Ape Apps

This is a placeholder thread for the full detailed MC2 dedicated server operations guide. I needed to create the URL for adding an in-game link. This thread will be updated with information as time goes on.

Dedicated Server Hosting Platform
Every My Colony 2 edition has the dedicated server hosting software built right into the client. There are four networking technologies that My Colony 2 is able to utilize to establish a multiplayer connection, and each platform offers different levels of support for each networking technology. The following chart details which edition of the client is able to support which types of multiplayer connections.

	WebSocket	WebRTC	TCP/IP Local	TCP/IP Remote
Web App	x	o	x	x
Desktop/Steam/Launcher	o	o	o	o
Windows 10 (Store)	x	x	o	o
Android	x	o	o	o
iPhone/iPad	x	o	o	o

Full Support: o
Partial Support: o
No Support: x

As you can tell, the native Desktop/Steam/Ape Apps Launcher edition of My Colony 2 offers the greatest level of support for incoming multiplayer connections, and is therefore the recommended edition of My Colony 2 to use when hosting a dedicated server. This edition of the game is also not subjected to platform sandboxing and memory restrictions, and is therefore able to offer better performance and host more peers than any other edition of the game. Hosting a dedicated server on a mobile device is not recommended, as mobile operating systems limit available application RAM to a greater degree and are not conducive to leaving an application running idle for long periods of time.

Hey bast, will the base game support connections from multiple dif launchers? Such as the ape web apps, connecting to a dif hosted server?

I don't exactly understand what you are asking @Luker124 , but I hope this helps.

A client can connect to any server that supports one of the same protocols that the client supports. So for instance, since Desktop supports all available protocols, any client can connect to a Desktop server. So you could have a server running on the PC version of the game, and people can connect to it from their browser, from Android, from iPhone, etc, all at the same time.

On the other hand, if somebody hosts a server from the Windows 10 (Store) version of the game, a client using the Web App would not be able to connect, since the web app only supports WebRTC, and the Windows 10 Store client only supports TCP/IP.

At the end of the day, any serious server ought to be using the Desktop version of the game, so anybody can connect to it.

No, Luker124 ask a different question.

In this moment i have:

Ape apps launcher, Ansom account: 2 my colony open: Final Space and Outer Space
Standalone versione, Ansombackup account: 1 my colony open, Inner Space

MC1 have only one server, so.. every version is connected with one server.

MC2 can have multiple server, i will be able to create different server on the same pc? Or opening 2 or more mc2 client sessions connecting to different server?



For the table.. is a nice thing to have different protocol available.. but, but.. since the player base are fractionated, not sure if will end well...

I haven't tested trying to host two different servers on the same machine, but my guess is that it would cause issues. Granted, this is only really a problem if you want multiple players on the same planet. If you are just running your own game and don't care about other people joining, then it really makes little difference. If you are just playing your own colony single player then it probably wouldn't matter if you ran 10 colonies on the same PC.

Every game you start in MC2 is technically a server, whether it is dedicated or not. Whether or not other players join the game is really immaterial. You can just start your own game set to private and build a colony like in MC1, and it will be just like a normal game. There is no requirement to have multiple players, in which case the game would be just like MC1.

In this manner, a "server" for MC2 is not at all like the server for MC1, they are similar in name only. The MC1 server handles colony information and trades for all games. A server in MC2 houses all game logic and processing and supports multiple players on the same map. MC2 may also have a separate global server that handles colony information and trades, like the current MC1 server, depending on if I go that route. I'll have to see how the game plays and feels first to see if it's even necessary. I am hoping it's not...

As for the different protocols on different platforms, I understand that it is not ideal, but unfortunately that was not some sort of design decision on my part, but a matter of necessity. Each platform only supports what it supports, and that is pretty much out of my hands. All I can really do is enable all supported protocols on each platform and give them a way to talk to each other. Some multiplayer combinations will not be possible, like an Ape Web Apps player joining a Windows 10 (UWP) server. However, a Ape Web Apps player AND a Windows 10 UWP player could both join a Desktop/Steam server. If a global MC2 trades server is added at some point, any client would be able to join it regardless of protocol, just like in MC1, because that is an entirely different system.

Hope that answers something!

Hey @bastecklein, we discussed that a while ago, would it be possible to get a command-line program version of the dedicated desktop server ?

Maybe just something that takes a c2s file path as argument, a number of max players, a TCP/UDP port and makes a public server out of it.

Let's see, since the server is written in JS, I could probably make a node command line application out of it fairly easily. As long as the server admin doesn't mind installing node on their machine also.

Node shouldn't be a problem for most people. Thanks !

Hey @Sobeirannovaocc , after further examination, it doesn't look like it's going to be anywhere near as simple as just plugging the server worker into a node application. This wont be happening as soon as I had thought.

Oh sad :( thanks for the update
I'll just wait lmk when it's ready