I was thinking about setting up a game server for some friends and I, but I want it to be a game where you don’t have to wait for others to be online to have fun.
I also want it to be a long-term thing, and where those who don’t want to invest too much time can engage in casual play.
Bonus points if the game doesn’t become cluttered with builds from players who drop out - I’d love to make it public (or close to it) and see what the world ends up looking like.
I was considering an open Minecraft server with some mods, but it’s a bit too heavy once the amount of players becomes significant. Plus then I’d have to deal with griefers.
Oh, and of course, a game that does not break everything once it updates.
Satisfactory!
Massive map, endless ways of laying out manufacturing, endless aesthetic choices to make, zero penalties or consumed materials for deconstructing things, all goals are shared
Updates are sometimes breaking, though that’s probably not going to be so bad going forward since the game is out of early access.
Also, excellent soundtrack, and you’re probably going to taze a pig within minutes of starting the game.
Project Zomboid. There is a whole city for players to mess around in. You can just host a server and let it run, friends can join any time. The current version doesn’t support multiplayer for now, but the one before that does.
I would suggest separate bases for every player, if you don’t want Jerry to let a ton of zombies into the communal base, because he played without the others around to tell him to close the god damn door behind him for the hundreth time!
I’ve been considering this, once B42 multiplayer comes out, but it does not fit the long term thing, as any latecomers will find everything looted.
You can configure loot respawns when setting up the server I believe. It’s an option in single player at least. Not perfect, but it’s something.
Depends on where they spawn, the map is very large. But yea, friends joining the group late wouldn’t have much to do.
Ever heard of Valheim? Survival crafting game where you and your friends are arming up to viking raid giant world bosses in PlayStation One graphics.
But with better lighting effects and awesome music!
This was going to be my suggestion. There is plenty of room in the world so there is always somewhere else to build a base. The friends I played with coordinated the building of major bases we shared though.
The only thing I can think of as a very long term negative is that mined ore doesn’t regenerate in the base game, but I assume there are mods to address that for large servers.
Yup, there’s plenty of mods. You can even have a seller appear that can sell any item you want them too, for the price you want them to, including modded items.
OpenTTD
You can all join the same company and work to make the network better and better.
It is free and quite fun!
Also tons of great mods.
I’m a huge fan of Vintage Story. It’s voxel and was built by Minecraft modders
That looks like it’s pretty Kickass. Will check it out.
I will also recommend, lately I’ve been playing an hour here and there because I’ve gotten busy and the game is still fun and absolutely gorgeous. Can’t recommend enough :)
If you’re into automation and only want to play with your friends you could consider Factorio or satisfactory
So you’re specifically also wanting community servers, based on the first paragraph?
That’s the main point, yes - self hosting.
My friends and I recently fired up a private (local) Minecraft server with mine colonies, man of many planes, and a few other select mods. We connect directly via IP at my friend’s house and only we are on the server, so no worries of griefers or internet randos.
Mine colonies is a lot of fun. Takes out a lot of the monotonous building exercises if your not very creative with making actual buildings, and leaves you to explore as you want.
We all have separate colonies but decided a few villages we can only work on together when more than one person is online and have to work together on the same village.
We connect directly via IP at my friend’s house and only we are on the server, so no worries of griefers or internet randos.
Just in case you haven’t already, set up a whitelist. I’ve got a server running the same way, and I regularly get people trying to connect. I’ve also set up the firewall and blocked known scanners, but still get a few attempts.
I’m not exactly sure how they set up the back end. We are all home labbers though and I haven’t seen any unknown players on. One of our guys is on through most of his work day and would have noticed too.
I’ll mention it for sure though, just might be a pain if one of our IPs changes and they may not go for it. Thanks for the suggestion!
You set the whitelist in Minecraft, and it uses your ID. I can’t remember exactly what Minecraft calls it, your player ID maybe. It doesn’t matter where you connect from then, as long as you’re logged in. I think it works the same way with pirated accounts too, but I haven’t got any here to check.
For the firewall, I’ve just been checking through the Minecraft log every now and then and banning the obvious bots and scanners, so that shouldn’t affect you either :)
Oh nice, he may have already set it with account whitelist them, I’ll have to ask.
I’m not into multiplayer myself, but I hear good things about Motor Town: Behind The Wheel. There’s a whole living, breathing economy happening where players can take on pretty much any role. I play it in single player only, but even that is pretty good.
Thanks for this recommendation. Looks pretty promising.
7 days to die seems to fit the bill here as well.
Tagged because I want checkout many of the recommendations in this thread.
Why not just save the post?
I didn’t know that option existed till now thank you
There are a lot of survival games that fit that description. If a game supports a dedicated server you are generally good for that kind of gameplay.
Some options off the top of my head.
- Dune: Awakening
- Icarus
- Palworld
- Enshrouded
- 7 Days to Die
- No Mans Sky
- Satisfactory (ish)
- V-Rising
- Conan Exiles
- Nightingale
I wouldn’t put no mans sky on the list, multiplayer is almost absent and you can’t self-host a server
Elite Dangerous! Form a squad w ur mates, and work towards a common goal of colonizing a solar system.
You’ve got a lot of learning to do if you pick that game up, but it is excellent.
Terraria?
V Rising
