Jump to content
=jps=sgtrock

[SOLVED] Struggling to set up an Arma 3 dedicated server for a LAN party

Recommended Posts

Not sure why this wasn't obvious, but I was able to successfully finally get a server using TADST.  All I had to do was... set up a mission cycle!  Not sure why that would matter, but there it is.  My guess is that if I had set "-world=empty" as part of the launch line, any of the three setups would have worked fine from the beginning. 

 

Newb mistake.  I assumed that was taken care of by the built-in tools that I was using.  Next step is to try the Linux VM option again to see if I'm right.  Even if I'm not, at least I have a working configuration to test.

 

Note to all server admin newbies:  Make sure that you set that parameter in the launch line if you want people to vote for missions when the server first starts.

 

Hi all,

 

I'm hoping I can get some help figuring this out.  I've been working on this issue off and on for several years without much success.  If you're not interested in the back story explaining the context and are just interested in the technical details, jump down to ***.

 

There are about a dozen of us who have been getting together for more than 20 years for LAN party weekends.  Lots of beer and whiskey gets drunk, virtual enemies get blown away, and many rounds get expended on the range.  All in all, it's always a great time.  :)

 

As we've gotten older, we have been focusing more and more on co-op games.   It's at the point now that that's about all that we play. 

 

I'm the guy who puts together the game servers for these parties so I have a lot of experience doing so.  My personal preference is for Linux servers for a number of reasons but I can set up and run a Windows gameserver.

 

Over the years it's gotten harder to find games that allow for setting up dedicated servers for co-op games for more than four players.  Frankly, it's gotten tougher to find games that even SUPPORT LAN games well and the ones that do are rarely the ones that support co-op.  It's gotten frustrating to say the least. 

 

These days we're pretty much limited to games like Red Orchestra 2, Insurgency, and CS:GO when it comes to shooters.  Red Orchestra 2 dedicated server is easy.  Insurgency dedicated server is doable.  CS:GO is easy to set up now that I FINALLY found a game launcher that works and works well.  CS:GO gets boring after a while, though.

 

The Arma series is fantastic for this for all the obvious reasons.  I used to run a dedicated Arma and then Arma 2 server back in the day so I thought that a dedicated Arma 3 LAN server wouldn't be all that hard.  Unfortunately, I have had no luck so far.

 

****

 

So that's the background.  Here is the set up that I'm trying to test:

 

I am not running the beta code.

 

Port forwarding is set up on my router for 2302-2306.  Based on an old post that I found I also tried forwarding 8766.

 

For the three server configurations below, I tried using a very simple server.cfg file.  About the only variable was trying with loopback both on and off.

 

In all configurations, I was able to successfully start the server.

 

In all configurations, I faced the same problems:  I could not see the server on the LAN tab of the in-game browser so I couldn't select it.  I also tried but was unable to successfully connect using Direct Connect.  At no point did I see any evidence of a connection attempt in the available logs.

 

For testing purposes, I have a single Windows 10 Pro laptop with a 4 core i7 CPU and 16 GB of RAM.  I'm using that to both play on and host the dedicated server.

 

The Windows firewall is enabled.  Arma 3 is enabled to allow inbound and outbound traffic for both private and Internet connections.

 

Using Hyper-V, I configured a simple CentOS virtual machine (EPEL repository enabled so I could get all of the necessary ancillary library files) with one dedicated core and 4 GB of RAM.  This gave me a standalone Linux server with its own IP address.  (P.S.  If you are unaware, Windows Firewall does NOT affect any Hyper-V VM.)

 

From that configuration, I tried two different ways to set up and run a vanilla Arma 3 Linux server.  The first avenue that I tried was the Linux Dedicated Game Server Manager.  The second avenue that I tried was to follow the Arma 3 wiki instructions here.

 

As I noted above, neither route worked so I started wondering if the Linux server had been abandoned.  Maybe I was dealing with a version mismatch.  For my final attempt I tried Tophe's Arma Dedicated Server Tool to start up a Windows based server. I had once used it for Arma 2 with OK results.

 

Going this route, I

  • shut down Steam,
  • used TADST to start the Arma server,
  • restarted Steam, started Arma 3,
  • then tried to connect. 

 

Same result as before.

 

At this point I'm at a loss.  I have three questions: 

 

  • What on Earth am I missing? 
  • What can I try to troubleshoot this?
  • Is there some other approach that I can try with an expectation of success?

 

Any suggestions would be gratefully accepted.

 

TIA

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

No one has any clues?  HELP!  :eh::dozingoff::f:

 

Oh, for the good old days of the Quake network model when even the SP game ran as a client-server app.  It sure made setup and testing pretty trivial.  ;)

 

TIA,

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Those ports should be good. UDP not tcpip on those right?

 

TCP/UDP 2344 (BattlEye 1)

TCP 2345 (BattlEye 2)

 

I have those forwarded as well

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi Darkhound7,

 

Thanks for the thought.  However, my issue had nothing to do with port forwarding after all.  See my updated comments at the top of the post.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now

×