[WIP] [CLIENT] [LOBBY] Public Local Servers

As requested by many people who want to publicly host games using a router / firewall port mapping to their local PA server via TCP port 20545 on their personal super computer.

Also read:

• https://wiki.palobby.com/wiki/Planetary_Annihilation_Custom_/_Dedicated_/_LAN_/_Local_Servers
• https://wiki.palobby.com/wiki/Plane...r_Sim_Performance_/_Time_Dilation_/_RAM_Usage

WARNING: Do not use palobby.com as your region.

Public Local Servers is a client mod that enables the following for port mapped local servers:

• game invites
• optional show in public server browser

To host games on your local server you need a top spec computer and high speed internet:

• minimum quad core ideally 8 cores
  
• lots of RAM ideally 16GB or more
  
• high quality high bandwidth internet access eg fibre

Note: Hosting in the public server browser will be advertising your public IP address.

When you create a local game the following options are added:

• public checkbox (to show in public server browser)
  
• host (IP address or hostname defaulting to your public IP address)
• port (20545)
• region (defaults to your Uber server region)

You can override the values if different.
eg I port forward via palobby.com:20544 to my local PA server.

The preferred approach is start the server manually then join your server via the multiplayer server to configure a game.


Port Mapping / Port Forwarding / Pinholes

You'll need to figure this out yourself... don't ask for help here about your specific router.

Your local PC hosting your local PA server on TCP port 20545 will be using a private IP address not accessible from the internet. eg 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x

Port mapping / port forwarding / pinholes open a port on your public IP address so that your local PA server can be accessed by the internet.

eg assuming your public IP address is 45.33.44.0 and the private IP address of your local computer with PA is 192.168.1.100 then you want to port map external TCP 20545 to internal 192.168.1.100 TCP 20545.

NEVER use DMZ unless you know what you are doing and have a very secure firewall setup.

http://www.howtogeek.com/66214/how-to-forward-ports-on-your-router/


Friends Games

If you want to host friends games without showing in the public server browser then you can invite friends to your local server using standard game invites.


WORK IN PROGRESS

Server beacons are currently posted only in the new game lobby.

That means server beacons are currently NOT posted when:

• host is selecting a map
• host is viewing settings
• live game ie no spectators can join once a game has started

You should manually start the server in config mode and connect to it via the multiplayer server browser.

If you create a local game or start an AI skirmish without starting the server manually then leave the game or quit PA the server is shutdown which might upset other players.


Manually Starting Local Server and Saving Local Replays

To manually start a local server in config mode create a desktop shortcut to the server executable in your Planetary Annihilation installation directory with the following command line parameters:

• --allow-lan
• --game-mode PAExpansion1:lobby (for Titans) OR --game-mode lobby (for classic PA)
• --server-name "local" (local name in server browser)
• --enable-crash-reporting
• --mt-enabled (for multi-threading)

Customise with the following additional command line parameters:

• --max-players 12 (depending on the specs of your local super computer)
  
• --max-spectators 5 (depending on the specs of your high speed internet)
  
• --output-dir "path-to/your/planetary-annihilation-data-directory" (to save local replays)
  
• --replay-filename "UTCTIMESTAMP" (to automatically name replays using a UTC timestamp)
  
• --replay-timeout 300 (timeout before replay is written even if players are still connected)
• --headless (no window)

Once the server is started manually connect to it via the multiplayer server browser.

he's back b o i s

Added info on manually starting a local server, configuring via command line and saving of local replays.

If you type into the IP box you can't delete what you typed and the entry persists between lobbies.

Love this mod!

Quick question, is there any way players can reconnect to a custom server while the game is running?

Reconnect on start menu.

My friend's computer crashed last game and she tried to reconnect from the main menu (after being away for about one minute) but there was no reconnect dialog. I also haven't seen the reconnect dialog when trying to get back in on custom servers. Maybe there's something I'm missing?

Reconnect menu option... the reconnect dialog only works for Uber servers.

I'll improve that at some point.

Hi, is this mod still working properly? Reason why I'm asking for is because when I'm using it, it my server isn't listed but before the update it was.

Fixed... should update soon.

Ok, brilliant and brilliant work on the updates to for the game btw

Version number was still hard coded to last update.

Oh ok, I can confirm that it's working again, many thanks

Is this using the new multi threaded server update?

Updated to include --mt-enabled for multi-threading.

Added:

• https://wiki.palobby.com/wiki/Planetary_Annihilation_Custom_/_Dedicated_/_LAN_/_Local_Servers

Added:

• https://wiki.palobby.com/wiki/Plane...r_Sim_Performance_/_Time_Dilation_/_RAM_Usage

I've tried running the server with +10 players, works great! There is only one problem (perhaps not related to this mod) which is that when playing systems with +10 players the server doesn't respect the system editor's starting positions (even though I've added more than 10) and instead all players start in random locations. Is there a workaround for this?

Start a new thread if you need to after reading:

• https://wiki.palobby.com/wiki/Planetary_Annihilation_Titans_&_Classic_Maps

Works like a charm, thanks!