[WIP] dedicated servers

The instructions have just been updated for installing stable instead of the PTE.

Make sure you have:

• installed stable
  
• added the server beacon code to stable lobby.js (every install / update will overwrite this)
• edited conf.json to point to your stable server and version.txt

I'll be updating scripts and the nodejs wrapper next month.

@uggla88 please update your server.

There is no way to run dedicated server on Windows?

I don't remember all the details, but I am pretty sure I developed the nodejs server controller on windows.
So there should not be any reason you can't use windows, there just is no documentation on how to do it, you'd have to read the ubuntu tutorials and "translate".

The main nodejs server controller will go away soon replaced by the --custom-server-url command line option to automatically publish server beacons.

Highly likely that will be in the next update.

I managed to launch a server on Ubuntu but it's terribly convoluted and confusing. Man, I used to run Quake Arena servers way back and it was so easy! Just a Windows program with easy to navigate GUI to configure the server.

The instructions are hard to follow and have showstopping errors. Like, there is no need to escape spaces with backward slashes within quotes in the config files. A person not familiar with Linux would be totally stuck.

To clarify, I was following this:
https://exodusesports.com/guides/planetary-annihilation-dedicated-server-setup/

That's where typos are:


Change server to “./.local/Uber\ Entertainment/Planetary\ Annihilation/stable/server”
Change serverversion to “./.local/Uber Entertainment/Planetary Annihilation/stable/version.txt”

The backwards slashes are not necessary and will prevent you from starting the server.

This made my head hurt. I see the server in the lobby but when I join it a new local server is spawned with the same name. Then I have no idea how to control the server, how to choose maps, etc. No wonder there are so few servers, this is pretty hard to wrap one's head around.

There needs to be a simple program that one can run on Windows.

I'm giving up, sorry :/

How are you joining it?

From another PC, but they're on the same network. I open Multiplayer->Custom and select my server. Is that it? Just select the map? But I only see two slots, I can add more but I specified in the server (on the Linux box) only 4 slots. It's just this whole lobby thing is sort of weird.

When I go back to the lobby I see another server with the same but location is Local.

That's a side effect of running on the same network... you're seeing the public beacon and the local LAN beacon for LAN games.

Most custom servers are running in a data centre on a public IP address.

Custom servers start in lobby / config mode. The first person to join becomes the host and sets up the game.

Take a look at:

• Custom / Public Local Servers / LAN Games:https://wiki.palobby.com/wiki/Planetary_Annihilation_Custom_/_Dedicated_/_LAN_/_Local_Servers

Yeah, that makes sense.

Fixed, thanks.

I've been following this guide (https://exodusesports.com/guides/planetary-annihilation-dedicated-server-setup/) for PA version 99377 and it was working before. I've been running into trouble while updating to 10567. Do I need to do anything different for the new version? PApatcher has been telling me I'm out of disk space despite the large amount of disk space I have and stops the update, but I guessed I might just have to uninstall PA and download it again. So I tried a new install and I can't even get a custom game to show up in the server browser. I'm using AWS, by the way. Any help or insight would be appreciated.

UPDATE: I can get the server to show up (I messed up the conf.json file), but I can't connect to it. It gets stuck on "Mounting Server Mods".

UPDATE 2: Forgot to edit an inbound rule in the security groups in AWS. Don't mind me, lol.