier to find out if discovery does not work or that sad guy in corner forgot to disable windows firewall.