LAN support without internet

[Milkman]

Hi, forgive me if this has been asked but i have been searching the forums and not finding the answer. I need to know if this game supports LAN dedicated servers with no internet access.

I realize steam has an 'offline' mode and if that is all that needs to be set, then great, we can deal with that. BUT i have not seen any confirmation that the LAN functionality works in offline mode other than "Skirmish Mode: This mode can be played online and offline." If im going to setup a dedicated server and suggest my LAN participants buy this game to play at our LAN's which internet is flakey and slow at best i need to know if it will work. Truthfully we desperately need some new games that work at a LAN with no internet and was really hoping this could bring some new life to our lanage.

Thanks!

Edit: SUCESS! See my last post on this this thread for more information!

 

[Milkman]

bump! Still looking for an answer to this.... was hoping to have an answer BEFORE the game came out, but if no one knows yet then i guess i will have to just bump this again tomorrow after everyone gets their hands on it.

Thanks!

 

[Milkman]

And another bump now that the game is out?

 

[Murow]

IIRC It does support LAN but you have to enable it somehow while creating a server.

 

[Apparition]

I don't know...

I would look at the server information. Start one up on a box and try to connect through the console. You might need Steam to be online, but be able to connect to a LAN box server. So a slow internet would not be an issue.

 

[Milkman]

Thanks for the response even if the answer is i don't' know. I do not HAVE the game as im not purchasing it until i have this answer.

Maybe i need to explain it better. I have no problems setting up a dedicated server, have done plenty over the years. I need to know if the clients will be able to join the LAN game if no internet/steam is available for them to authenticate to. If i need to tell everyone to go into offline mode in steam before they come over that is fine IF that infact works. However many steam games multiplayer does NOT work in offline mode and i do NOT know if this is the case for RO2.

Thanks again for any info people can provide.

 

[Milkman]

Another day another bump.... Just looking for confirmation that LAN works with no internet access...

 

[NativeNinja]

I can check for you around 3:30 EST when I get home from school. For now university. Workworkworkworkworkworkworkworkworkworkwork.

 

[Switchblade]

I don't know either, we had similar problems on LAN partys with RO1 in the past, you can run it in offline mode,
We did not have a problem running RO, but occasionally some members ran into problems with running steam offline, if that doesn't work (and sometimes it just doesn't) there is no way to get it to work and if steam does not work you can forget about running any game.

our solution since then, only plan Lan's on location with at least some kind of internet (if only for resetting your steamclient)

So I don't know if RO2 will run offline, I think so, but am not 100% sure

 

[Zetsumei]

Will try it out for you.

First update:
You can start the game in steam offline mode, and in contrast to RO1 you can actually access the server browser.
Downloading the server software, to see if a lan server will show up.

Update:
Downloaded server stuff
Set server to lan, and disabled punkbuster & vac.

Update:
Server does not show up under the lan tab
Player names are not fetched from steam so you show so you see weird numbers etc in stats and name. (however in the game I was able to change my name using the setname command in the console).

However.
If you manually connect to the local ip of the server you are able to join a lan server. And play for a bit, I did get kicked for lacking a connection to steam auth, perhaps this can be turned off on the server.

Update:
found a setting
bTestSteamAuthDenials=false
going to try what setting it to true does
Setting it to true changes the message to stating that I've been vac banned off the server after a while.

trying to connect to the server with the specific tag to disable vac still doesn't give any result.


Conclusion:
While it might be possible to get LAN working, I can't figure out how. It could be that stats are enabled on the server, so if someone knows how to disable that?

 

[Milkman]

Thanks for the help so far!

So... still looking at a maybe with some hoops to jump through. Anyone know if there is a server setting for the steam authentication?

Also curious what would happen if we HAD internet to get everyone started, like tethering a smart phone to get everyone authenticated, and then turn if off while gaming(booo capped wireless internet).

 

[RustyCap]

Hey, I have no idea how to actually host a lan server where do i get the files necessary to do this?

 

[Milkman]

The info for hosting a server is sticky in the dedicated server forum, cleverly named RO2 Basic Server Hosting Setup. Most of your questions are answered in there, read through the thread and if new to dedicated server hosting read through that whole forum. Lots of good and helpful information there.

Please don't derail my thread on LAN gaming without internet access.

Thanks

Back on topic, Zetsumei did some awsome testing for me, can anyone answer his question? Or have more information on offline steam verification? Not getting a warm fuzzy on the ability to do this after i realized Switchblade was a dev and didn't know if it would work.

Thanks again everyone for helping with this.

 

[Malorcus]

I am looking into this too as I want to get my wife into RO but she has never played anything like it. What I am aiming for is something with bots, but I dont know if thats possible...

 

[Milkman]

One more bump now that it is the weekend.

LAN possible without internet access?

 

[Xile]

Sorry I can't be of much help, did find this in ROGame.ini

[defaults]
bLANServer=false [most likely changed to true when Zetsumei said he set it to LAN server]

bEnableSteamCloud=true

MinNetPlayers=1 [could be bot related]

Could it perhaps be Steamworks based? Looking for Auth on the clients/players :s

Hope you get it sorted, RO2 LANs will rule

 

[Milkman]

Anyone have any more updated info on this? A friend bought the game, i have setup a server and this weekend we are meeting to see if with no internet with steam in offline mode he can join my server and play against some bots without getting disconnected with vac or authentications errors.

I will update what i find out, but not expecting this to just magically work so any help out there will be appreciated.

Thanks again.

 

[Milkman]

Just a long overdue quick update. Finally got 2 people who already had the game together to try on a LAN with no internet. Im happy to report that it DOES in fact work with out internet access.

Few small points however.
1.) All players must be in offline mode in steam.
2.) Everyone must have their own copy of the game (this is a good thing)
3.) The game does NOT show in the browser, you must join via the console "open ipaddresss" is how you join a game
4.) By default you will be named "player" you must rename yourself via console "setname yourname"

So, this is enough support for me and should allow us to LAN it up! I am finally purchasing a copy. I thank tripwire for supporting LAN parties as well as those without reliable/constant internet connections.

PS. Allowing us to browse via the LAN feature would be a nice thing to add someday.