Tutorial Basic Guide to Playing Starbound Multiplayer.

I'm seeing a lot of help me posts about setting up one of these. So I hope people can read this and hopefully not make as many posts.

Welcome to Hel's tutorial: How to set up and play Starbound with your friends.
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Its quite simple. Follow my tutorial. This is one of the easier methods to start up and play, and it does kinda need you to download a thing, and alter some settings if necessary. I'll provide download links so don't worry.

Step 1. What will I need to do this?​

You only need to download one thing for this, and its a neat little program you need to connect to your friends. These are provided here:

Option 1: Hamachi

Option 2: Evolve

Please note that your Starbound friends WILL need to download these too. An alternative is to Port Forward, which will be explained later on.

Step 2. Setting up a new network.
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Once you have downloaded and installed any one of the applications above, you need to create a network. I have used Hamachi for my screenshots because I have not used Evolve. Ever. Ironically I heard its the better one.

Okaay. So If you chosen Hamachi hit that big Power on button and let it do its thing. Now you wanna press the Network tab and create a new one. Your friends will press Join instead.



The picture below is very self explanatory. You have whatever you like as an ID and a password. But be sure to remember the password. Once you are done press the Create button and you are half way there.



Now, once your friends have installed your preferred application, tell them your Network ID and Password. When they join it should look like this:



Sorry to put @Nibolas and @Firepaw Da Cat on the spot like this, but their names are below the Network name, meaning they are members on this Network. If the names are faded out like so it means they are offline.

If someone has a green light next to their network name that means they are online and connecting shouldn't be a problem.
If someone has a red light next to their network name that means they are online but there may be connection issues between you.
If someone has a blue light next to their network name that means they are online but the connection between you is relayed.

Also note that only 5 people can be in a network at the same time. If you wanna play with more than 5 people you will need to fill one network group and make another for your other friends.

Step 3. Server start up.
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This part is the easiest. Provided with the Starbound Launcher there is an option to open Starbound Server. Click on it.



Now you just need to wait for the server to start up. Be patient because this does take a couple of minutes. It is loaded fully when you see this in your CMD server log:



The next part is simple. The server is open. You just need to connect to it. To join it you Press the "Multiplayer" tab on the main menu and select your character. You need to type in your local IP to connect. To find this you type in IPCONFIG in CMD. Doing so shows you your IPv4 Address which is what you will use to join your game.

The Port is by default 21025. Keep it that way. I will talk about Server accounts later. You do not need an account to join or host a server.



Press Join Server to be in your server. Ta Da!!

Step 4. Invite your friends.
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Note that Hamachi provided me with another IPv4 address and an IPv6 address. Assuming your server is setup, you AND your friends pressed the big green power on button then they can see your Hamachi IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. Don't worry about that. Tell your friends to copy your IPv4 address (MAKE SURE THEY COPY THE HOST PLAYER'S IP and not their own) and paste it into the server IP address box in the Multiplayer menu.



They should now be in your game. And you have successfully set up your own server.

Step 5. Server effects.
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Please be aware because the game is still in beta phase connectivity may not be perfect. Friends could be kicked out at any time for no reason or the game can crash. That is normal.

Also, with your server open trying to connect to a single player game will make the game crash, so close your server before trying to connect to Single Player again.

You are finished and everything should be working well. Now get out there and play Multiplayer with your friends.

Extra 1. Port Forwarding.
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I did touch lightly as an alternative to Evolve or Hamachi you can Port Forward to let friends connect to your game. Please also be aware that this may NOT work 100% of the time AND is different for more or less everyone. It is different for each modem model and manufacturer. Because of this I will NOT post a full screenshot tutorial. Google can help you in the right direction.

I can however, provide a neat little link that takes you to a website where you can test if a specific port is open or closed on your modem. It is found here. For this to find if the port is open or closed you need to input your PUBLIC IP (Nothing a Google Search can't do) and paste it into the Remote Address box. Again, the port number is 21025. Press Check and let it do its thing. If it says open, move along. If closed. It means something is wrong.



If it said Open you can set up your server like I have above. But use your public IP to connect to the server. Your friends will also need to know your public IP in order to join you. Hamachi and Evolve are not needed for this method.

Extra 2; Server accounts.
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This again is another thing that keeps popping up again and again. And I will also provide a tutorial on how to do this too.

Extra 2.1: Downloads
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There's only one thing you need for this. A neat little program called Notepad++. Download link is provided here.

Notepad++ looks complicated, but really it isn't. And is a LOT better than standard Notepad.

Extra 2.2: Location
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Okay. Now you wanna find your Starbound Server Config file. It is located Here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Starbound\giraffe_storage

Now Right click the Starbound CONFIG file and press "Open With" and select Notepad++.



Now you wanna find (CTRL+F) "serverUsers". If you have too much pride its near the bottom if you can't find it with CTRL and F.

Provided below the screenshot is the code you need to input after the serverUsers line. This I have used from Chucklefish themselves. So thanks to them. Input that code and change the account names and admin status along with a password accordingly.



"player1" : {
"admin" : true,
"password" : "player1"
},
"player2" : {
"admin" : false,
"password" : "player2"
}
},

And you are done. Save your file and close Notepad++. You are finished. If your server is open while making the changes close it and re open it to sign in with accounts.

It is important to make a backup of your config file before making an attempt to edit it.

Little line of thanks.
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@Nibolas and @Firepaw Da Cat for using their Hamachi network as a tutorial guide without their permission

Chucklefish staff for providing the code for user accounts.

@Cup o' Tea for the extra information about Port Forwarding.

If you have any questions or queries write a comment below and I can get back to you. Happy Starbounding with friends

 

But... But...



How can you do such a mean thing to this kitty? :O

 

Just gonna up it for more people to see.

 

I might download Evolve and give a tutorial about setting up a network using that as well as Hamachi.