i have a question about method one, i saw on another thread that you said there were problems if you joined the game on the same pc? if i read that right. my question is, would it be possible to write a batch file that will first copy the folder that steam puts the mods in and then make it run the server so you basicly update your mods every time you start up the server and have the server pull the mods from that folder instead? would that maybe fix the conflic issue of the server and client working out of the same folder?

Originally posted by PJB:

i have a question about method one, i saw on another thread that you said there were problems if you joined the game on the same pc? if i read that right. my question is, would it be possible to write a batch file that will first copy the folder that steam puts the mods in and then make it run the server so you basicly update your mods every time you start up the server and have the server pull the mods from that folder instead? would that maybe fix the conflic issue of the server and client working out of the same folder?

Yes that is an issue which can be resolved by any sort of automated method to copy the workshop sub-directory's where workshop downloads the mods into your servers mods folder :).

There was a potential fix for this I was exploring but since have not have time to test where by running the server standalone and by that I mean making a copy of starbound and placing that somewhere else for and configuring it solely for server use, then method one may not conflict with the install you are playing the game with.

(I don't have much hope though as assets loaded and in use seem to be the issue)

However I did see some benift form method ones flaw that being any previous characters you have created prior to starting the dedicated server executable are not phsyically delted or broken! they are simply hidden from the character menu while the server is running, viewing the logs shows that the assets from mods where in use which were not being found... ironicly probably because of what I said above.

That said it MAY be possible to use this to your advantage by using the now FREE character slot\slot's to make fresh charcaters for use on your presistant universe server (dedicated server) then when you close the dedicated server executable those should techincally now be hidden and your previous ones restored as that is what happend on my system can you confirm it?



Note
I am pondering about adding a Method Three! Starbound Dedicated Server does NOT actually require steam to function and since Steam allows you to login on more than one device simutaniously one could come to the decision that all this path linking and work arounds are pointless :)... If one is to host it dedicated on a seperate machine, you can actually install Steam on your Server Machine! and copy your existing starbound over to the new steam install and verify it. (it will find the exsting files and not download anything but I bet you knew that already)

Then create a workshop collection if you not already done so which contains all the stuff you need on the server bare in mind just about every single UI mod or visual mod is client sided ;) your now second steam login will download and update those and starbound for you! best part is will be completely seperate to your gaming machines install of starbound and workshop no more conflicts will happen.

I could give method one a try with creating a char while already running the server but thechar i'm using atm is already completed the game and i'm trying to use it with a friend so it wouldn't be a solution for this moment but perhaps in the future if we restart again, as for method 3, thats a good option too as it not only gets rid of the conflict but also for people with weaker pc's have less power drain from there pc (which is no issue to my pc), however, I don't know of many people that actually own a second pc to run it from. I myself have an old laptop i sometimes use for servers but since it is old it is unreliable and it likes to restart randomly while people are playing.

So for now i will try and see if i can get the copy and run bat file to work

Whatever works haha I use my laptop to host usually but yea I don't have a problem hosting two or three servers on my rig either :). I'll figure something out I'm a coder aswell a d system administrator for hosting companies which I'll leave unnamed.

i just used the most simple method ever to fix my problem xD

oke i seam to have a problem which i can't find out if it is the mods or the method i'm using but when anyone in the server places any of the modded items the player crashes, even me myself. if i run the server it does say that it loads the mods like shown in your example but when crafting a modded item i get an error saying the item doesn't exist but it does craft it and when placing the player just compleetly crashes with a bunch of gibberish as en error.
any ideas?

^it gives that error with all modded items, not just that one, just as an example

oke so i did some searching around and found a post on the starbound forum that had a good point, is it true that the server does not seach in subdirectories? because the server sais it loads the files and the assets in the files, but not the .pak files that are in there. so now the question is, is it possible to force the server to read subdirectories? i'm not to femiliar with the code used for this so i don;t know if just slapping a * at the end will have any effect

oke so here is my updated batch file

so what i did was trying to figure out how to copy just the content of the folders and not the folders themself

ones i found that i had to problem that all files are called contents.pak and it would just overwrite eachother, so i had to rename them

not being the best at batch files i went searching for a way to rename them to contents_(original subfolder name)

however being a noob at batch i couldn't figure that out, so my solution.... just use the nearest damned solution i could come up with

then i found out i could print the file size behind it instead
this seemed to me the most reliable way to do it since i highly doubt (thought it is posible) that you ever run in to 2 mods that are the exact same size up to the byte

so yea, thats my solution for now, feel free to clean up my mess xD

You have some valid points, I am aware that the pak files may not be read but too say it doesn't read subdirectories is wrong because clearly it does but it doesn't always load the files within I didn't test method 1 out all that long I just noticed that creating a new character fixed the crashes. Honestly there are better methods to get workshop mods synced but utilities are better off used. I for the life of me don't know why the intergration of dedicated workshop mounting wasn't added at same time as workshop publishing but it can't be helped now soo he we are.

However if I was going to resort too a script to copy and rename I'd use a PowerShell script for the extra flexibility.

The good thing is you can create a service out of the PowerShell script and have it run when the date changes on a file. I'm not sure exactly from memory too explain how but I do know that the PowerShell shell is tightly tied into Windows where just about any variable will work.

Though if you want something more reliable which you can also use over the network I suggest this http://www.cobiansoft.com/cobianbackup.htm

Sure it's not a "2016" program but you will not be disappointed! It can do file lookup and rename so for what you want to do it can. You can rename a file on destination path and prefix or affix filenames aswell including sequencing same name files if you rather.

As stated it can do differential copies so only runs when schedule detects a change in the file and it can run over ftp and local network storage ;), it's FREE did I say FREE haha.

Just a thought but a symbolic link might fix this subdirectory issue.

are you sure about the subfolder detection? because when i run the server with the mods in the subfolders i get something allong the lines of
and then when trying to craft an item from a mod in the game it sais that error i mentioned way above

but when i make it load the pak files instead of the folders like i did i get this

and that time it does work, i can craft the items fine and place them and everything works fine

UPDATED!
Complete Re-Write of the 1st post, and added a new method which 100% works every time when used properly.

Steam Guide Coming Soon

This works because we are no longer relying on Starbounds ability to look inside folders instead we are creating a hard link* too the content within the workshop folder and instead let the OS (operating system) handle the file lookup process!

My only problem with this myself initially was "what if the workshop updates files while the server is running?"

Perhaps you know the answer. Does it work fine? Do you get errors? Are the files write-locked while the server is loaded?

Personally I don't think they're locked and they're also not loaded in once at the start and that's that -- I deleted the mod folder while the server was running at one point and immediately started getting errors out of the wazoo.

(commenting for my mod project)

Originally posted by g1real:

This works because we are no longer relying on Starbounds ability to look inside folders instead we are creating a hard link* too the content within the workshop folder and instead let the OS (operating system) handle the file lookup process!

My only problem with this myself initially was "what if the workshop updates files while the server is running?"

Perhaps you know the answer. Does it work fine? Do you get errors? Are the files write-locked while the server is loaded?

Personally I don't think they're locked and they're also not loaded in once at the start and that's that -- I deleted the mod folder while the server was running at one point and immediately started getting errors out of the wazoo.

Personally I haven't tested a live server with updates but a scheduled restart of dedicated servers would fix any such issues, it's a good idea to restart once every day anyway.

I run mine locally for a persistent shared universe for lan play and I usually let it update before I start it.

However for more serious hosting you would have thr query and remote connect enabled for a console so you would just have a moderator restart it.