Hosting Your Own Discovery Server - Complete Guide

[Discovery Freelancer Tutorials]

After reading the query regarding this topic, I decided to revisit and finish this tutorial. It has been a while since I've had to do this as its all setup so don't hesitate to correct any mistakes I may make. Feedback is, as always, appreciated.

Getting Your Server to Run:

The baseline requirements for a discovery server to run and be able to allow inbound connections, while also running FLHook are the following:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download...x?id=48145 - Both Packages are required for FLHook to load.
https://www.whatismyip.com/ - You'll need your public IP from here.
You'll need to forward your ports from your router (the ports are 2302-2304).

The only requirement to run the server is both packages from the Microsoft link, but the other two are required for allowing access to the internet.

Forwarding the ports:

Open up your router#s control panel, and you should be greeted by something akin to this, but it will be different depending on what router you have. For that reason, the process could be slightly different - when in doubt, google.

Too big images

For me, I have to go to the Security tab and then into services.

Too big images

Here I add the port range 2302-2304 and give it a name, let's call it Freelancer. Hit ok and continue. From then I go into Firewall Rules and add an ipv4 service, and point it to the service we just created. As mentioned previously this is different from router to router so this section may need a google for help.

Getting Friends to Connect:

This part is simple. Go to whatismyip.com linked above and grab the IP it reads to you. Give the IP address to whoever you want to connect in the following format. -sip:2302 . Replace ip with the ip you get from the website and then give it to someone to put in their launcher's optional arguments.

(In this bit here.) Now, launch your server and - if it went well - you should be able to see a black box when you launch FLServer.exe. If done correctly, the other person and yourself should be able to see the server.

Default Admin Commands

I'll list some of the default admin commands here. Note there is a lot more commands here than I'm actually listing, but most of them I doubt you'll bother with. You can always use .help to get a full list of default FLHook commands. Note: This doesn't include plugins.

To gain access to admin commands in game type the following in the flhook console:
setadmin {charname} superadmin

.beam {charname} {location}
example: .beam Laz Montbard - The character Laz is now at the Montbard Station

.setcash {charname} {ammount}
example: .setcash Laz 1999999999 - Laz now has 1.999... billion. Note: If you set this value to over 2 bill it will default it to 0 credits. DO NOT go over 2 Billion on a single character.

.setrep {charname} {rep} {value}
example: .setrep Laz fc_n_grp 1 - Laz is now Full Green on nomads.

.addcargo {charname} {cargo} {amount}

.move x x x
example: .move 1000 2000 2000 - moves your ship to that pos in space.

.rename {charname} {newname}
example: .rename lazy laz-y - lazy is now called laz-y

Message Commands:
.msg {charname} {msg}
example: .msg laz Hi - Laz gets a message from the console saying "Hi"

.msgs {system} {msg}
example: .msgs li01 Sup - Everyone in NY gets a message of "sup" from the console.

.msgu {msg}
example: .msgu Hi everyone - everyone in the game is given that message.

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.ban {charname}
example: .ban laz - the account that has the ship Laz on it is banned.
(unban with .unban)

.kill {charname}
example: .kill laz - laz is killed.

.testbot {system} {testime}
example: .testbot li01 0 - warps ship to new york

Configuring Your Server (and plugin commands)

There are many different ways the server can be changed and configured. Here I'll list some of the simple ones that you may want to change.

Alley.cfg:
By adding the line "id = name" you can add the ability for more IDs to use the nodock function.

Alley_npc.cfg - The commands are as follows:

.aicreate {amount} {ainame}
example: .aicreate 1 lndread - this will create 1 lib dread
.aifollow - this causes the current ai spawned to follow you in formation
.aievade - this causes the ai to cancel other options and return to default
.aidestroy 0/1 - this destroys all ai. if a 0 is used instead of a 1, the ai don't drop any loot.

You can configure the AI that you can spawn by editing that cfg, the instructions are inside it.

.pull {charname}
example: .pull laz - this will teleport laz to the admin ship

.chase {charanme}
example: .chase Laz - this will teleport you to Laz.

.smiteall [die]
example: .smiteall - all ships undocked around you will lose their shields and music will play that is defined in playerctrl.cfg
example2: .smiteall die - all ships undocked are killed and music is played.

.playsound {soundname}
example: .playsound dx_s004x_0401_trent - trent will say "You Jun'ko Zane?" in system.

There are far more commands and configs, but it will take me to go through them all. Should it be desired, I'll create a video tutorial on all of this for ease.

External Tools

The main tool you'll be wanting is the DSAM, or Discovery Account Manager. Thankfully, Alley released a 64bit version of this on the starport so its easy to get working.Make sure to send Alley pictures of cats.

DSAM can be used to modify ships and characters, among other things, without going into the game directly. Its how the admins move ships and such. The program is rather simple and easy to grasp.

Troubleshooting:

HELP: MY IP LOOKS LIKE THIS:

This means that your IPV 6 is still enabled. This is an easy fix. Simple go to your network adapter settings in the network sharing centre and toggle this:

After that is done, use this tool.

Footer Notes

I hope this tutorial is of some use to people and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. This tutorial is still a little WIP so there is room for expansion, but I'll probably create a couple hour video tutorial of it, should people desire such, as that will allow me to cover a lot more and be much clearer on the subject.

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Discovery Server Rules • Tutorial Database • Player Requests • Wiki Subforum  • Tutorials

[Overlord]

much appreciated, thank you.

[Fret24]

Can you offer any instructions for setting up an old-school home LAN for multiplay? My son and I want to play the game together without connecting to the internet. We are not interested in customizing any server settings or anything like that we just want to play discovery as is. For version 4.89.2, when I select Multiplay and then LAN, there are no options for creating a Local Network Connection. I've searched and searched the web but I have had no luck on finding any instructions or guides. Help me Obi-wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.

[kerfy]

you have to hav the lan up and running, before you start the game. you could run the server on one machine and then run the game on it and the second machine would just run the game and connect to yer server. your lan should provide ip addrresses and stuff.. 2 machines on he same LAN, one runs the server AND the game, one just runs the game .. hope this helps some. I play on my own server sometimes to test stuff.

[Retradium]

I dont understand what im doing wrong. Im on windows 10 home with all latest updates.
I have disabled ipv6 and used the tool...the problem is the "tool" link takes me to 4 different tools. ive tried all 4 and no matter what i do my server will not show up in the list. It did at first before I disabled ipv6 but now it wont show up at all. Ive tried reinstalling. running the opposite tools to undo what the other tool did. Nothing is getting my server to show in the list googling and trying other fixes like regedit and such has made no change. Id just play on the official Disco server but im trying to play with a friend and we are not much for role playing or getting blasted by pirate players or whatever. So im at a loss and not sure what I can do to get this to run. Any hints clues help of any kind would be greatly appreciated!

[Laz]

It could be a number of things. Are you running multiple network connections, for example? Are you connected to a VPN? Disabling IPV6 is only necessary if you see your server with a non-standard looking IP address. Are you running the server or is your friend hosting it? Is the person hosting it also failing to see it?

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[Retradium]

I just figured it out finally. Im hosting and went through that whole spiel because i was getting the hexidecimal ipv6 ip in ghe server list. I ended up reseting all the ipv6 changes made by the linked tools. Turning on ipv6 again and reintalling. With fresh install i turned off ipv6 on adapter and went with the regedit hack ONLY and it worked like a charm!

[alvercaine]

i run the server for 2 pc in lan but with win10 the pc who host the server always has stutters lags....and theyre 32go ram new beasts....

[Irishtiger]

Is there a server tutorial for 4.91 with latest patches. I just want to run it locally, not necessarily on the internet.

[triple88a]

Hey there, its actually very easy now. FLhook is included. in the 4.91 install so one less thing to mess with. I played on mine on LAN for 4-5 hours yesterday, not a single hiccup. I gotta see if i can connect to it from WAN since i wanted to go exploring with some friends and didnt want to have to worry about RP rules but yeah. Works great.