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Freelancer Server ReadMe
Menu Items
The table below describes the menu items for the Freelancer server.
Menu
Description
Saves the character data for every connected
File | Exit
player and forces them to log off. Then shuts
down the server and exits.
Performs the normal editing commands when in
Console view.
Edit | Copy, Edit | Select All, Edit | Find..., Edit
| Find Next
Disabled when in Status Summary view.
Edit | Accounts...
Displays the Account Management dialog.
Displays the dialog for editing the server's
Edit | Message of the Day...
current news, also called the message of the
day.
Toggles the visible state of the status bar at the
View | Status Bar
bottom of the server's window.
Switches the server display to the Status
View | Status Summary
Summary view.
Switches the server display to the Console
View | Console
view.
Displays the dialog for sending chat messages
Chat | Chat With Universe
to everyone on the server.
Displays the dialog for chatting with the players
Chat | Chat With Star System
in a given star system.
Displays the dialog for sending a private
Chat | Chat With Player
message to a given player.
Dialogs
Below is information about each of the dialogs the server can display while running. For
information about the main server configuration dialog box, see the game manual.
Account Management
The Account Management dialog allows you to delete characters, force characters to log off,
and delete and/or ban accounts from your server. It displays the list of accounts on your server
and each of the characters for those accounts. All of these operations can be performed while the
server is running.
See the Managing Accounts section below for more information about managing the accounts
on your server.
To close the dialog, click the OK button.
To delete a character, select the character name and click the Delete Character button.
To delete an account, select the account name and click the Delete Account button.
To ban an account, select the account name and click the Edit Account button. In the dialog that
pops up, set the check on the "banned" checkbox and click the OK button.
To remove the ban on an account, select the account name and click the Edit Account button. In
the dialog that pops up, unset the check on the "banned" checkbox and click the OK button.
To force a player to log off of your server, select the account name for the character you want to
kick off, click the Edit Account button, and then click the Kick Account From Server button.
Click the OK button to close the dialog.
NOTE: If your server allows new accounts, it is better to ban an account than to delete it. If the
account is deleted, the same player's account will be created when they connect to your server
again (but without the characters they had when the account was deleted). Banning the account
without deleting it prevents the player from logging into you server until you remove the ban.
Message of the Day
This dialog allows you to examine and modify the news about your server. This news is
displayed to players on your server in their character selection screen. The news you enter for
your server is saved and used each time the server is launched until you change it again.
To change the news for your server, type the news you want and click the OK button. Any
players currently connected and on the Character Selection screen will see the news.
To close the dialog without changing the news, click the Cancel button.
Universe Chat
This dialog allows you to send chat messages to all of the players connected to your server.
To send a message to the universe, type the message you want to send in the single-line box at
the bottom, and then press ENTER.
To close the dialog, click the Close button.
System Chat
This dialog allows you to monitor the chat traffic in the star systems on your server, and allows
you to send chat messages to entire systems.
To monitor the chat messages in a system, select the Chat | Chat With Star System menu item,
then select the desired star system from those listed and click the OK button. A System Chat
dialog will then appear. The system channel chat messages in that system will appear in the top
box. You can have more than one System Chat dialog open at a time, allowing you to monitor
more than one system. When selecting a star system, only those systems that currently contain
online players will be listed.
To send chat messages to a system, in a system chat dialog, type your message in the single-line
box at the bottom, and then press ENTER.
To close a system chat dialog, click the Close button.
Player Chat
This dialog allows you to send a private chat message to an online player.
To open a Player Chat dialog, select the Chat | Chat With Player menu item, and then select the
desired player from those listed and click the OK button. A Player Chat dialog will appear. You
can have more than one Player Chat dialog open at a time.
To send a private chat message to a player, open a Player Chat dialog for the player you wish to
send the message to, and then enter your message in the single-line box at the bottom and press
ENTER.
To close a Private Chat dialog, click the Close button.
Views
The server displays information in one of two views: the Status Summary view and the Console
view.
Status Summary
The Status Summary view is the default and is most likely the only view you will ever use. It
displays the current load on your server , and some other statistics about your server.
The server load is a measure of how long it takes your computer to process a single simulation
step. It is displayed numerically in milliseconds and graphically as a colored bar. A lower value
is better. If your computer is processing each simulation frame faster than the ideal rate, the load
bar will be less than half its full height and will be colored green. In this situation, your computer
has more CPU cycles than it needs to run the server and will provide the best game experience it
can. If your computer is processing each simulation frame slightly slower than the ideal rate, the
load bar will be over half its full height and colored yellow. In this situation your computer can
still provide a good game experience, but you may start to experience some lag on connected
clients. If your computer is processing each simulation frame must slower than the ideal rate, the
load bar will be near the top and will be colored red. In this situation your server is providing a
poor game experience; you will definitely see lag on connected clients.
The server load varies with how many players are connected and what those players are doing.
In general, the more players you have on your server and the wider apart they are spread across
the universe, the higher the load will be on your server. If you find that you are consistently
running in the yellow or red on your server, you can limit the number of players that can be
connected to your server at once. For information on how to limit the number of players, see the
game manual's section on running a game server.
The table below explains each one of the displayed statistics. Unless otherwise noted, all
statistics are since the server was last started.
Statistic
Player Count
Total Logins
Total Logouts
Failed Logins
Aborted Missions
Player Deaths
Description
The number of players currently connected to
your server.
The total number of players that have logged
onto your server.
The total number of players that have logged
off of your server.
The total number of players that have failed to
log onto your server.
The total number of missions that have been
aborted by players on your server.
The total number of times a player has died on
your server.
Console
The Console view displays information useful only when debugging server issues. As the server
runs it generates messages about what is doing, including errors it may find and notification of
exceptional conditions. These are displayed in the Console view.
When in Console view, the Edit menu is active, and you can select and copy sections from the
console to the clipboard.
Maintenance
As people play on your server, you will accumulate account and character information. If you
intend your server to be a persistent place for Freelancer players to come play, you will need to
spend a little time maintaining it. This section covers typical maintenance tasks for the
Freelancer server.
Managing Accounts
Each time a player who has never connected to your server connects to it, a new account will be
created for that player. You can prevent new accounts from being created on your server by unchecking the Allow New Players checkbox in the server configuration dialog.
If you wish to prevent a player from logging onto your server, you can ban that player. You can
ban a player that is currently online, at which point the player will be immediately logged off.
If you don't want to ban the player, you can just kick the player off of your server. Of course, the
player can just turn around and log back in unless you ban their account.
Player accounts can be manipulated in the Account Management dialog. See the section on the
Account Management dialog for more information.
If a character or account is currently online when it is deleted, the player is automatically logged
off.
NOTE: Accounts are tied to the build number of the server on which they run. Therefore, your
character files will not work on a server with a different build number.
Backing up Your Accounts
The accounts for your server are stored in the My Games\Freelancer\Accts\Multiplayer folder of
your documents folder. If you are running Windows 2000/XP, this means that different users on
the same computer can run their own servers with different sets of accounts.
You can back up the accounts for your server by backing up the entire My
Games\Freelancer\Accts\Multiplayer folder in your documents folder. You must back up the
entire directory.
Moving Your Accounts
You can move the entire set of accounts from one server to another by replacing the My
Games\Freelancer\Accts\Multiplayer folder on the destination server with the contents of the
same folder from the source server. Copying of individual accounts to another server is not
supported.
To move your accounts from server A to server B:
1. Delete the My Games\Freelancer\Accts\Multiplayer folder in your "My Documents"
folder on server B.
2. Copy the My Games\Freelancer\Accts\Multiplayer folder (and all it sub-folders) from
your "My Documents" folder on server A to the My Games\Freelancer\Accts\Multiplayer
folder in your "My Documents" folder on server B.
3. Once you have moved these accounts from A to B, do not attempt to run servers on both
machines at the same time.
Tips for Firewalls and Routers
Freelancer uses the DirectPlay protocol for client/server communications. Therefore, the game
client should work through most Network Address Translation (NAT) routers and works with the
Windows 2000/XP Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) feature without requiring a configuration
change. Special steps (described below) are required when using ICS on Windows 98/Me.
DirectPlay can coordinate with a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) NAT/ICS to open the proper
ports for running a Freelancer server. However, if you have a hardware NAT or router that is not
, you will most likely need to configure it in order to run a Freelancer server behind it. See the
section below on the ports used by Freelancer for more information.
If you are running a firewall, you may need to configure it in order to play Freelancer on the
Internet. If you are able to play other games that use the DirectPlay protocol through your
firewall, you should be able to play Freelancer as well. For more detailed information, see the
section below on the ports used by Freelancer.
Ports Used By Freelancer and the Freelancer Server
Freelancer uses the standard DirectPlay8 UDP ports 2300–2400. Ports are allocated starting at
2300, working toward 2400. Port 2300 is only used when connecting to the global server.
This port range is used by both the game client and game server. The game server uses it to
connect to the list server and to accept incoming connections from game clients. The game client
uses it to connect to both the list server and the game servers.
Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) on Win98/Me
Windows98 ICS is not Universal Plug & Play (UPnP) compliant. This prevents Freelancer
servers from negotiating with ICS to open the proper ports. If you want to host Freelancer games
behind a Windows98 ICS system, you have to configure your ICS to allow the Freelancer server
to be accessed from the Internet.
We have provided an INF file that contains special configuration instructions for Freelancer’s
server with Windows98 ICS. This file is located in the Extras folder where you installed
Freelancer and is called Win98ICS.inf. This file must be installed on the machine that serves as
the ICS host (i.e. the machine with the real Internet connection).
If you are simply running a Freelancer server on your ICS host machine, you can use this file
as-is. If you are running a Freelancer server on another machine on your network, or you’ve
chosen a specific port with the /P option, you will need to edit this file before installing it. When
you’re happy with the contents of this file, right-click on it and choose Install. You must reboot
the ICS machine for the changes to take effect. This should properly configure your ICS to work
with Freelancer.
Simple Fix for Most NAT/ICS/Firewall Issues
Many NAT, ICS, and firewall issues can be resolved by simply opening up ports 2300–2400 on
your NAT/ICS server or firewall. If you just want to run a single server on your NAT/ICS
network, this should work well for you.
How to Control the Port Number that the Freelancer Server Uses
The Freelancer server normally picks its own port (in the range of 2302–2400) when hosting a
game. This works well in most cases. However, there are situations where you may want to
control the port choice for the server. These situations are usually caused by running more than
one DirectPlay game on your network at a time.
You can control the port selection with the /P command line option to the FLServer.exe
program. For example, if you wanted to have the server host on port 1234, you would use the
following command line FLServer.exe /P1234. You can easily modify the provided shortcut to
FLServer.exe to include this option. Simply edit the Target line and add your own /Pxxx after the
FLServer.exe text.
© 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Digital Anvil, DirectX,
Freelancer, the Microsoft logo, the Microsoft Games Studio logo, the .Net logo, Windows, and
Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States and/or other countries.