Dedicated Server Question

[x0Z3ro0x]

Hello ladies and gents, first let me thank everyone for allowing me on their forums and into their community. When I first bought FS 17 I only bought it for myself, and NEVER expected my wife, or myself to love the game so much. Let alone consider hosting a Dedicated server. We already have a group of really awesome people on our simple session based server.

It's actually going so well, we have created a dedicated server. However I see there is a few solid differences. The first being, even though I already own the game, I have to pay AGAIN just to host a server on my own Machine. Kinda messed up but I will accept the terms because I do love the game so much. For now I will use my wifes copy as my own, and my copy as the server. She is not as active as me, so I will buy her another copy when we can afford it.

Moving onto my main issue. I already have the server setup, loaded, and port-forwarded. My system I am using however, is more than powerful enough to both play and host. I know this is frowned upon in the dedicated world, and I myself advise against it. However in this case, it's both the most cost effective, and easiest method to do. My question is, am I going to have my Product key blocked due to running multiple copies on the same machine? Will the server conflict with the client game folders even though they have different directories?

Installing two separate copies was not easy. Let me walk you through what I did to get two solid copies, one of which being our dedicated server.

First I uninstalled my game. Making sure all files were removed and backing up my saves. Then I reinstalled the game to a custom directory labeled FS 17 Server. Once installed, I edited the .xml server file, and setup the server via localhost:8080 address. I also made sure to activate my product key. Next I cut the entire FS 17 Server folder to the desktop after everything with the server was set up.

FS 17 installer does not allow me to change installation directories unless I uninstall the first copy. That's why I cut the files to the desktop and installed "again" giving me a second set. I cut the second set and pasted it into the default installation directory and used my wife's key to activate. The trick to this was removing the folder from My Games, and then starting the second copy. Otherwise the game just started and I assume used my Product key to play. By cutting the My Games files from FS 17 I was able to get the second copy to prompt for my second key.

The problems I see with this are, I now have two sets of My Games files trying to load into whatever game I play. If I load the server, I have to remove the client My Games. If I load the client copy I have to remove the server My Games files. So is two computers the only way to go? Or has someone found a trick to this?

I get trying to stop piracy or whatever the purpose of this multiple key thing is. But Giants have made their security a bit of a pain in the ar**. Anyway thanks in advance guys and let me know! Talk to you all soon.

- Best of wishes

[robvdheijden]

Hello,

Your gonna have to have 2 user accounts for this.
I suggest creating a second user "server"for this.
Then simply run the dedicatedserver.exe as the other user, this way it has its own my documents folder with its own key file.
Also i believe you have done this already but you need a seporate installation folder. i personally just copy/ pasted the installation directory and renamed it to farming simulator server.
I dont use this setup for farming simulator server and client, but for multiple servers on a single machine. But i believe this should also work in your case.

If you run into any troubles just pm me.

Goodluck, Rob

[x0Z3ro0x]

Hello,

Your gonna have to have 2 user accounts for this.
I suggest creating a second user "server"for this.
Then simply run the dedicatedserver.exe as the other user, this way it has its own my documents folder with its own key file.
Also i believe you have done this already but you need a seporate installation folder. i personally just copy/ pasted the installation directory and renamed it to farming simulator server.
I dont use this setup for farming simulator server and client, but for multiple servers on a single machine. But i believe this should also work in your case.

If you run into any troubles just pm me.

Goodluck, Rob

Thank you for your awesome speedy reply! It was much appreciated. I love your cleaver thinking as I never thought to try running multiple user accounts. I have ran many servers in the past, all from home, and anytime I have wanted more than one instance, you just change the operating folder to a new location, change the port is uses, and BAM new server instance.

I do have a couple of questions on your new found method. The first of which is, once logged into the separate account, I start the server then switch users to my account to play. Won't this cause the Server software to run idle and not work? Or does the server still function properly even though the user account is in the background?

I am also curious why Giants made hosting a server this locked down? Are they doing it to make more money? Or are they doing it to stop piracy? Just seems like A LOT of un-needed work for something so simple. Thank you again for the reply talk to you soon.

- Best of wishes

[x0Z3ro0x]

Update:

Was able to get it working WITHOUT needing to rent a server like a lot of users I spoke to online suggested. I was able to get it running on the same PC as I play as well using robvdheijden awesome method. Thanks to Windows 10 User Switching, I don't need to log out and thus all programs remain running on the other user account. Our team is happily enjoying our new dedicated server. We even added our first mod (GPS)

Special shout out to robvdheijden for making that possible. Thanks again for allowing me on your forums and into your awesome community. I will see you all out in the fields!

- Best of wishes

[robvdheijden]

Im happy you got it working.

I personally use firedaemon pro to keep all the seporate apps working as a service. But if you only have 1 server you might aswell do it manually like you do now.

Again if you run into any issues or need help setting something up just pm me.

Rob,